gets into. If it
isn't one sort it's another. But she's a good girl. Don't you forget
that. Well, I must be going. Good day. Good day."

He was actually gone, leaving a little pool of water on the carpet
behind him. Grace sat down on the sofa again. What a horrible man! What
a horrible man! But she had been wrong to say that about Maggie. Yes,
she had. But he had taken her by surprise. Oh dear! How her heart was
beating! And how strange he had looked. She could scarcely breathe. She
sat there lost in stupefied wonder. At last tea came in, and with it
Paul and Maggie. Grace felt ashamed and frightened. Why was Maggie
always making her do things of which she was ashamed? It was as though
the girl had power over her ... absurd, of course. Nevertheless, as she
poured out the tea she was haunted by that man's eyes. Yes, he had
undoubtedly been very unhappy. Yes, in great trouble.

Maggie sat quietly there. Paul was preoccupied with a letter that must,
he had decided, be written to The Church Times. It was a letter about
Churchwardens and their growing independence. He finished his tea
hurriedly, but before he left the room, looking at Maggie rather
wistfully, suddenly he bent down and kissed her. She glanced up at him,
smiling.

"Is there anything I can do for you, Grace?" she asked.

Then, as it were without her own desire, Grace was compelled to speak.
"There's something I ought to tell you--" she began awkwardly. Then she
stopped. Maggie was troubled. She knew that when Grace was
uncomfortable every one else was uncomfortable.

"What have I done now?" she said rather sharply.

"It's nothing that you've done," answered Grace also sharply. "I'm sure
I don't know, Maggie, why you should always think that I'm scolding
you. No, I don't indeed. It's nothing that you've done. Your uncle came
to see you this afternoon."

"Uncle Mathew?" Maggie jumped up from her chair. "Came here?"

"Yes."

"And wanted to see me? Oh, Grace, why didn't you tell me?"

"I have told you ... There's nothing to make a fuss about, Maggie.
Really, you needn't look like that--as though I were always doing
something wrong. I only did it for your sake."

"For my sake? But why? I wanted to see him. I was trying to see him in
London. Oh, Grace, what did he say?"

"What did he say? Well, fancy! As though I could remember. He said he'd
come to see you, and when I said he couldn't, he went away again."

"Said he couldn't? But why couldn't he?"