"Really, Maggie, your tone is extraordinary. Fancy what Paul would say
if he heard you. He wouldn't like it, I'm sure. I said that after the
way he'd behaved last time he came here you didn't want to see him
again."

"You said that? Oh, Grace! How did you dare!" "Now, Maggie, don't you
look like that. I've done nothing, I'm sure."

"Did you say that I'd said that I didn't want to see him again?"

Grace shrank back behind the tea-things.

"Yes, I did ... Maggie, you frighten me."

"I hope I do ... You're wicked, you're wicked. Yes, you are. Where is
he now?"

"He's at the 'Sea Dog.' That dirty public house on the sea-front--near
Tunstalls--Where are you going?"

"I'm going to him of course." Maggie turned and looked at Grace. Grace
was fascinated as a rabbit is by a snake. The two women stared at one
another.

"How strange you are, Grace," Maggie said. "You seem to like to be
cruel!" Then she went out. When the door was closed Grace found "that
she was all in a perspiration." Her hand trembled so that when she
tried to pour herself another cup of tea--just to fortify herself--she
poured it into the saucer. And the tea was cold--no use now.

When she rose at last to go in and seek consolation from Paul her knees
were trembling so that she staggered across the floor. This couldn't go
on. No, it could not. To be frightened in one's own house! Absurd ...
Really the girl had looked terrible ... Murder ... That's what it had
looked like. Something must be done.

Murmuring aloud to herself again and again "Something must be done" as
she crossed the hall, she walked slowly, her hand to her heart,
ponderously, as though she were walking in the dark. Then, as soon as
she had opened the study door she began, before she could see her
brother: "Oh, Paul, I'm so frightened. It's Maggie. She's very angry.
Fancy what she said."

Maggie meanwhile had gone straight up to her bedroom and found her
black hat and her waterproof. Her one thought now was lest he should
have caught the five o'clock train and gone back to London. Oh! how
hurt he would be with her, how terribly hurt! The thought of the pain
and loneliness that he would feel distressed her so bitterly that she
could scarcely put on her hat, she was so eager to run and find him.
She felt, at the thought of his fruitless journey through the rain, the
tenderest affection for him, maternal and loving, so that she wanted to
have him with her at once and to see him in wa