e sight of this object on the move. Was Mrs. Wix going and
was the responsibility of giving her up lifted, at a touch, from her
pupil? Her pupil and her pupil's companion, transfixed a moment, held,
in the presence of the omen, communication more intense than in the
presence either of the Paris train or of the Channel steamer; then, and
still without a word, they went straight upstairs. There, however, on
the landing, out of sight of the people below, they collapsed so that
they had to sink down together for support: they simply seated
themselves on the uppermost step while Sir Claude grasped the hand of
his stepdaughter with a pressure that at another moment would probably
have made her squeal. Their books and papers were all scattered. "She
thinks you've given her up!"

"Then I must see her--I must see her," Maisie said.

"To bid her good-bye?"

"I must see her--I must see her," the child only repeated.

They sat a minute longer, Sir Claude, with his tight grip of her hand
and looking away from her, looking straight down the staircase to where,
round the turn, electric bells rattled and the pleasant sea-draught
blew. At last, loosening his grasp, he slowly got up while she did the
same. They went together along the lobby, but before they reached the
salon he stopped again. "If I give up Mrs. Beale--?"

"I'll go straight out with you again and not come back till she has
gone."

He seemed to wonder. "Till Mrs. Beale--?" He had made it sound like a
bad joke.

"I mean till Mrs. Wix leaves--in that boat."

Sir Claude looked almost foolish. "Is she going in that boat?"

"I suppose so. I won't even bid her good-bye," Maisie continued. "I'll
stay out till the boat has gone. I'll go up to the old rampart."

"The old rampart?"

"I'll sit on that old bench where you see the gold Virgin."

"The gold Virgin?" he vaguely echoed. But it brought his eyes back to
her as if after an instant he could see the place and the thing she
named--could see her sitting there alone. "While I break with Mrs.
Beale?"

"While you break with Mrs. Beale."

He gave a long deep smothered sigh. "I must see her first."

"You won't do as I do? Go out and wait?"

"Wait?"--once more he appeared at a loss.

"Till they both have gone," Maisie said.

"Giving US up?"

"Giving US up."

Oh with what a face for an instant he wondered if that could be! But his
wonder the next moment only made him go to the door and, with his hand
on the kn