Page:What Maisie Knew (Chicago & New York, Herbert S. Stone & Co., 1897).djvu/115

he went on; "but I think we must, on the whole, be rather nicer here than at your father's. However, I don't press that; for it 's a sort of question on which it 's awfully awkward for you to speak. Don't worry, at any rate; I assure you I'll back you up." Then, after a moment, while he smoked, he reverted to Mrs. Beale and the child's first inquiry. "I 'm afraid we can't do much for her just now. I have n't seen her since that day—upon my word I have n't seen her." The next instant, with a laugh the least bit foolish, the young man slightly colored; he felt this profession of innocence to be excessive as addressed to Maisie. It was inevitable to say to her, however, that of course her mother loathed the lady of the other house. He could n't go there again with his wife's consent, and he was n't the man—he begged her to believe, falling once more, in spite of himself, into the scruple of showing the child he did n't trip—to go there without it. He was liable in talking with her to take the tone of her being also a man of the world. He had gone to Mrs. Beale's to get possession of her; but that was entirely different. Now that she was in her mother's house, what pretext had he to give her