Page:What Maisie Knew (Chicago & New York, Herbert S. Stone & Co., 1897).djvu/250

she would be called upon to speak of her step-parents. She kept hoping that the Countess would come in before her power to protect them was exhausted; and it was now, in closer quarters with her companion, that the idea at the back of her head shifted its place to her lips. She told him she had met her mother in the park with a gentleman who, while Sir Claude had strolled with her ladyship, had been kind and had sat and talked to her; narrating the scene with a remembrance of her pledge of secrecy to the Captain quite brushed away by the joy of seeing Beale listen without profane interposition. It was almost an amazement, but indeed all a joy, thus to be able to guess that papa was at last quite tired of his anger—of his anger, at any rate, about mamma. He was only bored with her now. That made it, however, the more imperative that his spent displeasure should n't be blown out again. It charmed the child to see how much she could interest him, and the charm remained even when, after asking her a dozen questions, he observed, musingly and a little obscurely, "Yes—damned if she won't!" For in this too there was a detachment, a wise weariness that made her feel safe. She had had to