IV
All this led her on; but it brought on her fate as well, the day when her mother would be at the door in the carriage in which Maisie now rode on no occasions but these. There was no question at present of Miss Overmore's going back with her; it was universally recognized that the quarrel with Mrs. Farange was much too acute. The child felt it from the first. There was no hugging or exclaiming as that lady drove her away; there was only a frightening silence, unenlivened even by the invidious inquiries of former years, which culminated, according to its stern nature, in a still more frightening old woman, a figure awaiting her on the very doorstep. "You're to be under this lady's care," said her mother. "Take her, Mrs. Wix!" she added, addressing the figure impatiently and giving the child a push in which Maisie felt that she wished to set Mrs. Wix an example of energy. Mrs. Wix took her, and Maisie felt the next day that she would never let her go. She had struck her at first, just after Miss Overmore, as terrible; but something in her
