come to you with it this way is a great proof of interest and affection. She sends you her particular love and announces to you that she's engaged to be married to Sir Claude."
"Sir Claude?" Maisie wonderingly echoed. But while Mrs. Wix explained that this gentleman was a dear friend of Mrs. Farange's, who had been of great assistance to her in getting to Florence and in making herself comfortable there for the winter, she was not too violently shaken to perceive her old friend's enjoyment of the effect of this news on Miss Overmore. The young lady opened her eyes and flushed. She immediately remarked that Mrs. Farange's marriage would of course put an end to any further pretensions to take her daughter back. Mrs. Wix inquired with astonishment why it should do anything of the sort, and Miss Overmore promptly gave as a reason that it was clearly but another dodge in a system of dodging. She wanted to get out of the bargain: why else had she now left Maisie on her father's hands weeks and weeks beyond the time about which she had originally made such a fuss? It was vain for Mrs. Wix to represent—as she speedily
