It was apparent at once that he liked pretty young
women, and he paid Caroline a number of flattering attentions,
disregarding Maggie with a frankness that witnessed to a life that
had taught one lesson at least, never on any occasion to waste time.
Maggie did not mind--it amused her to see her terror of the night
before transformed into a mere serenading crippled old gentleman,
and to see, too, the excited pleasure with which Caroline accepted
even such decayed attentions as these. But what was it that had
persuaded her last night? Why did she now spend her time half in one
world and half in another? Which world was the real one?
Aunt Anne very soon joined them, and this quiet, composed figure
only added to Maggie's scorn of her last night's terrors. Was this
the same who had struggled with such agony, who had made Maggie feel
that she was caught in a trap and imprisoned for ever?
The sun beat hotly upon the carpet. Caroline's rose-coloured silk
shone and glowed, the tea was poured out, and there was chatter
about the warm winter that it was and how time passed, and how
fashions changed, and how you never saw a four-wheeler now, and what
they were turning Kingsway into, and what they were turning the Law
Courts out of, and even once, by Mr.
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