Maggie's thoughts also were elsewhere. She was
wishing now passionately that she had not given that note to
Caroline.
Suddenly Miss Avies said, "What do you do with yourself all day?"
Maggie laughed. "Try and make myself less careless, Miss Avies."
Miss Avies replied, "You'll never make yourself less careless. We
are as we are."
"But don't you think," said Maggie, "that one can cure one's
faults?"
"One gets rid of one only to make room for another . . . But that
doesn't matter. The point is that one should have an ambition.
What's your ambition, child?"
Maggie didn't answer. Her ambition was Martin, but she couldn't tell
Miss Avies so.
At last, after a long pause, as Miss Avies still seemed to be
waiting, she answered:
"I suppose that I want to earn my living--to be independent."
"Well, leave this place then," said Miss Avies. "There's no
independence here." Then added, as though to herself. "They think
they're looking for the face of God . . . It's only for themselves
and their vanity they're looking."
Maggie said, to break another of the long pauses that seemed to be
always forming between them:
"I think every one ought to earn their own living, don't you?"
Miss Avies shook her head.
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