He
laughed heartily at the very faintest glimmer of a joke. Through it
all Grace maintained an unreleased solemnity, a mournful
superiority, a grim forbearance.
Maggie, watching, felt with a sinking heart that she was beginning
to despise Paul.
His very movement as he hurried to place a cushion for Grace sent a
little shiver down her back. "Oh, don't do it, Paul!" she heard
herself cry internally, but she could say nothing. She had won her
victory about Harben. She could only now be silent. Still, she bore
no grudge at all against Grace. She even liked her.
Grace made many sinister allusions to her fancied departure. "Ah, in
November . . . Oh! of course I shall not be here then!" or, "That
will be in the autumn then, won't it? You'd better give it to some
one who will be here at the time." With every allusion she scored a
victory. It was evident that Paul was terrified by the thought that
she should leave him. He did not see what he would do without her.
His world would tumble to pieces.
"But she hasn't the remotest intention of going," said Maggie.
"She'll never go."
"Well, I don't know.
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