"I must."
"I'm sorry," she answered. The fear in his voice seemed now to give
her superiority over him. "It's impossible."
"Oh no," he said. "If she's here it can't be impossible. She'd want
to see me. We have things . . . I must . . . You don't understand,
Miss Trenchard."
"I only know," said Grace, "that after what occurred on your last
visit here, Mr. Cardinal, Maggie said that she would never see you
again."
"That's a lie!" he said.
She made no answer. Then at last he said pitifully:
"She didn't really say that, did she?"
"Yes. I'm sorry. But you can understand after what occurred--"
He came suddenly forward, the water trickling from him on to the
carpet.
"You swear that's true?"
She could see now his face and realised that he was, indeed,
desperate--breathless as though he had been running from some one.
"Yes, that's true," she answered.
"Maggie said that."
"Those were Maggie's words."
"Oh, well, I'm done . . ." He turned away from her as though her
announcement had settled something about which he had been in doubt.
"It isn't like Maggie . . . But still she hasn't written.
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