What I mean is that this is just
the chance they've been waiting for."
"How can you go on and every time you preach they'll be looking up
at you and saying 'There's a brother of a murderer'? Why, fancy what
you'd feel!"
Paul jumped in his chair. "What do you mean, Grace? The brother of a
murderer?"
"What else am I?" Grace began to warm her podgy hands. "It came out
at the inquest that I wouldn't see the man, didn't it? Maggie thinks
me a murderer. I see it in her eyes every time. What I mean to say,
Paul, is, What are you going to do about Maggie?"
Grace's voice changed at that question. It was as though that other
trouble of the scandal were nothing to her compared with this matter
of Maggie's presence. Paul turned and looked at her. She dropped her
voice to a whisper and went on:
"I won't stay with Maggie any more. No, no, no! You must choose,
Paul, between Maggie and me. What I mean is that it simply isn't
safe in the same house with her. You may not have noticed it
yourself, but I've seen it coming on a long time. I have indeed. She
isn't right in her head, and she hates me. She's always hated me.
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