trey.

The evening Jerrold came home, Maisie, flushed with pleasure,
entertained him with a report of the encounter.

"So you've given an ultimatum to the county."

"Yes. I told you I'd cut them all if they went on cutting Anne. And now
they know it."

"That means that you won't know anybody, Maisie. Except for Anne and me
you'll be absolutely alone here."

"I don't care. I don't want anybody but you and Anne. And if I do we can
ask somebody down. There are lots of amusing people who'd come. And
Eliot can bring his scientific crowd. It simply means that Corbetts and
Hawtreys won't be asked to meet them, that's all."

She went upstairs to lie down before dinner, and presently Anne came to
him in the drawing-room. She was dressed in her riding coat and breeches
as she had come off the land.

"What do you think Maisie's done now?" he said.

"I don't know. Something that'll make me feel awful, I suppose."

"If you're going to take it like that I won't tell you."

"Yes. Tell me. Tell me. I'd rather know."

He told her as Maisie had told him.

"Can't you see her, standing up to the whole county? Pounding them with
her little hands."

His vision of the gentle thing, rising up in that sudden sacred fury of
protection, moved him to admiring, tender laughter. It made Anne burst
into tears.

"Oh, Jerrold, that's the worst that's happened yet. Everybody'll cut
her, because of me."

"Bless you, she won't care. She says she doesn't care about anybody but
you and me."

"But that's the awful thing, her caring. That's the punishment. The
punishment."

Again he took her in his arms and comforted her.

"What am I to do, Jerry? What am I to _do?_"

"Go to her," he said, "and say something nice."

"Go to her and take my punishment?"

"Well, yes, darling, I'm afraid you've got to take it. We can't have it
both ways. It wouldn't _be_ a punishment if you weren't so sweet, if you
didn't mind so. I wish to God I'd never told you."

She held her head high.

"I made you. I'm glad you told me."

She went up to Maisie in her room. Maisie had dressed for dinner and lay
on her couch, looking exquisite and fragile in a gown of thick white
lace. She gave a little soft cry as Anne came to her.

"Anne, you've been crying. What is it, darling?"

"Nothing. Only Jerrold told me what you'd done."

"Done?"

"Yes, for me. Why did you do it, Maisie?"

"Why? I suppose it was because I love you. It was the least I could do."