e saw
that he was young, thick-set and restless. She noticed even then his
eyes, bright and laughing as though he were immensely amused. His mouth
opened and closed again, his eyes were never still, and he made fierce
dumb protests with his body, jerking it forward pulling it back, as a
rider strives to restrain an unruly horse. Maggie was able to notice
these things, because during the first moments her Aunt Anne entirely
held the stage. She advanced to the fireplace with her halting
movement, embraced the little lady by the fire with a soft and
unimpassioned clasp.

"Well, Elizabeth, here we are, you see," turned to the thin gentleman
saying, "Why you, Mr. Magnus! I thought that you were still in
Wiltshire!" then from the middle of the room addressing the stout young
man: "I'm very glad to see you, Mr. Warlock."

Maggie fancied that the three persons were nervous of her aunt; the
stout young man was amused perhaps at the general situation, but Mr.
Magnus by the fireplace showed great emotion, the colour mounting into
his high bony cheeks and his nostrils twitching like a horse's. Maggie
had been always very observant, and she was detached enough now to
notice that the drawing-room was filled with ugly and cumbrous things
and yet seemed unfurnished. Although everything was old and had been
there obviously for years, the place yet reminded one of a bare chamber
into which, furniture had just been piled without order or arrangement.
Opposite the door was a large and very bad painting of the two sisters
as young girls, sitting, with arms encircled, in low dresses, on the
seashore before a grey and angry sea, and Uncle Mathew as a small,
shiny-faced boy in tight short blue trousers, carrying a bucket and
spade, and a smug, pious expression. The room was lit with gas that
sizzled and hissed in a protesting undertone; there was a big black cat
near the fire, and this watched Maggie with green and fiery eyes.

She stood there by the door tired and hungry; she felt unacknowledged
and forgotten.

"I know I shall hate it," was her thought; she was conscious of her
arms and her legs; her ankle tickled in her shoe, and she longed to
scratch it. She sneezed suddenly, and they all jumped as though the
floor had opened beneath them.

"And Maggie?" said the little lady by the fireplace.

Maggie moved forward with the awkward gestures and the angry look in
her eyes that were always hers when she was ill at ease.

"Maggie," sai