thick heart of the place, dim and concealed, to burst
suddenly, with a touch of the wind, into shining flame.

It was after her talk to Mr. Magnus that she suddenly saw that Martin
Warlock was always in her thoughts, and then, because she was Maggie
and had never been deceitful to herself or to any one else, she faced
the fact and considered it. She knew that she was ignorant of the world
and of life, that she knew nothing about men and, although she had many
times fancied to herself what love must be like, she did not tell
herself now that it was love that had come to her.

She saw him as a desirable companion; she thought that he would make a
most interesting friend; she would like to make her experiences of life
with him at her side. She would be free and he would be free, but they
would exchange confidences.

And then because she was very simple and had learnt nothing of the
difference between the things that decent girls might do and the things
they might not she began to consider the easiest way of meeting him.
She intended to go to him simply as one human being to another and tell
him that she liked him and hoped that they would often see one another.
There were no confused issues nor questions of propriety before Maggie.
Certainly she was aware that men took advantage of girls' weakness--but
that was, as in the case of Uncle Mathew, when they had drunk too
much--and it was the fault of the girls, too, for not looking after
themselves. Maggie felt that she could look after herself anywhere. She
was more afraid, by far, of her Aunt Anne than of any man.

It happened on the very day after that conversation with Mr. Magnus
that Aunt Anne said at luncheon:

"I think, Maggie dear, if you don't mind, that you and I will pay a
call on Mrs. Warlock this afternoon. You have not been there yet.
To-day will be a very good opportunity."

Maggie's mind flew at once to her clothes. She had been with Caroline
Smith to that young lady's dressmaker, a thin and sharp-faced woman
whose black dress gleamed with innumerable pins. Maggie had been
pinched and measured, pulled in here and pulled out there. Then there
had been afternoons when she had been "fitted" under Caroline's
humorous and critical eye. Finally the dress had been delivered, only
two days ago, in a long card-board box; it waited now for the great
occasion.

The great occasion had, in the guise of the Warlock family, surely
arrived. Maggie's heart beat as she