He was frankly shocked by the Chapel."That's not the way to get into heaven," he said."We must be more patient than that.The daily round, the daily task, that's the kind."His physical presence began to pervade all her doings.He was not handsome, but so clean, so rosy, and so strong.No mystery about him, no terrors, no invasions from the devil.Everything was clear and certain.He knew just where he was and exactly whither he was going.One afternoon, when they were out in the motor together, he took Maggie's hand under the rug and he held it so calmly, so firmly, with so kindly a benevolence that she could not be frightened or uncomfortable.He was like a large friendly brother...
One day he called her Maggie.He blushed and laughed."I'm so sorry," he said."It slipped out.I caught it from Katherine.""Oh, please,...never mind," she answered."Miss Cardinal's so stiff.""Then you must call me Paul," he said.
A little conversation that Maggie had after this with Millicent showed her in sharp relief exactly where she stood in relation to the Trenchard family.They had been out in the motor together.
Millie had been shopping and now they were rolling back through the Park.
"Are you happy with us, Maggie?" Millicent suddenly asked.
"Very happy," Maggie answered.
"Well, I hope you are," said Millicent."I don't think that as a family we're very good at making any one happy except ourselves.Ithink we're very selfish."
"No, I don't think you're selfish," said Maggie, "but I think you're sufficient for yourselves.I don't fancy you really want any one from outside.""No, I don't think the others do.I do though.You don't suppose I'm going to stay in the Trenchard bosom for ever, do you? I'm not, Iassure you.But what you've said means that you don't really feel at home with us.""I don't think I want to feel at home with you," Maggie answered."Idon't belong to any of you.Contrast us, for instance.You've got everything--good looks, money, cleverness, position.You can get what you like out of life.I've got nothing.I'm plain, poor, awkward, uneducated--and yet you know I wouldn't change places with any one.I'd rather be myself than any one alive.""Yes, you would," said Millicent, nodding her head."That's you all over.I felt it the moment you came into the house.You're adventurous.We're not.Katherine was adventurous for a moment when she married Philip, but she soon slipped back again.But you'll do just what you want to always.""I shall have to," said Maggie, laughing."There's no one else to do it for me.It isn't only that I don't belong to you--I've never belonged to any one, only one person--and he's gone now.I belong to him--and he'll never come back.""Were you frightfully in love?" asked Millie, deeply interested.