She would force this life to give her what she needed, work and friends and a place in the world.Her face a little white with her struggle to keep her house standing, she turned to her guests.She was afraid that she did not play the hostess very well.She felt as though she were play-acting.She repeated phrases that she had heard Katherine Mark use, and laughed at herself for doing so.She suspected that they thought her very odd, and she fancied that Mrs.
Constantine looked at her short hair with grave suspicion.
Afterwards, when she told Paul this, he was rather uncomfortable.
"It'll soon be long again, dear, won't it?" he said.
"Don't you like it short then?" she asked.
"Of course I like it, but there's no reason to be unusual, is there?
We don't want to seem different from other people, do we, darling?""I don't know," said Maggie."We want to be ourselves.I don't think I shall ever grow my hair long again.It's so much more comfortable like this.""If I ask you, dear," said Paul.
"No, not even if you ask me," she answered, laughing.
She noticed then, for the first time, that he could look sulky like a small school-boy.
"Why, Paul," she said."If you wanted to grow a beard I shouldn't like it, but I shouldn't dream of stopping you.""That's quite different," he answered."I should never dream of growing a beard.Grace won't like it if you look odd.""Grace isn't my teacher," said Maggie with a sudden hot hostility that surprised herself.
She discovered, by the way, very quickly that the three ladies had no very warm feelings for Grace.They showed undisguised pleasure at the thought that Maggie would now be on various Committees instead of her sister-in-law.
"It will be your place, of course, as wife of the vicar," said Mrs.