She must find Paul a wife, and she must find some one who would depend upon her, look up to her, obey her, who would, incidentally, take some of the tiresome and monotonous drudgery off her shoulders.
The moment she saw Maggie she was resolved; here was just the creature, a mouse of a girl, no parents, no money, no appearance, nothing to make her proud or above herself, some one to be moulded and trained in the way she should go.To her great surprise she discovered that Paul was at once attracted by Maggie: had she ever wondered at anything she would have wondered at this, but she decided that it was because she herself had made the suggestion.
Dear Paul, he was always so eager to fall in with any of her proposals.
Her mind misgave her a little when she saw that he was really in love.What could he see in that plain, gauche, uncharming creature?
See something he undoubtedly did.However, that would wear off very quickly.The Skeaton atmosphere was against romance and Paul was too lazy to be in love very long.Once or twice in the weeks before the wedding Grace's suspicions were aroused.
Maggie seemed to be an utter little heathen; also it appeared that she had had some strange love affair that she had taken so seriously as actually to be ill over it.That was odd and a little alarming, but the child was very young, and once married-there she'd be, so to speak!