"Maggie, you mustn't say such things--no, you mustn't.Of course it's true that you've got more to learn than I thought.You AREcareless, dear, aren't you? You remember yesterday that you promised to look in at Pettits and get a reel of cotton, and then of course Mr.Toms is a good little man--every one says so--but at the same time he's QUEER, you must admit that, Maggie; indeed it wasn't really very long ago that he asked Mrs.Maxse in the High Street to take all her clothes off so that he could see what she was really made of.Now, that ISN'T nice, Maggie, it's odd--you can't deny it.
And if you'd only told me that you hadn't been to Pettits I could have gone later myself.""If it isn't one thing," said Maggie, "it's another.I may be a child and careless, and not be educated, and have strange ideas, but if you thought, Grace, that it was going to be just the same after Paul was married as before you were mistaken.Three's a difficult number to manage, you know.""Oh, if you mean," said Grace, crimsoning, "that I'm better away, that I should live somewhere else, please say so openly.I hate this hinting.What I mean to say is I can leave to-morrow.""My dear Grace," said Paul hurriedly, "whoever thought such a thing?