Behind the sorrow, the shame, and the humiliation, lay
fear of the cold wrath of the red-haired girl when Maisie should return. Maisie
had never feared her companion before. Not until she found herself saying,
"Well, he never asked me," did she realise her scorn of herself.
And that is the end of Maisie.
* * * * * *
For Dick was reserved more searching torment. He could not realise at first
that Maisie, whom he had ordered to go had left him without a word of farewell.
He was savagely angry against Torpenhow, who had brought upon him this
humiliation and troubled his miserable peace. Then his dark hour came and he
was alone with himself and his desires to get what help he could from the
darkness. The queen could do no wrong, but in following the right, so far as it
served her work, she had wounded her one subject more than his own brain would
let him know.
"It's all I had and I've lost it," he said, as soon as the misery permitted
clear thinking. "And Torp will think that he has been so infernally clever that
I shan't have the heart to tell him. I must think this out quietly."
"Hullo!" said Torpenhow, entering the studio after Dick had enjoyed two hours
of thought. "I'm back. Are you feeling any better?"
"Torp, I don't know what to say.
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