What Maisie Knew eBook

over the interval with the simple expectation of trust.  Yes, there were matters one couldn’t “go into” with a pupil.  There were for instance days when, after prolonged absence, Lisette, watching her take off her things, tried hard to discover where she had been.  Well, she discovered a little, but never discovered all.  There was an occasion when, on her being particularly indiscreet, Maisie replied to her—­and precisely about the motive of a disappearance—­as she, Maisie, had once been replied to by Mrs. Farange:  “Find out for yourself!” She mimicked her mother’s sharpness, but she was rather ashamed afterwards, though as to whether of the sharpness or of the mimicry was not quite clear.

VI

She became aware in time that this phase wouldn’t have shone by lessons, the care of her education being now only one of the many duties devolving on Miss Overmore; a devolution as to which she was present at various passages between that lady and her father—­passages significant, on either side, of dissent and even of displeasure.  It was gathered by the child on these occasions that there was something in the situation for which her mother might “come down” on them all, though indeed the remark, always dropped by her father, was greeted on his companion’s part with direct contradiction.  Such scenes were usually brought to a climax by Miss Overmore’s demanding, with more asperity than she applied to any other subject, in what position under the sun such a person as Mrs. Farange would find herself for coming down.  As the months went on the little girl’s interpretations thickened, and the more effectually that this stretch was the longest she had known without a break.  She got used to the idea that her mother, for some reason, was in no hurry to reinstate her:  that idea was forcibly expressed by her father whenever Miss Overmore, differing and decided, took him up on the question, which he was always putting forward, of the urgency of sending her to school.  For a governess Miss Overmore differed surprisingly; far more for instance than would have entered into the bowed head of Mrs.

Wix.  She observed to Maisie many times that she was quite conscious of not doing her justice, and that Mr. Farange equally measured and equally lamented this deficiency.  The reason of it was that she had mysterious responsibilities that interfered—­responsibilities, Miss Overmore intimated, to Mr. Farange himself and to the friendly noisy little house and those who came there.  Mr. Farange’s remedy for every inconvenience was that the child should be put at school—­there were such lots of splendid schools, as everybody knew, at Brighton and all over the place.  That, however, Maisie learned, was just what would bring her mother down:  from the moment he should delegate to others the housing of his little charge he hadn’t a leg to stand on before the law.  Didn’t he keep her away from her mother precisely because Mrs. Farange was one of these others?