Perhaps,
even, it was just as well that he did not know what his grandmother
knew.
Maggie's pride would not let her evade the risk; and her instinct for
self-preservation dictated that she should reduce the risk to its
minimum. So she wrote her acceptance--Miss Grierson attended to the
phrasing of her note--but expressed her regret that she would be able
to come only for the tea-hour. Drinking tea must be much the same,
reasoned Maggie, whether it be drunk in a smart hotel or in a smart
country home.
Maggie's native shrewdness suggested her simplest summer gown as
likely to have committed the fewest errors, and the invaluable
stupidity of Miss Grierson aided her toward correctness if not
originality. When Dick came he was delighted with her appearance. On
the way out he was ebulliently excited in his talk. Maggie averaged a
fair degree of sensibility in her responses, though only her ears
heard him. She was far more excited than he, and every moment her
excitement mounted, for every moment she was speeding nearer the
greatest ordeal of her life.
When at length they curved through the lawns of satin smoothness and
Dick slowed down the car before the long white house, splendid in its
simplicity, Maggie's excitement had added unto it a palpitant,
chilling awe.
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