Then had come the natural reaction. And now in her turmoil,
in so far as she had any decision, it was instinctively to go right
ahead in the direction in which she had been going.
But on the sixth day of her uncertainty, just after Dick had called on
her and she had provisionally accepted an invitation to Cedar Crest
for the following afternoon, a danger which she had half seen from the
start burst upon her without a moment's warning. It came into her
sitting-room, just before her dinner hour, in the dual form of Barney
and Old Jimmie. The faces of both were lowering.
"Get rid of that boob chaperon of yours!" gritted Barney. "We're going
to have some real talk!"
Maggie stepped to the connecting door, sent Miss Grierson on an
inconsequential errand, and returned.
"You're looking as pleasant as if you were sitting for a new
photograph, Barney. What gives you that sweet expression?"
"You'll cut out your comic-supplement stuff in just one second,"
Barney warned her. "We both saw young Sherwood awhile ago as he was
leaving the Grantham, and he told us everything!"
Persiflage did indeed fail Maggie. "Everything?" she exclaimed.
"What's everything?"
"He told us about proposing to you almost a week ago, and about your
refusing him. And you lied to us--kept us sitting round, wasting our
time--and all the while you've been double-crossing us!"
Those visitors from South and West, especially the women, who a few
nights before on the roof had regarded Barney as the perfect courtier,
would not have so esteemed him if they had seen him at the present
moment.
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