and that lip was so short that it couldn’t always cover the tips of her little white teeth.  Majendie judged that Maggie’s mouth was the prettiest feature in her face, and there was something about it that reminded him, preposterously, of Anne.  The likeness bothered him, till he discovered that it lay in that trick of the lifted lip.  But the small charm that was so brief and divine an accident in Anne was perpetual in Maggie.  He thought he should get tired of it in time.

Maggie had been crying.  Her sobs had left her lips still parted; her eyelids were swollen; there were little ashen shades and rosy flecks all over her pretty face.  Her diminutive muslin handkerchief was limp with her tears.  As he looked at her he realised that he had a painful and disgusting task before him, and that there would be no intelligence in the girl to help him out.

He bade her sit down; for poor Maggie stood before him humbly.  He told her briefly that his friend, Mr. Gorst, had asked him to explain things to her, and he was beginning to explain them, very gently, when Maggie cut him short.

“It’s not that I want to be married,” she said sadly.  “Mr. Mumford would marry me.”

“Well—­then—­” he suggested, but Maggie shook her head.  “Isn’t he nice to you, Mr. Mumford?”

“He’s nice enough.  But I can’t marry ’im.  I won’t.  I don’t love ’im.  I can’t—­Mr. Magendy—­because of Charlie.”

She looked at him as if she thought he would compel her to marry Mr. Mumford.

“Oh dear—­” said Maggie, surprised at herself, as she began to cry again.

She pressed the little muslin handkerchief to her eyes; not making a show of her grief; but furtive, rather, and ashamed.

And Majendie took in all the pitifulness of her sweet, predestined nature.  Pretty Maggie could never have been led astray; she had gone out, fervent and swift, dream-drunk, to meet her destiny.  She was a creature of ardours, of tenderness, and of some perverse instinct that it would be crude to call depravity.  Where her heart led, her flesh, he judged, had followed; that was all.  Her brain had been passive in her sad affairs.  Maggie had never schemed, or calculated, or deliberated.  She had only felt.

“See here,” he said.  “Charlie can’t marry you.  He can’t marry anybody.”

“Why not?”

“Well, for one thing, he’s too poor.”

“I know he’s poor.”

“And you wouldn’t be happy if he did marry you.  He couldn’t make you happy.”

“I’d be unhappy, then.”

“Yes.  And he’d be unhappy, too.  Is that what you want?”

“No—­no—­no!  You don’t understand.”

“I’ll try to.  What do you want?  Tell me.”

“To help him.”

“You can’t help him,” he said softly.

“I couldn’t help him if ’e was rich.  I can help him if he’s poor.”

He smiled.  “How do you make that out, Maggie?”