"Perhaps I found her stupid," she said, "and so for that reason
dropped her. Perhaps I would have continued to be kind if she had
reciprocated attentions, but she did not. I am glad now, very glad,
that we are unlikely to be friends, for, after what you have just told
me, I should probably find her insupportable. Are you going, Nancy?"
"Yes, I promised to have cocoa with Annie Day. I had almost forgotten.
Good night, Maggie."
Nancy shut the door softly behind her, and Maggie closed her eyes for
a moment with a sigh of relief.
"It's nice to be alone," she said softly under her breath, "it's nice
and yet it isn't nice. Nancy irritated me dreadfully this evening. I
don't like stories about good people. I don't wish to think about good
people. I am determined that I will not allow my thoughts to dwell on
that unpleasant Priscilla Peel, and her pathetic poverty, and her
burst of heroics. It is too trying to hear footsteps in that room. No,
I will not think of that room nor of its inmate. Now, if I could only
go to sleep!"
Maggie curled herself up in her luxurious chair, arranged a soft
pillow under her head and shut her eyes. In this attitude she made a
charming picture: her thick black lashes lay heavily on her pale
cheeks; her red lips were slightly parted; her breathing came quietly.
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