The child wondered. "But didn't papa—?"
"Leave her a fortune?" Mrs. Wix would have appeared to speak of papa as dead had she not immediately added: "Why he lives on other women!"
Oh yes, Maisie remembered. "Then can't he send—" She faltered again; even to herself it sounded queer.
"Some of their money to his wife?" Mrs. Wix pave a laugh still stranger than the weird suggestion. "I dare say she'd take it!"
They hurried on again; yet again, on the stairs, Maisie pulled up. "Well, if she had stopped in England—!" she threw out.
Mrs. Wix considered. "And he had come over instead?"
"Yes, as we expected." Maisie launched her speculation. "What then would she have lived on?"
Mrs. Wix hung fire but an instant. "On other men!" And she marched downstairs.