"It makes it impossible. I've given myself to you. I can't take anything. Besides, it would look as if I'd taken it for that."
"That's an appalling idea, Anne."
"It is. But it's what everybody'll think. They'll wonder what on earth you did it for. We don't want people wondering about us. If they once begin wondering they'll end by finding out."
"I see. Perhaps you're right. I'm sorry."
"It sticks out of us enough as it is. I can't think how Maisie doesn't see it. But she never will. She'll never believe that we—"
"Do you want her to see it?"
"No, but it hurts so, her not seeing…. Jerrold, I believe that's the punishment—Maisie's trusting us. It's the worst thing she could have done to us."
"Then, if we're punished we're quits. Don't think of it, Anne darling.
Don't let Maisie come in between us like that."
He took her in his arms and kissed her, close and quick, so that no thought could come between.
But Maisie's sweetness had not done its worst. She had yet to prove what she was and what she could do.