PLUNGE INTO THE OTHER HALF
For a week Maggie was so comfortable that she could think of nothing but that.It must be remembered that she had never before known what comfort was, never at St.Dreot's, never at Aunt Anne's, and these two places had been the background of all her life.
She had never conceived of the kind of way that she now lived.Her bedroom was so pretty that it made her almost cry to look at it: the wall-paper scattered with little rosy trees, the soft pink cretonne on the chairs, the old bureau with a sheet of glass covering its surface that was her dressing-table, the old gold mirror--all these things were wonders indeed.She was ordered to have breakfast in bed; servants looked after her with a kindliness and ease and readiness to help that she had never dreamed of as possible.The food was wonderful; there was the motor ready to take her for a drive in the afternoon, and there was the whole house at her service, soft and cosy and ordered so that it seemed to roll along upon its own impulse without any human agency.
"I believe if every one went away and left it," she thought, "it would go on in exactly the same way."Figures gradually took their places in front of this background.The principals at first were Katherine and Philip, Henry and Millicent, Katherine's brother and sister, Mr.Trenchard senior, Katherine's father, Lady Rachel Seddon, Katherine's best friend, and Mr.
Faunder, Katherine's uncle.She saw at once that they all revolved around Katherine; if Katherine were not there they would not hold together at all.They were all so different--so different and yet so strangely alike.There was, for instance, Millicent Trenchard, whom Maggie liked best of them all after Katherine.Millie was a young woman of twenty-one, pretty, gay, ferociously independent, enthusiastic about one thing after another, with hosts of friends, male and female, none of whom she took very seriously.The love of her life, she told Maggie almost at once, was Katherine.She would never love any one, man or woman, so much again.She lived with her mother and father in an old house in Westminster, and Maggie understood that there had been some trouble about Katherine's marriage, so that, although it happened three years ago, Mrs.
Trenchard would not come to see Katherine and would not allow Katherine to come and see her.
Then there was Henry, a very strange young man.He was at Cambridge and said to be very clever.He did indeed seem to lead a mysterious life of his own and paid very little attention to Maggie, asking her once whether she did not think The Golden Ass wonderful, and what did she think of Petronius; and when Maggie laughed and said that she was glad to say she never read anything, he left her in an agitated horror.Lady Rachel Seddon was very grand and splendid, and frightened Katherine.She was related to every kind of duke and marquis, and although that fact did not impress Maggie in the least, it did seem to remove Lady Rachel into quite another world.
But they were all in another world--Maggie discovered that at once.
They had, of course, every sort of catch-word and allusion and joke that no one but themselves and the people whom they brought into the house understood; Katherine was kindness itself.Philip too (he seemed to Maggie a weak, amiable young man) took a lot of trouble about her, but they did not belong to her nor she to them.
"And why should they?" said Maggie to herself."I must look on it as though I were staying at a delightful hotel and were going on with my journey very soon."There was somebody, however, who did not belong any more than Maggie did, and very soon he became Maggie's constant companion--this was the Rev.Paul Trenchard, Kathorine's cousin.
From the very moment months ago, when Maggie and he had first met in Katherine's drawing-room, they had been friends.He had liked her, Maggie felt, at once.She on her side was attracted by a certain childlike simplicity and innocence.This very quality, she soon saw, moved the others, Philip and Henry and Mr.Trenchard senior, to derision.They did not like the Rev.Paul.They chaffed him, and he was very easily teased, because he was not clever and did not see their jokes.This put Maggie up in arms in his defence at once.But they had all the layman's distrust of a parson.They were all polite to him, of course, and Maggie discovered that in this world politeness was of the very first importance, so that you really never said what you thought nor did what you wanted to.They frankly could not understand why Katherine asked the parson to stay, but because they loved Katherine they were as nice to him as their natures would allow them to be.Paul did not apparently notice that they put him outside their life.He was always genial, laughed a great deal when there WAS no reason to laugh at all, and told simple little stories in whose effect he profoundly believed.He was supported in his confidence by his sister Grace, who obviously adored him.She too was "outside" the family, but she seemed to be quite happy telling endless stories of Paul's courage and cleverness and popularity.She did indeed believe that Skeaton-on-Sea, where Paul had his living, was the hub of the universe, and this amused all the Trenchard family very much indeed.It must not be supposed that Paul and his sister were treated unkindly.They were shown the greatest courtesy and hospitality, but Maggie knew that that was only because it was the Trenchard tradition to do so, and not from motives of affection or warmth of heart.
They could be warm-hearted; it was wonderful to see the way that they all adored Katherine, and they had many friends for whom they would do anything, but the Rev.Paul seemed to them frankly an ass, and they would be glad when he went away.