Maggie pursued her thoughts. Caroline watched her with intense curiosity.
"What do you want with a Park, you darling?" she asked at last.
"Oh, nothing," said Maggie, slowly. Then she went on, laughing: "I"ve been asked out to tea--for the first time in my life. And I"m terribly frightened."
"How exciting!" said Caroline clapping her hands. "Who"s it with?"
"It"s a Mrs. Mark. She was a Miss Trenchard. She used to live in Glebeshire. She"s going to find me some work to do."
"Work!" cried Caroline. "Aren"t you going to stay with your aunts then?"
"I want to be independent," said Maggie slowly.
"Well!" said Caroline, amazed.
Could Maggie have seen just then into Miss Smith"s mind and could she only have realised that, with Miss Smith, every action and intention in the human heart pivoted upon love-affairs and love-affairs only, she might have been warned and have saved much later trouble. She was intent on her own plans and was thinking of Caroline only as a possible agent.
"Caroline," she asked, "would you take a note for me to some one?"
"Of course," said Caroline. "Who is it?"
"Martin Warlock," said Maggie.
At the name she suddenly blushed crimson. She knew that Caroline was looking at her with eager curiosity. She suspected then that she had done something foolish and would have given anything to recall her words, but to recall them now seemed only to make it the more suspicious.
"It"s only something his sister wanted to know," she said casually. "I thought you"d be seeing him soon. I hardly ever do."
"Yes, I"m going up there to-night," said Caroline staring at Maggie.
"Well, I"ll give it you before you go," then she went on as casually as she could. "What"s been happening lately?"
"Of course you know all about the excitement," said Caroline sitting back in the faded arm-chair with her blue dress spread all about her like a cloud.
"What excitement?" said Maggie, pulling herself up, with a desperate struggle, from her own private adventures.
"What! you don"t know?" Caroline exclaimed in an awed whisper.
"Know what?" Maggie asked, rather crossly, repenting more and more of asking Caroline to carry her note.
"Why, where DO you live? ... All about Mr. Warlock and his visions!"
"I"ve heard nothing at all," said Maggie.
This was unexpected joy to Caroline, who had never imagined that there would be any one so near the Inner Saints as Maggie who yet knew nothing about these recent events.
"Do you really know nothing about it?"
"Nothing," said Maggie.
"Aren"t you wonderful?" said Caroline. "What happened was this. About three weeks ago Mr. Warlock had a vision in the middle of the night. He saw G.o.d at about three in the morning."
"How did he see G.o.d?" asked Maggie, awed in spite of herself.
Caroline"s voice dropped to a mysterious whisper. "He just woke up and there G.o.d was at the end of the bed. Of course he"s not spoken to me about it, but apparently there was a blaze of light and Something in the middle. And then a voice spoke and told Mr. Warlock that on the last night of this year everything would be fulfilled."
"What did He mean?" asked Maggie.
"Different people think He meant different things," said Caroline. "Of course there"s most fearful excitement about it. Mr. Warlock"s had two since."
"Two what?" asked Maggie.
"Two visions. Just like the first. The blazing light and the voice and telling him that the last night of the year"s to be the time." Caroline then began to be carried away by her excitement. She talked faster and faster. "Oh! You don"t know what a state every one"s in! It"s causing all sorts of divisions. First there are all his own real believers.
Miss Pyncheon, your aunts, and the others. My father"s one. They all believe every word he says. They"re all quite certain that the last day of this year is to be the time of the Second Coming. They won"t any of them, look a minute further than that. Father doesn"t care a bit now what mother does with the money because, he says, we shan"t want any next year. Mother isn"t so sure so she"s taking as much care of it as ever, and of course it"s nice for her now to have it all in her own hands. They"re all of them doing everything to make themselves ready.
It doesn"t matter how aggravating you are, father never loses his temper now. He"s so sweet that it"s maddening. Haven"t you noticed how good your aunts are?"
"They"re always the same," said Maggie.
"Well. I expect they"re different really. Then there"s the middle-cla.s.s like Mr. Thurston and Miss Avies who pretend to believe all that Mr.
Warlock says, but of course, they don"t believe a word of it, and they hope that this will prove his ruin. They know there won"t be any Second Coming on New Year"s Eve, and then they think he will be finished and they"ll be able to get rid of him. So they"re encouraging him to believe in all this, and then when the moment comes they"ll turn on him!"
"Beasts!" said Maggie suddenly.
"Well, I daresay you"re right," said Caroline. "Only it does make me laugh, all of it. Thurston and Miss Avies have all their plans made, only now they"re quarrelling because Thurston wants to marry Amy Warlock and Miss Avies meant him to marry her!"
"Is Mr. Thurston going to marry Miss Warlock?" cried Maggie.
"So they say," said Caroline again watching Maggie curiously. "Well, anyway, Miss Avies is the strongest of the lot really. I"d back her against anybody. I"m terrified of her myself, I tell you frankly. She"d wring any one"s neck for twopence. Oh yes, she would! ... Then there are the third lot who simply don"t believe in Mr. Warlock"s visions at all and just laugh at him. People like Miss Smythe and Mrs. Bellaston.
A lot of them are leaving the chapel. Mr. Warlock won"t listen to anybody. He"s getting stranger and stranger, and his heart"s so bad they say he might die any day if he had a shock. Then he"s always quarrelling with Martin."
Caroline suddenly stopped. She looked at Maggie.
"Martin"s a terrible trial to his father," she said.
But Maggie was secure now.
"Is he?" she asked indifferently. Then she added slowly, "What do you believe, Caroline?"
"What do I believe?"
"Yes, about Mr. Warlock"s visions."
"Oh, of course, it"s only because he"s ill and prays for hours without getting off his knees, and won"t eat enough, that he sees things. And yet I don"t know. There may be something in it. If I were on my knees for weeks I"d never see anything. But I"ll be terribly sorry for Mr.
Warlock if the time comes and nothing happens. He"ll just have to go."
They sat a little longer together and then Caroline said: "Well, darling, I must be off. Where"s that note?" She hesitated, looking at Maggie with a wicked gleam in her pale blue eyes. "You know, Maggie, I can"t make up my mind. I"ve had an offer of marriage."
"I"m so glad, Caroline," said Maggie.
"Yes, but I don"t know what to do. It"s a man--Mr. Purdie. His father"s ever so rich and they"ve got a big place down at Skeaton."