She wanted to ask him and then wanted to go home and leave them all.

She saw that her teacup was trembling in her hand.
She steadied it upon her knee and then her knee began to quiver, and all the time Amy Warlock watched her.

She thought then that she must assert herself and show that she was not confused nor timid, so she began in a high-strained voice to talk to Mrs.Warlock.She told Mrs.
Warlock that she found Harrods' a confusing place, that she had not yet visited Westminster Abbey, that her health was quite good, that she had no brothers and no sisters, that she could not play the piano, and that she was afraid that she never read books.
It was after the last of these interesting statements that she was suddenly aware of the sound of her own voice, as though it had been a brazen gong beating stridently in the vastness of a deserted Cathedral.
She saw the old lady take two pieces of buttered toast from the china dish, hold them tenderly in her hand and fling them a swift, bird-like glance before she devoured them; during that moment's vision Maggie discovered what so many people of vaster experience both of life and of Mrs.Warlock had never discovered; namely, that the old lady cared more for her food than her company.

Maggie was suddenly less afraid of the whole family.

She looked up then at Martin as though she thus would prove her new courage and, he glancing across at the same moment, they smiled.