"Not to be afraid." It made her guest again hang fire.

"Not to be afraid really to speak ?" "Not to be afraid NOT to speak." Mrs.Assingham considered further.

"You can't even to Charlotte ?" But as, at this, after a look at her, Maggie turned off with a movement of suppressed despair, she checked herself and might have been watching her, for all the difficulty and the pity of it, vaguely moving to the window and the view of the hill street.

It was almost as if she had had to give up, from failure of responsive wit in her friend--the last failure she had feared--the hope of the particular relief she had been working for.

Mrs.Assingham resumed the next instant, however, in the very tone that seemed most to promise her she should have to give up nothing.