"Not to come?
Why then do you 'meet' them--since it doesn't appear to be to stop them ?" "Oh that they shouldn't come is as yet too much to ask.

What I attend to is that they come quickly and return still more so.

I meet them to help it to be over as soon as possible, and though I don't stop them I've my way of putting them through.

That's my little system; and, if you want to know," said Maria Gostrey, "it's my real secret, my innermost mission and use.

I only seem, you see, to beguile and approve; but I've thought it all out and I'm working all the while underground.