Anne Severn and the Fieldings - Page 300/574

After the first week of it this sort of thing ceased to amuse him, but

he went on with it because he thought it amused Maisie.

There was something he missed; something he wanted and hadn't got. At

night, when he lay awake, alone with himself at last, he knew that it

was Anne.

And he went on laughing and amusing Maisie; and Maisie, with a

heart-breaking sweetness, laughed back at him and declared herself

amused. She had never had such a jolly time in all her life, she said.

Then, very early in the spring, Maisie went down to her people in

Yorkshire to recover from the jolly time she had had. The convalescent

soldiers had all gone, and Wyck Manor, rather worn and shabby, was Wyck

Manor again.

Jerrold came back to it alone.