Little scenes rose before her--all passed almost in a flash of
time--as she stood with her hand on the medieval-looking latch of the
gate, and she saw herself in them all as a proud, unmaidenly,
pharisaical prig, in love with a man who was not in love with her.
She made an effort, unlatched the gate, and moved on, a beautiful,
composed figure, with great steady eyes and well-cut profile, a model
of dignity and grace, interiorly a raging, self-contemptuous, abject
wretch.
It must be remembered that she was convent-bred.
II
By the time that Laurie's answer came, poor Maggie had arranged her
emotions fairly satisfactorily. She came to the conclusion, arrived at
after much heart-searching, that after all she was not yet actually in
love with Laurie, but was in danger of being so, and that therefore
now that she knew the danger, and could guard against it, she need not
actually withdraw from her home, and bury herself in a convent or the
foreign mission-field.
She arrived at this astonishing conclusion by the following process of
thought. It may be presented in the form of a syllogism.
All girls who are in love regard the beloved as a spotless,
reproachless hero.
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