I read to her a good deal
in the mornings; Maggie has proudly assumed the functions of
housekeeper; the womanly instinct for these things is astonishing.
A man would far sooner not have things comfortable, than have the
trouble of providing them and seeing about them. Women do not care
about comforts for themselves; they prefer haphazard meals, trays
brought into rooms, vague arrangements; and yet they seem to know
by instinct what a man likes, even though he does not express it,
and though he would not take any trouble to secure it. What
centuries of trained instincts must have gone to produce this. The
new order has given me a great deal more of Maggie's society. We
are sent out in the afternoon, because Maud likes to be quite alone
to receive the neighbours, small and great, that come to see her,
now that she cannot go to see them. She tells me frankly that my
presence only embarrasses them. And thus another joy has come to
me, one of the most beautiful things that has ever happened to me
in my life, and which I can hardly find words to express--the
contact with, the free sight of the mind and soul of an absolutely
pure, simple and ingenuous girl. Maggie's mind has opened like a
flower.
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