delightful pictures of uncle and niece sheltering snugly together
defended by their affection against a cold and hostile London. His
own eyes had filled with tears as he thought of it. What a hard,
cold-hearted girl she was! Nevertheless for the moment he abandoned
the subject.

That she should go and live with her aunts was not for Maggie in any
way a new idea. A number of years ago when she had been a little
girl of thirteen or fourteen years of age her father had had a most
violent quarrel with his sister Anne. Maggie had never known the
exact cause of this although even at that period she suspected that
it was in some way connected with money. She found afterwards that
her father had considered that certain pieces of furniture
bequeathed to the family by a defunct relation were his and not his
sister's. Miss Anne Cardinal, a lady of strong character, clung to
her sofa, cabinet, and porcelain, bowls, and successfully maintained
her right. The Reverend Charles forbade the further mention of her
name by any member of his household. This quarrel was a grievous
disappointment to Maggie who had often been promised that when she
should be a good girl she should go and stay with her aunts in
London. She had invented for herself a strange fascinating picture
of the dark, mysterious London house, with London like a magic
cauldron bubbling beyond it. There was moreover the further
strangeness of her aunt's religion. Her father in his anger had
spoken about "their wicked blasphemy," "their insolence in the eyes
of God," "their blindness and ignorant conceit." Maggie had
discovered, on a later day, from her uncle that her aunts belonged
to a sect known as the Kingscote Brethren and that the main feature
of their creed was that they expected the second coming of the Lord
God upon earth at no very distant date.