"To his passions."
She continued to wonder and even to be impressed; after which she went
on: "But how do you know he'll stay?"
"Because he likes us!"--and Mrs. Wix, with her emphasis of the word,
whirled her charge round again to deal with posterior hooks. She had
positively never shaken her so.
It was as if she quite shook something out of her. "But how will that
help him if we--in spite of his liking!--don't stay?"
"Do you mean if we go off and leave him with her?--" Mrs. Wix put the
question to the back of her pupil's head. "It WON'T help him. It will be
his ruin. He'll have got nothing. He'll have lost everything. It will be
his utter destruction, for he's certain after a while to loathe her."
"Then when he loathes her"--it was astonishing how she caught the
idea--"he'll just come right after us!" Maisie announced.
"Never."
"Never?"
"She'll keep him. She'll hold him for ever."