contact. It was indeed for each, already, as if they
were older friends; and though the succession of
their meetings might, between them, have been
straightened out, they only had a confused sense
of a good many, very much alike, and a confused
intention of a good many more, as little different
as possible. The desire to keep them just as they
were had perhaps to do with the fact that in spite
of the presumed diagnosis of the stranger there had
been for them as yet no formal, no final understand
ing. Densher had at the very first pressed the ques
tion, but that, it had been easy to reply, was too
soon; so that a singular thing had afterwards hap
pened. They had accepted their acquaintance as
too short for an engagement, but they had treated
it as long enough for almost anything else, and
marriage was somehow before them like a temple
without an avenue. They belonged to the temple
and they met in the grounds; they were in the
stage at which grounds in general offered much
scattered refreshment. But Kate had meanwhile
had so few confidants that she wondered at the
source of her father's suspicions. The diffusion of
rumour was of course, in London, remarkable, and
for Marian not less as Aunt Maud touched neither
directly the mystery had worked. No doubt she
had been seen. Of course she had been seen. She
had taken no trouble not to be seen, and it was
a thing, clearly, she was incapable of taking. But
she had been seen how? and what zvas there to see?

[[67]]

p066 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p067w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p068

v?