like her. They had met thus as opposed curiosities,
and that simple remark of Milly's if simple it was
became the most important thing that had ever
happened to her; it deprived the love-interest, for
the time, of actuality and even of pertinence; it
moved her first, in short, in a high degree, to grati
tude, and then to no small compassion. Yet in re
spect to this relation at least it was what did prove
the key of knowledge; it lighted up as nothing else
jxmld do the poor young woman's history. That
the potential heiress of all the ages should never
have seen any one like a mere typical subscriber,
after all, to the " Transcript " was a truth that in
especial as announced with modesty, with humility,
with regret described a situation. It laid upon
the elder woman, as to the void to be filled, a
weight of responsibility; but in particular it led her
to ask whom poor Mildred had then seen, and what
range of contacts it had taken to produce such
queer surprises. That was really the inquiry that
had ended by clearing the air: the key of knowl
edge was felt to click in the lock from the moment
it flashed upon Mrs. Stringham that her friend had
been starved for culture. Culture was what she
herself represented for her, and it was living up to
that principle that would surely prove the great
business. She knew, the clever lady, what the
principle itself represented, and the limits of her
own store; and a certain alarm would have grown
upon her if something else hadn't grown faster.

[[122]]

p121 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p122w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p123

v?