agreeably, richly, almost grandly what it was to
live with the great. Her young friend had, in a
sublime degree, a sense closed to the general ques
tion of difficulty, which she got rid of, furthermore,
not in the least as one had seen many charming
persons do, by merely passing it on to others. She
kept it completely at a distance: it never entered
the circle; the most plaintive confidant couldn't
have dragged it in; and to tread the path of a con
fidant was accordingly to live exempt. Service was
in other words so easy to render that the whole
thing was like court life without the hardships. It
came back of course to the question of money, and
our observant lady had by this time repeatedly re
flected that if one were talking of the " difference,"
it was just this, this incomparably and nothing else,
that when all was said and done most made it. A
less vulgarly, a less obviously purchasing or parad
ing person she couldn't have imagined; but it was,
all the same, the truth of truths that the girl couldn't
get away from her wealth. She might leave her
conscientious companion as freely alone with it as
possible and never ask a question, scarce even toler
ate a reference; but it was in the fine folds of the
helplessly expensive little black frock that she drew
over the grass as she now strolled vaguely off; it
was in the curious and splendid coils of hair,
"done " with no eye whatever to the mode du four,
that peeped from under the corresponding indiffer
ence of her hat, the merely personal tradition that

[[135]]

p134 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p135w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p136

v?