absently. " Oh yes, you do bully me." And it
was thus arranged between them, with no discus
sion at all, that they would resume their journey in
the morning. The younger tourist's interest in the
detail of the matter in spite of a declaration from
the elder that she would consent to be dragged any
where appeared almost immediately afterwards
quite to lose itself; she promised, however, to think
till supper of where, with the world all before them,
they might go supper having been ordered for
such time as permitted of lighted candles. It had
been agreed between them that lighted candles at
wayside inns, in strange countries, amid mountain
scenery, gave the evening meal a peculiar poetry
such being the mild adventures, the refinements of
impression, that they, as they would have said, went
in for. It was now as if, before this repast, Milly
had designed to "lie down"; but at the end of
three minutes more she was not lying down, she
was saying instead, abruptly, with a transition that
was like a jump of four thousand miles: " What
was it that, in New York, on the ninth, when you
saw him alone, Dr. Finch said to you?"

It was not till later that Mrs. Stringham fully
knew why the question had startled her still more
than its suddenness explained; though the effect of
it even at the moment was almost to frighten her
into a false answer. She had to think, to remember
the occasion, the " ninth," in New York, the time
she had seen Dr. Finch alone, and to recall what

[[143]]

p142 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p143w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p144

v?