the magnificence as in a court-carriage she came
back to that, and such a method of progression,
such a view from crimson cushions, would evidently
have a great deal more to give. By the time the
candles were lighted for supper and the short, white
curtains were drawn, Milly had reappeared, and the
little scenic room had then all its romance. That
charm moreover was far from broken by the words
in which she, without further loss of time, satisfied
her patient mate. " I want to go straight to Lon
don."

It was unexpected, corresponding with no view
positively taken at their departure; when England
had appeared, on the contrary, rather relegated and
postponed seen for the moment, as who should
say, at the end of an avenue of preparations and in
troductions. London, in short, might have been
supposed to be the crown, and to be achieved like a
siege by gradual approaches. Milly's actual fine
stride was therefore the more exciting, as any sim
plification almost always was to Mrs. Stringham;
who, besides, was afterwards to recall as the very
beginning of a drama the terms in which, between
their smoky candles, the girl had put her preference
and in which still other things had come up, come
while the clank of waggon-chains in the sharp air
reached their ears, with the stamp of hoofs, the rat
tle of buckets and the foreign questions, foreign
answers, that were all alike a part of the cheery con
verse of the road. The girl brought it out in truth

[[149]]

p148 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p149w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p150

v?