sive ?? extensive, that is, in proportion to the signs
of life presented. The idea of " people " was not
so entertained on Milly's part as to connect itself
with particular persons, and the fact remained for
each of the ladies that they would, completely un
known, disembark at Dover amid the completely
unknowing. They had no relation already formed;
this plea Mrs. Stringham put forward to see what it
would produce. It produced nothing at first but
the observation on the girl's side that what she had
in mind was no thought of society nor of scraping
acquaintance; nothing was further from her than
to desire the opportunities represented for the com
patriot in general by a trunkful of " letters." It
wasn't a question, in short, of the people the com
patriot was after; it was the human, the English
picture itself, as they might see it in their own way
the world imagined always in what one had read
and dreamed. Mrs. Stringham did every justice to
this world, but when later on an occasion chanced
to present itself, she made a point of not omitting
to remark that it might be a comfort to know in
advance even an individual. This still, however,
failed in vulgar parlance, to " fetch " Milly, so that
she had presently to go all the way. " Haven't I
understood from you, for that matter, that you gave
Mr. Densher something of a promise?"

There was a moment, on this, when Milly's look
had to be taken as representing one of two things
either that she was completely vague about the

[[151]]

p150 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p151w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p152

v?