tentedly than if these insignia had marked her
work; and Milly's observation to Lord Mark had
just been, doubtless, the result of such a light ex
change of looks with her as even the great length
of the table had not baffled. There were twenty
persons between them, but this sustained passage
was the sharpest sequel yet to that other compari
son of views during the pause on the Swiss pass.
It almost appeared to Milly that their fortune had
been unduly precipitated as if, properly, they were
in the position of having ventured on a small joke
and found the answer out of proportion grave.
She could not at this moment, for instance, have
said whether, with her quickened perceptions, she
were more enlivened or oppressed; and the case
might in fact have been serious had she not, by
good fortune, from the moment the picture loomed,
quickly made up her mind that what finally most
concerned her was neither to seek nor to shirk,
was not even to wonder too much, but was to let
things come as they would, since there was little
enough doubt of how they would go.

Lord Mark had been brought to her before din
ner not by Mrs. Lowder, but by the handsome
girl, that lady's niece, who was now at the other
end and on the same side as Susie; he had taken
her in, and she meant presently to ask him about
Miss Croy, the handsome girl, actually offered to
her sight though now in a splendid way but for
the second time. The first time had been the oc-

[[162]]

p161 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p162w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p163

v?