other matters. She would have described this curi
osity as a desire to see the places she had read about,
and that description of her motive she was prepared
to give her neighbour even though, as a conse
quence of it, he should find how little she had read.
It was almost at present as if her poor prevision had
been rebuked by the majesty she could scarcely
call it less of the event, or at all events by the com
manding character of the two figures she could
scarcely call that less either mainly presented.
Mrs. Lowder and her niece, however dissimilar, had
at least in common that each was a great reality.
That was true, primarily, of the aunt so true that
Milly wondered how her own companion had ar
rived, in other days, at so odd an alliance; yet she
none the less felt Mrs. Lowder as a person of whom
the mind might in two or three days roughly make
the circuit. She would sit there massive, at least,
while one attempted it; whereas Miss Croy, the
handsome girl, would indulge in incalculable move
ments that might interfere with one's tour. She
was real, none the less, and everything and every
body were real; and it served them right, no doubt,
the pair of them, for having rushed into their ad
venture.

Lord Mark's intelligence meanwhile, however,
had met her own quite sufficiently to enable him to
tell her how little he could clear up her situation.
He explained, for that matter or at least he hinted
that there was no such thing, to-day in London,

[[166]]

p165 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p166w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p167

v?