as saying where any one was. Every one was
everywhere nobody was anywhere. He should
be put to it yes, frankly to give a name of any
sort or kind to their hostess's " set." Was it a set
at all, or wasn't it, and were there not really no such
things as sets, in the place, any more? was there
any thing but the senseless shifting tumble, like
that of some great greasy sea in mid-Channel, of
an overwhelming melted mixture? He threw out
the question, which seemed large; Milly felt that
at the end of live minutes he had thrown out a great
many, though he followed none more than a step or
two; perhaps he would prove suggestive, but he
helped her as yet to no discriminations: he spoke
as if he had given them up from too much knowl
edge. He was thus at the opposite extreme from
herself, but, as a consequence of it, also wandering
and lost; and he was furthermore, for all his tem
porary incoherence, to which she guessed there
would be some key, as great a reality as either Mrs.
Lowder or Kate. The only light in which he
placed the former of these ladies was that of
an extraordinary woman a most extraordinary
woman, and " the more extraordinary the more one
knows her," while of the latter he said nothing, for
the moment, but that she was tremendously, yes,
quite tremendously, good-looking. It was some
time, she thought, before his talk showed his clever
ness, and yet each minute she believed in it more,
quite apart from what her hostess had told her on

[[167]]

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v?