would be nothing for her to explain or attenuate
or brag about; she could neither escape nor prevail
by her strangeness; he would have, for that matter,
on such a subject, more to tell her than to learn
from her. She might learn from him why she was
so different from the handsome girl which she
didn't know, being merely able to feel it; or at any
rate might learn from him why the handsome girl
was so different from her.

On these lines, however, they would move later;
the lines immediately laid down were, in spite of his
vagueness for his own convenience, definite enough.
She was already, he observed to her, thinking what
she should say on her other side which was what
Americans were always doing. She needn't in con
science say anything at all; but Americans never
knew that, nor ever, poor creatures, yes (she had
interposed the "poor creatures! ") what not to do.
The burdens they took on the things, positively,
they made an affair of! This easy and, after all,
friendly jibe at her race was really for her, on her
new friend's part, the note of personal recognition
so far as she required it; and she gave him a prompt
and conscious example of morbid anxiety by insist
ing that her desire to be, herself, " lovely " all round
was justly founded on the lovely way Mrs. Lowder
had met her. He was directly interested in that,
and it was not till afterwards that she fully knew
how much more information about their friend he
had taken than given. Here again, for instance,

[[170]]

p169 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p170w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p171

v?