Milly had the next instant, then, acted on the
permission. " Because you re even at the worst
the best thing she has?"

With this he was at last amused. " I was till you
came. You re the best now."

It was strange his words should have given her
the sense of his knowing, but it was positive that
they did so, and to the extent of making her believe
them, though still with wonder. That, really, from
this first of their meetings, was what was most to
abide with her: she accepted almost helplessly, she
surrendered to the inevitability of being the sort of
thing, as he might have said, that he at least thor
oughly believed he had, in going about, seen here
enough of for all practical purposes. Her submis
sion was naturally, moreover, not to be impaired by
her learning later on that he had paid at short inter
vals, though at a time apparently just previous to
her own emergence from the obscurity of extreme
youth, three separate visits to New York, where his
namble friends and his contrasted contacts had
been numerous. His impression, his recollection of
the whole mixed quantity, was still visibly rich. It
had helped him to place her, and she was more and
more sharply conscious of having as with the door
sharply slammed upon her and the guard's hand
raised in signal to the train been popped into the
compartment in which she was to travel for him.
It was a use of her that many a girl would have been
doubtless quick to resent; and the kind of mind that

[[174]]

p173 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p174w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p175

v?