continued as if it were suddenly important for him
"do you think she sees me in a light?"

She neglected his question for a little, partly be
cause her attention attached itself more and more to
the handsome girl, partly because, placed so near
their hostess, she wished not to show as discussing
her too freely. Mrs. Lowder, it was true, steering
in the other quarter a course in which she called at
subjects as if they were islets in an archipelago, con
tinued to allow them their ease, and Kate Croy, at
the same time, steadily revealed herself as interest
ing. Milly in fact found, of a sudden, her ease
found it all as she bethought herself that what Mrs.
Lowder was really arranging for was a report on
her quality and, as perhaps might be said, her value
from Lord Mark. She wished him, the wonderful
lady, to have no pretext for not knowing what he
thought of Miss Theale. Why his judgment so
mattered remained to be seen; but it was this divina
tion, in any case, that now determined Milly's re
joinder. " No. She knows you. She has proba
bly reason to. And you all, here, know each other
I see that so far as you know anything. You
know what you re used to, and it's your being used
to it that, and that only that makes you. But
there are things you don't know."

He took it in as if it might fairly, to do him justice,
be a point. " Things that _I_ don't with all the
pains I take and the way I ve run about the world
to leave nothing unlearned?"

[[179]]

p178 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p179w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p180

v?