ments, mementos, pledges of gratitude and admira
tion that were all on one side. Kate as promptly
embraced the propriety of making it clear that she
must forswear shops till she should receive some
guarantee that the contents of each one she entered
as a humble companion should not be placed at her
feet; yet that was in truth not before she had found
herself in possession, under whatever protests, of
several precious ornaments and other minor con
veniences.

Great was the absurdity, too, that there should
have come a day, by the end of the week, when it
appeared that all Milly would have asked in definite
"return," as might be said, was to be told a little
about Lord Mark and to be promised the privilege
of a visit to Mrs. Condrip. Far other amusements
had- been offered her, but her eagerness was shame
lessly human, and she seemed really to count more
on the revelation of the anxious lady of Chelsea than
on the best nights of the opera. Kate admired, and
showed it, such an absence of fear: to the fear of
being bored, in such a connection, she would have
been so obviously entitled. Milly's answer to this
was the plea of her curiosities which left her
friend wondering as to their odd direction. Some
among them, no doubt, were rather more intelligible,
and Kate had heard without wonder that she was
blank about Lord Mark. This young lady's account
of him, at the same time, professed itself as frankly
imperfect; for what they best knew him by at Lan-

[[196]]

p195 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p196w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p197

v?