tionably she loved Susie; but she also loved Kate
and loved Lord Mark, loved their funny old host and
hostess, loved every one within range, down to the
very servant who came to receive Milly's empty ice-
plate down, for that matter, to Milly herself, who
was, while she talked, really conscious of the envel
oping flap of a protective mantle, a shelter with the
weight of an eastern carpet. An eastern carpet, for
wishing-purposes of one's own, was a thing to be on
rather than under; still, however, if the girl should
fail of breath it wouldn't be, she could feel, by Mrs.
Lowder's fault. One of the last things she was
afterwards to recall of this was Aunt Maud's going
on to say that she and Kate must stand together be
cause together they could do anything. It was for
Kate of course she was essentially planning; but the
plan, enlarged and uplifted now, somehow required
Milly's prosperity too for its full operation, just as
Milly's prosperity at the same time involved Kate s.
It was nebulous yet, it was slightly confused, but it
was unmistakably free and genial, and it made our
young woman understand things Kate had said of
her aunt's possibilities as well as characterisations
that had fallen from Susan Shepherd. One of the
most frequent on the lips of the latter had been that
dear Maud was a natural force.

[[237]]

p236 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p237w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p238

v?