It had gone round that she was there; questions
about her would be passing; the easiest thing was
to run the gauntlet with him just as the easiest
thing was in fact to trust him generally. Couldn't
she know for herself, passively, how little harm they
meant her? to that extent that it made no differ
ence whether or not he introduced them. The
strangest thing of all for Milly was perhaps the up
lifted assurance and indifference with which she
could simply give back the particular bland stare that
appeared in such cases to mark civilisation at its
highest. It was so little her fault, this oddity of
what had " gone round " about her, that to accept
it without question might be as good a way as an
other of feeling life. It was inevitable to supply the
probable description that of the awfully rich young
American who was so queer to behold, but nice, by
all accounts, to know; and she had really but one
instant of speculation as to fables or fantasies per
chance originally launched. She asked herself once
only if Susie could, inconceivably, have been blatant
about her; for the question, on the spot, was really
blown away for ever. She knew in fact on the spot
and with sharpness just why she had " elected"
Susan Shepherd: she had had from the first hour the
conviction of her being precisely the person in the
world least possibly a trumpeter. So it wasn't their
fault, it wasn't their fault, and anything might hap
pen that would, and everything now again melted
together, and kind eyes were always kind eyes if it

[[240]]

p239 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p240w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p241

v?