were never to be worse than that! She got with her
companion into the house; they brushed, beneficent
ly, past all their accidents. The Bronzino was, it
appeared, deep within, and the long afternoon light
lingered for them on patches of old colour and way
laid them, as they went, in nooks and opening
vistas.

It was all the while for Milly as if Lord Mark had
really had something other than this spoken pretext
in view; as if there were something he wanted to say
to her and were only consciously yet not awkward
ly, just delicately hanging fire. At the same time
it was as if the thing had practically been said by the
moment they came in sight of the picture; since
what it appeared to amount to was " Do let a fellow
who isn't a fool take care of you a little." The thing
somehow, with the aid of the Bronzino, was done;
it hadn't seemed to matter to her before if he were
a fool or no; but now, just where they were, she
liked his not being; and it was all moreover none
the worse for coming back to something of the same
sound as Mrs. Lowder's so recent reminder. She
too wished to take care of her and wasn't it, a peu
pres, what all the people with the kind eyes were
wishing? Once more things melted together the
beauty and the history and the facility and the splen
did midsummer glow: it was a sort of magnificent
maximum, the pink dawn of an apotheosis, coming
so curiously soon. What in fact befell was that, as
she afterwards made out, it was Lord Mark who said

[[241]]

p240 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p241w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p242

v?