Chapter XIV

MILLY indeed at last couldn't say; so that she had
really for the time brought it along to the point so
oddly marked for her by her visitor's arrival, the
truth that she was enviably strong. She carried this
out, from that evening, for each hour still left her,
and the more easily perhaps that the hours were now
narrowly numbered. All she actually waited for
was Sir Luke Strett's promised visit; as to her pro
ceeding on which, however, her mind was quite made
up. Since he wanted to get at Susie he should have
the freest access, and then perhaps he would see how
he liked it. What was between them they might
settle as between them, and any pressure it should lift
from her own spirit they were at liberty to convert
to their use. If the dear man wished to fire Susan
Shepherd with a still higher ideal, he would only
after all, at the worst, have Susan on his hands. If
devotion, in a word, was what it would come up for
the interested pair to organise, she was herself ready
to consume it as the dressed and served dish. He
had talked to her of her " appetite?? her account of
which, she felt, must have been vague. But for de
votion, she could now see, this appetite would be of
the best. Gross, greedy, ravenous these were
doubtless the proper names for her: she was at all

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v?