as Kate wanted. What, somehow, in the most
extraordinary way in the world, had Kate wanted
but to be, of a sudden, more interesting than she had
ever been? Milly, for their evening then, quite held
her breath with the appreciation of it. If she hadn't
been sure her companion would have had nothing,
from her moments with Mrs. Lowder, to go by, she
would almost have seen the admirable creature " cut
ting in " to anticipate a danger. This fantasy in
deed, while they sat together, dropped after a little;
even if only because other fantasies multiplied and
clustered, making fairly, for our young woman, the
buoyant medium in which her friend talked and
moved. They sat together, I say, but Kate moved
as much as she talked; she figured there, restless and
charming, just perhaps a shade perfunctory, repeat
edly quitting her place, taking slowly, to and fro, in
the trailing folds of her light dress, the length of the
room, and almost avowedly performing for the
pleasure of her hostess.

Mrs. Lowder had said to Milly at Matcham that
she and her niece, as allies, could practically conquer
the world; but though it was a speech about which
there had even then been a vague, grand glamour,
the girl read into it at present more of an approach
to a meaning. Kate, for that matter, by herself,
could conquer anything, and she, Milly Theale, was
probably concerned with the " world " only as the
small scrap of it that most impinged on her and that
was therefore first to be dealt with. On this basis

[[300]]

p299 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p300w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p301

v?