She wasn't anywhere. Milly mustn't think it one
couldn t, as a good friend, let her. Those hours at
Matcham were inesperees, were pure manna from
heaven; or if not wholly that perhaps, with hum
bugging old Lord Mark as a backer, were vain as a
ground for hopes and calculations. Lord Mark was
very well, but he wasn't the cleverest creature in
England, and even if he had been he still wouldn't
have been the most obliging. He weighed it out in
ounces, and indeed each of the pair was really wait
ing for what the other would put down.

"She has put down you said Milly, attached to
the subject still; " and I think what you mean
is that, on the counter, she still keeps hold of
you."

"Lest "Kate took it up " he should suddenly
grab me and run? Oh, as he isn't ready to run, he's
much less ready, naturally, to grab. I am you re
so far right as that on the counter, when I'm not
in the shop-window; in and out of which I'm thus
conveniently, commercially whisked: the essence, all
of it, of my position, and the price, as properly, of
my aunt's protection." Lord Mark was substan
tially what she had begun with as soon as they were
alone; the impression was even yet with Milly of
her having sounded his name, having imposed it, as
a topic, in direct opposition to the other name that
Mrs. Lowder had left in the air and that all her own
look, as we have seen, kept there at first for her com
panion. The immediate strange effect had been that

[[304]]

p303 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p304w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p305

v?