Milly tried to be amused, so as not it was too
absurd to be fairly frightened. Strange enough
indeed if not natural enough that, late at night
thus, in a mere mercenary house, with Susie away,
a want of confidence should possess her. She re
called, with all the rest of it, the next day, piecing
things together in the dawn, that she had felt herself
alone with a creature who paced like a panther.
That was a violent image, but it made her a little less
ashamed of having been scared. For all her scare,
none the less, she had now the sense to find words.
"And yet without Susie I shouldn't have had you."

It had been at this point, however, that Kate
flickered highest. " Oh, you may very well loathe
me yet!"

Really at last, thus, it had been too much; as, with
her own least feeble flare, after a wondering watch,
Milly had shown. She hadn't cared; she had too
much wanted to know; and, though a small solem
nity of reproach, a sombre strain, had broken into
her tone, it was to figure as her nearest approach to
serving Mrs. Lowder. " Why do you say such
things to me?"

This unexpectedly had acted, by a sudden turn of
Kate's attitude, as a happy speech. She had risen
as she spoke, and Kate had stopped before her, shin
ing at her instantly with a softer brightness. Poor
Milly hereby enjoyed one of her views of how peo
ple, wincing oddly, were often touched by her.
"Because you re a dove." With which she felt her-

[[308]]

p307 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p308w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p309

v?