such news as a flash merely lurid; as to which, to
do Susie justice, the pain of it was all there. But,
none the less, the margin always allowed her young
friend was all there as well; and the proposal now
made her what was it in short but Byzantine?
The vision of Milly's perception of the propriety of
the matter had, at any rate, quickly engulfed, so far
as her attitude was concerned, any surprise and any
shock; so that she only desired, the next thing, per
fectly to possess the facts. Milly could easily speak,
on this, as if there were only one: she made noth
ing of such another as that she had felt herself men
aced. The great fact, in fine, was that she knew
him to desire just now, more than anything else, to
meet, quite apart, some one interested in her. Who
therefore so interested as her faithful Susan? The
only other circumstance that, by the time she had
quitted her friend, she had treated as worth men
tioning was the circumstance of her having at first
intended to keep quiet. She had originally best seen
herself as sweetly secretive. As to that she had
changed, and her present request was the result.
She didn't say why she had changed, but she trusted
her faithful Susan. Their visitor would trust her
not less, and she herself would adore their visitor.
Moreover he wouldn't the girl felt sure tell her
anything dreadful. The worst would be that he
was in love and that he needed a confidant to work
it. And now she was going to the National Gallery.

[[312]]

p311 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p312w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p313

v?