a gentleman who had removed his hat and was for a
moment, while he glanced, absently, as she could see,
at the top tier of the collection, tapping his forehead
with his pocket-handkerchief. The occupation held
him long enough to give Milly time to take for
granted and a few seconds sufficed that his face
was the object just observed by her friends. This
could only have been because she concurred in their
tribute, even qualified, and indeed " the English
style " of the gentleman perhaps by instant con
trast to the American was what had had the arrest
ing power. This arresting power, at the same time
and that was the marvel had already sharpened
almost to pain, for in the very act of judging the
bared head with detachment she felt herself shaken
by a knowledge of it. It was Merton Densher's
own, and he was standing there, standing long
enough unconscious for her to fix him and then hes
itate. These successions were swift, so that she
could still ask herself in freedom if she had best let
him see her. She could still reply to that that she
shouldn't like him to catch her in the effort to pre
vent this; and she might further have decided that
he was too preoccupied to see anything had not a
perception intervened that surpassed the first in vio
lence. She was unable to think afterwards how long
she had looked at him before knowing herself as
otherwise looked at; all she was coherently to put to
gether was that she had had a second recognition
without his having noticed her. The source of this

[[319]]

p318 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p319w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p320

v?