companions into the presence of Susie. Susie was
there with luncheon, with her return, in prospect;
and nothing could now have filled her own conscious
ness more to the brim than to see this good friend
take in how little she was abjectly anxious. The
cup itself actually offered to this good friend might
in truth well be startling, for it was composed beyond
question of ingredients oddly mixed. She caught
Susie fairly looking at her as if to know whether
she had brought in guests to hear Sir Luke Strett's
report. Well, it was better her companion should
have too much than too little to wonder about; she
had come out " anyway," as they said at home, for
the interest of the thing; and interest truly sat in
her eyes. Milly was none the less, at the sharpest
crisis, a little sorry for her; she could of necessity
extract from the odd scene so comparatively little of
a soothing secret. She saw Mr. Densher suddenly
popping up, but she saw nothing else that had hap
pened. She saw in the same way her young friend
indifferent to her young friend's doom, and she
lacked what would explain it. The only thing to
keep her in patience was the way, after luncheon,
Kate almost, as might be said, made up to her. This
was actually perhaps as well what most kept Milly
herself in patience. It had in fact for our young
woman a positive beauty was so marked as a devia
tion from the handsome girl's previous courses.
Susie had been a bore to the handsome girl, and the
change was now suggestive. The two sat together,

[[324]]

p323 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p324w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p325

v?