e spoke this indeed without extravagance, yet with the effect of
making her guest measure anew the force of her appeal. It was their
definite understanding: whatever Fanny knew Fanny's faith would provide
for. And she knew, accordingly, at the end of five minutes, what the
extraordinary, in the late occurrence, had consisted of, and how it had
all come of Maggie's achieved hour, under Mr. Crichton's protection, at
the Museum. He had desired, Mr. Crichton, with characteristic kindness,
after the wonderful show, after offered luncheon at his incorporated
lodge hard by, to see her safely home; especially on his noting, in
attending her to the great steps, that she had dismissed her carriage;
which she had done, really, just for the harmless amusement of taking
her way alone. She had known she should find herself, as the consequence
of such an hour, in a sort of exalted state, under the influence of
which a walk through the London streets would be exactly what would suit
her best; an independent ramble, impressed, excited, contented, with
nothing to mind and nobody to talk to, and shop-windows in plenty
to look at if she liked: a low taste, of the essence, it was to be
supposed, of her nature, that she had of late, for so many reasons, been
unable to gratify. She had taken her leave, with her thanks--she knew
her way quite enough; it being also sufficiently the case that she had
even a shy hope of not going too straight. To wander a little wild was
what would truly amuse her; so that, keeping clear of Oxford Street and
cultivating an impression as of parts she didn't know, she had ended
with what she had more or less had been fancying, an encounter with
three or four shops--an old bookseller's, an old printmonger's, a couple
of places with dim antiquities in the window--that were not as so many
of the other shops, those in Sloane Street, say; a hollow parade which
had long since ceased to beguile. There had remained with her moreover
an allusion of Charlotte's, of some months before--seed dropped into
her imagination in the form of a casual speech about there being in
Bloomsbury such "funny little fascinating" places and even sometimes
such unexpected finds. There could perhaps have been no stronger mark
than this sense of well-nigh romantic opportunity--no livelier sign of
the impression made on her, and always so long retained, so watchfully
nursed, by any observation of Charlotte's, however lightly thrown off.
And then she