gain as if she had been able by a wave or two of her wings to place
herself briefly in sight of an alternative to it. Whatever it was it
had showed in this brief interval as better than the alternative; and
it now presented itself altogether in the image and in the place in
which she had left it. The image was that of her being, as Lord Mark
had declared, a success. This depended more or less of course on his
idea of the thing--into which at present, however, she wouldn't go.
But, renewing soon, she had asked him what he meant then that Mrs.
Lowder would do with her, and he had replied that this might safely be
left. "She'll get back," he pleasantly said, "her money." He could say
it too--which was singular--without affecting her either as vulgar or
as "nasty "; and he had soon explained himself by adding: "Nobody here,
you know, does anything for nothing."

"Ah, if you mean that we shall reward her as hard as ever we can,
nothing is more certain. But she's an idealist," Milly continued, "and
idealists, in the long run, I think, _don't_ feel that they lose."

Lord Mark seemed, within the limits of his enthusiasm, to find this
charming. "Ah, she strikes you as an idealist?"

"She idealises _us,_ my friend and me, absolutely. She sees us in a
light," said Milly. "That's all I've got to hold on by. So don't
deprive me of it."

"I wouldn't for the world. But do you think," he continued as if it
were suddenly important for him--"do you think she sees _me_ in a
light?"

She neglected his question for a little, partly because her attention
attached itself more and more to the handsome girl, partly because,
placed so near their hostess, she wished not to show as discussing her
too freely. Mrs. Lowder, it was true, steering in the other quarter a
course in which she called at subjects as if they were islets in an
archipelago, continued to allow them their ease, and Kate Croy, at the
same time, steadily revealed herself as interesting. Milly in fact
found, of a sudden, her ease--found it all--as she bethought herself
that what Mrs. Lowder was really arranging for was a report on her
quality and, as perhaps might be said, her value from Lord Mark. She
wished him, the wonderful lady, to have no pretext for not knowing what
he thought of Miss Theale. Why his judgment so mattered remained to be
seen; but it was this divination, in any case, that now determined
Milly's rejoinder. "No. She knows you. She has probably reason to. An