ink about. But on the case thus
postulated our young American had as yet had no light: she only felt
that when the light should come it would greatly deepen the colour; and
she liked to think she was prepared for anything. What she already
knew, moreover, was full to her vision, of English, of eccentric, of
Thackerayan character, Kate Croy having gradually become not a little
explicit on the subject of her situation, her past, her present, her
general predicament, her small success, up to the present hour, in
contenting at the same time her father, her sister, her aunt and
herself. It was Milly's subtle guess, imparted to her Susie, that the
girl had somebody else as well, as yet unnamed, to content, it being
manifest that such a creature couldn't help having; a creature not
perhaps, if one would, exactly formed to inspire passions, since that
always implied a certain silliness, but essentially seen, by the
admiring eye of friendship, under the clear shadow of some probably
eminent male interest. The clear shadow, from whatever source
projected, hung, at any rate, over Milly's companion the whole week,
and Kate Croy's handsome face smiled out of it, under bland skylights,
in the presence alike of old masters passive in their glory and of
thoroughly new ones, the newest, who bristled restlessly with pins and
brandished snipping shears.

It was meanwhile a pretty part of the intercourse of these young ladies
that each thought the other more remarkable than herself--that each
thought herself, or assured the other she did, a comparatively dusty
object and the other a favourite of nature and of fortune. Kate was
amused, amazed at the way her friend insisted on "taking" her, and
Milly wondered if Kate were sincere in finding her the most
extraordinary--quite apart from her being the most charming--person she
had come across. They had talked, in long drives, and quantities of
history had not been wanting--in the light of which Mrs. Lowder's niece
might superficially seem to have had the best of the argument. Her
visitor's American references, with their bewildering immensities,
their confounding moneyed New York, their excitements of high pressure,
their opportunities of wild freedom, their record of used-up relatives,
parents, clever, eager, fair, slim brothers--these the most loved--all
engaged, as well as successive superseded guardians, in a high
extravagance of speculation and dissipation that had left this
exquisite bei