that the greatest of all these
adventures was her doing just what she did then.

It was at this point that she saw the smash of her great question as
complete, saw that all she had to do with was the sense of being there
with him. And there was no chill for this in what she also presently
saw--that, however he had begun, he was now acting from a particular
desire, determined either by new facts or new fancies, to be like
everyone else, simplifyingly "kind" to her. He had caught on already as
to manner--fallen into line with everyone else; and if his spirits
verily _had_ gone up it might well be that he had thus felt himself
lighting on the remedy for all awkwardness. Whatever he did or he
didn't, Milly knew she should still like him--there was no alternative
to that; but her heart could none the less sink a little on feeling how
much his view of her was destined to have in common with--as she now
sighed over it--_the_ view. She could have dreamed of his not having
_the_ view, of his having something or other, if need be quite
viewless, of his own; but he might have what he could with least
trouble, and _the_ view wouldn't be, after all, a positive bar to her
seeing him. The defect of it in general--if she might so ungraciously
criticise--was that, by its sweet universality, it made relations
rather prosaically a matter of course. It anticipated and superseded
the--likewise sweet--operation of real affinities. It was this that was
doubtless marked in her power to keep him now--this and her glassy
lustre of attention to his pleasantness about the scenery in the
Rockies. She was in truth a little measuring her success in detaining
him by Kate's success in "standing" Susan. It would not be, if she
could help it, Mr. Densher who should first break down. Such at least
was one of the forms of the girl's inward tension; but beneath even
this deep reason was a motive still finer. What she had left at home on
going out to give it a chance was meanwhile still, was more sharply and
actively, there. What had been at the top of her mind about it and then
been violently pushed down--this quantity was again working up. As soon
as their friends should go Susie would break out, and what she would
break out upon wouldn't be--interested in that gentleman as she had
more than once shown herself--the personal fact of Mr. Densher. Milly
had found in her face at luncheon a feverish glitter, and it told what
she was full of. She didn't care now