u
would have quite fallen away again on the question of the ideas
themselves. The difficulty with Densher was that he looked vague
without looking weak--idle without looking empty. It was the accident,
possibly, of his long legs, which were apt to stretch themselves; of
his straight hair and his well-shaped head, never, the latter, neatly
smooth, and apt, into the bargain, at the time of quite other calls
upon it, to throw itself suddenly back and, supported behind by his
uplifted arms and interlocked hands, place him for unconscionable
periods in communion with the ceiling, the tree-tops, the sky. He was
in short visibly absent-minded, irregularly clever, liable to drop what
was near and to take up what was far; he was more a respecter, in
general, than a follower of custom. He suggested above all, however,
that wondrous state of youth in which the elements, the metals more or
less precious, are so in fusion and fermentation that the question of
the final stamp, the pressure that fixes the value, must wait for
comparative coolness. And it was a mark of his interesting mixture that
if he was irritable it was by a law of considerable subtlety--a law
that, in intercourse with him, it might be of profit, though not easy,
to master. One of the effects of it was that he had for you surprises
of tolerance as well as of temper.

He loitered, on the best of the relenting days, the several occasions
we speak of, along the part of the Gardens nearest to Lancaster Gate,
and when, always, in due time, Kate Croy came out of her aunt's house,
crossed the road and arrived by the nearest entrance, there was a
general publicity in the proceeding which made it slightly anomalous.
If their meeting was to be bold and free it might have taken place
within doors; if it was to be shy or secret it might have taken place
almost anywhere better than under Mrs. Lowder's windows. They failed
indeed to remain attached to that spot; they wandered and strolled,
taking in the course of more than one of these interviews a
considerable walk, or else picked out a couple of chairs under one of
the great trees and sat as much apart--apart from every one else--as
possible. But Kate had, each time, at first, the air of wishing to
expose herself to pursuit and capture if those things were in question.
She made the point that she was not underhand, any more than she was
vulgar; that the Gardens were charming in themselves and this use of
them a matter of tast