ive young woman
could do nothing more, at the most, than go, and his actual experiment
went and went and went. Nothing probably so conduced to make it go as
the marked circumstance that they had spoken all the while not a word
about Kate; and this in spite of the fact that, if it were a question
for them of what had occurred in the past weeks, nothing had occurred
comparable to Kate's predominance. Densher had but the night before
appealed to her for instruction as to what he must do about her, but he
fairly winced to find how little this came to. She had foretold him of
course how little; but it was a truth that looked different when shown
him by Milly. It proved to him that the latter had in fact been dealt
with, but it produced in him the thought that Kate might perhaps again
conveniently be questioned. He would have liked to speak to her before
going further--to make sure she really meant him to succeed quite so
much. With all the difference that, as we say, came up for him, it came
up afresh, naturally, that he might make his visit brief and never
renew it; yet the strangest thing of all was that the argument against
that issue would have sprung precisely from the beautiful little
eloquence involved in Milly's avoidances.

Precipitate these well might be, since they emphasised the fact that
she was proceeding in the sense of the assurances she had taken. Over
the latter she had visibly not hesitated, for hadn't they had the merit
of giving her a chance? Densher quite saw her, felt her take it; the
chance, neither more nor less, of help rendered him according to her
freedom. It was what Kate had left her with: "Listen to him, _I?_
Never! So do as you like." What Milly "liked" was to do, it thus
appeared, as she was doing: our young man's glimpse of which was just
what would have been for him not less a glimpse of the peculiar
brutality of shaking her off. The choice exhaled its shy fragrance of
heroism, for it was not aided by any question of parting with Kate. She
would be charming to Kate as well as to Kate's adorer; she would incur
whatever pain could dwell for her in the sight--should she continue to
be exposed to the sight--of the adorer thrown with the adored. It
wouldn't really have taken much more to make him wonder if he hadn't
before him one of those rare cases of exaltation--food for fiction,
food for poetry--in which a man's fortune with the woman who doesn't
care for him is positively promoted by the wo