ou're doing it you may take from me perfectly
that I see it coming." With which, by a quick transition, as if she had
settled the case, she asked him the hour.

"Oh only twelve-ten"--he had looked at his watch. "We've taken but
thirteen minutes; we've time yet."

"Then we must walk. We must go toward them."

Densher, from where they had been standing, measured the long reach of
the Square. "They're still in their shop. They're safe for half an
hour."

"That shows then, that shows!" said Kate.

This colloquy had taken place in the middle of Piazza San Marco,
always, as a great social saloon, a smooth-floored, blue-roofed chamber
of amenity, favourable to talk; or rather, to be exact, not in the
middle, but at the point where our pair had paused by a common impulse
after leaving the great mosque-like church. It rose now, domed and
pinnacled, but a little way behind them, and they had in front the vast
empty space, enclosed by its arcades, to which at that hour movement
and traffic were mostly confined. Venice was at breakfast, the Venice
of the visitor and the possible acquaintance, and, except for the
parties of importunate pigeons picking up the crumbs of perpetual
feasts, their prospect was clear and they could see their companions
hadn't yet been, and weren't for a while longer likely to be, disgorged
by the lace-shop, in one of the _loggie_, where, shortly before, they
had left them for a look-in--the expression was artfully Densher's--at
Saint Mark's. Their morning had happened to take such a turn as brought
this chance to the surface; yet his allusion, just made to Kate, hadn't
been an overstatement of their general opportunity. The worst that
could be said of their general opportunity was that it was essentially
in presence--in presence of every one; every one consisting at this
juncture, in a peopled world, of Susan Shepherd, Aunt Maud and Milly.
But the proof how, even in presence, the opportunity could become
special was furnished precisely by this view of the compatibility of
their comfort with a certain amount of lingering. The others had
assented to their not waiting in the shop; it was of course the least
the others could do. What had really helped them this morning was the
fact that, on his turning up, as he always called it, at the palace,
Milly had not, as before, been able to present herself. Custom and use
had hitherto seemed fairly established; on his coming round, day after
day--eight days had