stion had been maintained and the
situation--well, Densher said for the convenience of exquisite London
gossip, sublime. The gossip--for it came to as much at Lancaster
Gate--wasn't the less exquisite for his use of the silver veil, nor on
the other hand was the veil, so touched, too much drawn aside. He
himself for that matter took in the scene again at moments as from the
page of a book. He saw a young man far off and in a relation
inconceivable, saw him hushed, passive, staying his breath, but half
understanding, yet dimly conscious of something immense and holding
himself painfully together not to lose it. The young man at these
moments so seen was too distant and too strange for the right identity;
and yet, outside, afterwards, it was his own face Densher had known. He
had known then at the same time what the young man had been conscious
of, and he was to measure after that, day by day, how little he had
lost. At present there with Mrs. Lowder he knew he had gathered
all--that passed between them mutely as in the intervals of their
associated gaze they exchanged looks of intelligence. This was as far
as association could go, but it was far enough when she knew the
essence. The essence was that something had happened to him too
beautiful and too sacred to describe. He had been, to his recovered
sense, forgiven, dedicated, blessed; but this he couldn't coherently
express. It would have required an explanation--fatal to Mrs. Lowder's
faith in him--of the nature of Milly's wrong. So, as to the wonderful
scene, they just stood at the door. They had the sense of the presence
within--they felt the charged stillness; after which, their association
deepened by it, they turned together away.

That itself indeed, for our restless friend, became by the end of a
week the very principle of reaction: so that he woke up one morning
with such a sense of having played a part as he needed self-respect to
gainsay. He hadn't in the least stated at Lancaster Gate that, as a
haunted man--a man haunted with a memory--he was harmless; but the
degree to which Mrs. Lowder accepted, admired and explained his new
aspect laid upon him practically the weight of a declaration. What he
hadn't in the least stated her own manner was perpetually stating; it
was as haunted and harmless that she was constantly putting him down.
There offered itself however to his purpose such an element as plain
honesty, and he had embraced, by the time he dressed, his