re what now
offered itself to Mrs. Stringham, who rustled in a little breathless
and full of the compunction of having had to come alone. Her companion,
at the last moment, had been indisposed--positively not well enough,
and so had packed her off, insistently, with excuses, with wild
regrets. This circumstance of their charming friend's illness was the
first thing Kate took up with Densher on their being able after dinner,
without bravado, to have ten minutes "naturally," as she called
it--which wasn't what _he_ did--together; but it was already as if the
young man had, by an odd impression, throughout the meal, not been
wholly deprived of Miss Theale's participation. Mrs. Lowder had made
dear Milly the topic, and it proved, on the spot, a topic as familiar
to the enthusiastic younger as to the sagacious older man. Any
knowledge they might lack Mrs. Lowder's niece was moreover alert to
supply, while Densher himself was freely appealed to as the most
privileged, after all, of the group. Wasn't it he who had in a manner
invented the wonderful creature--through having seen her first, caught
her in her native jungle? Hadn't he more or less paved the way for her
by his prompt recognition of her rarity, by preceding her, in a
friendly spirit--as he had the "ear" of society--with a sharp
flashlight or two?

He met, poor Densher, these enquiries as he could, listening with
interest, yet with discomfort; wincing in particular, dry journalist as
he was, to find it seemingly supposed of him that he had put his
pen--oh his "pen!"--at the service of private distinction. The ear of
society?--they were talking, or almost, as if he had publicly
paragraphed a modest young lady. They dreamt dreams, in truth, he
appeared to perceive, that fairly waked _him_ up, and he settled
himself in his place both to resist his embarrassment and to catch the
full revelation. His embarrassment came naturally from the fact that if
he could claim no credit for Miss Theale's success, so neither could he
gracefully insist on his not having been concerned with her. What
touched him most nearly was that the occasion took on somehow the air
of a commemorative banquet, a feast to celebrate a brilliant if brief
career. There was of course more said about the heroine than if she
hadn't been absent, and he found himself rather stupefied at the range
of Milly's triumph. Mrs. Lowder had wonders to tell of it; the two
wearers of the waistcoat, either with sincerit