majesty--she could scarcely call it less--of the event, or at all
events by the commanding character of the two figures--she could
scarcely call _that_ less either--mainly presented. Mrs. Lowder and her
niece, however dissimilar, had at least in common that each was a great
reality. That was true, primarily, of the aunt--so true that Milly
wondered how her own companion had arrived, in other days, at so odd an
alliance; yet she none the less felt Mrs. Lowder as a person of whom
the mind might in two or three days roughly make the circuit. She would
sit there massive, at least, while one attempted it; whereas Miss Croy,
the handsome girl, would indulge in incalculable movements that might
interfere with one's tour. She was real, none the less, and everything
and everybody were real; and it served them right, no doubt, the pair
of them, for having rushed into their adventure.

Lord Mark's intelligence meanwhile, however, had met her own quite
sufficiently to enable him to tell her how little he could clear up her
situation. He explained, for that matter--or at least he hinted--that
there was no such thing, to-day in London, as saying where any one was.
Every one was everywhere--nobody was anywhere. He should be put to
it--yes, frankly--to give a name of any sort or kind to their hostess's
"set." _Was_ it a set at all, or wasn't it, and were there not really
no such things as sets, in the place, any more?--was there any thing
but the senseless shifting tumble, like that of some great greasy sea
in mid-Channel, of an overwhelming melted mixture? He threw out the
question, which seemed large; Milly felt that at the end of five
minutes he had thrown out a great many, though he followed none more
than a step or two; perhaps he would prove suggestive, but he helped
her as yet to no discriminations: he spoke as if he had given them up
from too much knowledge. He was thus at the opposite extreme from
herself, but, as a consequence of it, also wandering and lost; and he
was furthermore, for all his temporary incoherence, to which she
guessed there would be some key, as great a reality as either Mrs.
Lowder or Kate. The only light in which he placed the former of these
ladies was that of an extraordinary woman--a most extraordinary woman,
and "the more extraordinary the more one knows her," while of the
latter he said nothing, for the moment, but that she was tremendously,
yes, quite tremendously, good-looking. It was some time, she