he
questions it set in motion for the perceptive mind were exactly those
that, as he said, most made them feel themselves. Vanderbank's plea for
his morning had been a pile of letters to work off, and Mitchy--then
coming down, as he announced from the first, ready for anything--had
gone to church with Mr. Longdon and Nanda in the finest spirit of
curiosity. He now--after the girl's remark--turned away from his view
of the rain, which he found different somehow from other rain, as
everything else was different, and replied that he knew well enough what
she could make Mr. Longdon do, but only wondered at Mr. Longdon's secret
for acting on their friend. He was there before her with his hands in
his pockets and appreciation winking from every yellow spot in his red
necktie. "Afternoon service of a wet Sunday in a small country town is a
large order. Does Van do everything the governor wants?"

"He may perhaps have had a suspicion of what I want," Nanda explained.
"If I want particularly to talk to you--!"

"He has got out of the way to give me a chance? Well then he's as
usual simply magnificent. How can I express the bliss of finding myself
enclosed with you in this sweet old security, this really unimagined
sanctity? Nothing's more charming than suddenly to come across something
sharp and fresh after we've thought there was nothing more that could
draw from us a groan. We've supposed we've had it all, have squeezed the
last impression out of the last disappointment, penetrated to the last
familiarity in the last surprise; then some fine day we find that we
haven't done justice to life. There are little things that pop up and
make us feel again. What MAY happen is after all incalculable. There's
just a little chuck of the dice, and for three minutes we win. These,
my dear young lady, are my three minutes. You wouldn't believe the
amusement I get from them, and how can I possibly tell you? There's a
faint divine old fragrance here in the room--or doesn't it perhaps reach
you? I shan't have lived without it, but I see now I had been afraid
I should. You, on your side, won't have lived without some touch of
greatness. This moment's great and you've produced it. You were great
when you felt all you COULD produce. Therefore," Mitchy went on, pausing
once more, as he walked, before a picture, "I won't pull the whole thing
down by the vulgarity of wishing I too only had a first-rate Cotman."

"Have you given up some VERY big th