Mrs. Lowder wondered. "Are you sure?"
"Yes, the more I think of it. And luckily for _me_. I lie badly."
"_I_ lie well, thank G.o.d," Mrs. Lowder almost snorted, "when, as sometimes will happen, there"s nothing else so good. One must always do the best. But without lies then," she went on, "perhaps we can work it out." Her interest had risen; her friend saw her, as within some minutes, more enrolled and inflamed--presently felt in her what had made the difference. Mrs. Stringham, it was true, descried this at the time but dimly; she only made out at first that Maud had found a reason for helping her. The reason was that, strangely, she might help Maud too, for which she now desired to profess herself ready even to lying.
What really perhaps most came out for her was that her hostess was a little disappointed at her doubt of the social solidity of this appliance; and that in turn was to become a steadier light. The truth about Kate"s delusion, as her aunt presented it, the delusion about the state of her affections, which might be removed--this was apparently the ground on which they now might more intimately meet. Mrs. Stringham saw herself recruited for the removal of Kate"s delusion--by arts, however, in truth, that she as yet quite failed to compa.s.s. Or was it perhaps to be only for the removal of Mr. Densher"s?--success in which indeed might entail other successes. Before that job, unfortunately, her heart had already failed. She felt that she believed in her bones what Milly believed, and what would now make working for Milly such a dreadful upward tug. All this within her was confusedly present--a cloud of questions out of which Maud Manningham"s large seated self loomed, however, as a ma.s.s more and more definite, taking in fact for the consultative relation something of the form of an oracle. From the oracle the sound did come--or at any rate the sense did, a sense all accordant with the insufflation she had just seen working. "Yes," the sense was, "I"ll help you for Milly, because if that comes off I shall be helped, by its doing so, for Kate"--a view into which Mrs. Stringham could now sufficiently enter. She found herself of a sudden, strange to say, quite willing to operate to Kate"s harm, or at least to Kate"s good as Mrs. Lowder with a n.o.ble anxiety measured it. She found herself in short not caring what became of Kate--only convinced at bottom of the predominance of Kate"s star. Kate wasn"t in danger, Kate wasn"t pathetic; Kate Croy, whatever happened, would take care of Kate Croy.
She saw moreover by this time that her friend was travelling even beyond her own speed. Mrs. Lowder had already, in mind, drafted a rough plan of action, a plan vividly enough thrown off as she said: "You must stay on a few days, and you must immediately, both of you, meet him at dinner." In addition to which Maud claimed the merit of having by an instinct of pity, of prescient wisdom, done much, two nights before, to prepare that ground. "The poor child, when I was with her there while you were getting your shawl, quite gave herself away to me."
"Oh I remember how you afterwards put it to me. Though it was nothing more," Susie did herself the justice to observe, "than what I too had quite felt."
But Mrs. Lowder fronted her so on this that she wondered what she had said. "I suppose I ought to be edified at what you can so beautifully give up."
"Give up?" Mrs. Stringham echoed. "Why, I give up nothing--I cling."
Her hostess showed impatience, turning again with some stiffness to her great bra.s.s-bound cylinder-desk and giving a push to an object or two disposed there. "I give up then. You know how little such a person as Mr. Densher was to be my idea for her. You know what I"ve been thinking perfectly possible."
"Oh you"ve been great"--Susie was perfectly fair. "A duke, a d.u.c.h.ess, a princess, a palace: you"ve made me believe in them too. But where we break down is that _she_ doesn"t believe in them. Luckily for her--as it seems to be turning out--she doesn"t want them. So what"s one to do?
I a.s.sure you I"ve had many dreams. But I"ve only one dream now."
Mrs. Stringham"s tone in these last words gave so fully her meaning that Mrs. Lowder could but show herself as taking it in. They sat a moment longer confronted on it. "Her having what she does want?"
"If it _will_ do anything for her."
Mrs. Lowder seemed to think what it might do; but she spoke for the instant of something else. "It does provoke me a bit, you know--for of course I"m a brute. And I had thought of all sorts of things. Yet it doesn"t prevent the fact that we must be decent."
"We must take her"--Mrs. Stringham carried that out--"as she is."
"And we must take Mr. Densher as _he_ is." With which Mrs. Lowder gave a sombre laugh. "It"s a pity he isn"t better!"
"Well, if he were better," her friend rejoined, "you"d have liked him for your niece; and in that case Milly would interfere. I mean," Susie added, "interfere with _you_."
"She interferes with me as it is--not that it matters now. But I saw Kate and her--really as soon as you came to me--set up side by side. I saw your girl--I don"t mind telling--you helping my girl; and when I say that," Mrs. Lowder continued, "you"ll probably put in for yourself that it was part of the reason of my welcome to you. So you see what I give up. I do give it up. But when I take that line," she further set forth, "I take it handsomely. So good-bye to it all. Good-day to Mrs.
Densher! Heavens!" she growled.
Susie held herself a minute. "Even as Mrs. Densher my girl will be somebody."
"Yes, she won"t be n.o.body. Besides," said Mrs. Lowder, "we"re talking in the air."
Her companion sadly a.s.sented. "We"re leaving everything out."
"It"s nevertheless interesting." And Mrs. Lowder had another thought.
"_He"s_ not quite n.o.body either." It brought her back to the question she had already put and which her friend hadn"t at the time dealt with.
"What in fact do you make of him?"
Susan Shepherd, at this, for reasons not clear even to herself, was moved a little to caution. So she remained general. "He"s charming."
She had met Mrs. Lowder"s eyes with that extreme pointedness in her own to which people resort when they are not quite candid--a circ.u.mstance that had its effect. "Yes; he"s charming."
The effect of the words, however, was equally marked; they almost determined in Mrs. Stringham a return of amus.e.m.e.nt. "I thought you didn"t like him!"
"I don"t like him for Kate."
"But you don"t like him for Milly either."
Mrs. Stringham rose as she spoke, and her friend also got up. "I like him, my dear, for myself."
"Then that"s the best way of all."
"Well, it"s one way. He"s not good enough for my niece, and he"s not good enough for you. One"s an aunt, one"s a wretch and one"s a fool."
"Oh _I"m_ not--not either," Susie declared.
But her companion kept on. "One lives for others. _You_ do that. If I were living for myself I shouldn"t at all mind him."
But Mrs. Stringham was st.u.r.dier. "Ah if I find him charming it"s however I"m living."
Well, it broke Mrs. Lowder down. She hung fire but an instant, giving herself away with a laugh. "Of course he"s all right in himself."
"That"s all I contend," Susie said with more reserve; and the note in question--what Merton Densher was "in himself"--closed practically, with some inconsequence, this first of their councils.
II
It had at least made the difference for them, they could feel, of an informed state in respect to the great doctor, whom they were now to take as watching, waiting, studying, or at any rate as proposing to himself some such process before he should make up his mind. Mrs.
Stringham understood him as considering the matter meanwhile in a spirit that, on this same occasion, at Lancaster Gate, she had come back to a rough notation of before retiring. She followed the course of his reckoning. If what they had talked of _could_ happen--if Milly, that is, could have her thoughts taken off herself--it wouldn"t do any harm and might conceivably do much good. If it couldn"t happen--if, anxiously, though tactfully working, they themselves, conjoined, could do nothing to contribute to it--they would be in no worse a box than before. Only in this latter case the girl would have had her free range for the summer, for the autumn; she would have done her best in the sense enjoined on her, and, coming back at the end to her eminent man, would--besides having more to show him--find him more ready to go on with her. It was visible further to Susan Shepherd--as well as being ground for a second report to her old friend--that Milly did her part for a working view of the general case, inasmuch as she mentioned frankly and promptly that she meant to go and say good-bye to Sir Luke Strett and thank him. She even specified what she was to thank him for, his having been so easy about her behaviour.
"You see I didn"t know that--for the liberty I took--I shouldn"t afterwards get a stiff note from him."
So much Milly had said to her, and it had made her a trifle rash. "Oh you"ll never get a stiff note from him in your life."
She felt her rashness, the next moment, at her young friend"s question.
"Why not, as well as any one else who has played him a trick?"
"Well, because he doesn"t regard it as a trick. He could understand your action. It"s all right, you see."
"Yes--I do see. It _is_ all right. He"s easier with me than with any one else, because that"s the way to let me down. He"s only making believe, and I"m not worth hauling up."
Rueful at having provoked again this ominous flare, poor Susie grasped at her only advantage. "Do you really accuse a man like Sir Luke Strett of trifling with you?"
She couldn"t blind herself to the look her companion gave her--a strange half-amused perception of what she made of it. "Well, so far as it"s trifling with me to pity me so much."
"He doesn"t pity you," Susie earnestly reasoned. "He just--the same as any one else--likes you."
"He has no business then to like me. He"s not the same as any one else."
"Why not, if he wants to work for you?"
Milly gave her another look, but this time a wonderful smile. "Ah there you are!" Mrs. Stringham coloured, for there indeed she was again. But Milly let her off. "Work for me, all the same--work for me! It"s of course what I want." Then as usual she embraced her friend. "I"m not going to be as nasty as this to _him_."
"I"m sure I hope not!"--and Mrs. Stringham laughed for the kiss. "I"ve no doubt, however, he"d take it from you! It"s _you_, my dear, who are not the same as any one else."