This personage had forestalled him in opening the door for her and was evidently—with a view, Densher might have judged, to ulterior designs on Milly—proposing to attend her to her carriage.

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a matter as to which there was now nothing more to be done, thanks to the alertness of the young man he by this time had appraised as even more harmless than himself.

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It gathered perhaps a slightly sharper shade from the mild formality of her "Good-night, sir!" as she passed him;

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This impression was naturally light, but it just left him with the sense of something by his own act overlooked, unappreciated.

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something into which he afterwards read the meaning that if he had happened to desire a few words with her after dinner he would have found her ready.

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Still another was that Mrs. Stringham, in the random intensity of her farewells, affected him as looking at him with a small grave intimation,

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—a challenge resulting after a minute for Densher in a consciousness of their installation together in an out-of-the-way corner, though not the same he himself had just occupied with her.

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Another was that she next addressed herself in all frankness to Lord Mark, drew near to him with an almost reproachful "Come and talk to *me*!"

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One of these was that Kate found time to say to him with furtive emphasis: "You must go now!"

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They were followed by Lord Mark and by the other men, but two or three things happened before any dispersal of the company began.

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He wasn't sure if Mrs. Lowder, who at this juncture reappeared, had caught his word as it dropped from him; probably not, he thought, her attention being given to Mrs. Stringham, with whom she came through and who was now, none too soon, taking leave of her.

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"You spoil me!"

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He was in a wondrous silken web, and it was amusing.

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But it wasn't the queerness that after another minute was uppermost.

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He faced it all, and certainly it was queer.

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You won't be able to say I haven't made it smooth for you."

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There you are.

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"I'll bring her back.

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It pulled Kate up but a moment.

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But if she's going away?"

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