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yesterday. He was there before I came away.ā€ And then she explainedā ā€”confessing it in fact anomalous. ā€œItā€™s an accidentā ā€”like Aunt Maudā€™s having herself remained in town for Christmas, but it isnā€™t after all so monstrous. We stayedā ā€”and, with my having come here, sheā€™s sorry nowā ā€”because we neither of us, waiting from day to day for the news you brought, seemed to want to be with a lot of people.ā€

ā€œYou stayed for thinking ofā ā€”Venice?ā€

ā€œOf course we did. For what else? And even a little,ā€ Kate wonderfully addedā ā€”ā€œitā€™s true at least of Aunt Maudā ā€”for thinking of you.ā€

He appreciated. ā€œI see. Nice of you every way. But whom,ā€ he enquired, ā€œhas Lord Mark stayed for thinking of?ā€

ā€œHis being in London, I believe, is a very commonplace matter. He has some rooms which he has had suddenly some rather advantageous chance to letā ā€”such as, with his confessed, his decidedly proclaimed want of money, he hasnā€™t had it in him, in spite of everything, not to jump at.ā€

Densherā€™s attention was entire. ā€œIn spite of everything? In spite of what?ā€

ā€œWell, I donā€™t know. In spite, say, of his being scarcely supposed to do that sort of thing.ā€

ā€œTo try to get money?ā€

ā€œTo try at any rate in little thrifty ways. Apparently however he has had for some reason to do what he can. He turned at a couple of daysā€™ notice out of his place, making it over to his tenant; and Aunt Maud, whoā€™s deeply in his confidence about all such matters, said: ā€˜Come then to Lancaster Gateā ā€”to sleep at leastā ā€”till, like all the world, you go to the country.ā€™ He was to have gone to the countryā ā€”I think to Matchamā ā€”yesterday afternoon: Aunt Maud, that is, told me he was.ā€

Kate had been somehow, for her companion, through this statement, beautifully, quite soothingly, suggestive. ā€œTold you, you mean, so that you neednā€™t leave the house?ā€

ā€œYesā ā€”so far as she had taken it into her head that his being there was part of my reason.ā€

ā€œAnd was it part of your reason?ā€

ā€œA little if you like. Yet thereā€™s plenty hereā ā€”as I knew there would beā ā€”without it. So that,ā€ she said candidly, ā€œdoesnā€™t matter. Iā€™m glad I am here: even if for all the good I doā ā€”!ā€ She implied however that that didnā€™t matter either. ā€œHe didnā€™t, as you tell me, get off then to Matcham; though he may possibly, if it is possible, be going this afternoon. But what strikes me as most probableā ā€”and itā€™s really, Iā€™m bound to say, quite amiable of himā ā€”is that he has declined to leave Aunt Maud, as Iā€™ve been so ready to do, to spend her Christmas alone. If moreover he has given up Matcham for her itā€™s a procĆ©dĆ© that wonā€™t please her less. Itā€™s small wonder therefore that she insists, on a dull day, in driving him about. I donā€™t pretend to know,ā€ she wound up, ā€œwhat may happen between them; but thatā€™s all I see in it.ā€

ā€œYou see in everything, and you always did,ā€ Densher returned, ā€œsomething that, while Iā€™m with you at least, I always take from you as the truth itself.ā€

She looked at him as if consciously and even carefully extracting the sting of his reservation; then she spoke with a quiet gravity that seemed to show how fine she found it. ā€œThank you.ā€ It had for him, like everything else, its effect. They were still closely face to face, and, yielding to the impulse to which he hadnā€™t yielded just before, he laid his hands on her shoulders, held her hard a minute and shook her a little, far from untenderly, as if in expression of more mingled things, all difficult, than he could speak. Then bending his head he applied his lips to her cheek. He fell, after this, away for an instant, resuming his unrest, while she kept the position in which, all passive and as a statue, she had taken his demonstration. It didnā€™t prevent her, however, from offering him, as if what she had had was enough for the moment, a further indulgence. She made a quiet lucid connection and as she made it sat down again. ā€œIā€™ve been trying to place exactly, as to its date, something that did happen to me while you were in Venice. I mean a talk with him. He spoke to meā ā€”spoke out.ā€

ā€œAh there you are!ā€ said Densher who had wheeled round.

ā€œWell, if Iā€™m ā€˜there,ā€™ as you so gracefully call it, by having refused to meet him as he wantedā ā€”as he pressedā ā€”I plead guilty to being so. Would you have liked me,ā€ she went on, ā€œto give him an answer that would have kept him from going?ā€

It made him a little awkwardly think. ā€œDid you know he was going?ā€

ā€œNever for a moment; but Iā€™m afraid thatā ā€”even if it doesnā€™t fit your strange suppositionsā ā€”I should have given him just the same answer if I had known. If itā€™s a matter I havenā€™t, since your return, thrust upon you, thatā€™s simply because itā€™s not a matter in the memory of which I find a particular joy. I hope that if Iā€™ve satisfied you about it,ā€ she continued, ā€œitā€™s not too much to ask of you to let it rest.ā€

ā€œCertainly,ā€ said Densher kindly, ā€œIā€™ll let it rest.ā€ But the next moment he pursued: ā€œHe saw something. He guessed.ā€

ā€œIf you mean,ā€ she presently returned, ā€œthat he was unfortunately the one person we hadnā€™t deceived, I canā€™t contradict you.ā€

ā€œNoā ā€”of course not. But why,ā€ Densher still risked, ā€œwas he unfortunately the one personā ā€”? Heā€™s not really a bit intelligent.ā€

ā€œIntelligent enough apparently to have seen a mystery, a riddle, in anything so unnatural asā ā€”all things considered and when it came to the pointā ā€”my attitude. So he gouged out his conviction, and on his conviction he acted.ā€

Densher seemed for a little to look at Lord Markā€™s conviction as if it were a blot on the face of nature. ā€œDo you mean because you had appeared to him to have encouraged him?ā€

ā€œOf course I had been decent to him. Otherwise where were we?ā€

ā€œā€Šā€˜Whereā€™ā ā€”?ā€

ā€œYou and I.

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