Page:The Wings of the Dove (New York, Charles Scribners Sons, 1902), Volume 2.djvu/287

 That would not have been being "nice"; which, in its own form, was the real law. That too might just have produced the vibration he desired to avert; so that he best kept everything in place by not hesitating or fearing, as it were, to let himself go—go in the direction, that is to say, of staying. It depended on where he went; which was what he meant by taking care. When one went on tip-toe one could turn off for retreat without betraying the manœuvre. Perfect tact—the necessity for which he had from the first, as we know, happily recognised—was to keep all intercourse in the key of the absolutely settled. It was settled thus, for instance, that they were indissoluble good friends, and settled as well that her being the American girl was, just in time, and for the relation which they found themselves concerned, a boon inappreciable. If, at least, as the days went on, she was to fall short of her prerogative of the great national feminine and juvenile ease, if she didn't, diviningly, responsively, desire and labour to record herself as possessed of it, this would not have been for want of Densher's keeping her, with his idea, well up to it, for want, in fine, of his encouragement and reminder. He didn't perhaps in so many words speak to her of the quantity itself as of the thing she was least to intermit; but he talked of it, freely, in what he flattered himself was an impersonal way, and this held it there before her since he was careful also to talk pleasantly. It was at once their idea, when all was said, and the most marked of their 277