Page:The Wings of the Dove (New York, Charles Scribners Sons, 1902), Volume 2.djvu/323

 —a different attempt from the other. He had at any rate something to tell her, and he didn't know his opportunity would reduce itself to half-an-hour. Or perhaps indeed half-an-hour would be just what was most effective. It has been!" said Susan Shepherd.

Her companion took it in, understanding but too well; yet as she lighted the matter for him more, really, than his own courage had quite dared—putting the absent dots on several i's—he saw new questions swarm. They had been till now in a bunch, entangled and confused; and they fell apart, each showing for itself. The first he put to her was at any rate abrupt. "Have you heard of late from Mrs. Lowder?"

"Oh yes, two or three times. She depends, naturally, upon news of Milly."

He hesitated. "And does she depend, naturally, upon news of me?"

His friend matched for an instant his deliberation. "I've given her none that hasn't been decently good. This will have been the first."

"'This?'" Densher was thinking.

"Lord Mark's having been here, and her being as she is."

He thought a moment longer. "What has she written about him? Has she written that he has been with them?"

"She has mentioned him but once—it was in her letter before the last. Then she said something." 313