Her consciousness was fixed
on young Mr Murchison, quite occupied with him: she could
not imagine why they had not asked him long ago; he wasn't
exactly "swell," but you could see he was somebody. So
already she figured the potential distinction in the set
of his shoulders and the carriage of his head. It might
have been translated in simple terms of integrity and
force by anyone who looked for those things. Miss Milburn
was incapable of such detail, but she saw truly enough
in the mass.
Lorne, on the opposite sofa, looked at her across the
town's traditions of Milburn exclusiveness. Oddly enough,
at this moment when he might have considered that he had
overcome them, they seemed to gather force, exactly in
his line of vision. He had never before been so near Dora
Milburn, and he had never before perceived her so remote.
He had a sense of her distance beyond those few yards of
carpet quite incompatible with the fact. It weighed upon
him, but until she sent him a sudden unexpected smile he
did not know how heavily. It was a dissipating smile;
nothing remained before it. Lorne carefully restored his
partner's fan, bowed before her, and went straight across
the room.
Chapter VII
It is determined with something like humour that communities
very young should occupy themselves almost altogether
with matters of grave and serious import.
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