“Do you think so, Mrs. Landa?” asked the girl, gratefully.  “Well, Mr. Milray didn’t seem to think that I need to have a pleated skut.  Any rate, I’m going to look over my things, and see if I can’t make something else do.”

XVII.

The entertainment was to be the second night after that, and Mrs. Milray at first took the whole affair into her own hands.  She was willing to let the others consult with her, but she made all the decisions, and she became so prepotent that she drove Lord Lioncourt to rebellion in the case of some theatrical people whom he wanted in the programme.  He wished her to let them feel that they were favoring rather than favored, and she insisted that it should be quite the other way.  She professed a scruple against having theatrical people in the programme at all, which she might not have felt if her own past had been different, and she spoke with an abhorrence of the stage which he could by no means tolerate in the case.  She submitted with dignity when she could not help it.  Perhaps she submitted with too much dignity.  Her concession verged upon hauteur; and in her arrogant meekness she went back to another of her young men, whom she began to post again as the companion of her promenades.

He had rather an anxious air in the enjoyment of the honor, but the Englishman seemed unconscious of its loss, or else he chose to ignore it.  He frankly gave his leisure to Clementina, and she thought he was very pleasant.  There was something different in his way from that of any of the other men she had met; something very natural and simple, a way of being easy in what he was, and not caring whether he was like others or not; he was not ashamed of being ignorant of anything he did not know, and she was able to instruct him on some points.  He took her quite seriously when she told him about Middlemount, and how her family came to settle there, and then how she came to be going to Europe with Mrs. Lander.  He said Mrs. Milray had spoken about it; but he had not understood quite how it was before; and he hoped Mrs. Lander was coming to the entertainment.

He did not seem aware that Mrs. Milray was leaving the affair more and more to him.  He went forward with it and was as amiable with her as she would allow.  He was so amiable with everybody that he reconciled many true Americans to his leadership, who felt that as nearly all the passengers were Americans, the chief patron of the entertainment ought to have been some distinguished American.  The want of an American who was very distinguished did something to pacify them; but the behavior of an English lord who put on no airs was the main agency.  When the night came they filled the large music room of the ‘Asia Minor’, and stood about in front of the sofas and chairs so many deep that it was hard to see or hear through them.