Pitman — hasn't  it  been  nice  after  so  long  ?  "

459


Ill


JULIA  floated  even  to  her  own  sense  swanlike  away
— she  left  in  her  wake  their  fairly  stupefied  submis
sion  :  it  was  as  if  she  had,  by  an  exquisite  authority,
now  placed  them,  each  for  each,  and  they  would  have
nothing  to  do  but  be  happy  together. Never  had  she
so  exulted  as  on  this  ridiculous  occasion  in  the  noted
items  of  her  beauty. Le  compte  y  etait,  as  they  used
to  say  in  Paris — every  one  of  them,  for  her  immediate
employment,  was  there  ;  and  there  was  something  in
it  after  all. It  didn't  necessarily,  this  sum  of  thump
ing  little  figures,  imply  charm — especially  for  "  re
fined  "  people  :  nobody  knew  better  than  Julia  that
inexpressible  charm  and  quoteable  "  charms  "  (quote-
able  like  prices,  rates,  shares,  or  whatever,  the  things
they  dealt  in  downtown)  are  two  distinct  categories  ;
the  safest  thing  for  the  latter  being,  on  the  whole,  that
it  might  include  the  former,  and  the  great  strength  of
the  former  being  that  it  might  perfectly  dispense  with
the  latter. Mrs. Drack  wasn't  refined,  not  the  least
little  bit  ;  but  what  would  be  the  case  with  Murray
Brush  now — after  his  three  years  of  Europe  ?  He
had  done  so  what  he  liked  with  her — which  had
seemed  so  then  just  the  meaning,  hadn't  it  ?  of  their
being  "  engaged  "—that  he  had  made  her  not  see,
while  the  absurdity  lasted  (the  absurdity  of  their  pre
tending  to  believe  they  could  marry  without  a  cent)
how  little  he  was  of  metal  without  alloy  :  this  had  come
460


JULIA   BRIDE

up  for  her,  remarkably,  but  afterwards  —  come  up
for  her  as  she  looked  back. Then  she  had  drawn  her
conclusion,  which  was  one  of  the  many  that  Basil
French  had  made  her  draw. It  was  a  queer  service
Basil  was  going  to  have  rendered  her,  this  having
made  everything  she  had  ever  done  impossible,  if
he  wasn't  going  to  give  her  a  new  chance. If  he  was
it  was  doubtless  right  enough. On  the  other  hand
Murray  might  have  improved,  if  such  a  quantity  of
alloy,  as  she  called  it,  were,  in  any  man,  reducible,  and
if  Paris  were  the  place  all  happily  to  reduce  it. 