He gave her another long look. "Why, since she has refused him, should
my opinion of Lord Mark show it? I'm not obliged, however, to think
well of him for such treatment of the other persons I've mentioned, and
I feel I don't understand from you why Mrs. Lowder should."
"She doesn't--but she doesn't care," Kate explained. "You know
perfectly the terms on which lots of London people live together even
when they're supposed to live very well. He's not committed to us--he
was having his try. Mayn't an unsatisfied man," she asked, "always have
his try?"
"And come back afterwards, with confidence in a welcome, to the victim
of his inconstancy?"
Kate consented, as for argument, to be thought of as a victim. "Oh but
he has _had_ his try at _me_. So it's all right."
"Through your also having, you mean, refused him?"
She balanced an instant during which Densher might have just wondered
if pure historic truth were to suffer a slight strain. But she dropped
on the right side. "I haven't let it come to that. I've been too
discouraging. Aunt Maud," she went on--now as lucid as
ever--"considers, no doubt, that she has a pledge from him in respect
to me; a pledge that would have been broken if Milly had accepted him.
As the case stands that makes no difference."