Isn't it one crowded hour of glorious life ?" she asked.

"What preceded it was an age, no doubt--but an age without a name." Vanderbank watched her a little in silence, then spoke quite beside the question.

"It's astonishing how at moments you remind me of your mother!" At this she got up.

"Ah there it is! It's what I shall never shake off.
That, I imagine, is what Mr.Longdon feels." Both on their feet now, as if ready for the others, they yet--and even a trifle awkwardly--lingered.

It might in fact have appeared to a spectator that some climax had come, on the young man's part, to some state of irresolution about the utterance of something.