Let us do this one sly trick, says Ulysses to Neoptolemus, and we will be perfectly honest ever after-- [Greek: all edu gar toi ktema tes uikes labien tolma dikaioi d' authis ekphanoumetha.] The Countess did not quote Sophocles, but she said to herself, 'Only this little bit of pretence and vanity, and then I will be _quite_ good, and make myself quite safe for another world.' And as she had by no means such fine taste and insight in theological teaching as in costume, the Rev.Amos Barton seemed to her a man not only of learning--_that_ is always understood with a clergyman--but of much power as a spiritual director.

As for Milly, the Countess really loved her as well as the preoccupied state of her affections would allow.

For you have already perceived that there was one being to whom the Countess was absorbingly devoted, and to whose desires she made everything else subservient--namely, Caroline Czerlaski, _nee_ Bridmain.
Thus there was really not much affectation in her sweet speeches and attentions to Mr.and Mrs.Barton.Still their friendship by no means adequately represented the object she had in view when she came to Milby, and it had been for some time clear to her that she must suggest a new change of residence to her brother.
The thing we look forward to often comes to pass, but never precisely in the way we have imagined to ourselves.

The Countess did actually leave Camp Villa before many months were past, but under circumstances which had not at all entered into her contemplation..