The Wings of the Dove

(To make this a blog exclusively about the Wings of the Dove click here.)

Yes, it has been forever. I've been reading but not blogging.

One thing that jumped out at me is that when Milly is with Aunt Maud there is no religious or Biblical language That I could detect. At the same time, Milly seems to realize that she does not really belong in these circumstances. When, for example, she tries to play Aunt Maud on the subject of Merton and Kate, she finds she gives away more than she learns. This is not a social environment for Milly.

As soon as Milly is back with Kate, however, we get talk of "consecrating" their friendship (p. 204) and then the significance of the title is raised again. There is a little tension between the two and Milly is coming close to fulfilling Aunt Maud's wishes that she keep tabs on Kate when she challenges Kate and the following happens (P. 210):

This unexpectedly had acted, by a sudden turn of Kate's attitude, as a happy speech. She had risen as she spoke, and Kate had stopped before her, shining at her instantly with a softer brightness. Poor Milly hereby enjoyed one of her views of how people, wincing oddly, were often touched by her. "Because you're a dove." With which she felt herself ever so delicately, so considerately, embraced; not with familiarity or as a liberty taken, but almost ceremonially and in the manner of an accolade; partly as if, though a dove who could perch on a finger, one were also a princess with whom forms were to be observed. It even came to her, through the touch of her companion's lips, that this form, this cool pressure, fairly sealed the sense of what Kate had just said. It was moreover, for the girl, like an inspiration: she found herself accepting as the right one, while she caught her breath with relief, the name so given her. She met it on the instant as she would have met revealed truth; it lighted up the strange dusk in which she lately had walked. THAT was what was the matter with her. She was a dove. Oh WASN'T she?--it echoed within her as she became aware of the sound, outside, of the return of their friends. 

Because you're a dove. Well, what are we to make of this?