Kate Croy is clever and poor; Milly Theale is American and dying. Kate devises a scheme that will secure wealth for herself and damage everyone. Henry James wrote this in his late style, the syntax labyrinthine, the moral complications infinite. The sentences require patience; they reward it. The dove with her wings: Milly's image hovers over the novel's final devastating scenes. James called his own work difficult. He was not wrong. The difficulty is the meaning; the characters cannot say what they want, and neither can the prose. What does Kate want? What does anyone want? The dove spreads her wings.