It was positive too that her smile, in reply, was a trifle dim. Am I obliged to tell you everything I have on my mind?
It isnt a question of everything, but its a question of anything that may particularly concern me. Then you shouldnt keep it back. You know with what care I desire to proceed, taking everything into account and making no mistake that may possibly injure HER.
Mrs. Assingham, at this, had after an instant an odd interrogation. Her?
Her and him. Both our friends. Either Maggie or her father.
I have something on my mind, Mrs. Assingham presently returned; something has happened for which I hadnt been prepared. But it isnt anything that properly concerns you.
The Prince, with immediate gaiety, threw back his head. What do you mean by properly? I somehow see volumes in it. Its the way people put a thing when they put itwell, wrong. I put things right. What is it that has happened for me?
His hostess, the next moment, had drawn spirit from his tone.
Oh, I shall be delighted if youll take your share of it. Charlotte Stant is in London. She has just been here.
Miss Stant? Oh really? The Prince expressed clear surprisea transparency through which his eyes met his friends with a certain hardness of concussion. She has arrived from America? he then quickly asked.
She appears to have arrived this nooncoming up from Southampton; at an hotel. She dropped upon me after luncheon and was here for more than an hour.
The young man heard with interest, though not with an interest too great for his gaiety. You think then Ive a share in it? What IS my share?
Why, any you likethe one you seemed just now eager to take. It was you yourself who insisted.
He looked at her on this with conscious inconsistency, and she could now see that he had changed colour. But he was always easy.
I didnt know then what the matter was.
You didnt think it could be so bad?
Do you call it very bad? the young man asked. Only, she smiled, because thats the way it seems to affect YOU.
He hesitated, still with the trace of his quickened colour, still looking at her, still adjusting his manner. But you allowed you were upset.
To the extentyesof not having in the least looked for her. Any more, said Mrs. Assingham, than I judge Maggie to have done.
The Prince thought; then as if glad to be able to say something very natural and true: Noquite right. Maggie hasnt looked for her. But Im sure, he added, shell be delighted to see her.
That, certainlyand his hostess spoke with a different shade of gravity.
Shell be quite overjoyed, the Prince went on. Has Miss Stant now gone to her?
She has gone back to her hotel, to bring her things here. I cant have her, said Mrs. Assingham, alone at an hotel.
No; I see.
If shes here at all she must stay with me. He quite took it in. So shes coming now?
I expect her at any moment. If you wait youll see her.
Oh, he promptly declaredcharming! But this word came out as if, a little, in sudden substitution for some other. It sounded accidental, whereas he wished to be firm. That accordingly was what he next showed himself. If it wasnt for whats going on these next days Maggie would certainly want to have her. In fact, he lucidly continued, isnt whats happening just a reason to MAKE her want to? Mrs. Assingham, for answer, only looked at him, and this, the next instant, had apparently had more effect than if she had spoken. For he asked a question that seemed incongruous. What has she come for!
It made his companion laugh. Why, for just what you say. For your marriage.
Mine?he wondered.
Maggiesits the same thing. Its for your great event. And then, said Mrs. Assingham, shes so lonely.
Has she given you that as a reason?
I scarcely remembershe gave me so many. She abounds, poor dear, in reasons. But theres one that, whatever she does, I always remember for myself.
And which is that? He looked as if he ought to guess but couldnt.
Why, the fact that she has no homeabsolutely none whatever. Shes extraordinarily alone.
Again he took it in. And also has no great means.
Very small ones. Which is not, however, with the expense of railways and hotels, a reason for her running to and fro.
On the contrary. But she doesnt like her country.
Hers, my dear man?its little enough hers. The attribution, for the moment, amused his hostess. She has rebounded nowbut she has had little enough else to do with it.
Oh, I say hers, the Prince pleasantly explained, very much as, at this time of day, I might say mine. I quite feel, I assure you, as if the great place already more or less belonged to ME.
Thats your good fortune and your point of view. You ownor you soon practically WILL ownso much of it. Charlotte owns almost nothing in the world, she tells me, but two colossal trunks-only one of which I have given her leave to introduce into this house. Shell depreciate to you, Mrs. Assingham added, your property.
He thought of these things, he thought of every thing; but he had always his resource at hand of turning all to the easy. Has she come with designs upon me? And then in a moment, as if even this were almost too grave, he sounded the note that had least to do with himself. Est-elle toujours aussi belle? That was the furthest point, somehow, to which Charlotte Stant could be relegated.
Mrs. Assingham treated it freely. Just the same. The person in the world, to my sense, whose looks are most subject to appreciation. Its all in the way she affects you. One admires her if one doesnt happen not to. So, as well, one criticises her.
Ah, thats not fair! said the Prince.
To criticise her? Then there you are! Youre answered.
Im answered. He took it, humorously, as his lessonsank his previous self-consciousness, with excellent effect, in grateful docility. I only meant that there are perhaps better things to be done with Miss Stant than to criticise her. When once you begin THAT, with anyone! He was vague and kind.
I quite agree that its better to keep out of it as long as one can. But when one MUST do it
Yes? he asked as she paused. Then know what you mean.
I see. Perhaps, he smiled, I dont know what I mean.
Well, its what, just now, in all ways, you particularly should know. Mrs. Assingham, however, made no more of this, having, before anything else, apparently, a scruple about the tone she had just used. I quite understand, of course, that, given her great friendship with Maggie, she should have wanted to be present. She has acted impulsivelybut she has acted generously.
She has acted beautifully, said the Prince.
I say generously because I mean she hasnt, in any way, counted the cost. Shell have it to count, in a manner, now, his hostess continued. But that doesnt matter.