e put on a black dress
and a black lace veil, and looking handsomer than ever she rustled into
the Catholic church. The prince, who is very devout, and who had her
heresy sorely on his conscience, was thrown into an ecstasy. May she
never have a caprice that pleases him less!"

Rowland had already asked Madame Grandoni what, to her perception, was
the present state of matters between Christina and Roderick; and he now
repeated his question with some earnestness of apprehension. "The girl
is so deucedly dramatic," he said, "that I don't know what coup de
theatre she may have in store for us. Such a stroke was her turning
Catholic; such a stroke would be her some day making her courtesy to a
disappointed world as Princess Casamassima, married at midnight, in her
bonnet. She might do--she may do--something that would make even more
starers! I 'm prepared for anything."

"You mean that she might elope with your sculptor, eh?"

"I 'm prepared for anything!"

"Do you mean that he 's ready?"

"Do you think that she is?"

"They 're a precious pair! I think this. You by no means exhaust the
subject when you say that Christina is dramatic. It 's my belief that in
the course of her life she will do a certain number of things from pure
disinterested passion. She 's immeasurably proud, and if that is often
a fault in a virtuous person, it may be a merit in a vicious one. She
needs to think well of herself; she knows a fine character, easily,
when she meets one; she hates to suffer by comparison, even though the
comparison is made by herself alone; and when the estimate she may
have made of herself grows vague, she needs to do something to give
it definite, impressive form. What she will do in such a case will be
better or worse, according to her opportunity; but I imagine it will
generally be something that will drive her mother to despair; something
of the sort usually termed 'unworldly.'"

Rowland, as he was taking his leave, after some further exchange of
opinions, rendered Miss Light the tribute of a deeply meditative sigh.
"She has bothered me half to death," he said, "but somehow I can't
manage, as I ought, to hate her. I admire her, half the time, and a good
part of the rest I pity her."

"I think I most pity her!" said Madame Grandoni.

This enlightened woman came the next day to call upon the two ladies
from Northampton. She carried their shy affections by storm, and made
them promise to drink tea with her on the