dear Ververs by his wearing it.
The connection became romantic for Maggie the moment she took it in; she
filled out, in a flash, every link that might be vague. 'By that sign,'
I quite said to myself, 'he'll conquer'--with his good fortune, of
course, of having the other necessary signs too. It really," said Mrs.
Assingham, "was, practically, the fine side of the wedge. Which struck
me as also," she wound up, "a lovely note for the candour of the
Ververs."

The Colonel took in the tale, but his comment was prosaic. "He knew,
Amerigo, what he was about. And I don't mean the OLD one."

"I know what you mean!" his wife bravely threw off.

"The old one"--he pointed his effect "isn't the only discoverer in the
family."

"Oh, as much as you like! If he discovered America--or got himself
honoured as if he had--his successors were, in due time, to discover the
Americans. And it was one of them in particular, doubtless, who was to
discover how patriotic we are."

"Wouldn't this be the same one," the Colonel asked, "who really
discovered what you call the connection?"

She gave him a look. "The connection's a true thing--the connection's
perfectly historic, Your insinuations recoil upon your cynical mind.
Don't you understand," she asked, "that the history of such people is
known, root and branch, at every moment of its course?"

"Oh, it's all right," said Bob Assingham.

"Go to the British Museum," his companion continued with spirit.

"And what am I to do there?"

"There's a whole immense room, or recess, or department, or whatever,
filled with books written about his family alone. You can see for
yourself."

"Have you seen for YOUR self?"

She faltered but an instant. "Certainly--I went one day with Maggie. We
looked him up, so to say. They were most civil." And she fell again into
the current her husband had slightly ruffled. "The effect was produced,
the charm began to work, at all events, in Rome, from that hour of the
Prince's drive with us. My only course, afterwards, had to be to make
the best of it. It was certainly good enough for that," Mrs. Assingham
hastened to add, "and I didn't in the least see my duty in making the
worst. In the same situation, to-day; I wouldn't act differently. I
entered into the case as it then appeared to me--and as, for the matter
of that, it still does. I LIKED it, I thought all sorts of good of it,
and nothing can even now," she said with some intensity, "make me think
any