nd then it was they had reminded each other of their having
come out for the boy. Their junction with him and with his companion
successfully effected, the four had moved home more slowly, and still
more vaguely; yet with a vagueness that permitted of Maggie's reverting
an instant to the larger issue.

"If we have people in the country then, as you were saying, do you know
for whom my first fancy would be? You may be amused, but it would be for
the Castledeans."

"I see. But why should I be amused?"

"Well, I mean I am myself. I don't think I like her--and yet I like to
see her: which, as Amerigo says, is 'rum.'"

"But don't you feel she's very handsome?" her father inquired.

"Yes, but it isn't for that."

"Then what is it for?"

"Simply that she may be THERE--just there before us. It's as if she may
have a value--as if something may come of her. I don't in the least know
what, and she rather irritates me meanwhile. I don't even know, I admit,
why--but if we see her often enough I may find out."

"Does it matter so very much?" her companion had asked while they moved
together.

She had hesitated. "You mean because you do rather like her?"

He on his side too had waited a little, but then he had taken it from
her. "Yes, I guess I do rather like her."

Which she accepted for the first case she could recall of their not
being affected by a person in the same way. It came back therefore
to his pretending; but she had gone far enough, and to add to her
appearance of levity she further observed that, though they were so
far from a novelty, she should also immediately desire, at Fawns, the
presence of the Assinghams. That put everything on a basis independent
of explanations; yet it was extraordinary, at the same time, how much,
once in the country again with the others, she was going, as they used
to say at home, to need the presence of the good Fanny. It was the
strangest thing in the world, but it was as if Mrs. Assingham might in a
manner mitigate the intensity of her consciousness of Charlotte. It was
as if the two would balance, one against the other; as if it came round
again in that fashion to her idea of the equilibrium. It would be like
putting this friend into her scale to make weight--into the scale with
her father and herself. Amerigo and Charlotte would be in the other;
therefore it would take the three of them to keep that one straight.
And as this played, all duskily, in her mind it had received f