of an afternoon, when they drove together or if they went to look
at things--looking at things being almost as much a feature of their
life as if they were bazaar-opening royalties. Then there were such
combinations, later in the day, as her attendance on them, and the
Colonel's as well, for such whimsical matters as visits to the opera
no matter who was singing, and sudden outbreaks of curiosity about
the British drama. The good couple from Cadogan Place could always
unprotestingly dine with them and "go on" afterwards to such publicities
as the Princess cultivated the boldness of now perversely preferring.
It may be said of her that, during these passages, she plucked her
sensations by the way, detached, nervously, the small wild blossoms
of her dim forest, so that she could smile over them at least with the
spacious appearance, for her companions, for her husband above all, of
bravely, of altogether frivolously, going a-maying. She had her intense,
her smothered excitements, some of which were almost inspirations; she
had in particular the extravagant, positively at moments the amused,
sense of using her friend to the topmost notch, accompanied with the
high luxury of not having to explain. Never, no never, should she have
to explain to Fanny Assingham again--who, poor woman, on her own side,
would be charged, it might be forever, with that privilege of the higher
ingenuity. She put it all off on Fanny, and the dear thing herself might
henceforth appraise the quantity. More and more magnificent now in
her blameless egoism, Maggie asked no questions of her, and thus only
signified the greatness of the opportunity she gave her. She didn't care
for what devotions, what dinners of their own the Assinghams might have
been "booked"; that was a detail, and she could think without wincing of
the ruptures and rearrangements to which her service condemned them. It
all fell in beautifully, moreover; so that, as hard, at this time, in
spite of her fever, as a little pointed diamond, the Princess showed
something of the glitter of consciously possessing the constructive, the
creative hand. She had but to have the fancy of presenting herself, of
presenting her husband, in a certain high and convenient manner, to make
it natural they should go about with their gentleman and their lady. To
what else but this, exactly, had Charlotte, during so many weeks of the
earlier season, worked her up?--herself assuming and discharging, so
far as