she believed she could stay on if they should only "meet"
nothing more. Though ignorant still of what she had definitely met Fanny
yearned, within, over her spirit; and so, no word about it said, passed,
through mere pitying eyes, a vow to walk ahead and, at crossroads, with
a lantern for the darkness and wavings away for unadvised traffic, look
out for alarms. There was accordingly no wait in Maggie's reply. "They
spent together hours--spent at least a morning--the certainty of which
has come back to me now, but that I didn't dream of it at the time. That
cup there has turned witness--by the most wonderful of chances. That's
why, since it has been here, I've stood it out for my husband to see;
put it where it would meet him, almost immediately, if he should come
into the room. I've wanted it to meet him," she went on, "and I've
wanted him to meet it, and to be myself present at the meeting. But that
hasn't taken place as yet; often as he has lately been in the way of
coming to see me here--yes, in particular lately--he hasn't showed
to-day." It was with her managed quietness, more and more, that she
talked--an achieved coherence that helped her, evidently, to hear and
to watch herself; there was support, and thereby an awful harmony, but
which meant a further guidance, in the facts she could add together.
"It's quite as if he had an instinct--something that has warned him off
or made him uneasy. He doesn't quite know, naturally, what has happened,
but guesses, with his beautiful cleverness, that something has, and
isn't in a hurry to be confronted with it. So, in his vague fear, he
keeps off."

"But being meanwhile in the house--?"

"I've no idea--not having seen him to-day, by exception, since before
luncheon. He spoke to me then," the Princess freely explained, "of a
ballot, of great importance, at a club--for somebody, some personal
friend, I think, who's coming up and is supposed to be in danger. To
make an effort for him he thought he had better lunch there. You see the
efforts he can make"--for which Maggie found a smile that went to her
friend's heart. "He's in so many ways the kindest of men. But it was
hours ago."

Mrs. Assingham thought. "The more danger then of his coming in and
finding me here. I don't know, you see, what you now consider that
you've ascertained; nor anything of the connexion with it of that object
that you declare so damning." Her eyes rested on this odd acquisition
and then quitted it