l it.
His having to-day given up even his forms; his keeping away from me; his
not having come." And she shook her head as against all easy glosses.
"It is because of that, you know."

"Well then, if it's because of this--!" And Fanny Assingham, who had
been casting about her and whose inspiration decidedly had come, raised
the cup in her two hands, raised it positively above her head, and from
under it, solemnly, smiled at the Princess as a signal of intention.
So for an instant, full of her thought and of her act, she held the
precious vessel, and then, with due note taken of the margin of the
polished floor, bare, fine and hard in the embrasure of her window, she
dashed it boldly to the ground, where she had the thrill of seeing it,
with the violence of the crash, lie shattered. She had flushed with the
force of her effort, as Maggie had flushed with wonder at the sight, and
this high reflection in their faces was all that passed between them for
a minute more. After which, "Whatever you meant by it--and I don't want
to know NOW--has ceased to exist," Mrs. Assingham said.

"And what in the world, my dear, did you mean by it?"--that sound, as at
the touch of a spring, rang out as the first effect of Fanny's speech.
It broke upon the two women's absorption with a sharpness almost equal
to the smash of the crystal, for the door of the room had been opened
by the Prince without their taking heed. He had apparently had time,
moreover, to catch the conclusion of Fanny's act; his eyes attached
themselves, through the large space allowing just there, as happened,
a free view, to the shining fragments at this lady's feet. His question
had been addressed to his wife, but he moved his eyes immediately
afterwards to those of her visitor, whose own then held them in a
manner of which neither party had been capable, doubtless, for mute
penetration, since the hour spent by him in Cadogan Place on the eve of
his marriage and the afternoon of Charlotte's reappearance. Something
now again became possible for these communicants, under the intensity
of their pressure, something that took up that tale and that might
have been a redemption of pledges then exchanged. This rapid play of
suppressed appeal and disguised response lasted indeed long enough for
more results than one--long enough for Mrs. Assingham to measure the
feat of quick self-recovery, possibly therefore of recognition still
more immediate, accompanying Amerigo's vision an