Page:The Golden Bowl (Scribner, New York, 1909), Volume 1.djvu/370

THE GOLDEN BOWL "Why whatever people do when they don't trust. Let one see they don't."

"But let whom see?"

"Well, let me, say, to begin with."

"And should you mind that?"

He had a slight show of surprise. "Shouldn't you?"

"Her letting you see—? No," said Charlotte; "the only thing I can imagine myself minding is what you yourself, if you don't look out, may let her see." To which she added: "You may let her see, you know, that you're afraid."

"I'm only afraid of you, a little, at moments," he presently returned. "But I shan't let Fanny see that."

It was clear however that neither the limits nor the extent of Mrs. Assingham's vision were now a real concern to her, and she gave expression to this as she hadn't even yet done. "What in the world can she do against us? There's not a word that she can breathe. She's helpless; she can't speak; she'd be herself the first to be dished by it." And then as he seemed slow to follow: "It all comes back to her. It all began with her. Everything from the first. She introduced you to Maggie. She made your marriage."

The Prince might have had his moment of demur, but at this, after a little, as with a smile dim but deep, he came on. "Mayn't she also be said a good deal to have made yours? That was intended, I think, wasn't it? for a kind of rectification."

Charlotte, on her side, for an instant, hesitated; then she was prompter still. "I don't mean there was 340