Page:The Golden Bowl (Scribner, New York, 1909), Volume 2.djvu/73

THE PRINCESS which, "Shall I just quite of a sudden," he asked, "propose him a journey?"

Maggie cast about her, but she brought forth the fruit of reflexion. "It would have the merit that Charlotte then would be with me—with me I mean so much more. Also that I shouldn't, by choosing such a time for going away, seem unconscious and ungrateful, seem not to respond, seem in fact rather to wish to shake her off. I should respond on the contrary most markedly—by being here alone with her for a month."

"And would you like to be here alone with her for a month? "

"I could do with it beautifully. Or we might even," she said quite gaily, "go together down to Fawns."

"You could be so very content without me?" the Prince presently threw out.

"Yes, my own dear—if you could be content for a while with father. That would keep me up. I might for the time," she went on, "go to stay there with Charlotte; or, better still, she might come to Portland Place."

"Oho!" said the Prince with cheerful vagueness.

"I should feel, you see," she continued, "that the two of us were showing the same sort of kindness."

Amerigo thought. "The two of us? Charlotte and I?"

Maggie again took a moment. "You and I, darling."

"I see, I see"—he promptly understood. "And what reason shall I give—give I mean your father?" 63