Page:The Novels and Tales of Henry James, Volume 1 (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1907).djvu/274

 solemnity of his attention to his plate. As for Rowland, the spirit of kindly mirth prompted him to propose the health of this useful personage. A moment later he wished he had held his tongue, for although the toast was drunk with demonstrative goodwill the Cavaliere received it with a brief dignity of deprecation which suggested to Rowland that his diminished gentility but half relished honours that savoured possibly of patronage. To perform punctiliously his mysterious duties toward the two ladies, and to elude or to baffle observation on his own merits—this clearly exhausted the Family Friend's modest ambition. Rowland perceived that Mrs. Light, who was not always remarkable for tact, seemed to have divined his humour on this point. She touched her lips with her glass, but she said nothing gracious and she immediately gave another direction to the talk. The old man had brought no guitar, so that when the feast was over there was nothing to hold the little group together. Christina wandered away with Roderick to another part of the terrace; the Prince, whose smile had vanished, sat gnawing the head of his cane near Mrs. Light, and Rowland strolled apart with the Cavaliere, to whom he wished to address a friendly word of apology for the light he had played a moment over his preferred obscurity. The Cavaliere was a mine of information upon all Roman places and people; he told Rowland a number of curious anecdotes of which the ancient villa was more or less the subject. "If history could always be taught in this fashion!" thought Rowland. "It 's the ideal—strolling up and down on the very spot 240