Page:The Novels and Tales of Henry James, Volume 1 (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1907).djvu/277

 "She would accept the more brilliant parti. I can answer for it."

"And what would be the logic of her proceeding?"

"She would be forced. There would be circum stances, conditions, necessities, des raisons majeures. I can't tell you more."

"But this implies that the rejected suitor would come back to her. He might grow tired of waiting."

"Oh, this one 's good for almost anything. Look at him now." Rowland obeyed, and saw that the Prince had left his place by Mrs. Light and was moving restlessly to and fro between the villa and the parapet of the terrace. Every now and then he consulted his watch. "In this country, you know," said the Cavaliere, "a young lady never goes walking alone with a beau jeune homme. It seems to him very strange."

"It must seem to him monstrous, and if he overlooks it he must be very much in love."

"Oh, he 'll overlook it. He 's just what you say."

"Who is this exemplary lover then; what is he?"

"A Neapolitan; of one of the oldest houses in Italy. He 's a prince in your English sense of the word; unlike most of his countrymen, even of the highest pretensions, he has a princely fortune, coming mostly from his great Sicilian property. He 's very young; he 's only just of age; he saw the signorina last winter in Naples. He fell in love with her from the first, but his family interfered, and an old uncle, a high ecclesiastic, a Cardinal probably of the next batch, hurried up to Naples, seized him and locked him up. Meantime he has passed his majority, and s'il ne fait pas de bêtises he won't have, in the exercise of his freedom, any one 243