Page:The Novels and Tales of Henry James, Volume 1 (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1907).djvu/288

 short of belonging to a reigning stock. There you see one striding up and down, looking at his watch and counting the minutes till my daughter reappears!"

Rowland listened to all this with a large compassion for the heroine of the tale. What an education, what a history, what a school of character and of morals! He looked at the Prince and wondered whether he too had heard Mrs. Light's story. If he had he was a brave man. "I certainly hope you 'll nail him," he said to Mrs. Light. "You 've played a dangerous game with your daughter; it would be a pity not to win. But there 's hope for you yet; here she comes at last!"

Christina reappeared as he spoke these words, strolling beside her companion with the same Olympian command of the air, as it were, not less than of the earth, with which she had departed. Rowland imagined that there was a faint pink flush in her cheek which she had not carried away with her, and there was certainly a light in Roderick's eyes that he had not seen there for a week.

"Bless my soul, how they're all looking at us!" she cried as they advanced. "One would think we were prisoners of the Inquisition!" And she paused and glanced from the Prince to her mother and from Rowland to the Cavaliere, and then threw back her head and burst into far-ringing laughter. "What is it, pray? Have I been very improper? Am I ruined for ever? Dear Prince, you 're looking at me as if I had committed the unpardonable sin!"

"I myself," said the Prince, "would never have ventured to ask you to walk with me alone in the country for an hour!" 254