Page:The Novels and Tales of Henry James, Volume 1 (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1907).djvu/421

 the fragant weed and then declared that if his entertainer would allow him he would reserve it for consumption at another time. It was not a case, clearly, for hanging up smoke-wreaths. "I must confess," he said, "that even now I come on business not of my own—or my own at least only in a secondary sense. I 've been despatched as an ambassador—an envoy extraordinary, I may say—by my dear friend Mrs. Light."

"If I can in any way be of service to Mrs. Light I shall much rejoice," Rowland found himself a little recklessly articulating.

"Well then, dear sir, Casa Light's in high commotion. The povera signora 's in great trouble, in terrible trouble." For a moment Rowland expected to hear that the povera signora's trouble was of a nature that a loan of five thousand francs would assuage. But the Cavaliere was more interesting even than that. "Miss Light has committed a great crime; she has plunged a dagger into the heart of her mother."

"A dagger—?"

The Cavaliere nervously patted the air. "I speak strongly—one must: che vuole? She has broken off her marriage."

"Broken it off?"

"Short! She has turned the Prince out of the house." And the good gentleman, with this report, folded his arms and, straight at his friend, looked strange, the strangest, things. A mocking little light of pride might have glimmered in his decent despair.

Rowland greeted the news with a gasp, and there 387