Page:The Princess Casamassima (London and New York, Macmillan & Co., 1886), Volume 2.djvu/50

 should call. The people of that kind, here, are not like our dear Romans. Every one has a sponge, as big as your head; you can see them in the shops.'

'They are full of gin; their faces are purple,' said the Prince; after which he immediately asked, 'If she had only seen him once, how could he have come into her drawing-room that way?'

The old lady looked at him with a certain severity. 'Believe, at least, what I say, my poor friend! Never forget that this was how you spoiled your affairs most of all—by treating a person (and such a person!) as if, as a matter of course, she lied. Christina has many faults, but she hasn't that one; that's why I can live with her. She will speak the truth always.'

It was plainly not agreeable to the Prince to be reminded so sharply of his greatest mistake, and he flushed a little as Madame Grandoni spoke. But he did not admit his error, and she doubted whether he even perceived it. At any rate he remarked rather grandly, like a man who has still a good deal to say for himself, 'There are things it is better to conceal.'

'It all depends on whether you are afraid. Christina never is. Oh, I admit that she is very strange, and when the entertainment of watching her, to see how she will carry out some of her inspirations, is not stronger than anything else, I lose all patience with her. When she doesn't fascinate she can only exasperate. But, as regards yourself, since you are here, and as I may not see you again for a long time, or perhaps ever (at my age—I'm a hundred and twenty!) I may as well give you the key of certain parts of your wife's conduct. It may make it seem to you a little