rrors again.' And he would come back, and he would come back, and go
through it all again, and take all that was given him, and only want the
girl the more! I was his confidant; I know everything. He used to beg
my forgiveness for Christina. What do you say to that? I seized him once
and kissed him, I did! To find that and to find all the rest with it,
and to believe it was a gift straight from the pitying angels of heaven,
and then to see it dashed away before your eyes and to stand here
helpless--oh, it 's a fate I hope you may ever be spared!"

"It would seem, then, that in the interest of Prince Casamassima himself
I ought to refuse to interfere," said Rowland.

Mrs. Light looked at him hard, slowly drying her eyes. The intensity
of her grief and anger gave her a kind of majesty, and Rowland, for
the moment, felt ashamed of the ironical ring of his observation. "Very
good, sir," she said. "I 'm sorry your heart is not so tender as your
conscience. My compliments to your conscience! It must give you great
happiness. Heaven help me! Since you fail us, we are indeed driven to
the wall. But I have fought my own battles before, and I have never lost
courage, and I don't see why I should break down now. Cavaliere, come
here!"

Giacosa rose at her summons and advanced with his usual deferential
alacrity. He shook hands with Rowland in silence.

"Mr. Mallet refuses to say a word," Mrs. Light went on. "Time presses,
every moment is precious. Heaven knows what that poor boy may be doing.
If at this moment a clever woman should get hold of him she might be as
ugly as she pleased! It 's horrible to think of it."

The Cavaliere fixed his eyes on Rowland, and his look, which the night
before had been singular, was now most extraordinary. There was a
nameless force of anguish in it which seemed to grapple with the young
man's reluctance, to plead, to entreat, and at the same time to be
glazed over with a reflection of strange things.

Suddenly, though most vaguely, Rowland felt the presence of a new
element in the drama that was going on before him. He looked from the
Cavaliere to Mrs. Light, whose eyes were now quite dry, and were fixed
in stony hardness on the floor.

"If you could bring yourself," the Cavaliere said, in a low, soft,
caressing voice, "to address a few words of solemn remonstrance to Miss
Light, you would, perhaps, do more for us than you know. You would
save several persons a great pain. The dear signora,