t, disposed of the doubt, the question, the challenge, or
whatever else might have been, that such a look could convey. He had
been sufficiently off his guard to show some little wonder as to their
having plotted so very hard against their destiny, and she knew well
enough, of course, what, in this connection, was at the bottom of his
thought, and what would have sounded out more or less if he had not
happily saved himself from words. All men were brutes enough to catch
when they might at such chances for dissent--for all the good it really
did them; but the Prince's distinction was in being one of the few who
could check himself before acting on the impulse. This, obviously, was
what counted in a man as delicacy. If her friend had blurted or bungled
he would have said, in his simplicity, "Did we do 'everything to avoid'
it when we faced your remarkable marriage?"--quite handsomely of course
using the plural, taking his share of the case, by way of a tribute
of memory to the telegram she had received from him in Paris after
Mr. Verver had despatched to Rome the news of their engagement.
That telegram, that acceptance of the prospect proposed to them--an
acceptance quite other than perfunctory--she had never destroyed; though
reserved for no eyes but her own it was still carefully reserved. She
kept it in a safe place--from which, very privately, she sometimes took
it out to read it over. "A la guerre comme a la guerre then"--it had
been couched in the French tongue. "We must lead our lives as we see
them; but I am charmed with your courage and almost surprised at my
own." The message had remained ambiguous; she had read it in more lights
than one; it might mean that even without her his career was up-hill
work for him, a daily fighting-matter on behalf of a good appearance,
and that thus, if they were to become neighbours again, the event would
compel him to live still more under arms. It might mean on the other
hand that he found he was happy enough, and that accordingly, so far as
she might imagine herself a danger, she was to think of him as prepared
in advance, as really seasoned and secure. On his arrival in Paris with
his wife, none the less, she had asked for no explanation, just as he
himself had not asked if the document were still in her possession. Such
an inquiry, everything implied, was beneath him--just as it was beneath
herself to mention to him, uninvited, that she had instantly offered,
and in perfect hon