low than loud, overlooked as they were,
though at a respectful distance, by tiers of windows; but it made each
find in the other's voice a taste as of something slowly and deeply
absorbed. "Don't you think too much of 'cracks,' and aren't you too
afraid of them? I risk the cracks," said Charlotte, "and I've often
recalled the bowl and the little swindling Jew, wondering if they've
parted company. He made," she said, "a great impression on me."

"Well, you also, no doubt, made a great impression on him, and I dare
say that if you were to go back to him you'd find he has been keeping
that treasure for you. But as to cracks," the Prince went on--"what
did you tell me the other day you prettily call them in English?-'rifts
within the lute'?--risk them as much as you like for yourself, but
don't risk them for me." He spoke it in all the gaiety of his just
barely-tremulous serenity. "I go, as you know, by my superstitions. And
that's why," he said, "I know where we are. They're every one, to-day,
on our side."

Resting on the parapet; toward the great view, she was silent a little,
and he saw the next moment that her eyes were closed. "I go but by one
thing." Her hand was on the sun-warmed stone; so that, turned as they
were away from the house, he put his own upon it and covered it. "I go
by YOU," she said. "I go by you."

So they remained a moment, till he spoke again with a gesture that
matched. "What is really our great necessity, you know, is to go by my
watch. It's already eleven"--he had looked at the time; "so that if we
stop here to luncheon what becomes of our afternoon?"

To this Charlotte's eyes opened straight. "There's not the slightest
need of our stopping here to luncheon. Don't you see," she asked, "how
I'm ready?" He had taken it in, but there was always more and more of
her. "You mean you've arranged--?"

"It's easy to arrange. My maid goes up with my things. You've only to
speak to your man about yours, and they can go together."

"You mean we can leave at once?"

She let him have it all. "One of the carriages, about which I spoke,
will already have come back for us. If your superstitions are on our
side," she smiled, "so my arrangements are, and I'll back my support
against yours."

"Then you had thought," he wondered, "about Gloucester?"

She hesitated--but it was only her way. "I thought you would think. We
have, thank goodness, these harmonies. They are food for superstition if
you like. It'