this, had after an instant an odd interrogation.
"'Her'?"

"Her and him. Both our friends. Either Maggie or her father."

"I have something on my mind," Mrs. Assingham presently returned;
"something has happened for which I hadn't been prepared. But it isn't
anything that properly concerns you."

The Prince, with immediate gaiety, threw back his head. "What do you
mean by 'properly'? I somehow see volumes in it. It's the way people put
a thing when they put it--well, wrong. _I_ put things right. What is it
that has happened for me?"

His hostess, the next moment, had drawn spirit from his tone.

"Oh, I shall be delighted if you'll take your share of it. Charlotte
Stant is in London. She has just been here."

"Miss Stant? Oh really?" The Prince expressed clear surprise--a
transparency through which his eyes met his friend's with a certain
hardness of concussion. "She has arrived from America?" he then quickly
asked.

"She appears to have arrived this noon--coming up from Southampton; at
an hotel. She dropped upon me after luncheon and was here for more than
an hour."

The young man heard with interest, though not with an interest too great
for his gaiety. "You think then I've a share in it? What IS my share?"

"Why, any you like--the one you seemed just now eager to take. It was
you yourself who insisted."

He looked at her on this with conscious inconsistency, and she could now
see that he had changed colour. But he was always easy.

"I didn't know then what the matter was."

"You didn't think it could be so bad?"

"Do you call it very bad?" the young man asked. "Only," she smiled,
"because that's the way it seems to affect YOU."

He hesitated, still with the trace of his quickened colour, still
looking at her, still adjusting his manner. "But you allowed you were
upset."

"To the extent--yes--of not having in the least looked for her. Any
more," said Mrs. Assingham, "than I judge Maggie to have done."

The Prince thought; then as if glad to be able to say something very
natural and true: "No--quite right. Maggie hasn't looked for her. But
I'm sure," he added, "she'll be delighted to see her."

"That, certainly"--and his hostess spoke with a different shade of
gravity.

"She'll be quite overjoyed," the Prince went on. "Has Miss Stant now
gone to her?"

"She has gone back to her hotel, to bring her things here. I can't have
her," said Mrs. Assingham, "alone at an hotel."

"No; I see."

"If s