His relations are moving heaven and earth to prevent his marrying Miss Light, and they have sent us word that he forfeits his property if he takes his wife out of a certain line.  I have investigated the question minutely, and I find this is but a fiction to frighten us.  He is perfectly free; but the estates are such that it is no wonder they wish to keep them in their own hands.  For Italy, it is an extraordinary case of unincumbered property.  The prince has been an orphan from his third year; he has therefore had a long minority and made no inroads upon his fortune.  Besides, he is very prudent and orderly; I am only afraid that some day he will pull the purse-strings too tight.  All these years his affairs have been in the hands of Monsignor B——­, who has managed them to perfection—­paid off mortagages, planted forests, opened up mines.  It is now a magnificent fortune; such a fortune as, with his name, would justify the young man in pretending to any alliance whatsoever.  And he lays it all at the feet of that young girl who is wandering in yonder boschetto with a penniless artist.”

“He is certainly a phoenix of princes!  The signora must be in a state of bliss.”

The Cavaliere looked imperturbably grave.  “The signora has a high esteem for his character.”

“His character, by the way,” rejoined Rowland, with a smile; “what sort of a character is it?”

“Eh, Prince Casamassima is a veritable prince!  He is a very good young man.  He is not brilliant, nor witty, but he ’ll not let himself be made a fool of.  He ’s very grave and very devout—­though he does propose to marry a Protestant.  He will handle that point after marriage.  He ’s as you see him there:  a young man without many ideas, but with a very firm grasp of a single one—­the conviction that Prince Casamassima is a very great person, that he greatly honors any young lady by asking for her hand, and that things are going very strangely when the young lady turns her back upon him.  The poor young man, I am sure, is profoundly perplexed.  But I whisper to him every day, ‘Pazienza, Signor Principe!’”

“So you firmly believe,” said Rowland, in conclusion, “that Miss Light will accept him just in time not to lose him!”

“I count upon it.  She would make too perfect a princess to miss her destiny.”

“And you hold that nevertheless, in the mean while, in listening to, say, my friend Hudson, she will have been acting in good faith?”

The Cavaliere lifted his shoulders a trifle, and gave an inscrutable smile.  “Eh, dear signore, the Christina is very romantic!”

“So much so, you intimate, that she will eventually retract, in consequence not of a change of sentiment, but of a mysterious outward pressure?”

“If everything else fails, there is that resource.  But it is mysterious, as you say, and you need n’t try to guess it.  You will never know.”

“The poor signorina, then, will suffer!”