“If I can in any way be of service to Mrs. Light, I shall be happy,” Rowland said.

“Well then, dear sir, Casa Light is in commotion.  The signora is in trouble—­in terrible trouble.”  For a moment Rowland expected to hear that the signora’s trouble was of a nature that a loan of five thousand francs would assuage.  But the Cavaliere continued:  “Miss Light has committed a great crime; she has plunged a dagger into the heart of her mother.”

“A dagger!” cried Rowland.

The Cavaliere patted the air an instant with his finger-tips.  “I speak figuratively.  She has broken off her marriage.”

“Broken it off?”

“Short!  She has turned the prince from the door.”  And the Cavaliere, when he had made this announcement, folded his arms and bent upon Rowland his intense, inscrutable gaze.  It seemed to Rowland that he detected in the polished depths of it a sort of fantastic gleam of irony or of triumph; but superficially, at least, Giacosa did nothing to discredit his character as a presumably sympathetic representative of Mrs. Light’s affliction.

Rowland heard his news with a kind of fierce disgust; it seemed the sinister counterpart of Christina’s preternatural mildness at Madame Grandoni’s tea-party.  She had been too plausible to be honest.  Without being able to trace the connection, he yet instinctively associated her present rebellion with her meeting with Mary Garland.  If she had not seen Mary, she would have let things stand.  It was monstrous to suppose that she could have sacrificed so brilliant a fortune to a mere movement of jealousy, to a refined instinct of feminine deviltry, to a desire to frighten poor Mary from her security by again appearing in the field.  Yet Rowland remembered his first impression of her; she was “dangerous,” and she had measured in each direction the perturbing effect of her rupture.  She was smiling her sweetest smile at it!  For half an hour Rowland simply detested her, and longed to denounce her to her face.  Of course all he could say to Giacosa was that he was extremely sorry.  “But I am not surprised,” he added.

“You are not surprised?”

“With Miss Light everything is possible.  Is n’t that true?”

Another ripple seemed to play for an instant in the current of the old man’s irony, but he waived response.  “It was a magnificent marriage,” he said, solemnly.  “I do not respect many people, but I respect Prince Casamassima.”

“I should judge him indeed to be a very honorable young man,” said Rowland.

“Eh, young as he is, he ’s made of the old stuff.  And now, perhaps he ’s blowing his brains out.  He is the last of his house; it ’s a great house.  But Miss Light will have put an end to it!”

“Is that the view she takes of it?” Rowland ventured to ask.

This time, unmistakably, the Cavaliere smiled, but still in that very out-of-the-way place.  “You have observed Miss Light with attention,” he said, “and this brings me to my errand.  Mrs. Light has a high opinion of your wisdom, of your kindness, and she has reason to believe you have influence with her daughter.”