“Well,” said Maggie, “that’s all that’s left me to do.”

“It’s a success,” her friend ingeniously developed, “with which you’ve simply not interfered.”  And as if to show that she spoke without levity Mrs. Assingham went further.  “He has made it a success for them—!”

“Ah, there you are!” Maggie responsively mused.  “Yes,” she said the next moment, “that’s why Amerigo stays.”

“Let alone it’s why Charlotte goes.” that Mrs. Assingham, and emboldened, smiled “So he knows—?”

But Maggie hung back.  “Amerigo—?” After which, however, she blushed—­to her companion’s recognition.

“Your father.  He knows what you know?  I mean,” Fanny faltered—­ “well, how much does he know?” Maggie’s silence and Maggie’s eyes had in fact arrested the push of the question—­which, for a decent consistency, she couldn’t yet quite abandon.  “What I should rather say is does he know how much?” She found it still awkward.  “How much, I mean, they did.  How far”—­she touched it up—­“they went.”

Maggie had waited, but only with a question.  “Do you think he does?”

“Know at least something?  Oh, about him I can’t think.  He’s beyond me,” said Fanny Assingham.

“Then do you yourself know?”

“How much—?”

“How much.”

“How far—?”

“How far.”

Fanny had appeared to wish to make sure, but there was something she remembered—­remembered in time and even with a smile.  “I’ve told you before that I know absolutely nothing.”

“Well—­that’s what I know,” said the Princess.

Her friend again hesitated.  “Then nobody knows—?  I mean,” Mrs. Assingham explained, “how much your father does.”

Oh, Maggie showed that she understood.  “Nobody.”

“Not—­a little—­Charlotte?”

“A little?” the Princess echoed.  “To know anything would be, for her, to know enough.”

“And she doesn’t know anything?”

“If she did,” Maggie answered, “Amerigo would.”

“And that’s just it—­that he doesn’t?”

“That’s just it,” said the Princess profoundly.

On which Mrs. Assingham reflected.  “Then how is Charlotte so held?”

“Just by that.”

“By her ignorance?”

“By her ignorance.”  Fanny wondered.  “A torment—?”

“A torment,” said Maggie with tears in her eyes.

Her companion a moment watched them.  But the Prince then—?”

“How is he held?” Maggie asked.

“How is he held?”

“Oh, I can’t tell you that!” And the Princess again broke off.

XLI