"That's what the Prince, if he'll be so good, must help me to decide." "Can't _I_," Mrs.Assingham asked, "help you to decide ?" "Certainly, darling, we must talk it well over." And she kept her eyes on the Prince.

"But I want him, if he kindly will, to go with me to look.

I want him to judge with me and choose.

That, if you can spare the hour," she said, "is the great favour I mean." He raised his eyebrows at her--he wonderfully smiled.

"What you came back from America to ask?
Ah, certainly then, I must find the hour!" He wonderfully smiled, but it was rather more, after all, than he had been reckoning with.