But he wouldn't find." She kept her eyes on him as if, though unsatisfied, mystified, she yet had a fancy for the bowl.

"Not even if the thing should come to pieces ?" And then as he was silent: "Not even if he should have to say to me 'The Golden Bowl is broken' ?" He was still silent; after which he had his strangest smile.

"Ah, if anyone should WANT to smash it--!" She laughed; she almost admired the little man's expression.

"You mean one could smash it with a hammer ?" "Yes; if nothing else would do.

Or perhaps even by dashing it with violence--say upon a marble floor." "Oh, marble floors!" But she might have been thinking--for they were a connection, marble floors; a connection with many things: with her old Rome, and with his; with the palaces of his past, and, a little, of hers; with the possibilities of his future, with the sumptuosities of his marriage, with the wealth of the Ververs.