I've really got nothing, yet I've everything to lose.

One doesn't know what still may happen." The way she laughed at him was for an instant almost irritating; it came out, for his fancy, from behind the white curtain.

It was a sign, that is, of her deep serenity, which worried instead of soothing him.

And to be soothed, after all, to be tided over, in his mystic impatience, to be told what he could understand and believe--that was what he had come for.

"Marriage then," said Mrs.Assingham, "is what you call the monster?
I admit it's a fearful thing at the best; but, for heaven's sake, if that's what you're thinking of, don't run away from it." "Ah, to run away from it would be to run away from you," the Prince replied; "and I've already told you often enough how I depend on you to see me through." He so liked the way she took this, from the corner of her sofa, that he gave his sincerity--for it WAS sincerity--fuller expression.