"Are the 'forms' you speak of--that are two-thirds of conduct--what will be keeping her now, by your hypothesis, from coming home with him till morning ?" "Yes--absolutely.

THEIR forms." "'Theirs'-- ?" "Maggie's and Mr.Verver's--those they IMPOSE on Charlotte and the Prince.

Those," she developed, "that, so perversely, as I say, have succeeded in setting themselves up as the right ones." He considered--but only now, at last, really to relapse into woe.

"Your 'perversity,' my dear, is exactly what I don't understand.

The state of things existing hasn't grown, like a field of mushrooms, in a night.
Whatever they, all round, may be in for now is at least the consequence of what they've DONE.