136/263 "And I'm absolutely certain that Charlotte wouldn't either." It kept the Princess, with her strange grimace, standing there. That's how they've had again to go off together. They've been afraid not to--lest it should disturb me, aggravate me, somehow work upon me. As I insisted that they must, that we couldn't all fail--though father and Charlotte hadn't really accepted; as I did this they had to yield to the fear that their showing as afraid to move together would count for them as the greater danger: which would be the danger, you see, of my feeling myself wronged. Their least danger, they know, is in going on with all the things that I've seemed to accept and that I've given no indication, at any moment, of not accepting. |