He followed the messenger, and presently found Madame Grandoni occupying a liberal area on the steps of the tribune, behind the great altar, where, spreading a shawl on the polished red marble, she had comfortably seated herself.

He expected that she had something especial to impart, and she lost no time in bringing forth her treasure.
"Don't shout very loud," she said, "remember that we are in church; there 's a limit to the noise one may make even in Saint Peter's.
Christina Light was married this morning to Prince Casamassima." Rowland did not shout at all; he gave a deep, short murmur: "Married--this morning ?" "Married this morning, at seven o'clock, le plus tranquillement du monde, before three or four persons.

The young couple left Rome an hour afterwards." For some moments this seemed to him really terrible; the dark little drama of which he had caught a glimpse had played itself out.

He had believed that Christina would resist; that she had succumbed was a proof that the pressure had been cruel.

Rowland's imagination followed her forth with an irresistible tremor into the world toward which she was rolling away, with her detested husband and her stifled ideal; but it must be confessed that if the first impulse of his compassion was for Christina, the second was for Prince Casamassima.