The prince, however, saluted gravely, and then Christina, in silence, put out her hand.

Rowland immediately asked whether they were staying at Engelberg, but Christina only looked at him without speaking.
The prince answered his questions, and related that they had been making a month's tour in Switzerland, that at Lucerne his wife had been somewhat obstinately indisposed, and that the physician had recommended a week's trial of the tonic air and goat's milk of Engelberg.

The scenery, said the prince, was stupendous, but the life was terribly sad--and they had three days more! It was a blessing, he urbanely added, to see a good Roman face.
Christina's attitude, her solemn silence and her penetrating gaze seemed to Rowland, at first, to savor of affectation; but he presently perceived that she was profoundly agitated, and that she was afraid of betraying herself.

"Do let us leave this hideous edifice," she said; "there are things here that set one's teeth on edge." They moved slowly to the door, and when they stood outside, in the sunny coolness of the valley, she turned to Rowland and said, "I am extremely glad to see you." Then she glanced about her and observed, against the wall of the church, an old stone seat.

She looked at Prince Casamassima a moment, and he smiled more intensely, Rowland thought, than the occasion demanded.