He wanted first to make sure of the whole of the subject that was unrolling itself before him; after which the innumerable facts he had collected would find their use.

He knew what he was about---trust him at last therefore to make, and to some effect, his big noise.

And Mrs.
Assingham had repeated that he knew what he was about.

It was the happy form of this assurance that had remained with Maggie; it could always come in for her that Amerigo knew what he was about.

He might at moments seem vague, seem absent, seem even bored: this when, away from her father, with whom it was impossible for him to appear anything but respectfully occupied, he let his native gaiety go in outbreaks of song, or even of quite whimsical senseless sound, either expressive of intimate relaxation or else fantastically plaintive.