"I felt in fact, privately, so sorry for them, that I kept my impression to myself while they were here--wishing not to put the rest of you on the scent; neither Maggie, nor the Prince, nor yourself, nor even Charlotte HERself, if you didn't happen to notice.

Since you didn't, apparently, I perhaps now strike you as extravagant.

But I'm not--I followed it all.

One SAW the consciousness I speak of come over the poor things, very much as I suppose people at the court of the Borgias may have watched each other begin to look queer after having had the honour of taking wine with the heads of the family.

My comparison's only a little awkward, for I don't in the least mean that Charlotte was consciously dropping poison into their cup.