"'As usual'-- ?" Mrs.Assingham had seemed to wonder; Mr.Verver's reluctances not having, she in fact quite intimated, hitherto struck her.

Charlotte responded, at any rate, that his indisposition to go out had lately much increased--even though to-night, as she admitted, he had pleaded his not feeling well.

Maggie had wished to stay with him--for the Prince and she, dining out, had afterwards called in Portland Place, whence, in the event, they had brought her, Charlotte, on.

Maggie had come but to oblige her father--she had urged the two others to go without her; then she had yielded, for the time, to Mr.Verver's persuasion.

But here, when they had, after the long wait in the carriage, fairly got in; here, once up the stairs, with the rooms before them, remorse had ended by seizing her: she had listened to no other remonstrance, and at present therefore, as Charlotte put it, the two were doubtless making together a little party at home.