"Is Charlotte," she had simply asked, "really ready ?" "Oh, if you and I and Amerigo are.

Whenever one corners Charlotte," he had developed more at his ease, "one finds that she only wants to know what we want.

Which is what we got her for!" "What we got her for--exactly!" And so, for a little, even though with a certain effect of oddity in their more or less successful ease, they left it; left it till Maggie made the remark that it was all the same wonderful her stepmother should be willing, before the season was out, to exchange so much company for so much comparative solitude.
"Ah," he had then made answer, "that's because her idea, I think, this time, is that we shall have more people, more than we've hitherto had, in the country.

Don't you remember that THAT, originally, was what we were to get her for ?" "Oh yes--to give us a life." Maggie had gone through the form of recalling this, and the light of their ancient candour, shining from so far back, had seemed to bring out some things so strangely that, with the sharpness of the vision, she had risen to her feet.

"Well, with a 'life' Fawns will certainly do." He had remained in his place while she looked over his head; the picture, in her vision, had suddenly swarmed.
The vibration was that of one of the lurches of the mystic train in which, with her companion, she was travelling; but she was having to steady herself, this time, before meeting his eyes.