Only their going early to Fawns, if they do go," she said, "needn't in the least entail your and my going." "Ah," Amerigo echoed, "it needn't in the least entail your and my going ?" "We can do as we like.

What they may do needn't trouble us, since they're by good fortune perfectly happy together." "Oh," the Prince returned, "your father's never so happy as with you near him to enjoy his being so." "Well, I may enjoy it," said Maggie, "but I'm not the cause of it." "You're the cause," her husband declared, "of the greater part of everything that's good among us." But she received this tribute in silence, and the next moment he pursued: "If Mrs.Verver has arrears of time with you to make up, as you say, she'll scarcely do it--or you scarcely will--by our cutting, your and my cutting, too loose." "I see what you mean," Maggie mused.
He let her for a little to give her attention to it; after which, "Shall I just quite, of a sudden," he asked, "propose him a journey ?" Maggie hesitated, but she brought forth the fruit of reflection.

"It would have the merit that Charlotte then would be with me--with me, I mean, so much more.

Also that I shouldn't, by choosing such a time for going away, seem unconscious and ungrateful, seem not to respond, seem in fact rather to wish to shake her off.

I should respond, on the contrary, very markedly--by being here alone with her for a month." "And would you like to be here alone with her for a month ?" "I could do with it beautifully.