If he was wondering what she would say next she had found exactly the thing.

"In that case he will leave you Charlotte to take care of in our absence.

You'll have to carry her off somewhere for your last evening; unless you may prefer to spend it with her here.

I shall then see that you dine, that you have everything, quite beautifully.

You'll be able to do as you like." She couldn't have been sure beforehand, and had really not been; but the most immediate result of this speech was his letting her see that he took it for no cheap extravagance either of irony or of oblivion.
Nothing in the world, of a truth, had ever been so sweet to her, as his look of trying to be serious enough to make no mistake about it.