He had
believed that Christina would resist; that she had succumbed was a proof
that the pressure had been cruel. Rowland's imagination followed her
forth with an irresistible tremor into the world toward which she was
rolling away, with her detested husband and her stifled ideal; but it
must be confessed that if the first impulse of his compassion was
for Christina, the second was for Prince Casamassima. Madame Grandoni
acknowledged an extreme curiosity as to the secret springs of these
strange doings: Casamassima's sudden dismissal, his still more sudden
recall, the hurried private marriage. "Listen," said Rowland, hereupon,
"and I will tell you something." And he related, in detail, his last
visit to Mrs. Light and his talk with this lady, with Christina, and
with the Cavaliere.
"Good," she said; "it 's all very curious. But it 's a riddle, and I
only half guess it."
"Well," said Rowland, "I desire to harm no one; but certain suppositions
have taken shape in my mind which serve as a solvent to several
ambiguities."
"It is very true," Madame Grandoni answered, "that the Cavaliere, as he
stands, has always needed to be explained.
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