“Then do you yourself know?”

“How much—?”

“How much.”

“How far—?”

“How far.”

Fanny had appeared to wish to make sure, but there was something she remembered—remembered in time and even with a smile. “I’ve told you before that I know absolutely nothing.”

“Well—that’s what I know,” said the Princess.

Her friend again hesitated. “Then nobody knows—? I mean,” Mrs. Assingham explained, “how much your father does.”

Oh, Maggie showed that she understood. “Nobody.”

“Not—a little—Charlotte?”