Page:The Princess Casamassima (London and New York, Macmillan & Co., 1886), Volume 1.djvu/222

 with diamonds, with a carriage, with servants, with a position, as they call it, to sympathise with the upward struggles of those who are below? "Give all that up, and we'll believe you," you have a right to say. I am ready to give them up the moment it will help the cause; I assure you that's the least difficulty. I don't want to teach, I want to learn; and, above all, I want to know à quoi m'en tenir. Are we on the eve of great changes, or are we not? Is everything that is gathering force, underground, in the dark, in the night, in little hidden rooms, out of sight of governments and policemen and idiotic "statesmen"—heaven save them!—is all this going to burst forth some fine morning and set the world on fire? Or is it to sputter out and spend itself in vain conspiracies, be dissipated in sterile heroisms and abortive isolated movements? I want to know à quoi m'en tenir,' she repeated, fixing her visitor with more brilliant eyes, as if he could tell her on the spot. Then, suddenly, she added in a totally different tone, 'Excuse me, I have an idea you speak French. Didn't Captain Sholto tell me so?'

'I have some little acquaintance with it,' Hyacinth murmured. 'I have French blood in my veins.'

She considered him as if he had proposed to her some kind of problem. 'Yes, I can see that you are not le premier venu. Now, your friend, of whom you were speaking, is a chemist; and you, yourself—what is your occupation?'

'I'm just a bookbinder.'

'That must be delightful. I wonder if you would bind some books for me.'

'You would have to bring them to our shop, and I can