Page:The Princess Casamassima (London and New York, Macmillan & Co., 1886), Volume 1.djvu/226

 once more and shook him a little, in that free yet insinuating manner for which this officer appeared to be remarkable.

'My dear fellow, you were born under a lucky star.'

'I never supposed it,' said Hyacinth, changing colour.

'Why, what in the world would you have? You have the faculty, the precious faculty, of inspiring women with an interest—but an interest!'

'Yes, ask them in the box there! I behaved like a cretin,' Hyacinth declared, overwhelmed now with a sense of opportunities missed.

'They won't tell me that. And the lady upstairs?'

'Well,' said Hyacinth gravely, 'what about her?'

The Captain considered him a moment. 'She wouldn't talk to me of anything but you. You may imagine how I liked it!'

'I don't like it, either. But I must go up.'

'Oh yes, she counts the minutes. Such a charming person!' Captain Sholto added, with more propriety of tone. As Hyacinth left him he called after him, 'Don't be afraid—you'll go far.'

When the young man took his place in the balcony beside Millicent this damsel gave him no greeting, nor asked any question about his adventures in the more aristocratic part of the house. She only turned her fine complexion upon him for some minutes, and as he himself was not in the mood to begin to chatter, the silence continued—continued till after the curtain had risen on the last act of the play. Millicent's attention was now, evidently, not at her disposal for the stage, and in the midst of a violent scene, which included pistol-shots and