Page:The Princess Casamassima (London and New York, Macmillan & Co., 1886), Volume 1.djvu/239

 'I'm sure I didn't mean that, my lady—I only meant it would be more convenient. Anything in the world she might fancy,' the dressmaker went on, as if it were a question of the invalid's appetite.

'Ah, you see I don't wear things—only a flannel jacket, to be a bit tidy,' Miss Muniment rejoined. 'I go in only for smart counterpanes, as you can see for yourself;' and she spread her white hands complacently over her coverlet of brilliant patch-work. 'Now doesn't that look to you, Miss Pynsent, as if it might be one of her ladyship's jokes?'

'Oh, my good friend, how can you? I never went so far as that!' Lady Aurora interposed, with visible anxiety.

'Well, you've given me almost everything; I sometimes forget. This only cost me sixpence; so it comes to the same thing as if it had been a present. Yes, only sixpence, in a raffle in a bazaar at Hackney, for the benefit of the Wesleyan Chapel, three years ago. A young man who works with my brother, and lives in that part, offered him a couple of tickets; and he took one, and I took one. When I say "I," of course I mean that he took the two; for how should I find (by which I mean, of course, how should he find) a sixpence in that little cup on the chimney-piece unless he had put it there first? Of course my ticket took a prize, and of course, as my bed is my dwelling-place, the prize was a beautiful counterpane, of every colour of the rainbow. Oh, there never was such luck as mine!' Rosy exclaimed, flashing her gay, strange eyes at Hyacinth, as if on purpose to irritate him with her contradictious optimism.

'It's very lovely; but if you would like another, for a change, I've got a great many pieces,' Pinnie remarked,