Page:The Princess Casamassima (London and New York, Macmillan & Co., 1886), Volume 1.djvu/241

 made them like that, in my time. Or blue, trimmed with white.'

'No, pink and black, pink and black—to suit my complexion. Perhaps you didn't know I have a complexion; but there are very few things I haven't got! Anything at all I should fancy, you were so good as to say. Well now, I fancy that! Your ladyship does see the connection by this time, doesn't she?'

Lady Aurora looked distressed, as if she felt that she certainly ought to see it but was not sure that even yet it didn't escape her, and as if, at the same time, she were struck with the fact that this sudden evocation might result in a strain on the little dressmaker's resources. 'A pink dressing-gown would certainly be very becoming, and Miss Pynsent would be very kind,' she said; while Hyacinth made the mental comment that it was a largeish order, as Pinnie would have, obviously, to furnish the materials as well as the labour. The amiable coolness with which the invalid laid her under contribution was, however, to his sense, quite in character, and he reflected that, after all, when you were stretched on your back like that you had the right to reach out your hands (it wasn't far you could reach at best), and seize what you could get. Pinnie declared that she knew just the article Miss Muniment wanted, and that she would undertake to make a sweet thing of it; and Rosy went on to say that she must explain of what use such an article would be, but for this purpose there must be another guess. She would give it to Miss Pynsent and Hyacinth—as many times as they liked: What had she and Lady Aurora been talking about before they came in? She clasped her hands, and her