Page:The Princess Casamassima (London and New York, Macmillan & Co., 1886), Volume 1.djvu/244

 'Those you kindly offered to lend me? I didn't know it was an understanding.'

Lady Aurora gave an uneasy laugh. 'I have picked them out; they are quite ready.'

'It's very kind of you,' the young man rejoined. 'I will come and get them some day, with pleasure.' He was not very sure that he would; but it was the least he could say.

'She'll tell you where I live, you know,' Lady Aurora went on, with a movement of her head in the direction of the bed, as if she were too shy to mention it herself.

'Oh, I have no doubt she knows the way—she could tell me every street and every turn!' Hyacinth exclaimed.

'She has made me describe to her, very often, how I come and go. I think that few people know more about London than she. She never forgets anything.'

'She's a wonderful little witch—she terrifies me!' said Hyacinth.

Lady Aurora turned her modest eyes upon him. 'Oh, she's so good, she's so patient!'

'Yes, and so wise, and so self-possessed.'

'Oh, she's immensely clever,' said her ladyship. 'Which do you think the cleverest?'

'The cleverest?'

'I mean of the girl and her brother.'

'Oh, I think he, some day, will be prime minister of England.'

'Do you really? I'm so glad!' cried Lady Aurora, with a flush of colour in her face. 'I'm so glad you think that will be possible. You know it ought to be, if things were right.'