Page:The Princess Casamassima (London and New York, Macmillan & Co., 1886), Volume 1.djvu/257

 said, 'and I don't find that he has picked my pocket. He looked as if he would like me to suggest that he should stand as one of our own men, one of the Bloomsbury lot. He asks too many questions, but he makes up for it by not paying any attention to the answers. He told me he would give the world to see a working-man's "interior." I didn't know what he meant at first: he wanted a favourable specimen, one of the best; he had seen one or two that he didn't believe to be up to the average. I suppose he meant Schinkel, the cabinetmaker, and he wanted to compare. I told him I didn't know what sort of a specimen my place would be, but that he was welcome to look round, and that it contained at any rate one or two original features. I expect he has found that's the case—with Rosy and the noble lady. I wanted to show him off to Rosy; he's good for that, if he isn't good for anything else. I told him we expected a little company this evening, so it might be a good time; and he assured me that to mingle in such an occasion as that was the dream of his existence. He seemed in a rare hurry, as if I were going to show him a hidden treasure, and insisted on driving me over in a hansom. Perhaps his idea is to introduce the use of cabs among the working-classes; certainly, I'll vote for him for Parliament, if that's his line. On our way over he talked to me about you; told me you were an intimate friend of his.'

'What did he say about me?' Hyacinth inquired, with promptness.

'Vain little beggar!'

'Did he call me that?' said Hyacinth, ingenuously.

'He said you were simply astonishing.'