Page:The Princess Casamassima (London and New York, Macmillan & Co., 1886), Volume 2.djvu/136

 ceremonial garment to have evaded this discomfort successfully enough. 'Do not sit up late,' she added; 'and do not keep him, Christina. Remember that for an active young man like Mr. Robinson, going every day to his work, there is nothing more exhausting than such an unoccupied life as ours. For what do we do, after all? His eyes are very heavy. Basta!'

During this little address the Princess, who made no rejoinder to that part of it which concerned herself, remained hidden behind her fan; but after Madame Grandoni had wandered away she lowered this emblazoned shield and rested her eyes for a while on Hyacinth. At last she said, 'Don't sit half a mile off. Come nearer to me. I want to say something to you that I can't shout across the room.' Hyacinth instantly got up, but at the same moment she also rose; so that, approaching each other, they met half-way, before the great marble chimney-piece. She stood a little, opening and closing her fan; then she remarked, 'You must be surprised at my not having yet spoken to you about our great interest.'

'No, indeed, I am not surprised at anything.'

'When you take that tone I feel as if we should never, after all, become friends,' said the Princess.

'I hoped we were, already. Certainly, after the kindness you have shown me, there is no service of friendship that you might ask of me'

'That you wouldn't gladly perform? I know what you are going to say, and have no doubt you speak truly. But what good would your service do me if, all the while, you think of me as a hollow-headed, hollow-hearted trifler, behaving in the worst possible taste and oppressing you with