Page:The Princess Casamassima (London and New York, Macmillan & Co., 1886), Volume 2.djvu/163

 a smile and a movement of the whip-handle. Hyacinth stared with surprise, not having heard from the Princess that she was expecting him. He gathered, however, in a moment, that she was not; and meanwhile he received an impression, on Sholto's part, of riding-gear that was 'knowing'—of gaiters and spurs and a curious waistcoat; perceiving that this was a phase of the Captain's varied nature which he had not yet had an opportunity to observe. He struck him as very high in the air, perched on his big, lean chestnut, and Hyacinth noticed that if the horse was heated the rider was cool.

'Good-morning, my dear fellow. I thought I should find you here!' the Captain exclaimed. 'It's a good job I've met you this way, without having to go to the house.'

'Who gave you reason to think I was here?' Hyacinth asked; partly occupied with the appositeness of this inquiry and partly thinking, as his eyes wandered over his handsome friend, bestriding so handsome a beast, what a jolly thing it would be to know how to ride. He had already, during the few days he had been at Medley, had time to observe that the knowledge of luxury and the extension of one's sensations beget a taste for still newer pleasures.

'Why, I knew the Princess was capable of asking you,' Sholto said; 'and I learned at the "Sun and Moon" that you had not been there for a long time. I knew furthermore that as a general thing you go there a good deal, don't you? So I put this and that together, and judged you were out of town.'

This was very luminous and straightforward, and might have satisfied Hyacinth were it not for that irritating