Page:The Princess Casamassima (London and New York, Macmillan & Co., 1886), Volume 2.djvu/183

 queer combination. Trifler as he was, there was something sinister in him too; and she confessed she had had a vague feeling, at times, that some day he might do her a hurt. Hyacinth, at this, stopped short, on the threshold of the drawing-room, and asked in a low voice, 'Are you afraid of him?'

The Princess looked at him a moment; then smiling, 'Dio mio, how you say that! Should you like to kill him for me?'

'I shall have to kill some one, you know. Why not him, while I'm about it, if he troubles you?'

'Ah, my friend, if you should begin to kill every one who had troubled me!' the Princess murmured, as they went into the room.