Page:The Princess Casamassima (London and New York, Macmillan & Co., 1886), Volume 2.djvu/264

 about?' Lady Aurora, with sudden courage, queried of her distinguished companion, pointing her chin at her but looking into the upper angle of the room.

'I suppose one must always settle that for one's self. I don't like to be surrounded with objects I don't care for; and I can care only for one thing—that is, for one class of things—at a time. Dear lady,' the Princess went on, 'I fear I must confess to you that my heart is not in bibelots. When thousands and tens of thousands haven't bread to put in their mouths, I can dispense with tapestry and old china.' And her fair face, bent charmingly, conciliatingly, on Lady Aurora, appeared to argue that if she was narrow at least she was candid.

Hyacinth wondered, rather vulgarly, what strange turn she had taken, and whether this singular picture of her denuded personality were not one of her famous caprices, a whimsical joke, a nervous perversity. Meanwhile, he heard Lady Aurora urge, anxiously, 'But don't you think we ought to make the world more beautiful?'

'Doesn't the Princess make it so by the mere fact of her existence?' Hyacinth demanded; his perplexity escaping, in a harmless manner, through this graceful hyperbole. He had observed that, though the lady in question could dispense with old china and tapestry, she could not dispense with a pair of immaculate gloves, which fitted her like a charm.

'My people have a mass of things, you know, but I have really nothing myself,' said Lady Aurora, as if she owed this assurance to such a representative of suffering humanity.

'The world will be beautiful enough when it becomes