Page:The Princess Casamassima (London and New York, Macmillan & Co., 1886), Volume 2.djvu/265

 good enough,' the Princess resumed. 'Is there anything so ugly as unjust distinctions, as the privileges of the few contrasted with the degradation of the many? When we want to beautify, we must begin at the right end.'

'Surely there are none of us but what have our privileges!' Rose Muniment exclaimed, with eagerness. 'What do you say to mine, lying here between two members of the aristocracy, and with Mr. Hyacinth thrown in?'

'You are certainly lucky—with Lady Aurora Langrish. I wish she would come and see me,' the Princess murmured, getting up.

'Do go, my lady, and tell me if it's so poor!' Rosy went on, gaily.

'I think there can't be too many pictures and statues and works of art,' Hyacinth broke out. 'The more the better, whether people are hungry or not. In the way of ameliorating influences, are not those the most definite?'

'A piece of bread and butter is more to the purpose, if your stomach's empty,' the Princess declared.

'Robinson has been corrupted by foreign influences,' Paul Muniment suggested. 'He doesn't care for bread and butter now; he likes French cookery.'

'Yes, but I don't get it. And have you sent away the little man, the Italian, with the white cap and apron?' Hyacinth asked of the Princess.

She hesitated a moment, and then she replied, laughing, and not in the least offended at his question, though it was an attempt to put her in the wrong from which Hyacinth had not been able to refrain, in his astonishment at these ascetic pretensions, 'I have sent him away many times!'

Lady Aurora had also got up; she stood there gazing