Page:The Princess Casamassima (London and New York, Macmillan & Co., 1886), Volume 2.djvu/94

 'No doubt, no doubt; what else should it be? You shall never share my fate, if I have a fate and I can prevent it!' said Muniment, laughing.

Eustache Poupin stared at him and his merriment, as if he thought the English frivolous as well as calculating; then he rejoined, 'If I suffer, I trust it may be for suffering humanity, but I trust it may also be for France.'

'Oh, I hope you ain't going to suffer any more for France,' said Mr. Griffin. 'Hasn't it done that insatiable old country of yours some good, by this time, all you've had to put up with?'

'Well, I want to know what Hoffendahl has come over for; it's very kind of him, I'm sure. What is he going to do for us?—that's what I want to know,' remarked in a loud, argumentative tone a personage at the end of the table most distant from Muniment's place. His name was Delancey, and he gave himself out as holding a position in a manufactory of soda-water; but Hyacinth had a secret belief that he was really a hairdresser—a belief connected with a high, lustrous curl, or crest, which he wore on the summit of his large head, and the manner in which he thrust over his ear, as if it were a barber's comb, the pencil with which he was careful to take notes of the discussions carried on at the 'Sun and Moon.' His opinions were distinct and frequently expressed; he had a watery (Muniment had once called it a soda-watery) eye, and a personal aversion to a lord. He desired to change everything except religion, of which he approved.

Muniment answered that he was unable to say, as yet, what the German revolutionist had come to England for, but that he hoped to be able to give some information