Page:The Princess Casamassima (London and New York, Macmillan & Co., 1886), Volume 3.djvu/124

 He gave a louder laugh at this, and said, 'You're the deepest of the lot, Miss Muniment.'

Her eyes kindled at his praise, and as she rested them on her brother's she murmured, 'Well, I pity the poor Princess, too, you know.'

'Well, now, I'm not conceited, but I don't,' Paul returned, passing in front of the little mirror on the mantelshelf.

'Yes, you'll succeed, and so shall I—but she won't,' Rosy went on.

Muniment stopped a moment, with his hand on the latch of the door, and said, gravely, almost sententiously, 'She is not only beautiful, as beautiful as a picture, but she is uncommon sharp, and she has taking ways, beyond anything that ever was known.'

'I know her ways,' his sister replied. Then, as he left the room, she called after him, 'But I don't care for anything, so long as you become prime minister of England!'

Three quarters of an hour after this Muniment knocked at the door in Madeira Crescent, and was immediately ushered into the parlour, where the Princess, in her bonnet and mantle, sat alone. She made no movement as he came in; she only looked up at him with a smile.

'You are braver than I gave you credit for,' she said, in her rich voice.

'I shall learn to be brave, if I associate a while longer with you. But I shall never cease to be shy,' Muniment added, standing there and looking tall in the middle of the small room. He cast his eyes about him for a place to sit down, but the Princess gave him no help to choose; she only watched him, in silence, from her own place,