Page:The Princess Casamassima (London and New York, Macmillan & Co., 1886), Volume 3.djvu/155

 here in the street—I have passed my day in the street! They came out together, and I watched them, I followed them.'

Hyacinth had listened with wonder, and even with suspense; the Prince's manner gave an air of such importance, such mystery, to what he had to relate. But at this he broke out: 'This is not my business—I can't hear it! I don't watch, I don't follow.'

The Prince stared a moment, in surprise; then he rejoined, more quickly than he had spoken yet, 'But they went to a house where they conspire, where they prepare horrible acts. How can you like that?'

'How do you know it, sir?' Hyacinth inquired, gravely.

'It is Madame Grandoni who has told me.'

'Why, then, do you ask me?'

'Because I am not sure, I don't think she knows. I want to know more, to be sure of what is done in that house. Does she go there only for the revolution,' the Prince demanded, 'or does she go there to be alone with him?'

'With him?' The Prince's tone and his excited eyes infused a kind of vividness into the suggestion.

'With the tall man—the chemist. They got into a hansom together; the house is far away, in the lost quarters.'

Hyacinth drew himself together. 'I know nothing about the matter, and I don't care. If that is all you wish to ask me, we had better separate.'

The Prince's face elongated; it seemed to grow paler. 'Then it is not true that you hate those abominations!'