Page:The Princess Casamassima (London and New York, Macmillan & Co., 1886), Volume 3.djvu/157

 proceedings of the couple who alighted. It was in fact the Princess, accompanied by Paul Muniment. Hyacinth noticed that the latter paid the cabman, who immediately drove away, from his own pocket. He stood with the Princess for some minutes at the door of the house—minutes during which Hyacinth felt his heart beat insanely, ignobly, he couldn't tell why.

'What does he say? what does she say?' hissed the Prince; and when he demanded, the next moment, 'Will he go in again, or will he go away?' our sensitive youth felt that a voice was given to his own most eager thought. The pair were talking together, with rapid sequences, and as the door had not yet been opened it was clear that, to prolong the conversation on the steps, the Princess delayed to ring. 'It will make three, four, hours he has been with her,' moaned the Prince.

'He may be with her fifty hours!' Hyacinth answered, with a laugh, turning away, ashamed of himself.

'He has gone in—sangue di Dio!' cried the Prince, catching his companion again by the arm and making him look. All that Hyacinth saw was the door just closing; the Princess and Muniment were on the other side of it. 'Is that for the revolution?' the trembling nobleman panted. But Hyacinth made no answer; he only gazed at the closed door an instant, and then, disengaging himself, walked straight away, leaving the Italian, in the darkness, to direct a great helpless, futile shake of his stick at the indifferent house.