Page:The Princess Casamassima (London and New York, Macmillan & Co., 1886), Volume 3.djvu/176

 truth. And do you mean to say you never broke it to your big friend in the chemical line?'

'No, we have never talked about it.'

'Men are rare creatures!' Millicent cried. 'You never so much as mentioned it?'

'It wasn't necessary. He knew it otherwise—he knew it through his sister.'

'How do you know that, if he never spoke?'

'Oh, because he was jolly good to me,' said Hyacinth.

'Well, I don't suppose that ruined him,' Miss Henning rejoined. 'And how did his sister know it?'

'Oh, I don't know; she guessed it.'

Millicent stared. 'It was none of her business.' Then she added, 'He was jolly good to you? Ain't he good to you now?' She asked this question in her loud, free voice, which rang through the bright stillness of the place.

Hyacinth delayed for a minute to answer her, and when at last he did so it was without looking at her. 'I don't know; I can't make it out.'

'Well, I can, then!' And Millicent jerked him round toward her and inspected him with her big bright eyes. 'You silly baby, has he been serving you?' She pressed her question upon him; she asked if that was what disagreed with him. His lips gave her no answer, but apparently, after an instant, she found one in his face. 'Has he been making up to her ladyship—is that his game?' she broke out. 'Do you mean to say she'd look at the likes of him?'

'The likes of him? He's as fine a man as stands!' said Hyacinth. 'They have the same views, they are doing the same work.'