Page:The Princess Casamassima (London and New York, Macmillan & Co., 1886), Volume 3.djvu/177

 'Oh, he hasn't changed his opinions, then—not like you?'

'No, he knows what he wants; he knows what he thinks.'

'Very much the same work, I'll be bound!' cried Millicent, in large derision. 'He knows what he wants, and I dare say he'll get it.'

Hyacinth got up, turning away from her; but she also rose, and passed her hand into his arm. 'It's their own business; they can do as they please.'

'Oh, don't try to be a saint; you put me out of patience!' the girl responded, with characteristic energy. 'They're a precious pair, and it would do me good to hear you say so.'

'A man shouldn't turn against his friends,' Hyacinth went on, with desperate sententiousness.

'That's for them to remember; there's no danger of your forgetting it.' They had begun to walk, but she stopped him; she was suddenly smiling at him, and her face was radiant. She went on, with caressing inconsequence: 'All that you have told me—it has made you nicer.'

'I don't see that, but it has certainly made you so. My dear girl, you're a comfort,' Hyacinth added, as they strolled on again.