Page:The Princess Casamassima (London and New York, Macmillan & Co., 1886), Volume 3.djvu/197

 Qr'est-ce qu'il dit—qu'est-ce qu'il dit, le pauvre chéri? Madame Poupin demanded, eagerly; while Schinkel looked very hard at her husband, as if to ask for direction.

'My dear child, vous vous faites des idées!' the latter exclaimed, laying his hand on him remonstrantly.

But Hyacinth pushed away his chair and got up. 'If you have anything to tell me, it is cruel of you to let me see it, as you have done, and yet not satisfy me.'

'Why should I have anything to tell you?' Schinkel asked.

'I don't know that, but I believe you have. I perceive things, I guess things, quickly. That's my nature at all times, and I do it much more now.'

'You do it indeed; it is very wonderful,' said Schinkel.

'Mr. Schinkel, will you do me the pleasure to go away—I don't care where—out of this house?' Madame Poupin broke out, in French.

'Yes, that will be the best thing, and I will go with you,' said Hyacinth.

'If you would retire, my child, I think it would be a service that you would render us,' Poupin returned, appealing to his young friend. 'Won't you do us the justice to believe that you may leave your interests in our hands?'

Hyacinth hesitated a moment; it was now perfectly clear to him that Schinkel had some sort of message for him, and his curiosity as to what it might be had become nearly intolerable. 'I am surprised at your weakness,' he observed, as sternly as he could manage it, to Poupin.

The Frenchman stared at him an instant, and then fell on his neck. 'You are sublime, my young friend—you are sublime!'