Page:The Princess Casamassima (London and New York, Macmillan & Co., 1886), Volume 3.djvu/218

 in ghosts I should believe I had seen her. She wasn't there for nothing; she was there to add her fears to mine—to talk to me about you. I tried to hush her up, but it was no use—she drove me out of the house. About ten o'clock I took my hat and stick and came down here. You may judge whether I thought it important, as I took a cab.'

'Ah, why do you spend your money so foolishly?' asked Hyacinth, in a tone of the most affectionate remonstrance.

'Will you come to-night?' said the old man, for all rejoinder, holding him still.

'Surely, it would be simpler for you to stay here. I see perfectly that you are ill and nervous. You can take the bed, and I'll spend the night in the chair.'

The fiddler thought a moment. 'No, you'll hate me if I subject you to such discomfort as that; and that's just what I don't want.'

'It won't be a bit different in your room; there, as here, I shall have to sleep in a chair.'

'I'll get another room; we shall be close together,' the fiddler went on.

'Do you mean you'll get another room at this hour of the night, with your little house stuffed full and your people all in bed? My poor Anastasius, you are very bad; your reason totters on its throne,' said Hyacinth, humorously and indulgently.

'Very good, we'll get a room to-morrow. I'll move into another house, where there are two, side by side.' Hyacinth's tone was evidently soothing to him.

Comme vous y allez! the young man continued.