Page:The Princess Casamassima (London and New York, Macmillan & Co., 1886), Volume 3.djvu/228

 a vulgar form of social neglect; and she scarcely seemed to notice whether it were a good or a poor excuse when he said he had stayed away because he knew her to be extremely busy. But she did not deny the impeachment; she admitted that she had been busier than ever in her life before. She looked at him as if he would know what that meant, and he remarked that he was very sorry for her.

'Because you think it's all a mistake? Yes, I know that. Perhaps it is; but if it is, it's a magnificent one. If you were scared about me three or four months ago, I don't know what you would think to-day if you knew! I have risked everything.'

'Fortunately I don't know,' said Hyacinth.

'No, indeed, how should you?'

'And to tell the truth,' he went on, 'that is really the reason I haven't been back here till to-night. I haven't wanted to know—I have feared and hated to know.'

'Then why did you come at last?'

Hyacinth hesitated a moment. 'Out of a kind of inconsistent curiosity.'

I suppose then you would like me to tell you where I have been to-night, eh?'

'No, my curiosity is satisfied. I have learned something what I mainly wanted to know without your telling me.'

'She stared an instant. 'Ah, you mean whether Madame Grandoni was gone? I suppose Assunta told you.'

'Yes, Assunta told me, and I was sorry to hear it.'

The Princess looked grave, as if her old friend's