Page:The Princess Casamassima (London and New York, Macmillan & Co., 1886), Volume 3.djvu/242

 'That was quite right of him, bless him!' Muniment exclaimed.

The Princess closed her eyes a moment, and when she opened them again Muniment had risen and was standing before her. 'What do they want him to do?' she asked.

'I am like Hyacinth; I think I had better not tell you—at least till it's over.'

'And when will it be over?'

'They give him several days and, I believe, minute instructions,' said Muniment; 'with, however, considerable discretion in respect to seizing his chance. The thing is made remarkably easy for him. All this I know from Schinkel, who himself knew nothing on Sunday, being a a mere medium of transmission, but who saw Hyacinth yesterday morning.'

'Schinkel trusts you, then?' the Princess remarked.

Muniment looked at her steadily a moment. 'Yes, but he won't trust you. Hyacinth is to receive a card of invitation to a certain big house,' he went on, 'a card with the name left in blank, so that he may fill it out himself. It is to be good for each of two grand parties which are to be given at a few days' interval. That's why they give him the job—because at a grand party he'll look in his place.'

'He will like that,' said the Princess, musingly—'repaying hospitality with a pistol-shot.'

'If he doesn't like it he needn't do it.'

The Princess made no rejoinder to this, but in a moment she said, 'I can easily find out the place you mean—the big house where two parties are to be given at a few days' interval and where the master is worth your powder.'

'Easily, no doubt. And do you want to warn him?'