Page:The Princess Casamassima (London and New York, Macmillan & Co., 1886), Volume 3.djvu/26

 wrong. That has been the way with most of the people I have liked; they have run away from me à toutes jambes. Oh, I have inspired aversions!' laughed the Princess, handing Hyacinth his cup of tea. He recognised it by the aroma as a mixture not inferior to that of which he had partaken at Medley. 'I have never succeeded in knowing any one who would do me good; for by the time I began to improve, under their influence, they could put up with me no longer.'

'You told me you were going to visit the poor. I don't understand what your Gräfin was doing there,' said Madame Grandoni.

'She had come out of charity—in the same way as I. She evidently goes about immensely over there; I shall entreat her to take me with her.'

'I thought you had promised to let me be your guide, in those explorations,' Hyacinth remarked.

The Princess looked at him a moment. 'Dear Mr. Robinson, Lady Aurora knows more than you.'

'There have been times, surely, when you have complimented me on my knowledge.'

'Oh, I mean more about the lower classes!' the Princess exclaimed; and, oddly enough, there was a sense in which Hyacinth was unable to deny the allegation. He presently returned to something she had said a moment before, declaring that it had not been the way with Madame Grandoni and him to take to their heels, and to this she replied, 'Oh, you'll run away yet; don't be afraid!'

'I think that if I had been capable of quitting you I should have done it by this time; I have neglected such opportunities,' the old lady sighed. Hyacinth now