Page:The Princess Casamassima (London and New York, Macmillan & Co., 1886), Volume 3.djvu/32

 'She has known a great many bad people, and she wants to know some good,' Hyacinth rejoined. 'Therefore be sure to go to her soon.'

'She looks as if she had known nothing bad since she was born,' said Lady Aurora, rapturously. 'I can't imagine her going into all the dreadful places that she would have to.'

'You have gone into them, and it hasn't hurt you,' Hyacinth suggested.

'How do you know that? My family think it has.'

'You make me glad that I haven't a family,' said the young man.

'And the Princess—has she no one?'

'Ah, yes, she has a husband. But she doesn't live with him.'

'Is he one of the bad persons?' asked Lady Aurora, as earnestly as a child listening to a tale.

'Well, I don't like to abuse him, because he is down.'

'If I were a man, I should be in love with her,' said Lady Aurora. Then she pursued, 'I wonder whether we might work together.'

'That's exactly what she hopes.'

'I won't show her the worst places,' said her ladyship, smiling.

To which Hyacinth replied, 'I suspect you will do what every one else has done, namely, exactly what she wants!' Before he took leave he said to her, 'Do you know whether Paul Muniment liked the Princess?'

Lady Aurora meditated a moment, apparently with some intensity. 'I think he considered her extraordinarily beautiful—the most beautiful person he had ever seen.'