Page:The Princess Casamassima (London and New York, Macmillan & Co., 1886), Volume 3.djvu/44

 of this wonderful lady; she had always had the manner of a kind of indulgent incredulity about Hyacinth's social adventures, and he saw the day might easily come when she would begin to talk of the Princess as if she herself had been the first to discover her. She had much to say, however, about the nature of the acquaintance Lady Aurora had formed with her, and she was mainly occupied with the glory she had drawn upon herself by bringing two such exalted persons together. She fancied them alluding, in the great world, to the occasion on which 'we first met, at Miss Muniment's, you know;' and she related how Lady Aurora, who had been in Audley Court the day before, had declared that she owed her a debt she could never repay. The two ladies had liked each other more, almost, than they liked any one; and wasn't it a rare picture to think of them moving hand in hand, like twin roses, through the bright upper air? Muniment inquired, in rather a coarse, unsympathetic way, what the mischief she ever wanted of her; which led Hyacinth to demand in return, 'What do you mean? What does who want of whom?'

'What does the beauty want of our poor lady? She has a totally different stamp. I don't know much about women, but I can see that.'

'How do you mean—a different stamp? They both have the stamp of their rank!' cried Rosy.

'Who can ever tell what women want, at any time?' Hyacinth said, with the off-handedness of a man of the world.

'Well, my boy, if you don't know any more than I, you disappoint me! Perhaps if we wait long enough she will tell us some day herself.'