Page:The Princess Casamassima (London and New York, Macmillan & Co., 1886), Volume 3.djvu/48

 'I might as well be sweet on the dome of St. Paul's, which I just make out off there.'

'The dome of St. Paul's doesn't come to see you, and doesn't ask you to return the visit.'

'Oh, I don't return visits—I've got a lot of jobs of my own to do. If I don't put myself out for the Princess, isn't that a sufficient answer to your question?'

'I'm by no means sure,' said Hyacinth. 'If you went to see her, simply and civilly, because she asked you, I shouldn't regard it as a proof that you had taken a fancy to her. Your hanging off is more suspicious; it may mean that you don't trust yourself—that you are in danger of falling in love if you go in for a more intimate acquaintance.'

'It's a rum job, your wanting me to make up to her. I shouldn't think it would suit your book,' Muniment rejoined, staring at the sky, with his hands clasped under his head.

'Do you suppose I'm afraid of you?' his companion asked. 'Besides,' Hyacinth added in a moment, 'why the devil should I care, now?'

Muniment, for a little, made no rejoinder; he turned over on his side, and with his arm resting on the ground leaned his head on his hand. Hyacinth felt his eyes on his face, but he also felt himself colouring, and didn't meet them. He had taken a private vow never to indulge, to Muniment, in certain inauspicious references, and the words he had just spoken had slipped out of his mouth too easily. 'What do you mean by that?' Paul demanded, at last; and when Hyacinth looked at him he saw nothing but his companion's strong, fresh, irresponsible face. Muniment,