Page:The Princess Casamassima (London and New York, Macmillan & Co., 1886), Volume 3.djvu/66

 Would not some one else do Hyacinth Robinson's work quite as well? Is it necessary to take a nature so delicate, so intellectual? Oughtn't we to keep him for something finer?'

'Finer than what?'

'Than what Hoffendahl will call upon him to do.'

'And pray what is that?' the young man demanded. 'You know nothing about it; no more do I,' he added in a moment. 'It will require whatever it will. Besides, if some one else might have done it, no one else volunteered. It happened that Robinson did.'

'Yes, and you nipped him up!' the Princess exclaimed.

At this expression Muniment burst out laughing. 'I have no doubt you can easily keep him, if you want him.'

'I should like to do it in his place—that's what I should like,' said the Princess.

'As I say, you don't even know what it is.'

'It may be nothing,' she went on, with her grave eyes fixed on her visitor. 'I dare say you think that what I wanted to see you for was to beg you to let him off. But it wasn't. Of course it's his own affair, and you can do nothing. But oughtn't it to make some difference, when his opinions have changed?'

'His opinions? He never had any opinions,' Muniment replied. 'He is not like you and me.'

'Well, then, his feelings, his attachments. He hasn't the passion for democracy he had when I first knew him. He's much more tepid.'

'Ah, well, he's quite right.'

The Princess stared. 'Do you mean that you are giving up?'