Page:The Princess Casamassima (London and New York, Macmillan & Co., 1886), Volume 3.djvu/69

 now, for we shall be interrupted; I hear my old lady on the stairs. For this, you must come to see me again.'

At this point the door opened, and Madame Grandoni appeared, cautiously, creepingly, as if she didn't know what might be going on in the parlour. 'Yes, I will come again,' said Paul Muniment, in a low but distinct tone; and he walked away, passing Madame Grandoni on the threshold, without having exchanged the hand-shake of farewell with his hostess. In the hall he paused an instant, feeling she was behind him; and he learned that she had not come to exact from him this omitted observance, but to say once more, dropping her voice, so that her companion, through the open door, might not hear—

'I could get money—I could!'

Muniment passed his hand through his hair, and, as if he had not heard her, remarked, 'I have not given you, after all, half Rosy's messages.'

'Oh, that doesn't matter!' the Princess answered, turning back into the parlour.

Madame Grandoni was in the middle of the room, wrapped in her old shawl, looking vaguely around her, and the two ladies heard the house-door close. 'And pray, who may that be? Isn't it a new face?' the elder one inquired.

'He's the brother of the little person I took you to see over the river—the chattering cripple with the wonderful manners.'

'Ah, she had a brother! That, then, was why you went?'

It was striking, the good-humour with which the Princess received this rather coarse thrust, which could have been