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THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 
 
THE 
 
 PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 
 
 Jt 
 
 BY 
 
 HENRY JAMES 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES 
 VOL. I. 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO. 
 
 AND NEW YORK 
 1886 
 
COPYRIGHT 
 
 1886 
 BY HENRY JAMES 
 
BOOK FIRST 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
THE 
 
 PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 
 
 * OH yes, I daresay I can find the child, if you would like 
 to see him,' Miss Pynsent said ; she had a fluttering wish to 
 assent to every suggestion made by her visitor, whom she 
 regarded as a high and rather terrible personage. To look 
 for the little boy she came out of her small parlour, which 
 she had been ashamed to exhibit in so untidy a state, with 
 paper c patterns ' lying about on the furniture and snippings 
 of stuff scattered over the carpet she came out of this some- 
 what stuffy sanctuary, dedicated at once to social intercourse 
 and to the ingenious art to which her life had been devoted, 
 and, opening the house door, turned her eyes up and down 
 the little street. It would presently be tea-time, and she 
 knew that at that solemn hour Hyacinth narrowed the circle 
 of his wanderings. She was anxious and impatient, and in 
 a fever of excitement and complacency, not wanting to keep 
 Mrs. Bowerbank waiting, though she sat there, heavily and 
 consideringly, as if she meant to stay ; and wondering not 
 a little whether the object of her quest would have a dirty 
 face. Mrs. Bowerbank had intimated so definitely that she 
 thought it remarkable on Miss Pynsent's part to have taken 
 
THE PRINCESS CASAMASS2MA 
 
 care of him gratuitously for so many years, that the humble 
 dressmaker, whose imagination took flights about every one 
 but herself, and who had never been conscious of an 
 exemplary benevolence, suddenly aspired to appear, through- 
 out, as devoted to the child as she had struck her solemn, 
 substantial guest as being, and felt how much she should 
 like him to come in fresh and frank, and looking as pretty 
 as he sometimes did. Miss Pynsent, who blinked con- 
 fusedly as she surveyed the outer prospect, was very much 
 flushed, partly with the agitation of what Mrs. Bowerbank 
 had told her, and partly because, when she offered that 
 lady a drop of something refreshing, at the end of so long 
 an expedition, she had said she couldn't think of touching 
 anything unless Miss Pynsent would keep her company. 
 The cheffonier (as Amanda was always careful to call it), 
 beside the fireplace, yielded up a small bottle which had 
 formerly contained eau-de-cologne and which now exhibited 
 half a pint of a rich gold-coloured liquid. Miss Pynsent 
 was very delicate ; she lived on tea and watercress, and she 
 kept the little bottle in the cheffonier only for great emer- 
 gencies. She Didn't like hot brandy and water, with a 
 lump or two of sugar, but she partook of half a tumbler 
 on the present occasion, which was of a highly exceptional 
 kind. At this time of day the boy was often planted in 
 front of the little sweet-shop on the other side of the street, 
 an establishment where periodical literature, as well as 
 tough toffy and hard lollipops, was dispensed, and where 
 song-books and pictorial sheets were attractively exhibited 
 in the small-paned, dirty window. He used to stand there 
 for half an hour at a time, spelling out the first page of 
 the romances in the Family Herald w\& the London Journal, 
 
THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 
 
 and admiring the obligatory illustration in which the noble 
 characters (they were always of the highest birth) were pre- 
 sented to the carnal eye. When he had a penny he spent 
 only a fraction of it on stale sugar -candy; with the 
 remaining halfpenny he always bought a ballad, with a 
 vivid woodcut at the top. Now, however, he was not at 
 his post of contemplation ; nor was he visible anywhere to 
 Miss Pynsent's impatient glance. 
 
 ' Millicent Henning, tell me quickly, have you seen my 
 child ? ' These words were addressed by Miss Pynsent to 
 a little girl who sat on the doorstep of the adjacent house, 
 nursing a dingy doll, and who had an extraordinary luxuri- 
 ance of dark brown hair, surmounted by a torn straw hat. 
 Miss Pynsent pronounced her name Enning. 
 
 The child looked up from her dandling and patting, and 
 after a stare of which the blankness was somewhat exag- 
 gerated, replied: 'Law no, Miss Pynsent, I never see him.' 
 
 ' Aren't you always messing about with him, you naughty 
 little girl ? ' the dressmaker returned, with sharpness. ' Isn't 
 he round the corner, playing marbles, or or some jumping 
 game ? ' Miss Pynsent went on, trying to be suggestive. 
 
 ' I assure you, he never plays nothing,' said Millicent 
 Henning, with a mature manner which she bore .out by 
 adding, ' And I don't know why I should be called naughty, 
 neither.' 
 
 ' Well, if you want to be called good, please go and find 
 him and tell him there's a lady here come on purpose to 
 see him, this very instant.' Miss Pynsent waited a moment, 
 to see if her injunction would be obeyed, but she got no 
 satisfaction beyond another gaze of deliberation, which 
 made her feel that the child's perversity was as great as the 
 
THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 
 
 beauty, somewhat soiled and dimmed, of her insolent little 
 face. She turned back into the house, with an exclama- 
 tion of despair, and as soon as she had disappeared Millicent 
 Henning sprang erect and began to race down the street in 
 the direction of another, which crossed it. I take no unfair 
 advantage of the innocence of childhood in saying that the 
 motive of this young lady's flight was not a desire to be 
 agreeable to Miss Pynsent, but an extreme curiosity on the 
 subject of the visitor who wanted to see Hyacinth Robinson. 
 She wished to participate, if only in imagination, in the 
 interview that might take place, and she was moved also by 
 a quick revival of friendly feeling for the boy, from whom 
 she had parted only half an hour before with considerable 
 asperity. She was not a very clinging little creature, and 
 there was no one in her own domestic circle to whom she 
 was much attached ; but she liked to kiss Hyacinth when 
 he didn't push her away and tell her she was tiresome. 
 It was in this action and epithet he had indulged half an 
 hour ago ; but she had reflected rapidly (while she stared at 
 Miss Pynsent) that this was the worst he had ever done. 
 Millicent Henning was only eight years of age, but she 
 knew there was worse in the world than that. 
 
 Mrs. Bowerbank, in a leisurely, roundabout way, wandered 
 off to her sister, Mrs. Chipperfield, whom she had come into 
 that part of the world to see, and the whole history of the 
 dropsical tendencies of whose husband, an undertaker with 
 a business that had been a blessing because you could 
 always count on it, she unfolded to Miss Pynsent between 
 the sips of a second glass. She was a high-shouldered, 
 towering woman, and suggested squareness as well as a 
 pervasion of the upper air, so that Amanda reflected that 
 
THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 
 
 she must be very difficult to fit, and had a sinking at the 
 idea of the number of pins she would take. Her sister had 
 nine children and she herself had seven, the eldest of whom 
 she left in charge of the others when she went to her service. 
 She was on duty at the prison only during the day ; she 
 had to be there at seven in the morning, but she got her 
 evenings at home, quite regular and comfortable. Miss 
 Pynsent thought it wonderful she could talk of comfort in 
 such a life as that, but could easily imagine she should be 
 glad to get away at night, for at that time the place must 
 be much more terrible. 
 
 ' And aren't you frightened of them ever?' she inquired, 
 looking up at her visitor with her little heated face. 
 
 Mrs. Bowerbank was very slow, and considered her so 
 long before replying, that she felt herself to be, in an 
 alarming degree, in the eye of the law ; for who could be 
 more closely connected with the administration of justice 
 than a female turnkey, especially so big and majestic a one ? 
 ' I expect they are more frightened of me,' she replied at 
 last; and it was an idea into which Miss Pynsent could 
 easily enter. 
 
 ' And at night I suppose they rave, quite awful,' the 
 little dressmaker suggested, feeling vaguely that prisons and 
 madhouses came very much to the same. 
 
 'Well, if they do, we hush 'em up,' Mrs. Bowerbank 
 remarked, rather portentously ; while Miss Pynsent fidgeted 
 to the door again, without results, to see if the child had 
 become visible. She observed to her guest that she couldn't 
 call it anything but contrary that he should not turn up, 
 when he knew so well, most days in the week, when his 
 tea was ready. To which Mrs. Bowerbank rejoined, fixing 
 
8 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA I 
 
 her companion again with the steady orb of justice, ' And 
 do he have his tea, that way, by himself, like a little gentle- 
 man?' 
 
 * Well, I try to give it to him tidy-like, at a suitable 
 hour,' said Miss Pynsent, guiltily. ' And there might be 
 some who would say that, for the matter of that, he is a 
 little gentleman,' she added, with an effort at mitigation 
 which, as she immediately became conscious, only involved 
 her more deeply. 
 
 c There are people silly enough to say anything. If it's 
 your parents that settle your station, the child hasn't much 
 to be thankful for,' Mrs. Bowerbank went on, in the manner 
 of a woman accustomed to looking facts in the face. 
 
 Miss Pynsent was very timid, but she adored the aristo- 
 cracy, and there were elements in the boy's life which she 
 was not prepared to sacrifice even to a person who repre- 
 sented such a possibility of grating bolts and clanking 
 chains. * I suppose we oughtn't to forget that his father 
 was very high,' she suggested, appealingly, with her hands 
 clasped tightly in her lap. 
 
 'His father? Who knows who he was? He doesn't 
 set up for having a father, does he ? ' 
 
 * But, surely, wasn't it proved that Lord Frederick ?' 
 
 c My dear woman, nothing was proved except that she 
 
 stabbed his lordship in the back with a very long knife, that 
 he died of the blow, and that she got the full sentence. 
 What does such a piece as that know about fathers ? The 
 less said about the poor child's ancestors the better ! ' 
 
 This view of the case caused Miss Pynsent fairly to gasp, 
 for it pushed over with a touch a' certain tall imaginative 
 structure which she had been piling up for years. Even as 
 
THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 
 
 she heard it crash around her she couldn't forbear the 
 attempt to save at least some of the material. ' Really 
 really,' she panted, ' she never had to do with any one but 
 the nobility ! ' 
 
 Mrs. Bowerbank surveyed her hostess with an expression- 
 less eye. ' My dear young lady, what does a respectable 
 little body like you, that sits all day with her needle and 
 scissors, know about the doings of a wicked low foreigner 
 that carries a knife ? I was there when she came in, and I 
 know, to what she had sunk. Her conversation w r as choice, 
 I assure you.' 
 
 ' Oh, it's very dreadful, and of course I know nothing in 
 particular,' Miss Pynsent quavered. ' But she wasn't low 
 when I worked at the same place with her, and she often 
 told me she would do nothing for any one that wasn't at 
 the very top.' 
 
 ' She might have talked to you of something that would 
 have done you both more good,' Mrs. Bowerbank remarked, 
 while the dressmaker felt rebuked in the past as well as in 
 the present. l At the very top, poor thing ! Well, she's at 
 the very bottom now. If she wasn't low when she worked, 
 it's a pity she didn't stick to her work ; and as for pride of 
 birth, that's an article I recommend your young friend to 
 leave to others. You had better believe what I say, because 
 I'm a woman of the world.' 
 
 Indeed she was, as Miss Pynsent felt, to whom all this 
 was very terrible, letting in the cold light of the penal 
 system on a dear, dim little theory. She had cared for the 
 child because maternity was in her nature, and this was the 
 only manner in which fortune had put it in her path to 
 become a mother. She had as few belongings as the baby, 
 
THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 
 
 and it had seemed to her that he would add to her import- 
 ance in the little world of Lomax Place (if she kept it a 
 secret how she came by him), quite in the proportion in 
 which she should contribute to his maintenance. Her 
 weakness and loneliness went out to his, and in the course 
 of time this united desolation was peopled by the dress- 
 maker's romantic mind with a hundred consoling evocations. 
 The boy proved neither a dunce nor a reprobate ; but what 
 endeared him to her most was her conviction that he 
 belonged, * by the left hand,' as she had read in a novel, to 
 an ancient and exalted race, the list of whose representatives 
 and the record of whose alliances she had once (when she 
 took home some work and was made to wait, alone, in a 
 lady's boudoir) had the opportunity of reading in a fat red 
 book, eagerly and tremblingly consulted. She bent her 
 head before Mrs. Bowerbank's overwhelming logic, but she 
 felt in her heart that she shouldn't give the child up for all 
 that, that she believed in him still, and that she recognised, 
 as distinctly as she revered, the quality of her betters. To 
 believe in Hyacinth, for Miss Pynsent, was to believe that 
 he was the son of the extremely immoral Lord Frederick. 
 She had, from his earliest age, made him feel that there 
 was a grandeur in his past, and as Mrs. Bowerbank would 
 be sure not to approve of such aberrations Miss Pynsent 
 prayed she might not question her on that part of the 
 business. It was not that, when it was necessary, the little 
 dressmaker had any scruple about using the arts of prevari- 
 cation ; she was a kind and innocent creature, but she told 
 fibs as freely as she invented trimmings. She had, however, 
 not yet been questioned by an emissary of the law, and her 
 heart beat faster when Mrs. Bowerbank said to her, in deep 
 
I THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA II 
 
 tones, with an effect of abruptness, ' And pray, Miss Pynsent, 
 does the child know it ? ' 
 
 ' Know about Lord Frederick ? ' Miss Pynsent palpi- 
 tated. 
 
 1 Bother Lord Frederick ! Know about his mother.' 
 * 'Oh, I can't say that. I have never told him.' 
 
 ' But has any one else told him ? ' 
 
 To this inquiry Miss Pynsent's answer was more prompt 
 and more proud ; it was with an agreeable sense of having 
 conducted herself with extraordinary wisdom and propriety 
 that she replied, ' How could any one know ? I have never 
 breathed it to a creature ! ' 
 
 Mrs. Bowerbank gave utterance to no commendation ; 
 she only put down her empty glass and wiped her large 
 mouth with much thoroughness and deliberation. Then 
 she said, as if it were as cheerful an idea as, in the pre- 
 mises, she was capable of expressing, * Ah, well, there'll be 
 plenty, later on, to give him all information ! ' 
 
 * I pray God he may live and die without knowing it ! ' 
 Miss Pynsent cried, with eagerness. 
 
 Her companion gazed at her with a kind of professional 
 patience. ' You don't keep your ideas together. How can 
 he go to her, then, if he's never to know ? ' 
 
 * Oh, did you mean she would tell him ? ' Miss Pynsent 
 responded, plaintively. 
 
 ' Tell him ! He won't need to be told, once she gets 
 hold of him and gives him what she told me.' 
 
 ' What she told you ? ' Miss Pynsent repeated, open- 
 eyed. 
 
 ' The kiss her lips have been famished for, for years.' 
 
 ' Ah, poor desolate woman ! ' the little dressmaker mur- 
 UNJVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
12 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA I 
 
 mured, with her pity gushing up again. ' Of course he'll 
 see she's fond of him,' she pursued, simply. Then she 
 added, with an inspiration more brilliant, 'We might tell 
 him she's his aunt ! ' 
 
 ' You may tell him she's his grandmother, if you like. 
 But it's all in the family.' 
 
 'Yes, on that side,' said Miss Pynsent, musingly and 
 irrepressibly. ' And will she speak French ? ' she inquired. 
 ' In that case he won't understand.' 
 
 ' Oh, a child will understand its own mother, whatever 
 she speaks,' Mrs. Bowerbank returned, declining to 
 administer a superficial comfort. But she subjoined, 
 opening the door for escape from a prospect which bristled 
 with dangers, ' Of course, it's just according to your own 
 conscience. You needn't bring the child at all, unless you 
 like. There's many a one that wouldn't. There's no 
 compulsion/ 
 
 ' And would nothing be done to me, if I didn't ? ' poor 
 Miss Pynsent asked, unable to rid herself of the impression 
 that it was somehow the arm. of the law that was stretched 
 out to touch her. 
 
 ' The only thing that could happen to you would be that 
 he might throw it up against you later,' the lady from the 
 prison observed, with a gloomy impartiality. 
 
 'Yes, indeed, if he were to know that I had kept him 
 back.' 
 
 ' Oh, he'd be sure to know, one of these days. We see 
 a great deal of that the way things come out,' said Mrs. 
 Bowerbank, whose view of life seemed to abound in cheer- 
 less contingencies. 'You must' remember that it is her 
 dying wish, and that you may have it on your conscience.' 
 
I THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 13 
 
 ' That's a thing I never could abide ! ' the little dress- 
 maker exclaimed, with great emphasis and a visible shiver ; 
 after which she picked up various scattered remnants of 
 muslin and cut paper and began to roll them together with 
 a desperate and mechanical haste. ' It's quite awful, to 
 know what to do if you are very sure she is dying.' 
 
 ' Do you mean she's shamming ? we have plenty of that 
 : but we know how to treat 'em.' 
 
 'Lord, I suppose so,' murmured Miss Pynsent; while 
 her visitor went on to say that the unfortunate person on 
 whose behalf she had undertaken this solemn pilgrimage 
 might live a week and might live a fortnight, but if she 
 lived a month, would violate (as Mrs. Bowerbank might 
 express herself) every established law of nature, being 
 reduced to skin and bone, with nothing left of her but the 
 main desire to see her child. 
 
 ' If you're afraid of her talking, it isn't much she'd be 
 able to say. And we shouldn't allow you more than about 
 eight minutes,' Mrs. Bowerbank pursued, in a tone that 
 seemed to refer itself to an iron discipline. 
 
 ' I'm sure I shouldn't want more'; that would be enough 
 to last me many a year,' said Miss Pynsent, accommodatingly. 
 And then she added, with another illumination, ' Don't you 
 think he might throw it up against me that I did take 
 him? People might tell him about her in later years; 
 but if he hadn't seen her he wouldn't be obliged to believe 
 them.' 
 
 Mrs. Bowerbank considered this a moment, as if it were 
 rather a super-subtle argument, and then answered, quite in 
 the spirit of her official pessimism, ' There is one thing you 
 may be sure of : whatever you decide to do, as soon as ever 
 
THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 
 
 he grows up he will make you wish you had done the 
 opposite.' Mrs. Bowerbank called it opposite. 
 ' Oh, dear, then, I'm glad it will be a long time.' 
 
 * It will be ever so long, if once he gets it into his head ! 
 At any rate, you must do as you think best. Only, if you 
 come, you mustn't come when it's all over.' 
 
 ' It's too impossible to decide.' 
 
 ' It is, indeed,' said Mrs. Bowerbank, with superior con- 
 sistency. And she seemed more placidly grim than ever 
 when she remarked, gathering up her loosened shawl, that 
 *;She was much obliged to Miss Pynsent for her civility, and 
 Had been quite freshened up : her visit had so completely 
 deprived her hostess of that sort of calm. Miss Pynsent 
 gave the fullest expression to her perplexity in the supreme 
 exclamation : 
 
 * If you could only wait and see the child, I'm sure it 
 would help you to judge ! ' 
 
 ' My dear woman, I don't want to judge it's none of 
 our business ! ' Mrs. Bowerbank exclaimed ; and she had no 
 sooner uttered the words than the door of the room creaked 
 open and a small boy stood there gazing at her. Her 
 eyes rested on him a moment, and then, most unexpectedly, 
 she gave an inconsequent cry. ' Is that the child ? Oh, 
 Lord o' mercy, don't take him ! ' 
 
 ' Now ain't he shrinking and sensitive ? ' demanded Miss 
 Pynsent, who had pounced upon him, and, holding him an 
 instant at arm's length, appealed eagerly to her visitor. 
 ' Ain't he delicate and high-bred, and wouldn't he be thrown 
 into a state ? ' Delicate as he might be the little dress- 
 maker shook him smartly for his naughtiness in being out 
 of the way when he was wanted, and brought him to the 
 
THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 
 
 big, square-faced, deep-voiced lady who took up, as it were, 
 all that side of the room. But Mrs. Bowerbank laid no 
 hand upon him ; she only dropped her gaze from a 
 tremendous height, and her forbearance seemed a tribute 
 to that fragility of constitution on which Miss Pynsent 
 desired to insist, just as her continued gravity was an 
 implication that this scrupulous woman might well not 
 know what to do. 
 
 'Speak to the lady nicely, and tell her you are very 
 sorry to have kept her waiting.' 
 
 The child hesitated a moment, while he reciprocated 
 Mrs. Bowerbank's inspection, and then he said, with a 
 strange, cool, conscious indifference (Miss Pynsent in- 
 stantly recognised it as his aristocratic manner), ' I don't 
 think she can have been in a very great hurry.' 
 
 There was irony in the words, for it is a remarkable fact 
 that even at the age of ten Hyacinth Robinson was 
 ironical ; but the subject of his allusion, who was not 
 nimble withal, appeared not to interpret it; so that she 
 rejoined only by remarking, over his head, to Miss Pynsent, 
 ' It's the very face of her over again ! ' 
 
 ' Of her ? But what do you say to Lord Frederick ? ' 
 
 * I have seen lords that wasn't so dainty ! ' 
 
 Miss Pynsent had seen very few lords, but she entered, 
 with a passionate thrill, into this generalisation ; controlling 
 herself, however, for she remembered the child was 
 tremendously sharp, sufficiently to declare, in an edifying 
 tone, that he would look more like what he ought to if his 
 face were a little cleaner. 
 
 ' It was probably Millicent Henning dirtied my face 
 when she kissed me,' the boy announced, with slow gravity, 
 
1 6 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA I 
 
 looking all the while at Mrs. Bowerbank. He exhibited 
 not a symptom of shyness. 
 
 ' Millicent Henning is a very bad little girl ; she'll come 
 to no good,' said Miss Pynsent, with familiar decision, and 
 also, considering that the young lady in question had been 
 her effective messenger, with marked ingratitude. 
 
 Against this qualification the child instantly protested. 
 1 Why is she bad ? I don't think she is bad ; I like her 
 very much.' It came over him that he had too hastily 
 shifted to her shoulders the responsibility of his unseemly 
 appearance, and he wished to make up to her for that 
 betrayal. He dimly felt that nothing but that particular 
 accusation could have pushed him to it, for he hated people 
 who were not fresh, who had smutches and streaks. Milli- 
 cent Henning generally had two or three, which she 
 borrowed from her doll, into whom she was always rubbing 
 her nose and whose dinginess was contagious. It was 
 quite inevitable she should have left her mark under his 
 own nose when she claimed her reward for coming to tell 
 him about the lady who wanted him. 
 
 Miss Pynsent held the boy against her knee, trying to 
 present him so that Mrs. Bowerbank should agree with her 
 about his having the air of race. He was exceedingly 
 diminutive, even for his years, and though his appearance 
 was not positively sickly it seemed written in his attenuated 
 little person that he would never be either tall or strong. 
 His dark blue eyes were separated by a wide interval, which 
 increased the fairness and sweetness of his face, and his 
 abundant curly hair, which grew thick and long, had the 
 golden brownness predestined to elicit exclamations of 
 delight from ladies when they take the inventory of a child. 
 
I THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 17 
 
 His features were smooth and pretty; his head was set 
 upon a slim little neck; his expression, grave and clear, 
 showed a quick perception as well as a great credulity; 
 and he was altogether, in his innocent smallness, a refined 
 and interesting figure. 
 
 ' Yes, he's one that would be sure to remember,' said 
 Mrs. Bowerbank, mentally contrasting him with the unde- 
 veloped members of her own brood, who had never been 
 retentive of anything but the halfpence which they occa- 
 sionally contrived to filch from her. Her eyes descended 
 to the details of his toilet : the careful mending of his short 
 breeches and his long, coloured stockings, which she was 
 in a position to appreciate, as well as the knot of bright 
 ribbon which the dressmaker had passed into his collar, 
 slightly crumpled by Miss Henning's embrace. Of course 
 Miss Pynsent had only one to look after, but her visitor 
 was obliged to recognise that she had the highest standard 
 in respect to buttons. ' And you do turn him out so it's a 
 pleasure,' she went on, noting the ingenious patches in the 
 child's shoes, which, to her mind, were repaired for all the 
 world like those of a little nobleman. 
 
 ' I'm sure you're very civil,' said Miss Pynsent, in a state 
 of severe exaltation. * There's never a needle but mine has 
 come near him. That's exactly what I think : the impres- 
 sion would go so deep.' 
 
 ' Do you want to see me only to look at me ? ' Hyacinth 
 inquired, with a candour which, though unstudied, had 
 again much of the force of satire. 
 
 ' I'm sure it's very kind of the lady to notice you at all ! ' 
 cried his protectress, giving him an ineffectual jerk. 'You're no 
 bigger than a flea ; there are many that wouldn't spy you out.' 
 VOL. i. c 
 
1 8 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA I 
 
 ' You'll find he's big enough, I expect, when he begins 
 to go,' Mrs. Bowerbank remarked, tranquilly ; and she added 
 that now she saw how he was turned out she couldn't but 
 feel that the other side was to be considered. In her effort 
 to be discreet, on account of his being present (and so pre- 
 cociously attentive), she became slightly enigmatical; but Miss 
 Pynsent gathered her meaning, which was that it was very 
 true the child would take everything in and keep it : but at 
 the same time it was precisely his being so attractive that 
 made it a kind of sin not to gratify the poor woman, who, 
 if she knew what he looked like to-day, wouldn't forgive his 
 adoptive mamma for not producing him. ' Certainly, in 
 her place, I should go off easier if I had seen them curls,' 
 Mrs. Bowerbank declared, with a flight of maternal imagi- 
 nation which brought her to her feet, while Miss Pynsent 
 felt that she was leaving her dreadfully ploughed up, and 
 without any really fertilising seed having been sown. The 
 little dressmaker packed the child upstairs to tidy himself 
 for his tea, and while she accompanied her visitor to the 
 door told her that if she would have a little more patience 
 with her she would think a day or two longer what was 
 best and write to her when she should have decided. Mrs. 
 Bowerbank continued to move in a realm superior to poor 
 Miss Pynsent's vacillations and timidities, and her impar- 
 tiality gave her hostess a high idea of her respectability ; 
 but the way was a little smoothed when, after Amanda had 
 moaned once more, on the threshold, helplessly and irre- 
 levantly, ' Ain't it a pity she's so bad ? ' the ponderous lady 
 from the prison rejoined, in those tones which seemed 
 meant to resound through corridors of stone, ' I assure you 
 there's a many that's much worse ! ' 
 
II 
 
 Miss PYNSENT, when she found herself alone, felt that she 
 was really quite upside down ; for the event that had just 
 occurred had never entered into her calculations : the very 
 nature of the case had seemed to preclude it. All she knew, 
 and all she wished to know, was that in one of the dreadful 
 institutions constructed for such purposes her quondam 
 comrade was serving out the sentence that had been sub- 
 stituted for the other (the unspeakable horror) almost when 
 the halter was already round her neck. As there was no 
 question of that concession being stretched any further, poor 
 Florentine seemed only a little more dead than other people, 
 having no decent tombstone to mark the place where she 
 lay. Miss Pynsent had therefore never thought of her 
 dying again ; she had no idea to what prison she had been 
 committed on being removed from Newgate (she wished to 
 keep her mind a blank about the matter, in the interest of 
 the child), and it could not occur to her that out of such 
 silence and darkness a second voice would reach her, 
 especially a voice that she should really have to listen to. 
 Miss Pynsent would have said, before Mrs. Bowerbank's 
 visit, that she had no account to render to any one ; that 
 she had taken up the child (who might have starved in the 
 gutter) out of charity, and had brought him up, poor and 
 
20 THE PRINCESS CASAMASS1MA n 
 
 precarious as her own subsistence had been, without a 
 penny's help from another source; that the mother had 
 forfeited every right and title ; and that this had been 
 understood between them if anything, in so dreadful an 
 hour, could have been said to be understood when she 
 went to see her at Newgate (that terrible episode, nine 
 years before, overshadowed all Miss Pynsent's other 
 memories) : went to see her because Florentine had sent 
 for her (a name, face and address coming up out of the 
 still recent but sharply separated past of their working-girl 
 years), as the one friend to whom she could appeal with 
 some chance of a pitying answer. The effect of violent 
 emotion, with Miss Pynsent, was not to make her sit with 
 idle hands or fidget about to no purpose ; under its influ- 
 ence, on the contrary, she threw herself into little jobs, as a 
 fugitive takes to by-paths, and clipped and cut, and stitched 
 and basted, as if she were running a race with hysterics. 
 And while her hands, her scissors, her needle flew, an 
 infinite succession of fantastic possibilities trotted through 
 her confused little head ; she had a furious imagination, 
 and the act of reflection, in her mind, was always a 
 panorama of figures and scenes. She had had her picture 
 of the future, painted in rather rosy hues, hung up before 
 her now for a good many years ; but it seemed to her that 
 Mrs. Bowerbank's heavy hand had suddenly punched a hole 
 in the canvas. It must be added, however, that if Amanda's 
 thoughts were apt to be bewildering visions they sometimes 
 led her to make up her mind, and on this particular Sep- 
 tember evening she arrived at a momentous decision. 
 What she made up her mind to was to take advice, and in 
 pursuance of this view she rushed downstairs, and, jerking 
 
II THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 21 
 
 Hyacinth away from his simple but unfinished repast, 
 packed him across the street to tell Mr. Vetch (if he had 
 not yet started for the theatre) that she begged he would 
 come in to see her when he came home that night, as she 
 had something very particular she wished to say to him. 
 It didn't matter if he should be very late, he could come in 
 at any hour he would see her light in the window and 
 he would do her a real mercy. Miss Pynsent knew it 
 would be of no use for her to go to bed ; she felt as if she 
 should never close her eyes again. Mr. Vetch was her 
 most distinguished friend ; she had an immense apprecia- 
 tion of his cleverness and knowledge of the world, as well 
 as of the purity of his taste in matters of conduct and 
 opinion ; and she had already consulted him about Hya- 
 cinth's education. The boy needed no urging to go on 
 such an errand, for he, too, had his ideas about the little 
 fiddler, the second violin in the orchestra of the Bloomsbury 
 Theatre. Mr. Vetch had once obtained for the pair an 
 order for two seats at a pantomime, and for Hyacinth the 
 impression of that ecstatic evening had consecrated him, 
 placed him for ever in the golden glow of the footlights. 
 There were things in life of which, even at the age of ten, 
 it was a conviction of the boy's that it would be his fate 
 never to see enough, and one of them was the wonder- 
 world illuminated by those playhouse lamps. But there 
 would be chances, perhaps, if one didn't lose sight of Mr. 
 Vetch ; he might open the door again ; he was a privileged, 
 magical mortal, who went to the play every night. 
 
 He came in to see Miss Pynsent about midnight ; as 
 soon as she heard the lame tinkle of the bell she went to 
 the door to let him in. He was -an original, in the fullest 
 
22 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA n 
 
 sense of the word : a lonely, disappointed, embittered, 
 cynical little man, whose musical organisation had been 
 sterile, who had the nerves, the sensibilities, of a gentle- 
 man, and whose fate had condemned him, for the last 
 ten years, to play a fiddle at a second-rate theatre for 
 a few shillings a week. He had ideas of his own about 
 everything, and they were not always very improving. For 
 Amanda Pynsent he represented art, literature (the literature 
 of the play-bill), and philosophy, and she always felt about 
 him as if he belonged to a higher social sphere, though his 
 earnings were hardly greater than her own and he lived 
 in a single back-room, in a house where she had never 
 seen a window washed. He had, for her, the glamour of 
 reduced gentility and fallen fortunes; she was conscious 
 that he spoke a different language (though she couldn't 
 have said in what the difference consisted) from the other 
 members of her humble, almost suburban circle ; and the 
 shape of his hands was distinctly aristocratic. (Miss Pyn- 
 sent, as I have intimated, was immensely preoccupied with 
 that element in life.) Mr. Vetch displeased her only by 
 one of the facets of his character his blasphemous re- 
 publican, radical views, and the contemptuous manner in 
 which he expressed himself about the nobility. On that 
 ground he worried her extremely, though he never seemed 
 to her so clever as when he horrified her most. These 
 dreadful theories (expressed so brilliantly that, really, they 
 might have been dangerous if Miss Pynsent had not known 
 her own place so well) constituted no presumption against 
 his refined origin ; they were explained, rather, to a certain 
 extent, by a just resentment at finding himself excluded 
 from his proper place. Mr. Vetch was short, fat and bald, 
 
ii THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 23 
 
 though he was not much older than Miss Pynsent, who was 
 not much older than some people who called themselves 
 forty-five ; he always went to the theatre in evening-dress, 
 with a flower in his button-hole, and wore a glass in one 
 eye. He looked placid and genial, and as if he would 
 fidget at the most about the 'get up' of his linen; you 
 would have thought him finical but superficial, and never 
 have suspected that he was a revolutionist, or even a critic 
 of life. Sometimes, when he could get away from the 
 theatre early enough, he went with a pianist, a friend of his, 
 to play dance-music at small parties ; and after such expedi- 
 tions he was particularly cynical and startling ; he indulged 
 in diatribes against the British middle-class, its Philistinism, 
 its snobbery. He seldom had much conversation with 
 Miss Pynsent without telling her that she had the in- 
 tellectual outlook of a caterpillar ; but this was his privilege 
 after a friendship now of seven years' standing, which had 
 begun (the year after he came to live in Lomax Place) with 
 her going over to nurse him, on learning from the milk- 
 woman that he was alone at Number 1 7 laid up with an 
 attack of gastritis. He always compared her to an insect 
 or a bird, and she didn't mind, because she knew he liked 
 her, and she herself liked all winged creatures. How 
 indeed could she complain, after hearing him call the 
 Queen a superannuated form and the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury a grotesque superstition ? 
 
 He laid his violin-case on the table, which was covered 
 with a confusion of fashion-plates and pincushions, and 
 glanced toward the fire, where a kettle was gently hissing. 
 Miss Pynsent, who had put it on half an hour before, read 
 his glance, and reflected with complacency that Mrs. Bower- 
 
24 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA n 
 
 bank had not absolutely drained the little bottle in the 
 cheffonier. She placed it on the table again, this time 
 with a single glass, and told her visitor that, as a great 
 exception, he might light his pipe. In fact, she always 
 made the exception, and he always replied to the gracious 
 speech by inquiring whether she supposed the greengrocers' 
 wives, the butchers' daughters, for whom she worked, had 
 fine enough noses to smell, in the garments she sent home, 
 the fumes of his tobacco. He knew her 'connection ' was con- 
 fined to small shopkeepers, but she didn't wish others to know 
 it, and would have liked them to believe it was important that 
 the poor little stuffs she made up (into very queer fashions, 
 I am afraid) should not surprise the feminine nostril. But it 
 had always been impossible to impose on Mr. Vetch ; he 
 guessed the truth, the untrimmed truth, about everything 
 in a moment. She was sure he would do so now, in regard 
 to this solemn question which had come up about Hyacinth ; 
 he would see that though she was agreeably flurried at 
 finding herself whirled in the last eddies of a case that had 
 been so celebrated in its day, her secret wish was to shirk 
 her duty (if it was a duty) ; to keep the child from ever 
 knowing his mother's unmentionable history, the shame 
 that attached to his origin, the opportunity she had had 
 of letting him see the wretched woman before she died. 
 She knew Mr. Vetch would read her troubled thoughts, 
 but she hoped he would say they were natural and just : 
 she reflected that as he took an interest in Hyacinth he 
 wouldn't desire him to be subjected to a mortification that 
 might rankle for ever and perhaps even crush him to the 
 earth. She related Mrs. Bowerbank's visit, while he sat 
 upon the sofa in the very place where that majestic woman 
 
ii THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 25 
 
 had reposed, and puffed his smoke-wreaths into the dusky 
 little room. He knew the story of the child's birth, had 
 known it years before, so she had no startling revelation 
 to make. He was not in the least agitated at learning that 
 Florentine was dying in prison and had managed to get a 
 message conveyed to Amanda; he thought this so much 
 in the usual course that he said to Miss Pynsent, ' Did you 
 expect her to live on there for ever, working out her terrible 
 sentence, just to spare you the annoyance of a dilemma, or 
 any reminder of her miserable existence, which you have 
 preferred to forget ? ' That was just the sort of question 
 Mr. Vetch was sure to ask, and he inquired, further, of his 
 dismayed hostess, whether she were sure her friend's message 
 (he called the unhappy creature her friend) had come to her 
 in the regular way. The warders, surely, had no authority 
 to introduce visitors to their captives ; and was it a question 
 of her going off to the prison on the sole authority of Mrs. 
 Bowerbank ? The little dressmaker explained that this lady 
 had merely come to sound her, Florentine had begged so 
 hard. She had been in Mrs. Bowerbank's ward before her 
 removal to the infirmary, where she now lay ebbing away, 
 and she had communicated her desire to the Catholic 
 chaplain, who had undertaken that some satisfaction of 
 inquiry, at least should be given her. He had thought 
 it best to ascertain first whether the person in charge of the 
 child would be willing to bring him, such a course being 
 perfectly optional, and he had some talk with Mrs. Bower- 
 bank on the subject, in which it was agreed between them 
 that if she would approach Miss Pynsent and explain to 
 her the situation, leaving her to do what she thought best, 
 he would answer for it that the consent of the governor of 
 
26 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA n 
 
 the prison should be given to the interview. Miss Pynsent 
 had lived for fourteen years in Lomax Place, and Florentine 
 had never forgotten that this was her address at the time 
 she came to her at Newgate (before her dreadful sentence 
 had been commuted), and promised, in an outgush of pity 
 for one whom she had known in the days of her honesty 
 and brightness, that she would save the child, rescue it from 
 the workhouse and the streets, keep it from the fate that 
 had swallowed up the mother. Mrs. Bowerbank had a 
 half-holiday, and a sister living also in the north of London, 
 to whom she had been for some time intending a visit ; so 
 that after her domestic duty had been performed it had been 
 possible for her to drop in on Miss Pynsent in a natural, 
 casual way and put the case before her. It would be just 
 as she might be disposed to view it. She was to think it 
 over a day or two, but not long, because the woman was 
 so ill, and then write to Mrs. Bowerbank, at the prison. If 
 she should consent, Mrs. Bowerbank would tell the chaplain, 
 and the chaplain would obtain the order from the governor 
 and send it to Lomax Place ; after which Amanda would 
 immediately set out with her unconscious victim. But 
 should she must she consent? That was the terrible, 
 the heart-shaking question, with which Miss Pynsent's 
 unaided wisdom had been unable to grapple. 
 
 ' After all, he isn't hers any more he's mine, mine only, 
 and mine always. I should like to know if all I have done 
 for him doesn't make him so ! ' It was in this manner that 
 Amanda Pynsent delivered herself, while she plied her 
 needle, faster than ever, in a piece of stuff that was pinned 
 to her knee. 
 
 Mr. Vetch watched her awhile, blowing silently at his 
 
ii THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 27 
 
 pipe, with his head thrown back on the high, stiff, old- 
 fashioned sofa, and his little legs crossed under him like a 
 Turk's. 'It's true you have done a good deal for him. 
 You are a good little woman, my dear Finnic, after all.' 
 He said * after all,' because that was a part of his tone. 
 In reality he had never had a moment's doubt that she was 
 the best little woman in the north of London. 
 
 * I have done what I could, and I don't want no fuss 
 made about it. Only it does make a difference when you 
 come to look at it about taking him off to see another 
 woman. And such another woman and in such a place ! 
 I think it's hardly right to take an innocent child.' 
 
 1 1 don't know about that ; there are people that would 
 tell you it would do him good. If he didn't like the place 
 as a child, he would take more care to keep out of it 
 later.' 
 
 ' Lord, Mr. Vetch, how can you think ? And him such 
 a perfect little gentleman ! ' Miss Pynsent cried. 
 
 ' Is it you that have made him one ? ' the fiddler asked. 
 ' It doesn't run in the family, you'd say.' 
 
 ' Family ? what do you know about that ? ' she replied, 
 quickly, catching at her dearest, her only hobby. 
 
 ' Yes, indeed, what does any one know ? what did she 
 know herself?' And then Miss Pynsent's visitor added, 
 irrelevantly, ' Why should you have taken him on your back ? 
 Why did you want to be so good ? No one else thinks it 
 necessary.' 
 
 ' I didn't want to be good. That is, I do want to, of 
 course, in a general way : but that wasn't the reason then. 
 But I had nothing of my own I had nothing in the world 
 but my thimble.' 
 
28 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA n 
 
 1 That would have seemed to most people a reason for 
 not adopting a prostitute's bastard.' 
 
 ' Well, I went to see him at the place where he was (just 
 where she had left him, with the woman of the house), and 
 I saw what kind of a shop that was, and felt it was a shame 
 an innocent child should grow up in such a place.' Miss 
 Pynsent defended herself as earnestly as if her inconsistency 
 had been of a criminal cast. 'And he wouldn't have 
 grown up, neither. They wouldn't have troubled them- 
 selves long with a helpless baby. They'd have played some 
 trick on him, if it was only to send him to the workhouse. 
 Besides, I always was fond of tiny creatures, and I have 
 been fond of this one,' she went on, speaking as if with a 
 consciousness, on her own part, of almost heroic proportions. 
 ' He was in my way the first two or three years, and it was 
 a good deal of a pull to look after the business and him 
 together. But now he's like the business he seems to 
 go of himself.' 
 
 ' Oh, if he flourishes as the business flourishes, 
 you can just enjoy your peace of mind,' said the fiddler, 
 still with his manner of making a small dry joke of every- 
 thing. 
 
 * That's all very well, but it doesn't close my eyes to that 
 poor woman lying there and moaning just for the touch of 
 his little 'and before she passes away. Mrs. Bowerbank 
 says she believes I will bring him.' 
 
 ' Who believes ? Mrs. Bowerbank ? ' 
 
 ' I wonder if there's anything in life holy enough for you 
 to take it seriously,' Miss Pynsent rejoined, snapping off a 
 thread, with temper. ' The day you stop laughing I should 
 like to be there.' 
 
II THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 29 
 
 ' So long as you are there, I shall never stop. What is 
 it you want me to advise you ? to take the child, or to leave 
 the mother to groan herself out?' 
 
 ' I want you to tell me whether he'll curse me when he 
 grows older.' 
 
 ' That depends upon what you do. However, he will 
 probably do it in either case.' 
 
 ' You don't believe that, because you like him,' said 
 Amanda, with acuteness. 
 
 ' Precisely ; and he'll curse me too. He'll curse every 
 one. He won't be happy.' 
 
 ' I don't know how you think I bring him up,' the little 
 dressmaker remarked, with dignity. 
 
 ' You don't bring him up ; he brings you up.' 
 
 ' That's what you have always said ; but you don't know. 
 If you mean that he does as he likes, then he ought to be 
 happy. It ain't kind of you to say he won't be,' Miss Pynsent 
 added, reproachfully. 
 
 * I would say anything you like, if what I say would 
 help the matter. He's a thin-skinned, morbid, mooning 
 little beggar, with a good deal of imagination and not 
 much perseverance, who will expect a good deal more 
 of life than he will find in it. That's why he won't be 
 happy.' 
 
 Miss Pynsent listened to this description of her protege 
 with an appearance of criticising it mentally ; but in reality 
 she didn't know what ' morbid ' meant, and didn't like to 
 ask. * He's the cleverest person I know, except yourself,' 
 she said in a moment ; for Mr. Vetch's words had been in 
 the key of what she thought most remarkable in him. What 
 that was she would have been unable to say. 
 
30 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA n 
 
 ' Thank you very much for putting me first,' the fiddler 
 rejoined, after a series of puffs. ' The youngster is interest- 
 ing, one sees that he has a mind, and in that respect he is 
 I won't say unique, but peculiar. I shall watch him with 
 curiosity, to see what he grows into. But I shall always be 
 glad that I am a selfish brute of a bachelor, that I never 
 invested in that class of goods.' 
 
 * Well, you are comforting. You would spoil him more 
 than I do,' said Amanda. 
 
 'Possibly, but it would be in a different way. I 
 wouldn't tell him every three minutes that his father was 
 a duke.' 
 
 ' A duke I never mentioned ! ' the little dressmaker cried, 
 with eagerness. ' I never specified any rank, nor said a 
 word about any one in particular. I never so much as 
 insinuated the name of his lordship. But I may have said 
 that if the truth was to be found out, he might be proved 
 to be connected in the way of cousinship, or something of 
 the kind with the highest in the land. I should have 
 thought myself wanting if I hadn't given him a glimpse of 
 that. But there is one thing I have always added that 
 the truth never is found out.' 
 
 * You are still more comforting than I ! ' Mr. Vetch 
 exclaimed. He continued to watch her, with his charitable, 
 round-faced smile, and then he said, * You won't do what I 
 say ; so what is the use of my telling you ?' 
 
 ' I assure you I will, if you say you believe it's the only 
 right.' 
 
 ' Do I often say anything so asinine ? Right right ? 
 what have you to do with that ? If you want the only right, 
 you are very particular,' 
 
ii THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 31 
 
 ' Please, then, what am I to go by ?' the dressmaker asked, 
 bewildered. 
 
 ' You are to go by this, by what will take the youngster 
 down.' 
 
 'Take him down, my poor little pet?' 
 
 ' Your poor little pet thinks himself the flower of creation. 
 I don't say there is any harm in that : a fine, blooming, 
 odoriferous conceit is a natural appendage of youth and 
 cleverness. I don't say there is any great harm in it, but 
 if you want a guide as to how you are to treat the boy, that's 
 as good a guide as any other.' 
 
 'You want me to arrange the interview, then?' 
 
 ' I don't want you to do anything but give me another 
 sip of brandy. I just say this : that I think it's a great gain, 
 early in life, to know the worst ; then we don't live in a fool's 
 paradise. I did that till I was nearly forty ; then I woke 
 up and found I was in Lomax Place.' Whenever Mr. Vetch 
 said anything that could be construed as a reference to a 
 former position which had had elements of distinction, Miss 
 Pynsent observed a respectful, a tasteful, silence, and that is 
 why she did not challenge him now, though she wanted 
 very much to say that Hyacinth was no more ' presumptious ' 
 (that was the term she should have used) than he had 
 reason to be, with his genteel figure and his wonderful 
 intelligence; and that as for thinking himself a 'flower' of 
 any kind, he knew but too well that he lived in a small 
 black-faced house, miles away from the West End, rented 
 by a poor little woman who took lodgers, and who, as they 
 were of such a class that they were not always to be depended 
 upon to settle her weekly account, had a strain to make 
 two ends meet, in spite of the sign between her windows 
 
32 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA n 
 
 MISS AMANDA PYNSENT. 
 
 Modes et Robes. 
 
 DRESSMAKING IN ALL ITS BRANCHES. COURT-DRESSES, 
 MANTLES AND FASHIONABLE BONNETS. 
 
 Singularly enough, her companion, before she had per- 
 mitted herself to interpose, took up her own thought (in one 
 of its parts), and remarked that perhaps she would say of 
 the child that he was, so far as his actual circumstances 
 were concerned, low enough down in the world, without 
 one's wanting him to be any lower. ' But by the time he's 
 twenty, he'll persuade himself .that Lomax Place was a bad 
 dream, that your lodgers and your dressmaking were as 
 imaginary as they are vulgar, and that when an old friend 
 came to see you late at night it was not your amiable 
 practice to make him a glass of brandy and water. He'll 
 teach himself to forget all this : he'll have a way.' 
 
 'Do you mean he'll forget me, he'll deny me?' cried 
 Miss Pynsent, stopping the movement of her needle, short 
 off, for the first time. 
 
 ' As the person designated in that attractive blazonry on 
 the outside of your house, ' decidedly he will ; and me, 
 equally, as a bald-headed, pot-bellied fiddler, who regarded 
 you as the most graceful and refined of his acquaintance. 
 I don't mean he'll disown you and pretend he never knew 
 you : I don't think he will ever be such an odious little 
 cad as that ; he probably won't be a sneak, and he strikes 
 me as having some love, and possibly even some gratitude, 
 in him. But he will, in his imagination (and that will always 
 persuade him), subject you to some extraordinary meta- 
 morphosis ; he will dress you up.' 
 
 ' He'll dress me up ! ' Amanda ejaculated, quite ceasing 
 
in THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 33 
 
 to follow the train of Mr. Vetch's demonstration. ' Do you 
 mean that he'll have the property that his relations will 
 take him up ? ' 
 
 ' My dear, delightful, idiotic Pinnie, I am speaking in a 
 figurative manner. I don't pretend to say what his precise 
 position will be when we are relegated ; but I affirm that 
 relegation will be our fate. Therefore don't stuff him with 
 any more illusions than are necessary to keep him alive ; he 
 will be sure to pick up enough on the way. On the con- 
 trary, give him a good stiff dose of the truth at the start.' 
 
 ' Dear me, dear me, of course you see much further into 
 it than I could ever do,' Pinnie murmured, as she threaded 
 a needle. 
 
 Mr. Vetch paused a minute, but apparently not out of 
 deference to this amiable interruption. He went on suddenly, 
 with a ring of feeling in his voice. ' Let him know, because 
 it will be useful to him later, the state of the account 
 between society and himself; he can then conduct himself 
 accordingly. If he is the illegitimate child of a French 
 good-for-naught who murdered one of her numerous lovers, 
 don't shuffle out of sight so important a fact. I regard that 
 as a most valuable origin.' 
 
 'Lord, Mr. Vetch, how you talk!' cried Miss Pynsent, 
 staring. * I don't know what one would think, to hear 
 you.' 
 
 ' Surely, my dear lady, and for this reason : that those 
 are the people with whom society has to count. It hasn't 
 with you and me.' Miss Pynsent gave a sigh which might 
 have meant either that she was well aware of that, or that 
 Mr. Vetch had a terrible way of enlarging a subject, especially 
 when it was already too big for her ; and her philosophic . 
 
 VOL. I. D 
 
34 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA in 
 
 visitor went on : ' Poor little devil, let him see her, let him 
 see her.' 
 
 ' And if later, when he's twenty, he says to me that if I 
 hadn't meddled in it he need never have known, he need 
 never have had that shame, pray what am I to say to him 
 then ? That's what I can't get out of my head.' 
 
 ' You can say to him that a young man who is sorry for 
 having gone to his mother when, in her last hours, she lay 
 groaning for him on a pallet in a penitentiary, deserves more 
 than the sharpest pang he can possibly feel.' And the little 
 fiddler, getting up, went over to the fireplace and shook out 
 the ashes of his pipe. 
 
 'Well, I am sure it's natural he should feel badly,' said 
 Miss Pynsent, folding up her work with the same desperate 
 quickness that had animated her throughout the evening. 
 
 ' I haven't the least objection to his feeling badly ; that's 
 not the worst thing in the world ! If a few more people 
 felt badly, in this sodden, stolid, stupid race of ours, the 
 world would wake up to an idea or two, and we should see 
 the beginning of the dance. It's the dull acceptance, the 
 absence of reflection, the impenetrable density.' Here Mr. 
 Vetch stoppecl short; his hostess stood before him with 
 eyes of entreaty, with clasped hands. 
 
 * Now, Anastasius Vetch, don't go off into them dreadful 
 wild theories ! ' she cried, always ungrammatical when she 
 was strongly moved. ' You always fly away over the house- 
 tops. I thought you liked him better the dear little un- 
 fortunate.' 
 
 Anastasius Vetch had pocketed his pipe ; he put on his 
 hat with the freedom of old acquaintance and of Lomax 
 Place, and took up his small coffin-like fiddle-case. ' My 
 
in THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 35 
 
 good Finnic, I don't think you understand a word I say. 
 It's no use talking do as you like ! ' 
 
 ' Well, I must say I don't think it was worth your coming 
 in at midnight only to tell me that. I don't like anything 
 I hate the whole dreadful business ! ' 
 
 He bent over, in his short plumpness, to kiss her hand, 
 as he had seen people do on the stage. ' My dear friend, 
 we have different ideas, and I never shall succeed in driving 
 mine into your head. It's because I am fond of him, poor 
 little devil ; but you will never understand that. I want 
 him to know everything, and especially the worst the 
 worst, as I have said. If I were in his position, I shouldn't 
 thank you for trying to make a fool of me ! ' 
 
 ' A fool of you ? as if I thought of anything but his 'appi- 
 ness !' Amanda Pynsent exclaimed. She stood looking at 
 him, but following her own reflections ; she had given up 
 the attempt to enter into his whims. She remembered, 
 what she had noticed before, in other occurrences, that his 
 reasons were always more extraordinary than his behaviour 
 itself; if you only considered his life you wouldn't have 
 thought him so fanciful. ' Very likely I think too much of 
 that,' she added. ' She wants him and cries for him ; that's 
 what keeps coming back to me.' She took up her lamp to 
 light Mr. Vetch to the door (for the dim luminary in the 
 passage had long since been extinguished), and before he 
 left the house he turned, suddenly, stopping short, and said, 
 his composed face taking a strange expression from the 
 quizzical glimmer of his little round eyes 
 
 ' What does it matter after all, and why do you worry ? 
 What difference can it make what happens on either side 
 to such low people ? ' 
 
Ill 
 
 MRS. BOWERBANK had let her know she would meet her, 
 almost at the threshold of the dreadful place; and this 
 thought had sustained Miss Pynsent in her long and devious 
 journey, performed partly on foot, partly in a succession of 
 omnibuses. She had had ideas about a cab, but she de- 
 cided to reserve the cab for the return, as then, very likely, 
 she should be so shaken with emotion, so overpoweringly 
 affected, that it would be a comfort to escape from observa- 
 tion. She had no confidence that if once she passed the 
 door of the prison she should ever be restored to liberty 
 and her customers ; it seemed to her an adventure as 
 dangerous as it was dismal, and she was immensely touched 
 by the clear-faced eagerness of the child at her side, who 
 strained forward as brightly as he had done on another 
 occasion, still celebrated in Miss Pynsent's industrious 
 annals, a certain sultry Saturday in August, when she had 
 taken him to the Tower. It had been a terrible question 
 with her, when once she made up her mind, what she 
 should tell him about the nature of their errand. She deter- 
 mined to tell him as little as possible, to say only that she 
 was going to see a poor woman who was in prison on 
 account of a crime she had committed years before, and 
 who had sent for her, and caused her to be told at the same 
 
in THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 37 
 
 time that if there was any child she could see as children 
 (if they were good) were bright and cheering it would 
 make her very happy that such a little visitor should come 
 as well. It was very difficult, with Hyacinth, to make 
 reservations or mysteries ; he wanted to know everything 
 about everything, and he projected the light of a hundred 
 questions upon Miss Pynsent's incarcerated friend. She 
 had to admit that she had been her friend (for where else 
 was the obligation to go to see her ?) ; but she spoke of the 
 acquaintance as if it were of the slightest (it had survived 
 in the memory of the prisoner only because every one else 
 the world was so very hard ! had turned away from her), 
 and she congratulated herself on a happy inspiration when 
 she represented the crime for which such a penalty had 
 been exacted as the theft of a gold watch, in a moment of 
 irresistible temptation. The woman had had a wicked 
 husband, who maltreated and deserted her, and she was 
 very poor, almost starving, dreadfully pressed. Hyacinth 
 listened to her history with absorbed attention, and then he 
 said : 
 
 ' And hadn't she any children hadn't she a little boy ?' 
 This inquiry seemed to Miss Pynsent a portent of future 
 embarrassments, but she met it as bravely as she could, and 
 replied that she believed the wretched victim of the law 
 had had (once upon a time) a very small baby, but she was 
 afraid she had completely lost sight of it. He must know 
 they didn't allow babies in prisons. To this Hyacinth 
 rejoined that of course they would allow him, because he 
 was really big. Miss Pynsent fortified herself with the 
 memory of her other pilgrimage, to Newgate, upwards of ten 
 years before ; she had escaped from that ordeal, and had 
 
38 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA in 
 
 even had the comfort of knowing that in its fruits the inter- 
 view had been beneficent. The responsibility, however, 
 was much greater now, and, after all, it was not on her own 
 account she was in a nervous tremor, but on that of the 
 urchin over whom the shadow of the house of shame might 
 cast itself. 
 
 They made the last part of their approach on foot, hav- 
 ing got themselves deposited as near as possible to the 
 river and keeping beside it (according to advice elicited by 
 Miss Pynsent, on the way, in a dozen confidential inter- 
 views with policemen, conductors of omnibuses, and small 
 shopkeepers), till they came to a big, dark building with 
 towers, which they would know as soon as they looked at 
 it. They knew it, in fact, soon enough, when they saw it 
 lift its dusky mass from the bank of the Thames, lying 
 there and sprawling over the whole, neighbourhood, with 
 brown, bare, windowless walls, ugly, truncated pinnacles, 
 and a character unspeakably sad and stern. It looked very 
 sinister and wicked, to Miss Pynsent's eyes, and she won- 
 dered why a prison should have such an evil face if it was 
 erected in the, interest of justice and order an expression 
 of the righteous forces of society. This particular peniten- 
 tiary struck her as about as bad and wrong as those who 
 were in it ; it threw a blight over the whole place and made 
 the river look foul and poisonous, and the opposite bank, 
 with its protrusion of long-necked chimneys, unsightly gaso- 
 meters and deposits of rubbish, wear the aspect of a region 
 at whose expense the jail had been populated. She looked 
 up at the dull, closed gates, tightening her grasp of Hya- 
 cinth's small hand ; and if it was hard to believe anything 
 so blind and deaf and closely fastened would relax itself to 
 
L 
 
 in THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 39 
 
 let her in, there was a dreadful premonitory sinking of the 
 heart attached to the idea of its taking the same trouble to 
 let her out. As she hung back, murmuring vague ejacula- 
 tions, at the very goal of her journey, an incident occurred 
 which fanned all her scruples and reluctances into life again. 
 The child suddenly jerked his hand out of her own, and 
 placing it behind him, in the clutch of the other, said to 
 her respectfully but resolutely, while he planted himself at 
 a considerable distance 
 
 ' I don't like this place.' 
 
 ' Neither do I like it, my darling,' cried the dressmaker, 
 pitifully. ' Oh, if you knew how little ! ' 
 
 ' Then we will go away. I won't go in.' 
 
 She would have embraced this proposition with alacrity 
 if it had not become very vivid to her while she stood there, 
 in the midst of her shrinking, that behind those sullen walls 
 the mother who bore him was even then counting the 
 minutes. She was alive, in that huge, dark tomb, and it 
 seemed to Miss Pynsent that they had already entered into 
 relation with her. They were near her, and she knew it ; 
 in a few minutes she would taste the cup of the only mercy 
 (except the reprieve from hanging !) she had known since 
 her fall. A few, a very few minutes would do it, and it 
 seemed to Miss Pynsent that if she should fail of her charity 
 now the watches of the night, in Lomax Place, would be 
 haunted with remorse perhaps even with something worse. 
 There was something inside that waited and listened, some- 
 thing that would burst, with an awful sound, a shriek, or a 
 curse, if she were to lead the boy away. She looked into 
 his pale face for a moment, perfectly conscious that it 
 would be vain for her to take the tone of command ; be- 
 
40 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA in 
 
 sides, that would have seemed to her shocking. She had 
 another inspiration, and she said to him in a manner in 
 which she had had occasion to speak before 
 
 ' The reason why we have come is only to be kind. If 
 we are kind we shan't mind its being disagreeable.' 
 
 'Why should we be kind, if she's a bad woman?' 
 Hyacinth inquired. ' She must be very low ; I don't want 
 to know her.' 
 
 ' Hush, hush,' groaned poor Amanda, edging toward him 
 with clasped hands. ' She is not bad now ; it has all been 
 washed away it has been expiated.' 
 
 'What's expiated?' asked the child, while she almost 
 kneeled down in the dust, catching him to her bosom. 
 
 ' It's when you have suffered terribly suffered so much 
 that it has made you good again.' 
 
 * Has she suffered very much ?' 
 
 ' For years and years. And now she is dying. It 
 proves she is very good now, that she should want to 
 see us.' 
 
 'Do you mean because we are good?' Hyacinth went 
 on, probing the f matter in a way that made his companion 
 quiver, and gazing away from her, very seriously, across the 
 river, at the dreary waste of Battersea. 
 
 'We shall be good if we are pitiful, if we make an 
 effort,' said the dressmaker, seeming to look up at him 
 rather than down. 
 
 'But if she is dying? I don't want to see any one 
 die.' 
 
 Miss Pynsent was bewildered, but she rejoined, desper- 
 ately, ' If we go to her, perhaps she won't. Maybe we 
 shall save her.' 
 
in THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 41 
 
 He transferred his remarkable little eyes eyes which 
 always appeared to her to belong to a person older than 
 herself, to her face ; and then he inquired, ' Why should I 
 save her, if I don't like her?' 
 
 ' If she likes you, that will be enough.' 
 
 At this Miss Pynsent began to see that he was moved. 
 ' Will she like me very much?' 
 
 ' More, much more than any one.' 
 
 ' More than you, now ?' 
 
 ' Oh,' said Amanda quickly, ' I mean more than she 
 likes any one.' 
 
 Hyacinth had slipped his hands into the pockets of his 
 scanty knickerbockers, and, with his legs slightly apart, he 
 looked from his companion back to the immense dreary 
 jail. A great deal, to Miss Pynsent's sense, depended on 
 that moment. ' Oh, well,' he said, at last, * I'll just step in.' 
 
 * Deary, deary ! ' the dressmaker murmured to herself, 
 as they crossed the bare semicircle which separated the 
 gateway from the unfrequented street. She exerted her- 
 self to pull the bell, which seemed to her terribly big and 
 stiff, and while she waited, again, for the consequences of 
 this effort, the boy broke out, abruptly : 
 
 ' How can she like me so much if she doesn't know 
 me?' 
 
 Miss Pynsent wished the gate would open before an 
 answer to this question should become imperative, but the 
 people within were a long time arriving, and their delay 
 gave Hyacinth an opportunity to repeat it. So the dress- 
 maker rejoined, seizing the first pretext that came into her 
 head, ' It's because the little baby she had, of old, was 
 also named Hyacinth.' 
 
42 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA in 
 
 * That's a queer reason,' the boy murmured, staring 
 across again at the Battersea shore. 
 
 A moment afterwards they found themselves in a vast 
 interior dimness, with a grinding of keys and bolts going 
 on behind them. Hereupon Miss Pynsent gave herself up 
 to an overruling providence, and she remembered, later, 
 no circumstance of what happened to her until the great 
 person of Mrs. Bowerbank loomed before her in the 
 narrowness of a strange, dark corridor. She only had a 
 confused impression of being surrounded with high black 
 walls, whose inner face was more dreadful than the other, 
 the one that overlooked the river ; of passing through gray, 
 stony courts, in some of which dreadful figures, scarcely 
 female, in hideous brown, misfitting uniforms and perfect 
 frights of hoods, were marching round in a circle; of 
 squeezing up steep, unlighted staircases at the heels of a 
 woman who had taken possession of her at the first stage, 
 and who made incomprehensible remarks to other women, 
 of lumpish aspect, as she saw them erect themselves, 
 suddenly and spectrally, with dowdy untied bonnets, in 
 uncanny corners and recesses of the draughty labyrinth. 
 If the place had seemed cruel to the poor little dressmaker 
 outside, it may be believed that it did not strike her as an 
 abode of mercy while she pursued her tortuous way into 
 the circular shafts of cells, where she had an opportunity of 
 looking at captives through grated peepholes and of edging 
 past others who had temporarily been turned into the 
 corridors silent women, with fixed eyes, who flattened 
 themselves against the stone walls at the brush of the 
 visitor's dress and whom Miss Pynsent was afraid to glance 
 at. She never had felt so immured, so made sure of; 
 
in THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 43 
 
 there were walls within walls and galleries on top of 
 galleries ; even the daylight lost its colour, and you couldn't 
 imagine what o'clock it was. Mrs. Bowerbank appeared to 
 have failed her, and that made her feel worse: a panic 
 seized her, as she went, in regard to the child. On him, 
 too, the horror of the place would have fallen, and she had 
 a sickening prevision that he would have convulsions after 
 they got home. It was a most improper place to have 
 brought him, no matter who had sent for him and no 
 matter who was dying. The stillness would terrify him, 
 she was sure the penitential dumbness of the clustered or 
 isolated women. She clasped his hand more tightly, and 
 she felt him keep close to her, without speaking a word. 
 At last, in an open doorway, darkened by her ample person, 
 Mrs. Bowerbank revealed herself, and Miss Pynsent thought 
 it (afterwards) a sign of her place and power that she should 
 not condescend to apologise for not having appeared till 
 that moment, or to explain why she had not met the be- 
 wildered pilgrims near the principal entrance, according to 
 her promise. Miss Pynsent could not embrace the state 
 of mind of people who didn't apologise, though she vaguely 
 envied and admired it, she herself spending much of her 
 time in making excuses for obnoxious acts she had not 
 committed. Mrs. Bowerbank, however, was not arrogant, 
 she was only massive and muscular; and after she had 
 taken her timorous friends in tow the dressmaker was able 
 to comfort herself with the reflection that even so master- 
 ful a woman couldn't inflict anything gratuitously disagree- 
 able on a person who had made her visit in Lomax Place 
 pass off so pleasantly. 
 
 It was on the outskirts of the infirmary that she had 
 
44 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA in 
 
 been hovering, and it was into certain dismal chambers 
 dedicated to sick criminals, that she presently ushered her 
 companions. These chambers were naked and grated, 
 like all the rest of the place, and caused Miss Pynsent to 
 say to herself that it must be a blessing to be ill in such a 
 hole, because you couldn't possibly pick up again, and 
 then your case was simple. Such simplification, however, 
 had for the moment been offered to very few of Florentine's 
 fellow-sufferers, for only three of the small, stiff beds were 
 occupied occupied by white-faced women in tight, sordid 
 caps, on whom, in the stale, ugly room, the sallow light it- 
 self seemed to rest without pity. Mrs. Bowerbank dis- 
 creetly paid no attention whatever to Hyacinth ; she only 
 said to Miss Pynsent, with her hoarse distinctness, ' You'll 
 find her very low ; she wouldn't have waited another day.' 
 And she guided them, through a still further door, to the 
 smallest room of all, where there were but three beds, 
 placed in a row. Miss Pynsent's frightened eyes rather 
 faltered than inquired, but she became aware that a woman 
 was lying on the middle bed, and that her face was turned 
 toward the door. Mrs. Bowerbank led the way straight up 
 to her, and, giving a business-like pat to her pillow, looked 
 invitation and encouragement to the visitors, who clung 
 together not far within the threshold. Their conductress 
 reminded them that very few minutes were allowed them, 
 and that they had better not dawdle them away ; where- 
 upon, as the boy still hung back, the little dressmaker 
 advanced alone, looking at the sick woman with what 
 courage she could muster. It seemed to her that she was 
 approaching a perfect stranger, so ' completely had nine 
 years of prison transformed Florentine. She felt, immedi- 
 
in THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 45 
 
 ately, that it was a mercy she hadn't told Hyacinth she 
 was pretty (as she used to be), for there was no beauty left 
 in the hollow, bloodless mask that presented itself without 
 a movement. She had told him that the poor woman was 
 good, but she didn't look so, nor, evidently, was he struck 
 with it as he stared back at her across the interval he 
 declined to traverse, kept (at the same time) from re- 
 treating by her strange, fixed eyes, the only portion of all 
 her wasted person in which there was still any appearance 
 of life. She looked unnatural to Amanda Pynsent, and 
 terribly old ; a speechless, motionless creature, dazed and 
 stupid, whereas Florentine Vivier, in the obliterated past, 
 had been her idea of personal, as distinguished from social, 
 brilliancy. Above all she seemed disfigured and ugly, 
 cruelly misrepresented by her coarse cap and short, rough 
 hair. Amanda, as she stood beside her, thought with a 
 sort of scared elation that Hyacinth would never guess that 
 a person in whom there was so little trace of smartness 
 or of cleverness of any kind was his mother. At the 
 very most it might occur to him, as Mrs. Bowerbank had 
 suggested, that she was his grandmother. Mrs. Bowerbank 
 seated herself on the further bed, with folded hands, like a 
 monumental timekeeper, and remarked, in the manner of 
 one speaking from a sense of duty, that the poor thing 
 wouldn't get much good of the child unless he showed 
 more confidence. This observation was evidently lost 
 upon the boy ; he was too intensely absorbed in watching 
 the prisoner. A chair had been placed at the head of her 
 bed, and Miss Pynsent sat down without her appearing to 
 notice it. In a moment, however, she lifted her hand a 
 little, pushing it out from under the coverlet, and the 
 
46 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA in 
 
 dressmaker laid her own hand softly upon it. This gesture 
 elicited no response, but after a little, still gazing at the 
 boy, Florentine murmured, in words no one present was 
 in a position to understand 
 
 ' Dieu de Dieu, qu'il est beau /' 
 
 'She won't speak nothing but French since she has 
 been so bad you can't get a natural word out of her,' 
 Mrs. Bowerbank said. 
 
 4 It used to be so pretty when she spoke English and 
 so very amusing,' Miss Pynsent ventured to announce, 
 with a feeble attempt to brighten up the scene. ' I sup- 
 pose she has forgotten it all.' 
 
 ' She may well have forgotten it she never gave her 
 tongue much exercise. There was little enough trouble to 
 keep her from chattering,' Mrs. Bowerbank rejoined, giving 
 a twitch to the prisoner's counterpane. Miss Pynsent settled 
 it a little on the other side and considered, in the same 
 train, that this separation of language was indeed a mercy ; 
 for how could it ever come into her small companion's head 
 that he was the offspring of a person who couldn't so 
 much as say good morning to him ? She felt, at the same 
 time, that the scene might have been somewhat less painful 
 if they had been able to communicate with the object of 
 their compassion. As it was, they had too much the air of 
 having been brought together simply to look at each other, 
 and there was a grewsome awkwardness in that, considering 
 the delicacy of Florentine's position. Not, indeed, that 
 she looked much at her old comrade ; it was as if she were 
 conscious of Miss Pynsent's being there, and would have 
 been glad to thank her for it glad even to examine her for 
 her own sake, and see what change, for her, too, the horrible 
 
in THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 47 
 
 years had brought, but felt, more than this, that she had 
 but the thinnest pulse of energy left and that not a moment 
 that could still be of use to her was too much to take in 
 her child. She took him in with all the glazed entreaty of 
 her eyes, quite giving up his poor little protectress, who 
 evidently would have to take her gratitude for granted. 
 Hyacinth, on his side, after some moments of embarrass- 
 ing silence there was nothing audible but Mrs. Bower- 
 bank's breathing had satisfied himself, and he turned 
 about to look for a place of patience while Miss Pynsent 
 should finish her business, which as yet made so little show. 
 He appeared to wish not to leave the room altogether, 
 as that would be a confession of a vanquished spirit, but to 
 take some attitude that should express his complete dis- 
 approval of the unpleasant situation. He was not in sym- 
 pathy, and he could not have made it more clear than by 
 the way he presently went and placed himself on a low 
 stool, in a corner, near the door by which they had 
 entered. 
 
 ' Est-il possible, mon Dieu, qitil soit gentil comme $a ? ' 
 his mother moaned, just above her breath. 
 
 ' We are very glad you should have cared that they 
 look after you so well,' said Miss Pynsent, confusedly, at 
 random ; feeling, first, that Hyacinth's coldness was per- 
 haps excessive and his scepticism too marked, and then 
 that allusions to the way the poor woman was looked after 
 were not exactly happy. They didn't matter, however, for 
 she evidently heard nothing, giving no sign of interest even 
 when Mrs. Bowerbank, in a tone between a desire to make 
 the interview more lively and an idea of showing that she 
 knew how to treat the young, referred herself to the little boy. 
 
48 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA in 
 
 ' Is there nothing the little gentleman would like to say, 
 now, to the unfortunate ? Hasn't he any pleasant remark 
 to make to her about his coming so far to see her when 
 she's so sunk ? It isn't often that children are shown over 
 the place (as the little man has been), and there's many 
 that would think they were lucky if they could see what he 
 has seen.' 
 
 ' Mon patfvre joujou, mon pauvre cherij the prisoner went 
 on, in her tender, tragic whisper. 
 
 ' He only wants to be very good ; he always sits that 
 way at home,' said Miss Pynsent, alarmed at Mrs. Bower- 
 bank's address and hoping there wouldn't be a scene. 
 
 ' He might have stayed at home then with this wretched 
 person moaning after him,' Mrs. Bowerbank remarked, with 
 some sternness. She plainly felt that the occasion threat- 
 ened to be wanting in brilliancy, and wished to intimate 
 that though she was to be trusted for discipline, she thought 
 they were all getting off too easily. 
 
 ' I came because Pinnie brought me,' Hyacinth declared, 
 from his low perch. ' I thought at first it would be pleasant. 
 But it ain't pleasant I don't like prisons.' And he placed 
 his little feet on the cross-piece of the stool, as if to touch 
 the institution at as few points as possible. 
 
 The woman in bed continued her strange, almost whin- 
 ing plaint. ' // ne veut pas sapprocher, il a honte de moi. ' 
 
 ' There's a many that begin like that ! ' laughed Mrs. 
 Bowerbank, who was irritated by the boy's contempt for 
 one of her Majesty's finest establishments. 
 
 Hyacinth's little white face exhibited no confusion ; he 
 only turned it to the prisoner again, and Miss Pynsent felt 
 that some extraordinary dumb exchange of meanings was 
 
in THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 49 
 
 taking place between them. ' She used to be so elegant ; 
 she was a fine woman,' she observed, gently and help- 
 lessly. 
 
 * // a honte de moi // a honte, Dieu le pardonne ! ' 
 Florentine Vivier went on, never moving her eyes. 
 
 ' She's asking for something, in her language. I used to 
 know a few words,' said Miss Pynsent, stroking down the 
 bed, very nervously. 
 
 * Who is that woman ? what does she want ? ' Hyacinth 
 asked, his small, clear voice ringing over the dreary room. 
 
 ' She wants you to come near her, she wants to kiss you, 
 sir/ said Mrs. Bowerbank, as if it were more than he de- 
 served. 
 
 ' I won't kiss her ; Pinnie says she stole a watch ! ' the 
 child answered with resolution. 
 
 ' Oh, you dreadful how could you ever ? ' cried Pinnie, 
 blushing all over and starting out of her chair. 
 
 It was partly Amanda's agitation, perhaps, which, by the 
 jolt it administered, gave an impulse to the sick woman, 
 and partly the penetrating and expressive tone in which 
 Hyacinth announced his repugnance : at any rate, Floren- 
 tine, in the most unexpected and violent manner, jerked 
 herself up from her pillow, and, with dilated eyes and 
 waving hands, shrieked out, * A/i, quelle infamie ! I never 
 stole a watch, I never stole anything anything ! Ah, par 
 exemple ! ' Then she fell back, sobbing with the passion 
 that had given her a moment's strength. 
 
 ' I'm sure you needn't put more on her than she has by 
 rights,' said Mrs. Bowerbank, with dignity, to the dress- 
 maker, lay ng a large red hand upon the patient, to keep 
 her in her place. 
 
 VOL. I. E 
 
50 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA in 
 
 ' Mercy, more ? I thought it so much less ! ' cried 
 Miss Pynsent, convulsed with confusion and jerking herself, 
 in a wild tremor, from the mother to the child, as if she 
 wished to fling herself upon one for contrition and upon 
 the other for revenge. 
 
 '// a honte de moi il a honte de mot I 9 Florentine 
 repeated, in the misery of her sobs. ' Dieu de bonte^ quelle 
 horreur ! ' 
 
 Miss Pynsent dropped on her knees beside the bed and, 
 trying to possess herself of Florentine's hand again, pro- 
 tested with a passion almost equal to that of the prisoner 
 (she felt that her nerves had been screwed up to the snap- 
 ping-point, and now they were all in shreds) that she hadn't 
 meant what she had told the child, that he hadn't under- 
 stood, that Florentine herself hadn't understood, that she 
 had only said she had been accused and meant that no one 
 had ever believed it. The Frenchwoman paid no attention 
 to her whatever, and Amanda buried her face and her 
 embarrassment in the side of the hard little prison-bed, 
 while, above the sound of their common lamentation, she 
 heard the judicial tones of Mrs. Bowerbank. 
 
 ' The child is delicate, you might well say ! I'm dis- 
 appointed in the effect I was in hopes you'd hearten her 
 up. The doctor'll be down on me, of course ; so we'll just 
 pass out again.' 
 
 ' I'm very sorry I made you cry. And you must excuse 
 Pinnie I asked her so many questions.' 
 
 These words came from close beside the prostrate 
 dressmaker, who, lifting herself quickly, found the little boy 
 had advanced to her elbow and was taking a nearer view 
 of the mysterious captive. ^ They produced upon the latter 
 
in THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 51 
 
 an effect even more powerful than his unfortunate speech 
 of a moment before ; for she found strength to raise herself, 
 partly, in her bed again, and to hold out her arms to him, 
 with the same thrilling sobs. She was talking still, but she 
 had become quite inarticulate, and Miss Pynsent had but a 
 glimpse of her white, ravaged face, with the hollows of its 
 eyes and the rude crop of her hair. Amanda caught the 
 child with an eagerness almost as great as Florentine's, and 
 drawing him to the head of the bed, pushed him into his 
 mother's arms. ' Kiss her kiss her, and we'll go home ! ' 
 she whispered desperately, while they closed about him, 
 and the poor dishonoured head pressed itself against his 
 young cheek. It was a terrible, irresistible embrace, to which 
 Hyacinth submitted with instant patience. Mrs. Bowerbank 
 had tried at first to keep her protegee from rising, evidently 
 wishing to abbreviate the scene ; then, as the child was 
 enfolded, she accepted the situation and gave judicious 
 support from behind, with an eye to clearing the room as 
 soon as this effort should have spent itself. She propped 
 up her patient with a vigorous arm ; Miss Pynsent rose 
 from her knees and turned away, and there was a minute's 
 stillness, during which the boy accommodated himself as he 
 might to his strange ordeal. What thoughts were begotten 
 at that moment in his wondering little mind Miss Pynsent 
 was destined to learn at another time. Before she had 
 faced round to the bed again she was swept out of the 
 room by Mrs. Bowerbank, who had lowered the prisoner, 
 exhausted, with closed eyes, to her pillow, and given 
 Hyacinth a business-like little push, which sent him 
 on in advance. Miss Pynsent went home in a cab 
 she was so shaken ; though she reflected, very nervously, 
 
52 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSLMA in 
 
 on getting into it, on the opportunities it would give 
 Hyacinth for the exercise of inquisitorial rights. To her 
 surprise, however, he completely neglected them ; he sat 
 in silence, looking out of the window, till they re-entered 
 Lomax Place. 
 
JV 
 
 ' WELL, you'll have to guess my name before I'll tell you,' 
 the girl said, with a free laugh, pushing her way into the 
 narrow hall and leaning against the tattered wall-paper, 
 which, representing blocks of marble with beveled edges, 
 in streaks and speckles of black and gray, had not been 
 renewed for years and came back to her out of the past. 
 As Miss Pynsent closed the door, seeing her visitor was so 
 resolute, the light filtered in from the street, through the 
 narrow, dusty glass above it, and then the very smell and 
 sense of the place returned to Millicent ; a kind of musty 
 dimness, with the vision of a small, steep staircase at the 
 end, covered with a strip of oilcloth which she recognised, 
 and made a little less dark by a window in the bend (you 
 could see it from the hall), from which you could almost 
 bump your head against the house behind. Nothing was 
 changed except Miss Pynsent, and of course the girl herself. 
 She had noticed, outside, that the sign between the windows 
 had not even been touched up; there was still the same 
 preposterous announcement of ' fashionable bonnets ' as if 
 the poor little dressmaker had the slightest acquaintance 
 with that style of head-dress, of which Miss Henning's 
 own knowledge was now so complete. She could see Miss 
 Pynsent was looking at her hat, which was a wonderful 
 
54 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA iv 
 
 composition of flowers and ribbons ; her eyes had travelled 
 up and down Millicent's whole, person, but they rested in 
 fascination on this ornament. The girl had forgotten how 
 small the dressmaker was ; she barely came up to her 
 shoulder. She had lost her hair, and wore a cap, which 
 Millicent noticed in return, wondering if that were a speci- 
 men of what she thought the fashion. Miss Pynsent 
 stared up at her as if she had been six feet high ; but she 
 was used to that sort of surprised admiration, being perfectly 
 conscious that she was a magnificent young woman. 
 
 'Won't you take me into your shop?' she asked. 'I 
 don't want to order anything ; I only want to inquire 
 after your 'ealth ; and isn't this rather an awkward place 
 to talk?' She made her way further in, without waiting 
 for permission, seeing that her startled hostess had not yet 
 guessed. 
 
 'The show-room is on the right hand,' said Miss 
 Pynsent, with her professional manner, which was intended, 
 evidently,- to mark a difference. She spoke as if on the 
 other side, where the horizon was bounded by the partition 
 of the next house, there were labyrinths of apartments. 
 Passing in after her guest she found the young lady already 
 spread out upon the sofa, the everlasting sofa, in the right- 
 hand corner as you faced the window, covered with a light, 
 shrunken shroud of a strange yellow stuff, the tinge of 
 which revealed years of washing, and surmounted by a 
 coloured print of Rebekah at the Well, balancing, in the 
 opposite quarter, with a portrait of the Empress of the 
 French, taken from an illustrated newspaper and framed 
 and glazed in the manner of 1853! Millicent looked about 
 her, asking herself what Miss Pynsent had to show and 
 
iv THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 55 
 
 acting perfectly the part of the most brilliant figure the 
 place had ever contained. The old implements were there 
 on the table : the pincushions and needle-books ; the pink 
 measuring-tape with which, as children, she and Hyacinth 
 used to take each other's height ; and the same collection 
 of fashion-plates (she could see in a minute), crumpled, 
 sallow and fly-blown. The little dressmaker bristled, as 
 she used to do, with needles and pins (they were stuck all 
 over the front of her dress), but there were no rustling 
 fabrics tossed in heaps about the room nothing but the 
 skirt of a shabby dress (it might have been her own), which 
 she was evidently repairing and had flung upon the table 
 when she came to the door. Miss Henning speedily arrived 
 at the conclusion that her hostess's business had not in- 
 creased, and felt a kind of good-humoured, luxurious scorn 
 of a person who knew so little what was to be got out of 
 London. It was Millicent's belief that she herself was 
 already perfectly acquainted with the resources of the 
 metropolis. 
 
 ' Now tell me, how is Hyacinth ? I should like so much 
 to see him,' she remarked, extending a pair of large pro- 
 trusive feet and supporting herself on the sofa by her hands. 
 
 1 Hyacinth ? ' Miss Pynsent repeated, with majestic 
 blankness, as if she had never heard of such a person. 
 She felt that the girl was cruelly, scathingly, well dressed ; 
 she couldn't imagine who she was, nor with what design 
 she could have presented herself. 
 
 'Perhaps you call him Mr. Robinson, to-day you 
 always wanted him to hold himself so high. But to his 
 face, at any rate, I'll call him as I used to : you see if I 
 don't ! ' 
 
56 THE PRINCESS CASAMASS1MA iv 
 
 ' Bless my soul, you must be the" little 'Enning ! ' Miss 
 Pynsent exclaimed, planted before her and going now into 
 every detail. 
 
 'Well, I'm glad you have made up your mind. I 
 thought you'd know me directly. I had a call to make in 
 this part, and it came into my 'ead to look you up. I 
 don't like to lose sight of old friends.' 
 
 ' I never knew you you've improved so,' Miss Pynsent 
 rejoined, with a candour justified by her age and her con- 
 sciousness of respectability. 
 
 ' Well, you haven't changed \ you were always calling me 
 something horrid.' 
 
 ' I dare say it doesn't matter to you now, does it ? ' said 
 the dressmaker, seating herself, but quite unable to take 
 up her work, absorbed as she was in the examination of 
 her visitor. 
 
 ' Oh, I'm all right now,' Miss Henning replied, with the 
 air of one who had nothing to fear from human judgments. 
 
 ' You were a pretty child I never said the contrary to 
 that ; but I had no idea you'd turn out like this. You're 
 
 too tall for a woman,' Miss Pynsent added, much divided 
 
 
 between an old prejudice and a new appreciation. 
 
 ' Well, I enjoy beautiful 'ealth,' said the young lady ; 
 ' every one thinks I'm twenty.' She spoke with a certain 
 artless pride in her bigness and her bloom, and as if, to show 
 her development, she would have taken off her jacket or 
 let you feel her upper arm. She was very handsome, with 
 a shining, bold, good-natured eye, a fine, free, facial oval, 
 an abundance of brown hair, and a smile which showed 
 the whiteness of her teeth. Her 'head was set upon a fair, 
 strong neck, and her tall young figure was rich in feminine 
 
iv THE PRINCESS CASAMASS1MA 57 
 
 curves. Her gloves, covering her wrists insufficiently, 
 showed the redness of those parts, in the interstices of the 
 numerous silver bracelets that encircled them, and Miss 
 Pynsent made the observation that her hands were not 
 more delicate than her feet. She was not graceful, and 
 even the little dressmaker, whose preference for distinguished 
 forms never deserted her, indulged in the mental reflection 
 that she was common, for all her magnificence ; but there 
 was something about her indescribably fresh, successful 
 and satisfying. She was, to her blunt, expanded finger- 
 tips, a daughter of London, of the crowded streets and 
 hustling traffic of the great city; she had drawn her .health 
 and strength from its dingy courts and foggy thoroughfares, 
 and peopled its parks and squares and crescents with her 
 ambitions ; it had entered into her blood and her bone, the 
 sound of her voice and the carriage of her head ; she 
 understood it by instinct and loved it with passion ; she 
 represented its immense vulgarities and curiosities, its 
 brutality and its knowingness, its good-nature and its im- 
 pudence, and might have figured, in an allegorical pro- 
 cession, as a kind of glorified townswoman, a nymph of 
 the wilderness of Middlesex, a flower of the accumulated 
 parishes, the genius of urban civilisation, the muse of 
 cockneyism. The restrictions under which Miss Pynsent 
 regarded her would have cost the dressmaker some fewer 
 scruples if she had guessed the impression she made upon 
 Millicent, and how the whole place seemed to that pros- 
 perous young lady to smell of poverty and failure. Her 
 childish image of Miss Pynsent had represented her as 
 delicate and dainty, with round loops of hair fastened on 
 her temples by combs, and associations of brilliancy arising 
 
58 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA iv 
 
 from the constant manipulation of precious stuffs tissues 
 at least which Millicent regarded with envy. But the 
 little woman before her was bald and white and pinched ; 
 she looked shrunken and sickly and insufficiently nourished ; 
 her small eyes were sharp and suspicious, and her hideous 
 cap did not disguise her meagreness. Miss Henning 
 thanked her stars, as she had often done before, that she 
 had not been obliged to get her living by drudging over 
 needlework year after year in that undiscoverable street, in 
 a dismal little room where nothing had been changed for 
 ages ; the absence of change had such an exasperating 
 effect upon her vigorous young nature. She reflected with 
 complacency upon her good fortune in being attached to a 
 more exciting, a more dramatic, department of the dress- 
 making business, and noticed that though it was already 
 November there was no fire in the neatly-kept grate beneath 
 the chimney-piece, on which a design, partly architectural, 
 partly botanical, executed in the hair of Miss Pynsent's 
 parents, was flanked by a pair of vases, under glass, con- 
 taining muslin flowers. 
 
 If she thought Miss Pynsent's eyes suspicious it must be 
 confessed that tnis lady felt very much upon her guard in 
 the presence of so unexpected and undesired a reminder of 
 one of the least honourable episodes in the annals of Lomax 
 Place. Miss Pynsent esteemed people in proportion to 
 their success in constituting a family circle in cases, that 
 is, when the materials were under their hand. This success, 
 among the various members of the house of Henning, had 
 been of the scantiest, and the domestic broils in the esta- 
 blishment adjacent to her own, whose vicissitudes she was 
 able to follow, as she sat at her window at work, by simply 
 
TV THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 59 
 
 inclining an ear to the thin partition behind her these 
 scenes, amid which the crash of crockery and the impreca- 
 tions of the wounded were frequently audible, had long 
 been the scandal of a humble but harmonious neighbour- 
 hood. Mr. Henning was supposed to occupy a place of 
 confidence in a brush-factory, while his wife, at home, occu- 
 pied herself with the washing and mending of a consider- 
 able brood, mainly of sons. But economy and sobriety, 
 and indeed a virtue more important still, had never presided 
 at their councils. The freedom and frequency of Mrs. 
 Henning's relations with a stove-polisher in the Euston 
 Road were at least not a secret to a person who lived next 
 door and looked up from her work so often that it was a 
 wonder it was always finished so quickly. The little Hen- 
 nings, unwashed and unchidden, spent most of their time 
 either in pushing each other into the gutter or in running 
 to the public-house at the corner for a pennyworth of gin, 
 and the borrowing propensities of their elders were a theme 
 for exclamation. There was no object of personal or 
 domestic use which Mrs. Henning had not at one time or 
 another endeavoured to elicit from the dressmaker ; begin- 
 ning with a mattress, on an occasion when she was about to 
 take to her bed for a considerable period, and ending with 
 a flannel petticoat and a pewter teapot. Lomax Place had, 
 eventually, from its over-peeping windows and doorways, 
 been present at the seizure, by a long-suffering landlord, of 
 the chattels of this interesting family and at the ejectment 
 of the whole insolvent group, who departed in a straggling, 
 jeering, unabashed, cynical manner, carrying with them but 
 little of the sympathy of the street. Millicent, whose 
 childish intimacy with Hyacinth Robinson Miss Pynsent 
 
60 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA iv 
 
 had always viewed with vague anxiety she thought the 
 girl a ' nasty little thing,' and was afraid she would teach 
 the innocent orphan low ways Millicent, with her luxuri- 
 ant tresses, her precocious beauty, her staring, mocking 
 manner on the doorstep, was at this time twelve years of 
 age. She vanished with her vanishing companions; 
 Lomax Place saw them turn the corner, and returned to 
 its occupations with a conviction that they would make 
 shipwreck on the outer reefs. But neither spar nor 
 splinter floated back to their former haunts, and they 
 were engulfed altogether in the fathomless deeps of the 
 town. Miss Pynsent drew a long breath ; it was her con- 
 viction that none of them would come to any good, and 
 Millicent least of all. 
 
 When, therefore, this young lady reappeared, with all the 
 signs of accomplished survival, she .could not fail to ask 
 herself whether, under a specious seeming, the phenomenon 
 did not simply represent the triumph of vice. She was 
 alarmed, but she would have given her silver thimble to 
 know the girl's history, and between her alarm and her 
 curiosity she passed an uncomfortable half-hour. She felt 
 that the familiar, mysterious creature was playing with her ; 
 revenging herself for former animadversions, for having been 
 snubbed and miscalled by a peering little spinster who now 
 could make no figure beside her. If it was not the triumph 
 of vice it was at least the triumph of impertinence, as well 
 as of youth, health, and a greater acquaintance with the art 
 of dress than Miss Pynsent could boast, for all her ridiculous 
 signboards. She perceived, or she believed she perceived, 
 that Millicent wanted to scare 'her, to make her tHink 
 she had come after Hyacinth ; that she wished to inveigle, 
 
iv THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 61 
 
 to corrupt him. I should be sorry to impute to Miss Hen- 
 ning any motive more complicated than the desire to amuse 
 herself, of a Saturday afternoon, by a ramble which her 
 vigorous legs had no occasion to deprecate ; but it must be 
 confessed that when it occurred to her that Miss Pynsent 
 regarded her as a ravening wolf and her early playmate as 
 an unspotted lamb, she laughed out, in her hostess's anxious 
 face, irrelevantly and good humouredly, without deigning 
 to explain. But what, indeed, had she come for, if she had 
 not come after Hyacinth ? It was not for the love of the 
 dressmaker's pretty ways. She remembered the boy and 
 some of their tender passages, and in the wantonness of her 
 full-blown freedom her attachment, also, to any tolerable 
 pretext for wandering through the streets of London and 
 gazing into shop-windows she had said to herself that she 
 would dedicate an afternoon to the pleasures of memory, 
 would revisit the scenes of her childhood. She considered 
 that her childhood had ended with the departure of her 
 family from Lomax Place. If the tenants of that obscure 
 locality never learned what their banished fellows went 
 through, Millicent retained a deep impression of those 
 horrible intermediate years. The family, as a family, had 
 gone down-hill, to the very bottom ; and in her humbler 
 moments Millicent sometimes wondered what lucky star 
 had checked her own descent, and indeed enabled her to 
 mount the slope again. In her humbler moments, I say, 
 for as a general thing she was provided with an explanation 
 of any good fortune that might befall her. What was more 
 natural than that a girl should do well when she was at 
 once so handsome and so clever ? Millicent thought with 
 compassion of the young persons whom a niggardly fate 
 
62 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA iv 
 
 had endowed with only one of these advantages. She 
 was good-natured, but she had no idea of gratifying Miss 
 Pynsent's curiosity ; it seemed to her quite a sufficient 
 kindness to stimulate it. 
 
 She told the dressmaker that she had a high position 
 at a great haberdasher's in the neighbourhood of Buck- 
 ingham Palace; she was in the department for jackets 
 and mantles; she put on all these articles to show them 
 off to the customers, and on her person they appeared to 
 such advantage that nothing she took up ever failed to 
 go off. Miss Pynsent could imagine, from this, how 
 highly her services were prized. She had had a splendid 
 offer from another establishment, in Oxford Street, and 
 she was just thinking whether she should accept it. ' We 
 have to be beautifully dressed, but I don't care, because 
 I like to look nice,' she remarked to her hostess, who 
 at the end of half an hour, very grave, behind the clumsy 
 glasses which she had been obliged to wear of late years, 
 seemed still not to know what to make of her. On the 
 subject of her family, of her history during the interval 
 that was to be accounted for, the girl was large and 
 vague, and Miss Pynsent saw that the domestic circle 
 had not even a shadow of sanctity for her. She stood on 
 her own feet, and she stood very firm. Her staying so 
 long, her remaining over the half hour, proved to the dress- 
 maker that she had come for Hyacinth ; for poor Amanda 
 gave her as little information as was decent, told her 
 nothing that would encourage or attract. She simply men- 
 tioned that Mr. Robinson (she was careful to speak of him 
 in that manner) had given his attention to bookbinding, 
 and had served an apprenticeship at an establishment 
 
iv THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 63 
 
 where they turned out the best work of that kind that was 
 to be found in London. 
 
 ' A bookbindery? Laws!' said Miss Henning. ' Do you 
 mean they get them up for the shops ? Well, I always 
 thought he would have something to do with books.' 
 Then she added, ' But I didn't think he would ever follow 
 a trade.' 
 
 ' A trade ? ' cried Miss Pynsent. * You should hear 
 Mr. Robinson speak of it. He considers it one of the fine 
 arts.' 
 
 Millicent smiled, as if she knew how people often con- 
 sidered things, and remarked that very likely it was tidy, 
 comfortable work, but she couldn't believe there was much 
 to be seen in it. ' Perhaps you will say there is more than 
 there is here,' she went on, finding at last an effect of irri- 
 tation, of reprehension, an implication of aggressive respec- 
 tability, in the image of the patient dressmaker, sitting for 
 so many years in her close, brown little den, with the foggy 
 familiarities of Lomax Place on the other side of the pane. 
 Millicent liked to think that she herself was strong, and she 
 was not strong enough for that. 
 
 This allusion to her shrunken industry seemed to Miss 
 Pynsent very cruel ; but she reflected that it was natural 
 one should be insulted if one talked to a vulgar girl. She 
 judged this young lady in the manner of a person who was 
 not vulgar herself, and if there was a difference between 
 them she was right in feeling it to be in her favour. Miss 
 Pynsent's 'cut,' as I have intimated, was not truly fashion- 
 able, and in the application of gimp and the distribution of 
 ornament she was not to be trusted ; but, morally, she had 
 the best taste in the world. ' I haven't so much work as 
 
64 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA iv 
 
 I used to have, if that's what you mean. My eyes are not 
 so good, and my health has failed with advancing years.' 
 
 I know not to what extent Millicent was touched by the 
 dignity of this admission, but she replied, without embarrass- 
 ment, that what Miss Pynsent wanted was a smart young 
 assistant, some nice girl with a pretty taste, who would 
 brighten up the business and give her new ideas. * I can 
 see you have got the same old ones, always : I can tell 
 that by the way you have stuck the braid on that dress ;' 
 and she directed a poke of her neat little umbrella to the 
 drapery in the dressmaker's lap. She continued to patronise 
 and exasperate her, and to offer her consolation and en- 
 couragement with the heaviest hand that had ever been 
 applied to Miss Pynsent's sensitive surface. Poor Amanda 
 ended by gazing at her as if she were a public performer of 
 some kind, a ballad-singer or a conjurer, and went so far as 
 to ask herself whether the hussy could be (in her own mind) 
 the ' nice girl ' who was to regild the tarnished sign. Miss 
 Pynsent had had assistants, in the past she had even, 
 once, for a few months, had a 'forewoman;' and some of 
 these damsels had been precious specimens, whose mis- 
 demeanours live'd vividly in her memory. Never, all the 
 same, in her worst hour of delusion, had she trusted her 
 interests to such an extravagant baggage as this. She was 
 quickly reassured as to Millicent's own views, perceiving 
 more and more that she was a tremendous highflyer, who 
 required a much larger field of action than the musty bower 
 she now honoured, heaven only knew why, with her presence, 
 Miss Pynsent held her tongue, as she always did, when the 
 sorrow of her life had been touched, the thought of the slow, 
 inexorable decline on which she had entered that day, 
 
iv THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 65 
 
 nearly ten years before, when her hesitations and scruples 
 resolved themselves into a hideous mistake. The deep 
 conviction of error, on that unspeakably important occasion, 
 had ached and throbbed within her ever since like an 
 incurable disease. She had sown in her boy's mind the 
 seeds of shame and rancour ; she had made him conscious 
 of his stigma, of his exquisitely vulnerable spot, and con- 
 demned him to know that for him the sun would never 
 shine as it shone for most others. By the time he was 
 sixteen years old she had learned or believed she had 
 learned the judgment he passed upon her, and at that 
 period she had lived through a series of horrible months, an 
 ordeal in which every element of her old prosperity perished. 
 She cried her eyes out, on coming to a sense of her 
 aberration, blinded and weakened herself with weeping, so 
 that for a moment it seemed as if she should never be 
 able to touch a needle again. She lost all interest in her 
 work, and that artistic imagination which had always been 
 her pride deserted her, together with the reputation of 
 keeping the tidiest lodgings in Lomax Place. A couple of 
 commercial gentlemen and a Welsh plumber, of religious 
 tendencies, who for several years had made her establish- 
 ment their home, withdrew their patronage on the ground 
 that the airing of her beds was not what it used to be, and 
 disseminated cruelly this injurious legend. She ceased to 
 notice or to care how sleeves were worn, and on the 
 question of flounces and gores her mind was a blank. She 
 fell into a grievous debility, and then into a long, low, 
 languid fever, during which Hyacinth tended her with a 
 devotion which only made the wrong she had done him 
 
 seem more bitter, and in which, so soon as she was able to 
 VOL. i. F 
 
66 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA iv 
 
 hold up her head a little, Mr. Vetch came and sat with her 
 through the dull hours of convalescence. She re-established 
 to a certain extent, after a while, her connection, so far as 
 the letting of her rooms was concerned (from the other 
 department of her activity the tide had ebbed apparently 
 for ever) ; but nothing was the same again, and she knew it 
 was the beginning of the end. So it had gone on, and she 
 watched the end approach ; she felt it was very near indeed 
 when a child she had seen playing in the gutters came to 
 flaunt it over her in silk and lace. She gave a low, in- 
 audible sigh of relief when at last Millicent got up and 
 stood before her, smoothing the glossy cylinder of her 
 umbrella. 
 
 ' Mind you give my love to Hyacinth,' the girl said, with 
 an assurance which showed all her insensibility to tacit 
 protests. ' I don't care if you do guess that if I have 
 stopped so long it was in the hope he would be dropping 
 in to his tea. You can tell him I sat an hour, on purpose, 
 if you like ; there's no shame in my wanting to see my little 
 friend. He may know I call him that !' Millicent continued, 
 with her show-room laugh, as Miss Pynsent judged it to be ; 
 conferring these permissions, successively, as if they were 
 great indulgences. ' Do give him my love, and tell him I 
 hope he'll come and see me. I see you won't tell him 
 anything. I don't know what you're afraid of; but I'll leave 
 my card for him, all the same.' She drew forth a little 
 bright-coloured pocket-book, and it was with amazement 
 that Miss Pynsent saw her extract from it a morsel of 
 engraved pasteboard so monstrous did it seem that one of 
 the squalid little Hennings should have lived to display this 
 emblem of social consideration. Millicent enjoyed the effect 
 
iv THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 67 
 
 she produced as she laid the card on the table, and gave 
 another ringing peel of merriment at the sight of her 
 hostess's half-angry, half-astonished look. 'What do you 
 think I want to do with him ? I could swallow him at a 
 single bite ! ' she cried. 
 
 Poor Amanda gave no second glance at the document on 
 the table, though she had perceived it contained, in the 
 corner, her visitor's address, which Millicent had amused 
 herself, ingeniously, with not mentioning : she only got up, 
 laying down her work with a trembling hand, so that she 
 should be able to see Miss Henning well out of the house. 
 ' You needn't think I shall put myself out to keep him in 
 the dark. I shall certainly tell him you have been here, 
 and exactly how you strike me.' 
 
 'Of course you'll say something nasty like you used 
 to when I was a child. You let me 'ave it then, you 
 know ! ' 
 
 'Ah, well,' said Miss Pynsent, nettled at being 
 reminded of an acerbity which the girl's present develop- 
 ment caused to appear ridiculously ineffectual, 'you are 
 very different now, when I think what you've come 
 from.' 
 
 'What I've come from?' Millicent threw back her 
 head, and opened her eyes very wide, while all her feathers 
 and ribbons nodded. ' Did you want me to stick fast in 
 this low place for the rest of my days ? You have had to 
 stay in it yourself, so you might speak civilly of it.' She 
 coloured, and raised her voice, and looked magnificent in 
 her scorn. ' And pray what have you come from yourself, 
 and what has he come from the mysterious "Mr. Robinson," 
 that used to be such a puzzle to the whole Place ? I thought 
 
68 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA iv 
 
 perhaps I might clear it up, but you haven't told me that 
 yet!' 
 
 Miss Pynsent turned straight away, covering her ears 
 with her hands. ' I have nothing to tell you ! Leave my 
 room leave my house ! ' she cried, with a trembling 
 voice. 
 
IT was in this way that the dressmaker failed either to see 
 or to hear the opening of the door of the room, which 
 obeyed a slow, apparently cautious impulse given it from 
 the hall, and revealed the figure of a young man standing 
 there with a short pipe in his teeth. There was something 
 in his face which immediately told Millicent Henning that 
 he had heard, outside, her last resounding tones. He 
 entered as if, young as he was, he knew that when women 
 were squabbling men were not called upon to be headlong, 
 and evidently wondered who the dressmaker's brilliant 
 adversary might be. She recognised on the instant her old 
 playmate, and without reflection, confusion or diplomacy, 
 in the fulness of her vulgarity and sociability, she exclaimed, 
 in no lower pitch, * Gracious, Hyacinth Robinson, is that 
 your form ? ' 
 
 Miss Pynsent turned round, in a flash, but kept silent ; 
 then, very white and trembling, took up her work again and 
 seated herself in her window. 
 
 Hyacinth Robinson stood staring ; then he blushed all 
 over. He knew who she was, but he didn't say so ; he only 
 asked, in a voice which struck the girl as quite different from 
 the old one the one in which he used to tell her she was 
 beastly tiresome ' Is it of me you were speaking just now ?' 
 
70 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA v 
 
 ' When I asked where you had come from ? That was 
 because we 'eard you in the 'all,' said Millicent, smiling. * I 
 suppose you have come from your work.' 
 
 1 You used to live in the Place you always wanted to 
 kiss me,' the young man remarked, with an effort not to 
 show all the surprise and agitation that he felt. ' Didn't 
 she live in the Place, Pinnie ? ' 
 
 Pinnie, for all answer, fixed a pair of strange, pleading 
 eyes upon him, and Millicent broke out, with her recurrent 
 laugh, in which the dressmaker had been right in discover- 
 ing the note of affectation, ' Do you want to know what you 
 look like ? You look for all the world like a little French- 
 man ! Don't he look like a little Frenchman, Miss Pynsent ? ' 
 she went on, as if she were on the best possible terms with 
 the mistress of the establishment. 
 
 Hyacinth exchanged a look with that afflicted woman ; 
 he saw something in her face which he knew very well by 
 this time, and the sight of which always gave him an odd, 
 perverse, unholy satisfaction. It seemed to say that she 
 prostrated herself, that she did penance in the dust, that 
 she was his to trample upon, to spit upon. He did neither 
 of these things, but she was constantly offering herself, and 
 her permanent humility, her perpetual abjection, was a sort 
 of counter-irritant to the soreness lodged in his own heart 
 for ever, which had often made him cry with rage at night, 
 in his little room under the roof. Pinnie meant that, 
 to-day, as a matter of course, and she could only especially 
 mean it in the presence of Miss Henning's remark about 
 his looking like a Frenchman. He knew he looked like a 
 Frenchman, he had often been told so before, and a large 
 part of the time he felt like one like one of those he had 
 
v THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 71 
 
 read about in Michelet and Carlyle. Pie had picked up the 
 French tongue with the most extraordinary facility, with the 
 aid of one of his mates, a refugee from Paris, in the work- 
 room, and of a second-hand dog's-eared dictionary, bought 
 for a shilling in the Brompton Road, in one of his inter- 
 minable, restless, melancholy, moody, yet all-observant 
 strolls through London. He spoke it (as he believed) as 
 if by instinct, caught the accent, the gesture, the movement 
 of eyebrow and shoulder; so that if it should become 
 necessary in certain contingencies that he should pass 
 for a foreigner he had an idea that he might do so trium- 
 phantly, once he could borrow a blouse. He had never 
 seen a blouse in his life, but he knew exactly the form and 
 colour of such a garment, and how it was worn. What 
 these contingencies might be which should compel him 
 to assume the disguise of a person of a social station lower 
 still than his own, Hyacinth would not for the world have 
 mentioned to you ; but as they were very present to the 
 mind of our imaginative, ingenious youth we shall catch a 
 glimpse of them in the course of a further acquaintance 
 with him. At the present moment, when there was no 
 question of masquerading, it made him blush again that 
 such a note should be struck by a loud, laughing, hand- 
 some girl, who came back out of his past. There was more 
 in Pinnie's weak eyes, now, than her usual profession ; 
 there was a dumb intimation, almost as pathetic as the 
 other, that if he cared to let her off easily he would not 
 detain their terrible visitor very long. He had no wish 
 to do that ; he kept the door open, on purpose ; he didn't 
 enjoy talking to girls under Pinnie's eyes, and he could see 
 that this one had every disposition to talk. So without 
 
72 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA v 
 
 responding to her observation about his appearance he 
 said, not knowing exactly what to say, 'Have you come 
 back to live in the Place ? ' 
 
 ' Heaven forbid I should ever do that ! ' cried Miss 
 Henning, with genuine emotion. * I have to live near the 
 establishment in which I'm employed.' 
 
 * And what establishment is that, now ? ' the young man 
 asked, gaining confidence and perceiving, in detail, how 
 handsome she was. He hadn't roamed about London for 
 nothing, and he knew that when a girl was as handsome as 
 that, a jocular tone of address, a pleasing freedom, was de 
 rigueur; so he added, ' Is it the Bull and Gate, or the 
 Elephant and Castle ? ' 
 
 ' A public house ! Well, you haven't got the politeness 
 of a Frenchman, at all events ! ' Her good-nature had 
 Come back to her perfectly, and her resentment of his 
 imputation of her looking like a bar-maid a blowzy beauty 
 who handled pewter was tempered by her more and more 
 curious consideration of Hyacinth's form. He was ex- 
 ceedingly ' rum,' but this quality took her fancy, and since 
 he remembered, so well that she had been fond of kissing 
 him, in their early days she would have liked to say to 
 him that she stood prepared to repeat this graceful attention. 
 But she reminded herself, in time, that her line should be, 
 religiously, the ladylike, and she was content to exclaim, 
 simply, ' I don't care what a man looks like so long as he's 
 clever. That's the form / like ! ' 
 
 Miss Pynsent had promised herself the satisfaction of 
 taking no further notice of her brilliant invader ; but the 
 temptation was great to expose her to Hyacinth, as a miti- 
 gation of her brilliancy, by remarking sarcastically, according 
 
v THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 73 
 
 to opportunity, ' Miss 'Enning wouldn't live in Lomax 
 Place for the world. She thinks it too abominably low.' 
 
 ' So it is ; it's a beastly hole,' said the young man. 
 
 The poor dressmaker's little dart fell to the ground, and 
 Millicent exclaimed, jovially, ' Right you are ! ' while she 
 directed to the object of her childhood's admiration a smile 
 that put him more and more at his ease. 
 
 ' Don't you suppose I'm clever ? ' he asked, planted 
 before her with his little legs slightly apart, while, with 
 his hands behind him, he made the open door waver to 
 and fro. 
 
 ' You ? Oh, I don't care whether you are or not ! ' said 
 Millicent Henning ; and Hyacinth was at any rate quick- 
 witted enough to see what she meant by that. If she 
 meant he was so good-looking that he might- pass on this 
 score alone her judgment was conceivable, though many 
 women would strongly have dissented from it. He was as 
 small as he had threatened he had never got his growth 
 and she could easily see that he was not what she, at 
 least, would call strong. His bones were small, his chest 
 was narrow, his complexion pale, his whole figure almost 
 childishly slight ; and Millicent perceived afterward that he 
 had a very delicate hand the hand, as she said to herself, 
 of a gentleman. What she liked was his face, and some- 
 thing jaunty and entertaining, almost theatrical in his whole 
 little person. Miss Henning was not acquainted with any 
 member of the dramatic profession, but she supposed, 
 vaguely, that that was the way an actor would look in 
 private life. Hyacinth's features were perfect; his eyes, 
 large and much divided, had as their usual expression a 
 kind of witty candour, and a small, soft, fair moustache 
 
74 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA V 
 
 disposed itself upon his upper lip in a way that made him 
 look as if he were smiling even when his heart was heavy. 
 The waves of his dense, fine hair clustered round a fore- 
 head which was high enough to suggest remarkable things, 
 and Miss Henning had observed that when he first ap- 
 peared he wore his little soft circular hat in a way that 
 left these frontal locks very visible. He was dressed in an 
 old brown velveteen jacket, and wore exactly the bright- 
 coloured necktie which Miss Pynsent's quick fingers used 
 of old to shape out of hoarded remnants of silk and 
 muslin. He was shabby and work-stained, but the obser- 
 vant eye would have noted an idea in his dress (his 
 appearance was plainly not a matter of indifference to 
 himself), and a painter (not of the heroic) would have liked 
 to make a sketch of him. There was something exotic 
 about him, and yet, with his sharp young face, destitute of 
 bloom, but not of sweetness, and a certain conscious 
 cockneyism which pervaded him, he was as strikingly as 
 Millicent, in her own degree, a product of the London 
 streets and the London air. He looked both ingenuous 
 and slightly wasted, amused, amusing, and indefinably sad. 
 Women had always found him touching; yet he made 
 them so they had repeatedly assured him die of laughing. 
 
 * I think you had better shut the door,' said Miss Pyn- 
 sent, meaning that he had better shut their departing 
 visitor out. 
 
 'Did you come here on purpose to see us?' Hyacinth 
 asked, not heeding this injunction, of which he divined the 
 spirit, and wishing the girl would take her leave, so that he 
 might go out again with her. He should like talking with 
 her much better away from Pinnie, who evidently was ready 
 
v THE PRINCESS CASAMASS1MA 75 
 
 to stick a bodkin into her, for reasons he perfectly under- 
 stood. He had seen plenty of them before, Pinnie's 
 reasons, even where girls were concerned who were not 
 nearly so good-looking as this one. She was always in a 
 fearful ' funk ' about some woman getting hold of him, and 
 persuading him to make a marriage beneath his station. 
 His station ! poor Hyacinth had often asked himself, and 
 Miss Pynsent, what it could possibly be. He had thought 
 of it bitterly enough, and wondered how in the world he 
 could marry 'beneath' it. He would never marry at all 
 to that his mind was absolutely made up; he would 
 never hand on to another the burden which had made his 
 own young spirit so intolerably sore, the inheritance which 
 had darkened the whole threshold of his manhood. All 
 the more reason why he should have his compensation; 
 why, if the soft society of women was to be enjoyed on 
 other terms, he should cultivate it with a bold, free 
 
 mind. 
 
 
 
 'I thought I would just give a look at' the old shop; I 
 had an engagement not far off,' Millicent said. 'But I 
 wouldn't have believed any one who had told me I should 
 find you just where I left you.' 
 
 ' We needed you to look after us ! ' Miss Pynsent ex- 
 claimed, irrepressibly. 
 
 'Oh, you're such a swell yourself!' Hyacinth observed, 
 without heeding the dressmaker. 
 
 ' None of your impudence ! I'm as good a girl as 
 there is in London!' And to corroborate this, Miss 
 Henning went on : ' If you were to offer to see me a part 
 of the way home, I should tell you I don't knock about 
 that way with gentlemen.' 
 
76 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA v 
 
 ' I'll go with you as far as you like,' Hyacinth replied, 
 simply, as if he knew how to treat that sort of speech. 
 
 ' Well, it's only because I knew you as a baby ! ' And 
 they went out together, Hyacinth careful not to look at 
 poor Finnic at all (he felt her glaring whitely and tearfully 
 at him out of her dim corner it had by this time grown 
 too dusky to work without a lamp), and his companion 
 giving her an outrageously friendly nod of farewell over her 
 shoulder. 
 
 It was a long walk from Lomax Place to the quarter of 
 the town in which (to be near the haberdasher's in the 
 Buckingham Palace Road) Miss Henning occupied a 
 modest back-room ; but the influences of the hour were 
 such as to make the excursion very agreeable to our young 
 man, who liked the streets at all times, but especially at 
 nightfall, in the autumn, of a Saturday, when, in the vulgar 
 districts, the smaller shops and open-air industries were 
 doubly active, and big, clumsy torches flared and smoked 
 over hand-carts and costermongers' barrows, drawn up in 
 the gutters. Hyacinth had roamed through the great city 
 since he was an urchin, but his imagination had never 
 ceased to be stirred by the preparations for Sunday that 
 went on in the evening among the toilers and spinners, his 
 brothers and sisters, and he lost himself in all the quickened 
 crowding and pushing and staring at lighted windows and 
 chaffering at the stalls of fishmongers and hucksters. He 
 liked the people who looked as if they had got their week's 
 wage and were prepared to lay it out discreetly ; and even 
 those whose use of it would plainly be extravagant and 
 intemperate; and, best of all, those who evidently hadn't 
 received it at all and who wandered about, disinterestedly, 
 
v THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 77 
 
 vaguely, with their hands in empty pockets, watching others 
 make their bargains and fill their satchels, or staring at the 
 striated sides of bacon, at the golden cubes and triangles of 
 cheese, at the graceful festoons of sausage, in the most 
 brilliant of the windows. He liked the reflection of the 
 lamps on the wet pavements, the feeling and smell of the 
 carboniferous London damp ; the way the winter fog 
 blurred and suffused the whole place, made it seem bigger 
 and more crowded, produced halos and dim radiations, 
 trickles and evaporations, on the plates of glass. He 
 moved in the midst of these impressions this evening, but 
 he enjoyed them in silence, with an attention taken up 
 mainly by his companion, and pleased to be already so 
 intimate with a young lady whom people turned round to 
 look at. She herself affected to speak of the rush and 
 crush of the week's end with disgust : she said she liked 
 the streets, but she liked the respectable ones ; she couldn't 
 abide the smell of fish, and the whole place seemed full of 
 it, so that she hoped they would soon get into the Edgware 
 Road, towards which they tended and which was a proper 
 street for a lady. To Hyacinth she appeared to have no 
 connection with the long-haired little girl who, in Lomax 
 Place, years before, was always hugging a smutty doll and 
 courting his society; she was like a stranger, a new 
 acquaintance, and he observed her curiously, wondering 
 by what transitions she had reached her present pitch. 
 
 She enlightened him but little on this point, though she 
 talked a great deal on a variety of subjects, and mentioned 
 to him her habits, her aspirations, her likes and dislikes. 
 The latter were very numerous. She was tremendously 
 particular, difficult to please, he could see that ; and she 
 
78 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA v 
 
 assured him that she never put up with anything a moment 
 after it had ceased to be agreeable to her. Especially was 
 she particular about gentlemen's society, and she made it 
 plain that a young fellow who wanted to have anything to 
 say to her must be in receipt of wages amounting at the 
 least to fifty shillings a week. Hyacinth told her that he 
 didn't earn that, as yet ; and she remarked again that she 
 made an exception for him, because she knew all about 
 him (or if not all, at least a great deal), and he could see 
 that her good-nature was equal to her beauty. She made 
 such an exception that when, after they were moving down 
 the Edgware Road (which had still the brightness of late 
 closing, but with more nobleness), he proposed that she 
 should enter a coffee-house with him and ' take something ' 
 (he could hardly tell himself, afterwards, what brought him 
 to this point), she acceded without a demur without a 
 demur even on the ground of his slender earnings. Slender 
 as they were, Hyacinth had them in his pocket (they had 
 been destined in some degree for Pinnie), and he felt equal 
 to the occasion. Millicent partook profusely of tea and 
 bread and butter, with a relish of raspberry jam, and 
 thought the place most comfortable, though he himself, 
 after finding himself ensconced, was visited by doubts as 
 to its respectability, suggested, among other things, by 
 photographs, on the walls, of young ladies in tights. 
 Hyacinth himself was hungry, he had not yet had his tea, 
 but he was too excited, too preoccupied, to eat ; the situa- 
 tion made him restless and gave him palpitations ; it 
 seemed to be the beginning of something new. He had 
 never yet * stood ' even a glass of beer to a girl of Milli- 
 cent's stamp a girl who rustled and glittered and smelt of 
 
v THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 79 
 
 musk and if she should turn out as jolly a specimen of 
 the sex as she seemed it might make a great difference in 
 his leisure hours, in his evenings, which were often very 
 dull. That it would also make a difference in his savings 
 (he was under a pledge to Pinnie and to Mr. Vetch to put 
 by something every week) it didn't concern him, for the 
 moment, to reflect ; and indeed, though he thought it 
 odious and insufferable to be poor, the ways and means 
 of becoming rich had hitherto not greatly occupied him. 
 He knew what Millicent's age must be, but felt, neverthe- 
 less, as if she were older, much older, than himself she 
 appeared to know so much about London and about life ; 
 and this made it still more of a sensation to be entertaining 
 her like a young swell. He thought of it, too, in connec- 
 tion with the question of the respectability of the establish- 
 ment ; if this element was deficient she would perceive it 
 as soon as he, and very likely it would be a part of the 
 general initiation she had given him an impression of that 
 she shouldn't mind it so long as the tea was strong and 
 the bread and butter thick. She described to him what 
 had passed between Miss Pynsent and herself (she didn't 
 call her Pinnie, and he was glad, for he wouldn't have 
 liked it) before he came in, and let him know that she 
 should never dare to come to the place again, as his mother 
 would tear her eyes out. Then she checked herself. ' Of 
 course she ain't your mother ! How stupid I am ! I keep 
 forgetting.' 
 
 Hyacinth had long since convinced himself that he had 
 acquired a manner with which he could meet allusions of 
 this kind : he had had, first and last, so many opportunities 
 to practise it. Therefore he looked at his companion very 
 
8o THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA v 
 
 steadily while he said, * My mother died many years ago ; 
 she was a great invalid. But Pinnie has been awfully good 
 to me.' 
 
 ' My mother's dead too,' Miss Henning remarked. 
 ' She died very suddenly. I daresay you remember her in 
 the Place.' Then, while Hyacinth disengaged from the 
 past the wavering figure of Mrs. Henning, of whom he 
 mainly remembered that she used to strike him as dirty, 
 the girl added, smiling, but with more sentiment, ' But I 
 have had no Pinnie.' 
 
 ' You look as if you could take care of yourself.' 
 
 * Well, I'm very confiding,' said Millicent Henning. 
 Then she asked what had become of Mr. Vetch. ' We 
 used to say that if Miss Pynsent was your mamma, he was 
 your papa. In our family we used to call him Miss Pyn- 
 sent's young man.' 
 
 ' He's her young man still,' Hyacinth said. * He's our 
 best friend or supposed to be. He got me the place I'm 
 in now. He lives by his fiddle, as he used to do.' 
 
 Millicent looked a little at her companion, after which 
 she remarked, ' I should have thought he would have got 
 you a place at hik theatre.' 
 
 'At his theatre? That would have been no use. I 
 don't play any instrument.' 
 
 * I don't mean in the orchestra, you gaby ! You would 
 look very nice in a fancy costume.' She had her elbows 
 on the table, and her shoulders lifted, in an attitude of 
 extreme familiarity. He was on the point of replying that 
 he didn't care for fancy costumes, he wished to go through 
 life in his own character ; but he checked himself, with the 
 reflection that this was exactly what, apparently, he was 
 
v THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA Si 
 
 destined not to do. His own character ? He was to 
 cover that up as carefully as possible ; he was to go through 
 life in a mask, in a borrowed mantle ; he was to be, every 
 day and every hour, an actor. Suddenly, with the utmost 
 irrelevance, Miss Henning inquired, ' Is Miss Pynsent some 
 relation ? What gave her any right over you ? ' 
 
 Hyacinth had an answer ready for this question ; he 
 had determined to say, as he had several times said before, 
 ' Miss Pynsent is an old friend of my family. My mother 
 was very fond of her, and she was very fond of my mother.' 
 He repeated the formula now, looking at Millicent with 
 the same inscrutable calmness (as he fancied), though what 
 he would have liked to say to her would have been that his 
 mother was none of her business. But she was too handsome 
 to talk that way to, and she presented her large fair face to 
 him, across the table, with an air of solicitation to be cosy 
 and comfortable. There were things in his heart and a 
 torment and a hidden passion in his life which he should 
 be glad enough to lay open to some woman. He believed 
 that perhaps this would be the cure ultimately; that in 
 return for something he might drop, syllable by syllable, 
 into a listening feminine ear, certain other words would 
 be spoken to him which would make his pain for ever less 
 sharp. But what woman could he trust, what ear would be 
 safe? The answer was not in this loud, fresh laughing 
 creature, whose sympathy couldn't have the fineness he 
 was looking for, since her curiosity was vulgar. Hyacinth 
 objected to the vulgar as much as Miss Pynsent herself; 
 in this respect she had long since discovered that he was 
 after her own heart. He had not taken up the subject of 
 Mrs. Henning's death ; he felt himself incapable of inquir- 
 VOL. i. G 
 
82 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA v 
 
 ing about that lady, and had no desire for knowledge of 
 Millicent's relationships. Moreover he always suffered, to 
 sickness, when people began to hover about the question 
 of his origin, the reasons why Pinnie had had the care of 
 him from a baby. Mrs. Henning had been untidy, but at 
 least her daughter could speak of her. 'Mr. Vetch has 
 changed his lodgings: he moved out of No. 17, three 
 years ago,' he said, to vary the topic. ' He couldn't stand 
 the other people in the house ; there was a man who played 
 the accordeon.' 
 
 Millicent, however, was but moderately interested in this 
 anecdote, and she wanted to know why people should like 
 Mr. Vetch's fiddle any better. Then she added, 'And I 
 think that while he was about it he might have put you 
 into something better than a bookbinder's.' 
 
 ' He wasn't obliged to put me into anything. It's a 
 very good place.' 
 
 ' All the same, it isn't where I should have looked to 
 find you,' Millicent declared, not so much in the tone of 
 wishing to pay him a compliment as of resentment at having 
 miscalculated. 
 
 ' Where should you have looked to find me ? In the 
 House of Commons ? It's a pity you couldn't have told 
 me in advance what you would have liked me to be.' 
 
 She looked at him, over her cup, while she drank, in 
 several sips. ' Do you know what they used to say in the 
 Place ? That your father was a lord.' 
 
 ' Very likely. That's the kind of rot they talk in 
 that precious hole,' the young man said, without 
 blenching. 
 
 ' Well, perhaps he was,' Millicent ventured. 
 
v THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 83 
 
 * He may have been a prince, for all the good it has 
 done me.' 
 
 ' Fancy your talking as if you didn't know ! ' said 
 
 Millicent. 
 
 ' Finish your tea don't mind how I talk.' 
 
 ' Well, you 'ave got a temper ! ' the girl exclaimed, 
 
 archly. 'I should have thought you'd be a clerk at a 
 
 banker's.' 
 
 ' Do they select them for their tempers ? ' 
 
 ' You know what I mean. You used to be too clever 
 
 to follow a trade.' 
 
 ' Well, I'm not clever enough to live on air.' 
 
 ' You might be, really, for all the tea you drink ! Why 
 
 didn't you go in for some high profession ? ' 
 
 ' How was I to go in ? Who the devil was to help me ? 
 
 Hyacinth inquired, with a certain vibration. 
 
 * Haven't you got any relations ? ' said Millicent, after a 
 moment. 
 
 ' What are you doing ? Are you trying to make me 
 swagger ? ' 
 
 When he spoke sharply she only laughed, not in the 
 least ruffled, and by the way she looked at him seemed to 
 like it. ' Well, I'm sorry you're onlyji journeyman,' she 
 went on, pushing away her cup. 
 
 ' So am I,' Hyacinth rejoined ; but he called for the 
 bill as if he had been an employer of labour. Then, while 
 it was being brought, he remarked to his companion that 
 he didn't believe she had an idea of what his work was and 
 how charming it could be. * Yes, I get up books for the 
 shops,' he said, when she had retorted that she perfectly 
 understood. ' But the art of the binder is'an exquisite art.' 
 
84 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA v 
 
 * So Miss Pynsent told me. She said you had some 
 samples at home. I should like to see them.' 
 
 ' You wouldn't know how good they are,' said Hyacinth, 
 smiling. 
 
 He expected that she would exclaim, in answer, that he 
 was an impudent wretch, and for a moment she seemed 
 to be on the point of doing so. But the words changed 
 on her lips, and she replied, almost tenderly, ' That's just 
 the way you used to speak to me, years ago in the Plice.' 
 
 ' I don't care about that. I hate all that time.' 
 
 ' Oh, so do I, if you come to that,' said Millicent, as if 
 she could rise to any breadth of view. And then she 
 returned to her idea that he had not done himself justice. 
 ' You used always to be reading : I never thought you 
 would work with your 'ands.' 
 
 This seemed to irritate him, and, having paid the bill 
 and given threepence, ostentatiously, to the young woman 
 with a languid manner and hair of an unnatural yellow, who 
 had waited on them, he said, ' You may depend upon it I 
 shan't do it an hour longer than I can help.' 
 
 ' What will you do then ? ' 
 
 ' Oh, you'll see, some day.' In the street, after they 
 had begun to walk again, he went on, * You speak as if I 
 could have my pick. What was an obscure little beggar to 
 do, buried in a squalid corner of London, under a million 
 of idiots ? I had no help, no influence, no acquaintance of 
 any kind with professional people, and no means of getting 
 at them. I had to do something ; I couldn't go on living 
 on Finnic. Thank God, I help her now, a little. I took 
 what I could get.' He spoke as if he had been touched by 
 the imputation of having derogated. 
 
v THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 85 
 
 Millicent seemed to imply that he defended himself 
 successfully when she said, 'You express yourself like a 
 gentleman ' a speech to which he made no response. But 
 he began to talk again afterwards, and, the evening having 
 definitely set in, his companion took his arm for the rest of 
 the way home. By the time he reached her door he had 
 confided to her that, in secret, he wrote : he had a dream of 
 literary distinction. This appeared to impress her, and she 
 branched off to remark, with an irrelevance that characterised 
 her, that she didn't care anything about a man's family if 
 she liked the man himself; she thought families were 
 played out. Hyacinth wished she would leave his alone ; 
 and while they lingered in front of her house, before she 
 went in, he said 
 
 'I have no doubt you're a jolly girl, and I am very 
 happy to have seen you again. But you have awfully little 
 tact.' 
 
 ' / have little tact ? You should see me work off an old 
 jacket ! ' 
 
 He was silent a moment, standing before her with his 
 hands in his pockets. ' It's a good job you're so hand- 
 some.' 
 
 Millicent didn't blush at this compliment, and probably 
 didn't understand all it conveyed, but she looked into his 
 eyes a while, with a smile that showed her teeth, and then 
 said, more inconsequently than ever, ' Come now, who are 
 you?' 
 
 ' Who am I ? I'm a wretched little bookbinder.' 
 
 * I didn't think I ever could fancy any one in that line ! ' 
 Miss Henning exclaimed. Then she let him know that 
 she couldn't ask him in, as she made it a point not to 
 
86 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA v 
 
 receive gentlemen, but she didn't mind if she took another 
 walk with him and she didn't care if she met him some- 
 where if it were handy. As she lived so far from Lomax 
 Place she didn't care if she met him half-way. So, in the 
 dusky by-street in Pimlico, before separating, they took a 
 casual tryst ; the most interesting, the young man felt, that 
 had yet been he could scarcely call it granted him. 
 
VI 
 
 ONE day, shortly after this, at the bindery, his friend 
 Poupin was absent, and sent no explanation, as was 
 customary in case of illness or domestic accident. There 
 were two or three men employed in the place whose non- 
 appearance, usually following close upon pay-day, was better 
 unexplained, and was an implication of moral feebleness ; 
 but as a general thing Mr. Crookenden's establishment was 
 a haunt of punctuality and sobriety. Least of all had 
 Eustache Poupin been in the habit of asking for a margin. 
 Hyacinth knew how little indulgence he had ever craved, 
 and this was part of his admiration for the extraordinary 
 Frenchman, an ardent stoic, a cold conspirator and an 
 exquisite artist, who was by far the most interesting person 
 in the ranks of his acquaintance and whose conversation, 
 in the workshop, helped him sometimes to forget the smell 
 of leather and glue. His conversation ! Hyacinth had 
 had plenty of that, and had endeared himself to the pas- 
 sionate refugee Poupin had come to England after the Com- 
 mune of 1871, to escape the reprisals of the government of 
 M. Thiers, and had remained there in spite of amnesties 
 and rehabilitations by the solemnity and candour of his 
 attention. He was a Republican of the old-fashioned sort, 
 of the note of 1848, humanitary and idealistic, infinitely 
 
88 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA vi 
 
 addicted to fraternity and equality, and inexhaustibly sur- 
 prised and exasperated at finding so little enthusiasm for 
 them in the land of his exile. Poupin had a high claim 
 upon Hyacinth's esteem and gratitude, for he had been his 
 godfather, his protector at the bindery. When Anastasius 
 Vetch found something for Miss Pynsent's protege to do, it 
 was through the Frenchman, with whom he had accidentally 
 formed an acquaintance, that he found it. 
 
 When the boy was about fifteen years of age Mr. Vetch 
 made him a present of the essays of Lord Bacon, and the 
 purchase of this volume had important consequences for 
 Hyacinth. Anastasius Vetch was a poor man, and the 
 luxury of giving was for the most part denied him; but 
 when once in a way he tasted it he liked the sensation to 
 be pure. No man knew better the difference between the 
 common and the rare, or was more capable of appreciating 
 a book which opened well of which the margin was not 
 hideously chopped and of which the lettering on the back 
 was sharp. It was only such a book that he could bring 
 himself to offer even to a poor little devil whom a fifth-rate 
 dressmaker (he knew Pinnie was fifth-rate) had rescued 
 from the workhouse. So when it became a question of 
 fitting the great Elizabethan with a new coat a coat of 
 full morocco, discreetly, delicately gilt he went with his 
 little cloth-bound volume, a Pickering, straight to Mr. 
 Crookenden, whom every one that knew anything about the 
 matter knew to be a prince of binders, though they also 
 knew that his work, limited in quantity, was mainly done 
 for a particular bookseller and only through the latter's 
 agency. Anastasius Vetch had no idea of paying the book- 
 seller's commission, and though he could be lavish (for him) 
 
vi THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 89 
 
 when he made a present, he was capable of taking an 
 immense deal of trouble to save sixpence. He made his 
 way into Mr. Crook enden's workshop, which was situated 
 in a small superannuated square in Soho, and where the 
 proposal of so slender a job was received at first with cold- 
 ness. Mr. Vetch, however, insisted, and explained with 
 irresistible frankness the motive of his errand : the desire to 
 obtain the best possible binding for the least possible 
 money. He made his conception of the best possible 
 binding so vivid, so exemplary, that the master of the shop 
 at last confessed to that disinterested sympathy which, 
 under favouring circumstances, establishes itself between 
 the artist and the connoisseur. Mr. Vetch's little book was 
 put in hand as a particular service to an eccentric gentle- 
 man whose visit had been a smile-stirring interlude (for the 
 circle of listening workmen) in a merely mechanical day ; 
 and when he went back, three weeks later, to see whether 
 it were done, he had the pleasure of finding that his in- 
 junctions, punctually complied with, had even been bettered. 
 The work had been accomplished with a perfection of skill 
 which made him ask whom he was to thank for it (he had 
 been told that one man should do the whole of it), and in 
 this manner he made the acquaintance of the most brilliant 
 craftsman in the establishment, the incorruptible, the 
 imaginative, the unerring Eustache Poupin. 
 
 In response to an appreciation which he felt not to be 
 banal M. Poupin remarked that he had at home a small 
 collection of experiments in morocco, Russia, parchment, 
 of fanciful specimens with which, for the love of the art, he 
 had amused his leisure hours and which he should be 
 happy to show his interlocutor if the latter would do him 
 
90 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA vi 
 
 the honour to call upon him at his lodgings in Lisson 
 Grove. Mr. Vetch made a note of the address and, for 
 the love of the art, went one Sunday afternoon to see the 
 binder's esoteric studies. On this occasion he made the 
 acquaintance of Madame Poupin, a small, fat lady with a 
 bristling moustache, the white cap of an ouvriere, a know- 
 ledge of her husband's craft that was equal to his own, and 
 not a syllable of English save the words, ' What you think, 
 what you think ? ' which she introduced with startling fre- 
 quency. He also discovered that his new acquaintance had 
 been a political prescript and that he regarded the iniqui- 
 tous fabric of Church and State with an eye scarcely more 
 reverent than the fiddler's own. M. Poupin was a socialist, 
 which Anastasius Vetch was not, and a constructive demo- 
 crat (instead of being a mere scoffer at effete things), and a 
 theorist and an optimist and a visionary ; he believed that 
 the day was to come when all the nations of the earth 
 would abolish their frontiers and armies and custom-houses, 
 and embrace on both cheeks, and cover the globe with 
 boulevards, radiating from Paris, where the human family 
 
 would sit, in groups, at little tables, according to affinities, 
 i 
 
 drinking coffee (not tea, par exemplef) and listening to the 
 music of the spheres. Mr. Vetch neither prefigured nor 
 desired this organised felicity ; he was fond of his cup of 
 tea, and only wanted to see the British constitution a good 
 deal simplified ; he thought it a much overrated system, 
 but his heresies rubbed shoulders, sociably, with those of 
 the little bookbinder, and his friend in Lisson Grove became 
 for him the type of the intelligent foreigner whose conver- 
 sation completes our culture. Poupin's humanitary zeal 
 was as unlimited as his English vocabulary was the reverse, 
 
vi THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA . 91 
 
 and the new friends agreed with each other enough, and 
 not too much, to discuss, which was much better than an 
 unspeakable harmony. On several other Sunday afternoons 
 the fiddler went back to Lisson Grove, and having, at his 
 theatre, as a veteran, a faithful servant, an occasional privi- 
 lege, he was able to carry thither, one day in the autumn, 
 an order for two seats in the second balcony. Madame 
 Poupin and her husband passed a lugubrious evening at 
 the English comedy, where they didn't understand a word 
 that was spoken, and consoled themselves by gazing at 
 their friend in the orchestra. But this adventure did not 
 arrest the development of a friendship into which, eventu- 
 ally, Amanda Pynsent was drawn. Madame Poupin, 
 among the cold insularies, lacked female society, and Mr. 
 Vetch proposed to his amiable friend in Lomax Place to 
 call upon her. The little dressmaker, who in the course of 
 her life had known no Frenchwoman but the unhappy 
 Florentine (so favourable a specimen till she began to go 
 wrong), adopted his suggestion, in the hope that she should 
 get a few ideas from a lady whose appearance would doubt- 
 less exemplify (as Florentine's originally had done) the fine 
 taste of her nation ; but she found the bookbinder and his 
 wife a bewildering mixture of the brilliant and the relaxed, 
 and was haunted, long afterwards, by the memory of the 
 lady's calico jacket, her uncorseted form and her carpet 
 slippers. 
 
 The acquaintance, none the less, was sealed three months 
 later by a supper, one Sunday night, in Lisson Grove, to 
 which Mr. Vetch brought his fiddle, at which Amanda 
 presented to her hosts her adoptive son, and which also 
 revealed to her that Madame Poupin could dress a Michael- 
 
92 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA vi 
 
 mas goose, if she couldn't dress a fat Frenchwoman. This 
 lady confided to the fiddler that she thought Miss Pynsent 
 exceedingly comme il faut dans le genre anglais ; and 
 neither Amanda nor Hyacinth had ever passed an evening 
 of such splendour. It took its place, in the boy's recollec- 
 tion, beside the visit, years before, to Mr. Vetch's theatre. 
 He drank in the conversation which passed between that 
 gentleman and M. Poupin. M. Poupin showed him his 
 bindings, the most precious trophies of his skill, and it 
 seemed to Hyacinth that on the spot he was initiated into 
 a fascinating mystery. He handled the books for half an 
 hour; Anastasius Vetch watched him, without giving any 
 particular sign. When, therefore, presently, Miss Pynsent 
 consulted her friend for the twentieth time on the subject 
 of Hyacinth's ' career ' she spoke as if she were hesitating 
 between the diplomatic service, the army and the church 
 the fiddler replied with promptitude, * Make him, if you 
 can, what the Frenchman is.' At the mention of a handi- 
 craft poor Pinnie always looked very solemn, yet when Mr. 
 Vetch asked her if she were prepared to send the boy to 
 
 one of the universities, or to pay the premium required for 
 
 i 
 his being articled to a solicitor, or to make favour, on his 
 
 behalf, with a bank-director or a mighty merchant, or, yet 
 again, to provide him with a comfortable home while he 
 should woo the muse and await the laurels of literature 
 when, I say, he put the case before her with this cynical, 
 ironical lucidity, she only sighed and said that all the money 
 she had ever saved was ninety pounds, which, as he knew 
 perfectly well, it would cost her his acquaintance for ever- 
 more to take out of the bank. ' The fiddler had, in fact, 
 declared to her in a manner not to be mistaken that if she 
 
vi THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 93 
 
 should divest herself, on the boy's account, of this sole 
 nest-egg of her old age, he would wash his hands of her and 
 her affairs. Her standard of success for Hyacinth was 
 vague, save on one point, as regards which she was pas- 
 sionately, fiercely firm ; she was perfectly determined he 
 should never go into a small shop. She would rather see 
 him a bricklayer or a costermonger than dedicated to a 
 retail business, tying up candles at a grocer's, or giving 
 change for a shilling across a counter. She would rather, 
 she declared on one occasion, see him articled to a shoe- 
 maker or a tailor. 
 
 A stationer in a neighbouring street had affixed to his 
 window a written notice that he was in want of a smart 
 errand-boy, and Finnic, on hearing of it, had presented 
 Hyacinth to his consideration. The stationer was a dread- 
 ful bullying man, with a patch over his eye, who seemed 
 to think the boy would be richly remunerated with three 
 shillings a week ; a contemptible measure, as it seemed to 
 the dressmaker, of his rare abilities and acquirements. 
 His schooling had been desultory, precarious, and had 
 had a certain continuity mainly in his early years, while 
 he was under the care of an old lady who combined 
 with the functions of pew-opener at a neighbouring church 
 the manipulation, in the Place itself, where she resided 
 with her sister, a monthly nurse, of such pupils as could 
 be spared (in their families) from the more urgent exer- 
 cise of holding the baby and fetching the beer. . Later, 
 for a twelvemonth, Pinnie had paid five shillings a week 
 for him at an ' Academy ' in a genteel part of Islington, 
 where there was an * instructor in the foreign languages,' a 
 platform for oratory, and a high social standard, but where 
 
94 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA vi 
 
 Hyacinth suffered from the fact that almost all his mates 
 were the sons of dealers in edible articles pastry-cooks, 
 grocers and fishmongers and in this capacity subjected 
 him to pangs and ignominious contrasts by bringing to 
 school, for their exclusive consumption, or for exchange 
 and barter, various buns, oranges, spices, and marine 
 animals, which the boy, with his hands in his empty pockets 
 and the sense of a savourless home in his heart, was obliged 
 to see devoured without his participation. Miss Pynsent 
 would not have pretended that he was highly educated, in 
 the technical sense of the word, but she believed that at 
 fifteen he had read almost every book in the world. The 
 limits of his reading were, in fact, only the limits -of his 
 opportunity. Mr. Vetch, who talked with him more and 
 more as he grew older, knew this, and lent him every 
 volume he possessed or could pick up for the purpose. 
 Reading was his happiness, and the absence of any direct 
 contact with a library his principal source of discontent ; 
 that is, of that part of his discontent which he could speak 
 out. Mr. Vetch knew that he was really clever, and there- 
 fore thought it a woful pity that he could not have further- 
 ance in some lib'eral walk ; but he would have thought it a 
 greater pity still that so bright a lad should be condemned 
 to measure tape or cut slices of cheese. He himself 
 had no influence which he could bring into play, no con- 
 nection with the great world of capital or the market of 
 labour. That is, he touched these mighty institutions at 
 but one very small point a point which, such as it was, 
 he kept well in mind. 
 
 When Finnic replied to the stationer round the corner, 
 after he had mentioned the ' terms ' on which he was pre- 
 
vi THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 95 
 
 pared to receive applications from errand-boys, that, thank 
 heaven, she hadn't sunk so low as that so low as to sell 
 her darling into slavery for three shillings a week he felt 
 that she only gave more florid expression to his own senti- 
 ment. Of course, if Hyacinth did not begin by carrying 
 parcels he could not hope to be promoted, through the 
 more refined nimbleness of tying them up, to a position as 
 accountant or bookkeeper ; but both the fiddler and his 
 friend Miss Pynsent, indeed, only in the last resort 
 resigned themselves to the forfeiture of this prospect. 
 Mr. Vetch saw clearly that a charming handicraft was a 
 finer thing than a vulgar ' business,' and one day, after his 
 acquaintance with Eustache Poupin had gone a consider- 
 able length, he inquired of the Frenchman whether there 
 would be a chance of the lad's obtaining a footing, under 
 his own wing, in Mr. Crookenden's workshop. There could 
 be no better place for him to acquire a knowledge of the 
 most delightful of the mechanical arts ; and to be received 
 into such an establishment, and at the instance of such an 
 artist, would be a real start in life. M. Poupin meditated, 
 and that evening confided his meditations to the companion 
 who reduplicated all his thoughts and understood him better 
 even than he understood himself. The pair had no children, 
 and had felt the defect ; moreover, they had heard from 
 Mr. Vetch the dolorous tale of the boy's entrance into life. 
 He was one of the disinherited, one of the expropriated, 
 one of the exceptionally interesting ; and moreover he was 
 one of themselves, a child, as it were, of France, an offshoot 
 of the sacred race. It is not the most authenticated point 
 in this veracious history, but there is strong reason to believe 
 that tears were shed that night, in Lisson Grove, over poor 
 
96 THE PROCESS CASAMASSIMA vi 
 
 little Hyacinth Robinson. In a day or two M. Poupin 
 replied to the fiddler that he had now been several years in 
 Mr. Crookenden's employ; that during that time he had 
 done work for him that he would have had Men du mal to 
 get done by another, and had never asked for an indulgence, 
 an allowance, a remission, an augmentation. It was time, 
 if only for the dignity of the thing, he should ask for some- 
 thing, and he would make their little friend the subject of 
 his demand. ' La societe lui doit bien cela] he remarked 
 afterwards, when, Mr. Crookenden proving drily hospitable 
 and the arrangement being formally complete, Mr. Vetch 
 thanked him, in his kindly, casual, bashful English way. 
 He was paternal when Hyacinth began to occupy a place in 
 the malodorous chambers in Soho ; he took him in hand, 
 made him a disciple, the recipient of a precious tradition, 
 discovered in him a susceptibility to philosophic as well as 
 technic truth. He taught him French and socialism, 
 encouraged him to spend his evenings in Lisson Grove, 
 invited him to regard Madame Poupin as a second, or rather 
 as a third, mother, and in short made a very considerable 
 mark on the boy's mind. He elicited the latent Gallicism 
 of his nature, and by the time he was twenty Hyacinth, 
 who had completely assimilated his influence, regarded him 
 with a mixture of veneration and amusement. M. Poupin 
 was the person who consoled him most when he was 
 miserable ; and he was very often miserable. 
 
 His staying away from his work was so rare that, in the 
 afternoon, before he went home, Hyacinth walked to Lisson 
 Grove to see what ailed him. He found his friend in bed, 
 with a plaster on his chest, and Madame Poupin making 
 tisane over the fire. The Frenchman took his indisposition 
 
vi THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 97 
 
 solemnly but resignedly, like a man who believed that all 
 illness was owing to the imperfect organisation of society, 
 and lay covered up to his chin, with a red cotton hand- 
 kerchief bound round his head. Near his bed sat a visitor, 
 a young man unknown to Hyacinth. Hyacinth, naturally, 
 had never been to Paris, but he always supposed that the 
 interieur of his friends in Lisson Grove gave rather a vivid 
 idea of that city. The two small rooms which constituted 
 their establishment contained a great many mirrors, as well 
 as little portraits (old-fashioned prints) of revolutionary heroes. 
 The chimney-piece, in the bedroom, was muffled in some 
 red drapery, which appeared to Hyacinth extraordinarily 
 magnificent; the principal ornament of the salon was a 
 group of small and highly-decorated cups, on a tray, 
 accompanied by gilt bottles and glasses, the latter still more 
 diminutive the whole intended for black coffee and 
 liqueurs. There was no carpet on the floor, but rugs and 
 mats, of various shapes and sizes, disposed themselves at 
 the feet of the chairs and sofas ; and in the sitting-room, 
 where there was a wonderful gilt clock, of the Empire, sur- 
 mounted with a ' subject ' representing Virtue receiving a 
 crown of laurel from the hands of Faith, Madame Poupin, 
 with the aid of a tiny stove, a handful of charcoal, and two 
 or three saucepans, carried on a triumphant cuisine. In the 
 windows were curtains of white muslin, much fluted and 
 frilled, and tied with pink ribbon. 
 
 VOL. I. H 
 
VII 
 
 ' I AM suffering extremely, but we must all suffer, so long 
 as the social question is so abominably, so iniquitously 
 neglected,' Poupin remarked, speaking French and rolling 
 toward Hyacinth his salient, excited-looking eyes, which 
 always had the same proclaiming, challenging expression, 
 whatever his occupation or his topic. Hyacinth had seated 
 himself near his friend's pillow, opposite the strange young 
 man, who had been accommodated with a chair at the foot 
 of the bed. 
 
 ' Ah, yes ; with their filthy politics the situation of the 
 pauvre monde is the last thing they ever think of! ' his wife 
 exclaimed, from the fire. ' There are times when I ask 
 myself how long it will go on.' 
 
 ' It will go on till the measure of their imbecility, their 
 infamy, is full. It will go on till the day of justice, till the 
 reintegration of the despoiled and disinherited, is ushered 
 in with an irresistible force.' 
 
 ' Oh, we always see things go on ; we never see them 
 change,' said Madame Poupin, making a very cheerful 
 clatter with a big spoon in a saucepan. 
 
 'We may not see it, but they'll see it,' her husband 
 rejoined. ' But what do I say, my children ? I do see it,' 
 he pursued. ' It's before my eyes, in its luminous reality, 
 
vii THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 99 
 
 especially as I lie here the revendication, the rehabilitation, 
 the rectification.' 
 
 Hyacinth ceased to pay attention, not because he 
 had a differing opinion about what M. Poupin called the 
 avenement of the disinherited, but, on the contrary, pre- 
 cisely on account of his familiarity with that prospect. It 
 was the constant theme of his French friends, whom he 
 had long since perceived to be in a state of chronic 
 spiritual inflammation. For them the social question was 
 always in order, the political question always abhorrent, the 
 disinherited always present. He wondered at their zeal, 
 their continuity, their vivacity, their incorruptibility at the 
 abundant supply of conviction and prophecy which they 
 always had on hand. He believed that at bottom he was 
 sorer than they, yet he had deviations and lapses, moments 
 when the social question bored him and he forgot not 
 only his own wrongs, which would have been pardonable, 
 but those of the people at large, of his brothers and sisters 
 in misery. They, however, were perpetually in the breach, 
 and perpetually consistent with themselves and, what is 
 more, with each other. Hyacinth had heard that the 
 institution of marriage in France was rather lightly con- 
 sidered, but he was struck with the closeness and intimacy 
 of the union in Lisson Grove, the passionate identity of 
 interest : especially on the day when M. Poupin informed 
 him, in a moment of extreme but not indiscreet expansion, 
 that the lady was his wife only in a spiritual, transcendental 
 sense. There were hypocritical concessions and debasing 
 superstitions of which this exalted pair wholly disapproved. 
 Hyacinth knew their vocabulary by heart, and could have 
 said everything, in the same words, that on any given 
 
THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 
 
 occasion M. Poupin was likely to say. He knew that 
 ' they,' in their phraseology, was a comprehensive allusion 
 to every one in the world but the people though who, 
 exactly, in their length and breadth, the people were was 
 less definitely established. He himself was of this sacred 
 body, for which the future was to have such compensa- 
 tions ; and so, of course, were the Frenchman and his 
 consort, and so was Pinnie, and so were most of the 
 inhabitants of Lomax Place and the workmen in old 
 Crookenden's shop. But was old Crookenden himself, 
 who wore an apron rather dirtier than the rest of them 
 and was a master-hand at 'forwarding,' but who, on the 
 other side, was the occupant of a villa almost detached, 
 at Putney, with a wife known to have secret aspirations 
 toward a page in buttons? Above all, was Mr. Vetch, 
 who earned a weekly wage, and not a large one, with his 
 fiddle, but who had mysterious affinities of another sort, 
 reminiscences of a phase in which he smoked cigars, had 
 a hat-box and used cabs besides visiting Boulogne? 
 Anastasius Vetch had interfered in his life, atrociously, in 
 a terrible crisi^; but Hyacinth, who strove to cultivate 
 justice in his own conduct, believed he had acted con- 
 scientiously and tried to esteem him, the more so as the 
 fiddler evidently felt that he had something to make up 
 to him and had treated him with marked benevolence for 
 years. He believed, in short, that Mr. Vetch took a 
 sincere interest in him, and if he should meddle again 
 would meddle in a different way : he used to see him 
 sometimes looking at him with the kindest eyes. It 
 would make a difference, therefore, whether he were of 
 the people or not, inasmuch as in the day of the great 
 
vii THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 101 
 
 revenge it would only be the people who should be saved. 
 It was for the people the world was made : whoever was 
 not of them was against them ; and all others were 
 cumberers, usurpers, exploiters, accapareurs, as M. Poupin 
 used to say. Hyacinth had once put the question directly 
 to Mr. Vetch, who looked at him a while through the 
 fumes of his eternal pipe and then said, 'Do you think 
 I'm an aristocrat?' 
 
 ' I didn't know but you were a bourgeois] the young 
 man answered. 
 
 ' No, I'm neither. I'm a Bohemian.' 
 
 'With your evening dress, every night?' 
 
 'My dear boy,' said the fiddler, 'those are the most 
 confirmed.' 
 
 Hyacinth was only half satisfied with this, for it was by 
 no means definite to him that Bohemians were also to be 
 saved ; if he could be sure, perhaps he would become one 
 himself. Yet he never suspected Mr. Vetch of being a 
 ' spy,' though Eustache Poupin had told him that there 
 were a great many who looked a good deal like that : not, 
 of course, with any purpose of incriminating the fiddler, 
 whom he had trusted from the first and continued to trust. 
 The middle -class spy became a very familiar type to 
 Hyacinth, and though he had never caught one of the 
 infamous brotherhood in the act, there were plenty of 
 persons to whom, on the very face of the matter, he had 
 no hesitation in attributing the character. There was 
 nothing of the Bohemian, at any rate, about the Poupins, 
 whom Hyacinth had now known long enough not to be 
 surprised at the way they combined the socialistic passion, 
 a red-hot impatience for the general rectification, with an 
 
102 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA vn 
 
 extraordinary decency of life and a worship of proper work. 
 The Frenchman' spoke, habitually, as if the great swindle 
 practised upon the people were too impudent to be endured 
 a moment longer, and yet he found patience for the most 
 exquisite 'tooling,' and took a book in hand with the 
 deliberation of one who should believe that everything was 
 immutably constituted. Hyacinth knew what he thought 
 of priests and theologies, but he had the religion of con- 
 scientious craftsmanship, and he reduced the boy, on his 
 side, to a kind of prostration before his delicate, wonder- 
 working fingers. 'What will you have? fat la main 
 parisiennej M. Poupin would reply modestly, when 
 Hyacinth's admiration broke out; and he was good 
 enough, after he had seen a few specimens of what our 
 hero could do, to inform him that he had the same happy 
 conformation. ' There is no reason why you shouldn't be 
 a good workman, il riy a que fa / and his own life was 
 practically governed by this conviction. He delighted in 
 the use of his hands and his tools and the exercise of his 
 taste, which was faultless, and Hyacinth could easily im- 
 agine how it jnust torment him to spend a day on his 
 back. He ended by perceiving, however, that consolation 
 was, on this occasion, in some degree conveyed by the 
 presence of the young man who sat at the foot of the bed, 
 and with whom M. Poupin exhibited such signs of acquaint- 
 ance as to make our hero wonder why he had not seen 
 him before, nor even heard of him. 
 
 'What do you mean by an irresistible force?' the young 
 man inquired, leaning back in his chair, with raised arms 
 and his interlocked hands behind him, supporting his head. 
 M. Poupin had spoken French, which he always preferred 
 
vii THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 103 
 
 to do, the insular tongue being an immense tribulation to 
 him ; but his visitor spoke English, and Hyacinth immedi- 
 ately perceived that there was nothing French about him 
 M. Poupin could never tell him he had la main parisienne. 
 
 ' I mean a force that will make the bourgeois go down 
 into their cellars and hide, pale with fear, behind their 
 barrels of wine and their heaps of gold !' cried M. Poupin, 
 rolling terrible eyes. 
 
 ' And in this country, I hope in their coal-bins. La-la, 
 we shall find them even there,' his wife remarked. 
 
 "89 was an irresistible force,' said M. Poupin. 'I 
 believe you would have thought so if you had been there.' 
 
 'And so was the entrance of the Versaillais, which sent 
 you over here, ten years ago,' the young man rejoined. He 
 saw that Hyacinth was watching him, and he met his eyes, 
 smiling a little, in a way that added to our hero's interest. 
 
 ' Pardon, pardon, I resist ! ' cried Eustache Poupin, 
 glaring, in his improvised nightcap, out of his sheets ; and 
 Madame repeated that they resisted she believed well 
 that they resisted! The young man burst out laughing; 
 whereupon his host declared, with a dignity which even his 
 recumbent position did not abate, that it was really frivolous 
 of him to ask such questions as that, knowing as he did 
 what he did know. 
 
 'Yes, I know I know,' said the young man, good- 
 naturedly, lowering his arms and thrusting his hands into 
 his pockets, while he stretched his long legs a little. ' But 
 everything is yet to be tried.' 
 
 ' Oh, the trial will be on a great scale soyez tranquille ! 
 It will be one of those experiments that constitute a proof.' 
 
 Hyacinth wondered what they were talking about, and 
 
io 4 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA vn 
 
 perceived that it must be something important, for the 
 stranger was not a man who would take an interest in any- 
 thing else. Hyacinth was immensely struck with him he 
 could see that he was remarkable and felt slightly aggrieved 
 that he should be a stranger : that is, that he should be, 
 apparently, a familiar of Lisson Grove and yet that M. 
 Poupin should not have thought his young friend from 
 Lomax Place worthy, up to this time, to be made acquainted 
 with him. I know not to what degree the visitor in the 
 other chair discovered these reflections in Hyacinth's face, 
 but after a moment, looking across at him, he said in a 
 friendly yet just slightly diffident way, a way our hero liked, 
 1 And do you know, too ? ' 
 
 ' Do I know what ? ' asked Hyacinth, wondering. 
 
 ' Oh, if you did, you would ! ' the young man exclaimed, 
 laughing again. Such a rejoinder, from any one else, 
 would have irritated our sensitive hero, but it only made 
 Hyacinth more curious about his interlocutor, whose laugh 
 was loud and extraordinarily gay. 
 
 * ' M on ami, you ought to present ces messieurs / Madame 
 Poupin remarked. 
 
 ' Ah (a, is that the way you trifle with state secrets ? ' 
 her husband cried out, without heeding her. Then he 
 went on, in a different tone : ' M. Hyacinthe is a gifted 
 child, un enfant tres-doue, in whom I take a tender interest 
 a child who has an account to settle. Oh, a thumping 
 big one ! Isn't it so, mon petit ? ' 
 
 This was very well meant, but it made Hyacinth blush, 
 and, without knowing exactly what to say, he murmured 
 shyly, * Oh, I only want them to let me alone ! ' 
 
 ' He is very young,' said Eustache Poupin. 
 
vii THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 105 
 
 1 He is the person we have seen in this country whom 
 we like the best,' his wife added. 
 
 ' Perhaps you are French,' suggested the strange young 
 man. 
 
 The trio seemed to Hyacinth to be waiting for his answer 
 to this ; it was as if a listening stillness had fallen upon 
 them. He found it a difficult moment, partly because 
 there was something exciting and embarrassing in the 
 attention of the other visitor, and partly because he had 
 never yet had to decide that important question. He 
 didn't really know whether he were French or English, 
 or which of the two he should prefer to be. His mother's 
 blood, her suffering in an alien land, the unspeakable, 
 irremediable misery that consumed her, in a place, among a 
 people, she must have execrated all this made him French; 
 yet he was conscious at the same time of qualities that did 
 not mix with it. He had evolved, long ago, a legend about 
 his mother, built it up slowly, adding piece to piece, in 
 passionate musings and broodings, when his cheeks burned 
 and his eyes filled ; but there were times when it wavered 
 and faded, when it ceased to console him and he ceased 
 to trust it. He had had a father too, and his father had 
 suffered as well, and had fallen under a blow, and had paid 
 with his life; and him also he felt in his mind and his 
 body, when the effort to think it out did not simply end in 
 darkness and confusion, challenging still even while they 
 baffled, and inevitable freezing horror. At any rate, he 
 seemed rooted in the place where his wretched parents had 
 expiated, and he knew nothing about any other. More- 
 over, when old Poupin said, 'M. Hyacinthe,' as he had 
 often done before, he didn't altogether enjoy it ; he thought 
 
106 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA vn 
 
 it made his name, which he liked well enough in English, 
 sound like the name of a hair-dresser. Our young friend 
 was under a cloud and a stigma, but he was not yet pre- 
 pared to admit that he was ridiculous. ' Oh, I daresay I 
 ain't anything,' he replied in a moment 
 
 ' En vUa des betises ! ' cried Madame Poupin. ' Do you 
 mean to say you are not as good as any one in the world ? 
 I should like to see ! ' 
 
 'We all have an account to settle, don't you know?' 
 said the strange young man. 
 
 He evidently meant this to be encouraging to Hyacinth, 
 whose quick desire to avert M. Poupin's allusions had not 
 been lost upon him ; but our hero could see that he him- 
 self would be sure to be one of the first to be paid. He 
 would make society bankrupt, but he would be paid. He 
 was tall and fair and good-natured looking, but you couldn't 
 tell or at least Hyacinth couldn't whether he were 
 handsome or ugly, with his large head and square fore- 
 head, his thick, straight hair, his heavy mouth and 
 rather vulgar nose, his admirably clear, bright eye, 
 light-coloured and set very deep ; for though there 
 was a want of fineness in some of its parts, his face 
 had a marked expression of intelligence and resolution, 
 and denoted a kind of joyous moral health. He was 
 dressed like a workman in his Sunday toggery, having 
 evidently put on his best to call in Lisson Grove, where he 
 was to meet a lady, and wearing in particular a necktie 
 which was both cheap and pretentious, and of which 
 Hyacinth, who noticed everything of that kind, observed 
 the crude, false blue. He had very big shoes the shoes, 
 almost, of a country labourer and spoke with a pro- 
 
vii THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 107 
 
 vincial accent, which Hyacinth believed to be that of 
 Lancashire. This didn't suggest cleverness, but it didn't 
 prevent Hyacinth from perceiving that he was the reverse 
 of stupid, that he probably, indeed, had a tremendous 
 head. Our little hero had a great desire to know superior 
 people, and he interested himself on the spot in this strong, 
 humorous fellow, who had the complexion of a ploughboy 
 and the glance of a commander-in-chief and who might 
 have been (Hyacinth thought) a distinguished young savant 
 in the disguise of an artisan. The disguise would have 
 been very complete, for he had several brown stains on his 
 fingers. Hyacinth's curiosity, on this occasion, was both 
 excited and gratified ; for after two or three allusions, which 
 he didn't understand, had been made to a certain place 
 where Poupin and the stranger had met and expected to 
 meet again, Madame Poupin exclaimed that it was a shame 
 not to take in M. Hyacinthe, who, she would answer for it, 
 had in him the making of one of the pure. 
 
 ' All in good time, in good time, ma bonne] the invalid 
 replied. ' M. Hyacinthe knows that I count upon him, 
 whether or no I make him an interne to-day or wait a 
 while longer.' 
 
 ' What do you mean by an interne ? ' Hyacinth asked. 
 
 ' Mon Dieu, what shall I say ! ' and Eustache Poupin 
 stared at him solemnly, from his pillow. 'You are very 
 sympathetic, but I am afraid you are too young.' 
 
 ' One is never too young to contribute one's obolej said 
 Madame Poupin. 
 
 'Can you keep a secret?' asked the other visitor, smilingly. 
 
 ' Is it a plot a conspiracy ? ' Hyacinth broke out 
 
 ' He asks that as if he were asking if it's a plum-pudding,' 
 
io8 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA vn 
 
 said M. Poupin. ' It isn't good to eat, and we don't do it 
 for our amusement. It's terribly serious, my child.' 
 
 ' It's a kind of society, to which he and I and a good 
 many others belong. There is no harm in telling him that,' 
 the young man went on. 
 
 * I advise you not to tell it to Mademoiselle ; she is quite 
 in the old ideas,' Madame Poupin suggested to Hyacinth, 
 tasting her tisane. 
 
 Hyacinth sat baffled and wondering, looking from his 
 fellow-labourer in Soho to his new acquaintance opposite. 
 4 If you have some plan, something to which one can give 
 one's self, I think you might have told me,' he remarked, in 
 a moment, to Poupin. 
 
 The latter merely gazed at him a while ; then he said to 
 the strange young man, ' He is a little jealous of you. But 
 there is no harm in that ; it's of his age. You must know 
 him, you must like him. We will tell you his history some 
 other day ; it will make you feel that he belongs to us in 
 fact. It is an accident that he hasn't met you here before.' 
 
 ' How could ces messieurs have met, when M. Paul never 
 comes ? He doesn't spoil us ! ' Madame Poupin cried. 
 
 ' Well, you see I have my little sister at home to take 
 care of, when I ain't at the shop,' M. Paul explained. 
 ' This afternoon it was just a chance ; there was a lady we 
 know came in to sit with her.' 
 
 ' A lady a real lady ? ' 
 
 4 Oh yes, every inch,' said M. Paul, laughing. 
 
 ' Do you like them to thrust themselves into your apart- 
 ment like that, because you have the desagrement of being 
 poor ? It seems to be the custom in this country, but it 
 wouldn't suit me at all,' Madame Poupin continued. * I 
 
vii THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 109 
 
 should like to see one of ces dames the real ones coming 
 in to sit with me ! ' 
 
 ' Oh, you are not a cripple ; you have got the use of your 
 legs!' 
 
 ' Yes, and of my arms ! ' cried the Frenchwoman. 
 
 ' This lady looks after several others in our court, and she 
 reads to my sister.' 
 
 ' Oh, well, you are patient, you English.' 
 
 ' We shall never do anything without that,' said M. Paul, 
 with undisturbed good-humour. 
 
 ' You are perfectly right ; you can't say that too often. 
 It will be a tremendous job, and only the strong will pre- 
 vail,' his host murmured, a little wearily, turning his eyes to 
 Madame Poupin, who approached slowly, holding the tisane 
 in a rather full bowl, and tasting it again and yet again as 
 she came. 
 
 Hyacinth had been watching his fellow-visitor with 
 deepening interest ; a fact of which M. Paul apparently 
 became aware, for he said, presently, giving a little nod in 
 the direction of the bed, ' He says we ought to know each 
 other. I'm sure I have nothing against it. I like to know 
 folk, when they're worth it ! ' 
 
 Hyacinth was too pleased with this even to take it up ; 
 it seemed to him, for a moment, that he couldn't touch it 
 gracefully enough. But he said, with sufficient eagerness, 
 ' Will you tell me all about your plot ? ' 
 
 ' Oh, it's no plot. I don't think I care much for plots.' 
 And with his mild, steady, light-blue English eye, M. Paul 
 certainly had not much the appearance of a conspirator. 
 
 1 Isn't it a new era ? ' asked Hyacinth, rather dis- 
 appointed. 
 
I io THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA vn 
 
 ' Well, I don't know ; it's just a little movement.' 
 
 ' Ah bien, voila du propre ; between us we have thrown 
 him into a fever ! ' cried Madame Poupin, who had put 
 down her bowl on a table near her husband's bed and was 
 bending over him, with her hand on his forehead. Eustache 
 was flushed, he had closed his eyes, and it was evident there 
 had been more than enough conversation. Madame Poupin 
 announced as much, with the addition that if the young 
 men wished to make acquaintance they must do it outside ; 
 the invalid must be perfectly quiet. They accordingly 
 withdrew, with apologies and promises to return for further 
 news on the morrow, and two minutes afterward Hyacinth 
 found himself standing face to face with his new friend on 
 the pavement in front of M. Poupin's residence, under a 
 street-lamp which struggled ineffectually with the brown 
 winter dusk. 
 
 ' Is that your name M. Paul ? ' he asked, looking up at 
 him. 
 
 ' Oh, bless you, no ; that's only her Frenchified way of 
 putting it. My name is Paul, though Paul Muniment.' 
 
 ' And what's your trade ? ' Hyacinth demanded, with a 
 jump into familiarity ; for his companion seemed to have 
 told him a great deal more than was usually conveyed in 
 that item of information. 
 
 Paul Muniment looked down at him from above broad 
 shoulders. ' I work at a wholesale chemist's, at Lambeth.' 
 
 ' And where do you live ? ' 
 
 ' I live over the water, too ; in the far south of London. ' 
 
 ' And are you going home now ? ' 
 
 'Oh yes, I am going to toddle.' 
 
 ' And may I toddle with you ? ' 
 
vii THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA in 
 
 Mr. Muniment considered him further ; then he gave a 
 laugh. ' I'll carry you, if you like.' 
 
 ' Thank you ; I expect I can walk as far as you/ said 
 Hyacinth. 
 
 ' Well, I admire your spirit, and I daresay I shall like 
 your company.' 
 
 There was something in his face, taken in connection 
 with the idea that he was concerned in a little movement, 
 which made Hyacinth feel the desire to go with him till he 
 dropped ; and in a moment they started away together and 
 took the direction Muniment had mentioned. They dis- 
 coursed as they went, and exchanged a great many opinions 
 and anecdotes ; but they reached the south-westerly court in 
 which the young chemist lived with his infirm sister before 
 he had told Hyacinth anything definite about his little 
 movement, or Hyacinth, on his side, had related to him the 
 circumstances connected with his being, according to 
 M. Poupin, one of the disinherited. Hyacinth didn't wish 
 to press him ; he would not for the world have appeared to 
 him indiscreet ; and, moreover, though he had taken so 
 great a fancy to Muniment, he was not quite prepared, as 
 yet, to be pressed. Therefore it did not become very clear 
 to him how his companion had made Poupin's acquaintance 
 and how long he had enjoyed it. Paul Muniment never- 
 theless was to a certain extent communicative about him- 
 self, and forewarned Hyacinth that he lived in a very poor 
 little corner. He had his sister to keep she could do 
 nothing for herself; and he paid a low rent because she 
 had to have doctors, and doses, and all sorts of little 
 comforts. He spent a shilling a week for her on flowers. 
 It was better, too, when you got upstairs, and from the back 
 
112 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA vn 
 
 windows you could see the dome of St. Paul's. Audley 
 Court, with its pretty name, which reminded Hyacinth of 
 Tennyson, proved to be a still dingier nook than Lomax 
 Place ; and it had the further drawback that you had to pass 
 through a narrow alley, a passage between high, black walls, 
 to enter it. At the door of one of the houses the young 
 men paused, lingering a little, and then Muniment said, * I 
 say, why shouldn't you come up ? I like you well enough 
 for that, and you can see my sister; her name is Rosy.' 
 He spoke as if this would be a great privilege, and added, 
 humorously, that Rosy enjoyed a call from a gentleman, 
 of all things. Hyacinth needed no urging, and he groped 
 his way, at his companion's heels, up a dark staircase, which 
 appeared to him for they stopped only when they could 
 go no further the longest and steepest he had ever 
 ascended. At the top Paul Muniment pushed open a door, 
 but exclaimed, ' Hullo, have you gone to roost ? ' on per- 
 ceiving that the room on the threshold of which they stood 
 was unlighted. 
 
 ' Oh, dear, no ; we are sitting in the dark,' a small, 
 bright voice instantly replied. ' Lady Aurora is so kind ; 
 she's here still.' 
 
 The voice came out of a corner so pervaded by 
 gloom that the speaker was indistinguishable. 'Dear 
 me, that's beautiful ! ' Paul Muniment rejoined. ' You'll 
 have a party, then, for I have brought some one else. 
 We are poor, you know, but I daresay we can manage 
 a candle.' 
 
 At this, in the dim firelight, Hyacinth saw a tall figure 
 erect itself a figure angular and slim, crowned with a large, 
 vague hat, surmounted, apparently, with a flowing veil. This 
 
vii THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 113 
 
 unknown person gave a singular laugh, and said, 'Oh, I 
 brought some candles ; we could have had a light if we had 
 wished it.' Both the tone and the purport of the words 
 announced to Hyacinth that they proceeded from the lips 
 of Lady Aurora. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
VIII 
 
 PAUL MUNIMENT took a match out of his pocket and 
 lighted it on the sole of his shoe ; after which he applied 
 it to a tallow candle which stood in a tin receptacle on the 
 low mantel- shelf. This enabled Hyacinth to perceive a 
 narrow bed in a corner, and a small figure stretched upon 
 it a figure revealed to him mainly by the bright fixedness 
 of a pair of large eyes, of which the whites were sharply 
 contrasted with the dark pupil, and which gazed at him 
 across a counterpane of gaudy patchwork. The brown 
 room seemed crowded with heterogeneous objects, and had, 
 moreover, for Hyacinth, thanks to a multitude of small 
 prints, both plain and coloured, fastened all over the walls, 
 a highly-decorated appearance. The little person in the 
 corner had the air of having gone to bed in a picture- 
 gallery, and as soon as Hyacinth became aware of this his 
 impression deepened that Paul Muniment and his sister 
 were very remarkable people. Lady Aurora hovered before 
 him with a kind of drooping erectness, laughing a good 
 deal, vaguely and shyly, as if there were something rather 
 awkward in her being found still on the premises. ' Rosy, 
 girl, I've brought you a visitor,' Paul Muniment said. 
 ' This young man has walked all tKe way from Lisson Grove 
 to make your acquaintance.' Rosy continued to look at 
 
vin THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 115 
 
 Hyacinth from over her counterpane, and he felt slightly 
 embarrassed, for he had never yet been presented to a 
 young lady in her position. ' You mustn't mind her being 
 in bed she's always in bed,' her brother went on. ' She's 
 in bed just the same as a little trout is in the water.' 
 
 ' Dear me, if I didn't receive company because I was in 
 bed, there wouldn't be much use, would there, Lady 
 Aurora ? ' 
 
 Rosy made this inquiry in a light, gay tone, darting 
 her brilliant eyes at her companion, who replied instantly, 
 with still greater hilarity, and in a voice which struck 
 Hyacinth as strange and affected, ' Oh, dear, no, it seems 
 quite the natural place ! ' Then she added, ' And it's such 
 a pretty bed, such a comfortable bed ! ' 
 
 ' Indeed it is, when your ladyship makes it up,' said 
 Rosy ; while Hyacinth wondered at this strange pheno- 
 menon of a peer's daughter (for he knew she must be that) 
 performing the functions of a housemaid. 
 
 ' I say, now, you haven't been doing that again to-day ? ' 
 Muniment asked, punching the mattress of the invalid with 
 a vigorous hand. 
 
 ' Pray, who would, if I didn't ? ' Lady Aurora inquired. 
 ' It only takes a minute, if one knows how.' Her manner 
 was .jocosely apologetic, and she seemed to plead guilty to 
 having been absurd ; in the dim light Hyacinth thought 
 he saw her blush, as if she were much embarrassed. In 
 spite of her blushing, her appearance and manner suggested 
 to him a personage in a comedy. She sounded the letter 
 r peculiarly. 
 
 ' I can do it, beautifully. I often do it, when Mrs. 
 Major doesn't come up,' Paul Muniment said, continuing 
 
u6 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA vin 
 
 to thump his sister's couch in an appreciative but some- 
 what subversive manner. 
 
 1 Oh, I have no doubt whatever ! ' Lady Aurora ex- 
 claimed, quickly. ' Mrs. Major must have so very much 
 to do.' 
 
 ' Not in the making-up of beds, I'm afraid ; there are 
 only two or three, down there, for so many,' Paul Muni- 
 ment remarked loudly, and with a kind of incongruous 
 cheerfulness. 
 
 'Yes, I have thought a great deal about that. But 
 there wouldn't be room for more, you know,' said Lady 
 Aurora, this time in a very serious tone. 
 
 ' There's not much room for a family of that sort any- 
 where thirteen people of all ages and sizes,' the young 
 man rejoined. ' The world's pretty big, but there doesn't 
 seem room.' 
 
 ' We are also thirteen at home/ said Lady Aurora, 
 laughing again. ' We are also rather crowded.' 
 
 ' Surely you don't mean at Inglefield ? ' Rosy inquired 
 eagerly, in her dusky nook. 
 
 ' I don't know about Inglefield. I am so much in 
 town.' Hyacinth could see that Inglefield was a subject 
 she wished to turn off, and to do so she added, ' We too 
 are of all ages and sizes.' 
 
 'Well, it's fortunate you are not all your size!' Paul 
 Muniment exclaimed, with a freedom at which Hyacinth 
 was rather shocked, and which led him to suspect that, 
 though his new friend was a very fine fellow, a delicate tact 
 was not his main characteristic. Later he explained this 
 by the fact that he was rural and provincial, and had not 
 had, like himself, the benefit of metropolitan culture ; and 
 
viii THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 117 
 
 later still he asked himself what, after all, such a character 
 as that had to do with tact or with compliments, and why 
 its work in the world was not most properly performed by 
 the simple exercise of a rude, manly strength. 
 
 At this familiar allusion to her stature Lady Aurora 
 turned hither and thither, a little confusedly ; Hyacinth 
 saw her high, lean figure sway to and fro in the dim little 
 room. Her commotion carried her to the door, and with 
 ejaculations of which it was difficult to guess the meaning 
 she was about to depart, when Rosy detained her, having 
 evidently much more social art than Paul. ' Don't you 
 see it's only because her ladyship is standing up that she's 
 so, you gawk ? We are not thirteen, at any rate, and we 
 have got all the furniture we want, so that there's a chair 
 for every one. Do be seated again, Lady Aurora, and help 
 me to entertain this gentleman. I don't know your name, 
 sir ; perhaps my brother will mention it when he has col- 
 lected his wits. I am very glad to see you, though I don't 
 see you very well. Why shouldn't we light one of her 
 ladyship's candles? It's very different to that common 
 thing.' 
 
 Hyacinth thought Miss Muniment very charming : he 
 had begun to make her out better by this time, and he 
 watched her little wan, pointed face, framed, on the pillow, 
 by thick black hair. She was a diminutive dark person, 
 pale and wasted with a lifelong infirmity ; Hyacinth thought 
 her manner denoted high cleverness he judged it impos- 
 sible to tell her age. Lady Aurora said she ought to have 
 gone, long since; but she seated herself, nevertheless, on 
 the chair that Paul pushed towards her. 
 
 * Here's a go ! ' this young man exclaimed. ' You told 
 
n8 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA vm 
 
 me your name, but I've clean forgotten it.' Then, when 
 Paul had announced it again, he said to his sister, ' That 
 won't tell you much ; there are bushels of Robinsons in the 
 north. But you'll like him ; he's a very smart little fellow ; 
 I met him at the Poupins. 3 ' Puppin ' would represent 
 the sound by which he designated the French bookbinder, 
 and that was the name by which Hyacinth always heard him 
 called at Mr. Crookenden's. Hyacinth knew how much 
 nearer to the right thing he himself came. 
 
 'Your name, like mine, represents a flower,' said the 
 little woman in the bed. ' Mine is Rose Muniment, and 
 her ladyship's is Aurora Langrish. That means the morn- 
 ing, or the dawn ; it's the most beautiful of all, don't you 
 think so?' Rose Muniment addressed this inquiry to 
 Hyacinth, while Lady Aurora gazed at her shyly and 
 mutely, as if she admired her manner, her self-possession 
 and flow of conversation. Her brother lighted one of the 
 visitor's candles, and the girl went on, without waiting for 
 Hyacinth's response : ' Isn't it right that she should be 
 called the dawn, when she brings light where she goes ? 
 The Puppins ars the charming foreigners I have told you 
 about,' she explained to her friend. 
 
 ' Oh, it's so pleasant knowing a few foreigners ! ' Lady 
 Aurora exclaimed, with a spasm of expression. ' They are 
 often so very fresh.' 
 
 ' Mr. Robinson's a sort of foreigner, and he's very fresh,' 
 said Paul Muniment. ' He meets Mr. Puppin quite on 
 his own ground. If I had his command of the lingo it 
 would give me a lift.' 
 
 ' I'm sure I should be very happy to help you with your 
 French. I feel the advantage of knowing it,' Hyacinth re- 
 
viii THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 119 
 
 marked, finely, and became conscious that his declaration 
 drew the attention of Lady Aurora towards him ; so that he 
 wondered what he could go on to say, to keep at that level. 
 This was the first time he had encountered, socially, a 
 member of that aristocracy to which he had now for a good 
 while known it was Miss Pynsent's theory that he belonged; 
 and the occasion was interesting, in spite of the lady's ap- 
 pearing to have so few of the qualities of her caste. She 
 was about thirty years of age ; her nose was large and, in 
 spite of the sudden retreat of her chin, her face was long 
 and lean. She had the manner of extreme near-sighted- 
 ness ; her front teeth projected from her upper gums, which 
 she revealed when she smiled, and her fair hair, in tangled, 
 silky skeins (Rose Muniment thought it too lovely), drooped 
 over her pink cheeks. Her clothes looked as if she had 
 worn them a good deal in the rain, and the note of a 
 certain disrepair in her apparel was given by a hole in one 
 of her black gloves, through which a white finger gleamed. 
 She was plain and diffident, and she might have been poor ; 
 but in the fine grain and sloping, shrinking slimness of her 
 whole person, the delicacy of her curious features, and a 
 kind of cultivated quality in her sweet, vague, civil expres- 
 sion, there was a suggestion of race, of long transmission, 
 of an organism highly evolved. She was not a common 
 woman ; she was one of the caprices of an aristocracy. 
 Hyacinth did not define her in this manner to himself, but 
 he received from her the impression that, though she was a 
 simple creature (which he learned later she was not), aristo- 
 cracies were complicated things. Lady Aurora remarked 
 that there were many delightful books in French, and Hya- 
 cinth rejoined that it was a torment to know that (as he 
 
120 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA vin 
 
 did, very well), when you didn't see your way to getting 
 hold of them. This led Lady Aurora to say, after a 
 moment's hesitation, that she had a good lot of her own and 
 that if he liked she should be most happy to lend them to 
 him. Hyacinth thanked her thanked her even too much, 
 and felt both the kindness and the brilliant promise of the 
 offer (he knew the exasperation of having volumes in his 
 hands, for external treatment, which he couldn't take home 
 at night, having tried that system, surreptitiously, during 
 his first weeks at Mr. Crookenden's and come very near 
 losing his place in consequence), while he wondered how it 
 could be put into practice whether she would expect him 
 to call at her house and wait in the hall till the books were 
 sent out to him. Rose Muniment exclaimed that that was 
 her ladyship all over always wanting to make up to people 
 for being less fortunate than herself: she would take the 
 shoes off her feet for any one that might take a fancy to 
 them. At this the visitor declared that she would stop 
 coming to see her, if the girl caught her up, that way, for 
 everything; and Rosy, without heeding this remonstrance, 
 explained to Hyacinth that she thought it the least she 
 could do to give what she had. She was so ashamed of 
 being rich that she wondered the lower classes didn't 
 break into Inglefield and take possession of all the 
 treasures in the Italian room. She was a tremendous 
 socialist ; she was worse than any one she was worse, 
 even, than Paul. 
 
 ' I wonder if she is worse than me,' Hyacinth said, 
 at a venture, not understanding the allusions to Ingle- 
 field and the Italian room, which Miss Muniment made 
 as if she knew all about these places. After Hyacinth 
 
vin THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 121 
 
 knew more of the world he remembered this tone of 
 Muniment's sister (he was to have plenty of observation 
 of it on other occasions) as that of a person who was 
 in the habit of visiting the nobility at their country-seats ; 
 she talked about Inglefield as if she had stayed there. 
 
 ' Hullo, I didn't know you were so advanced ! ' ex- 
 claimed Paul Muniment, who had been sitting silent, 
 sidewise, in a chair that was too narrow for him, with his 
 big arm hugging the back. ' Have we been entertaining 
 an angel unawares ? ' 
 
 Hyacinth seemed to see that he was laughing at him, 
 but he knew the way to face that sort of thing was to 
 exaggerate his meaning. 'You didn't know I was ad- 
 vanced? Why, I thought that was the principal thing 
 about me. I think I go about as far as it is possible 
 to go.' 
 
 ' I thought the principal thing about you was that you 
 knew French,' Paul Muniment said, with an air of derision 
 which showed Hyacinth that he wouldn't put that ridicule 
 upon him unless he like.d him, at the same time that it 
 revealed to him that he himself had just been posturing 
 a little. 
 
 'Well, I don't know it for nothing. I'll say some- 
 thing very neat and sharp to you, if you don't look out 
 just the sort of thing they say so much in French.' 
 
 ' Oh, do say something of that kind ; we should enjoy 
 it so much ! ' cried Rosy, in perfect good faith, clasping 
 her hands in expectation. 
 
 The appeal was embarrassing, but Hyacinth was 
 saved from the consequences of it by a remark from 
 Lady Aurora, who quavered out the words after two or 
 
122 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA vm 
 
 three false starts, appearing to address him, now that 
 she spoke to him directly, with a sort of overdone con- 
 sideration. ' I should like so very much to know it 
 would be so interesting if you don't mind how far 
 exactly you do go.' She threw back her head very far, 
 and thrust her shoulders forward, and if her chin had 
 been more adapted to such a purpose would have appeared 
 to point it at him. 
 
 This challenge was hardly less alarming than the other. 
 for Hyacinth was far from having ascertained the extent 
 of his advance. He replied, however, with an earnestness 
 with which he tried to make up as far as possible for his 
 vagueness : * Well, I'm very strong indeed. I think I see 
 my way to conclusions, from which even Monsieur and 
 Madame Poupin would shrink. Poupin, at any rate ; I'm 
 not so sure about his wife.' 
 
 'I should like so much to know Madame,' Lady 
 Aurora murmured, as if politeness demanded that she 
 should content herself with this answer. 
 
 ' Oh, Puppin isn't strong,' said Muniment ; ' you can 
 easily look over his head ! He has a sweet assortment of 
 phrases they are really pretty things to hear, some of 
 them; but he hasn't had a new idea these thirty years. 
 It's the old stock that has been withering in the window. 
 All the same, he warms one up ; he has got a spark of the 
 sacred fire. The principal conclusion that Mr. Robinson sees 
 his way to,' he added to Lady Aurora, ' is that your father 
 ought to have his head chopped off and carried on a pike.' 
 
 ' Ah, yes, the French Revolution.' 
 
 * Lord, I don't know anything about your father, my 
 lady !' Hyacinth interposed. 
 
vin THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 123 
 
 'Didn't you ever hear of the Earl of Inglefield?' cried 
 Rose Muniment. 
 
 * He is one of the best/ said Lady Aurora, as if she 
 were pleading for him. 
 
 * Very likely, but he is a landlord, and he has an heredi- 
 tary seat and a park of five thousand acres all to himself, 
 while we are bundled together into this sort of kennel.' 
 Hyacinth admired the young man's consistency until he 
 saw that he was chaffing ; after which he still admired the 
 way he mixed up merriment with the tremendous opinions 
 our hero was sure he entertained. In his own imagination 
 Hyacinth associated bitterness with the revolutionary pas- 
 sion ; but the young chemist, at the same time that he was 
 planning far ahead, seemed capable of turning" revolutionists 
 themselves into ridicule, even for the entertainment of the 
 revolutionised. 
 
 ' Well, I have told you often enough that I don't go 
 with you at all,' said Rose Muniment, whose recumbency 
 appeared not in the least to interfere with her sense of 
 responsibility. ' You'll make a tremendous mistake if you 
 try to turn everything round. There ought to be differ- 
 ences, and high and low, and there always will be, true as 
 ever I lie here. I think it's against everything, pulling 
 down them that's above.' 
 
 ' Everything points to great changes in this country, but 
 if once our Rosy's against them, how can you be sure? 
 That's the only thing that makes me doubt,' her brother 
 went on, looking at her with a placidity which showed the 
 habit of indulgence. 
 
 ' Well, I may be ill, but I ain't buried, and if I'm con- 
 tent with my position such a position as it is surely 
 
124 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA vm 
 
 other folk might be with theirs. Her ladyship may think 
 I'm as good as her, if she takes that notion ; but she'll 
 have a deal to do to make me believe it.' 
 
 ' I think you are much better than I, and I know very 
 few people so good as you,' Lady Aurora remarked, blush- 
 ing, not for her opinions, but for her timidity. It was easy 
 to see that, though she was original, she would have liked 
 to be even more original than she was. She was conscious, 
 however, that such a declaration might appear rather gross 
 to persons who didn't see exactly how she meant it ; so she 
 added, as quickly as her hesitating manner permitted, to 
 cover it up, 'You know there's one thing you ought to 
 remember, apropos of revolutions and changes and all that 
 sort of thing ; I just mention it because we were talking of 
 some of the dreadful things that were done in France. If 
 there were to be a great disturbance in this country and 
 of course one hopes there won't it would be my impres- 
 sion that the people would behave in a different way 
 altogether.' 
 
 'What people do you mean?' Hyacinth allowed himself 
 to inquire. f 
 
 ' Oh, the upper class, the people that have got all the 
 things.' 
 
 'We don't call them the people,' observed Hyacinth, 
 reflecting the next instant that his remark was a little 
 primitive. 
 
 'I suppose you call them the wretches, the villains!' 
 Rose Muniment suggested, laughing merrily. 
 
 ' All the things, but not all the brains, ' her brother said. 
 
 'No, indeed, aren't they stupid?' exclaimed her lady- 
 ship. ' All the same, I don't think they would go abroad.' 
 
viii THE PRINCESS CASAMASS1MA 125 
 
 'Go abroad?' 
 
 * I mean like the French nobles, who emigrated so 
 much. They would stay at home and resist ; they would 
 make more of a fight. I think they would fight very hard.' 
 
 'I'm delighted to hear it, and I'm sure they would 
 win ! ' cried Rosy. 
 
 ' They wouldn't collapse, don't you know,' Lady Aurora 
 continued. 'They would struggle till they were beaten.' 
 
 ' And you think they would be beaten in the end ? ' 
 Hyacinth asked. 
 
 ' Oh dear, yes,' she replied, with a familiar brevity at 
 which he was greatly surprised. ' But of course one hopes 
 it won't happen.' 
 
 ' I infer from what you say that they talk it over a good 
 deal among themselves, to settle the line they will take,' 
 said Paul Muniment. 
 
 But Rosy intruded before Lady Aurora could answer. 
 ' I think it's wicked to talk it over, and I'm sure we haven't 
 any business to talk it over here ! When her ladyship says 
 that the aristocracy will make a fine stand, I like to hear 
 her say it, and I think she speaks in a manner that becomes 
 her own position. But there is something else in her tone 
 which, if I may be allowed to say so, I think a great mis- 
 take. If her ladyship expects, in case of the lower classes 
 coming up in. that odious manner, to be let off easily, for 
 the sake of the concessions she may have made in advance, 
 I would just advise her to save herself the disappointment 
 and the trouble. They won't be a bit the wiser, and they 
 won't either know or care. If they are going to trample 
 over their betters, it isn't on account of her having seemed 
 to give up everything to us here that they will let her off. 
 
126 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA vin 
 
 They will trample on her just the same as on the others, 
 and they'll say that she has got to pay for her title and her 
 grand relations and her fine appearance. Therefore I 
 advise her not to waste her good nature in trying to let 
 herself down. When you're up so high as that you've got 
 to stay there ; and if Providence has made you a lady, the 
 best thing you can do is to hold up your head. I can 
 promise your ladyship / would ! ' 
 
 The close logic of this speech and the quaint self- 
 possession with which the little bedridden speaker delivered 
 it struck Hyacinth as amazing, and confirmed his idea that 
 the brother and sister were a most extraordinary pair. It 
 had a terrible effect upon poor Lady Aurora, by whom so 
 stern a lesson from so humble a quarter had evidently not 
 been expected, and who sought refuge from her confusion 
 in a series of bewildered laughs, while Paul Muniment, 
 with his humorous density, which was deliberate, and 
 clever too, not seeing, or at any rate not heeding, that 
 she had been sufficiently snubbed by his sister, inflicted 
 a fresh humiliation by saying, ' Rosy 's right, my lady. It's 
 no use trying to buy yourself off. You can't do enough ; 
 your sacrifices don't count. You spoil your fun now, and 
 you don't get it made up to you later. To all you people 
 nothing will ever be made up. Enjoy your privileges 
 while they last; it may not be for long.' 
 
 Lady Aurora listened to him with her eyes on his face ; 
 and as they rested there Hyacinth scarcely knew what to 
 make of her expression. Afterwards he thought he could 
 attach a meaning to it. She got up quickly when Muni- 
 ment had ceased speaking ; the movement suggested that 
 she had taken offence, and he would have liked to show 
 
vin THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 127 
 
 her that he thought she had been rather roughly used. 
 But she gave him no chance, not glancing at him for a 
 moment. Then he saw that he was mistaken and that, 
 if she had flushed considerably, it was only with the 
 excitement of pleasure, the enjoyment of such original 
 talk and of seeing her friends at last as free and familiar 
 as she wished them to be. * You are the most delightful 
 people I wish every one could know you !' she broke 
 out. ' But I must really be going.' She went to the bed, 
 and bent over Rosy and kissed her. 
 
 ' Paul will see you as far as you like on your way home,' 
 this young woman remarked. 
 
 Lady Aurora protested against this, but Paul, without 
 protesting in return, only took up his hat and looked at 
 her, smiling, as if he knew his duty ; upon which her lady- 
 ship said, ' Well, you may see me downstairs ; I forgot it 
 was so dark.' 
 
 ' You must take her ladyship's own candle, and you 
 must call a cab,' Rosy directed. 
 
 ' Oh, I don't go in cabs. I walk.' 
 
 * Well, you may go on the top of a 'bus, if you like ; 
 you can't help being superb,' Miss Muniment declared, 
 watching her sympathetically. 
 
 * Superb ? Oh, mercy ! ' cried the poor devoted, gro- 
 tesque lady, leaving the room with Paul, who asked Hya- 
 cinth to wait for him a little. She neglected to bid good- 
 night to our young man, and he asked himself what was 
 to be hoped from that sort of people, when even the best 
 of them those that wished to be agreeable to the demos 
 reverted inevitably to the supercilious. She had said no 
 more about lending him her books. 
 
IX 
 
 ' SHE lives in Belgrave Square ; she has ever so many 
 brothers and sisters ; one of her sisters is married to Lord 
 Warmington,' Rose Muniment instantly began, not appar- 
 ently in the least discomposed at being left alone with a 
 strange young man in a room which was now half dark 
 again, thanks to her brother's having carried off the second 
 and more brilliant candle. She was so interested, for the 
 time, in telling Hyacinth the history of Lady Aurora, that 
 she appeared not to remember how little she knew about 
 himself. Her ladyship had dedicated her life and her 
 pocket-money to the poor and sick ; she cared nothing for 
 parties, and races, and dances, and picnics, and life in 
 great houses, the usual amusements of the aristocracy ; she 
 was like one of 'the saints of old come to life again out of 
 a legend. She had made their acquaintance, Paul's and 
 hers, about a year before, through a friend of theirs, such 
 a fine, brave, young woman, who was in St. Thomas's 
 Hospital for a surgical operation. She had been laid up 
 there for weeks, during which Lady Aurora, always looking 
 out for those who couldn't help themselves, used to come 
 and talk to her and read to her, till the end of her time in 
 the ward, when the poor girl, parting with her kind friend, 
 told her how she knew of another unfortunate creature (for 
 
THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 129 
 
 whom there was no place there, because she was incurable), 
 who would be mighty thankful for any little attention of 
 that sort. She had given Lady Aurora the address in 
 Audley Court, and the very next day her ladyship had 
 knocked at their door. It wasn't because she was poor 
 though in all conscience they were pinched enough but 
 because she had so little satisfaction in her limbs. Lady 
 Aurora came very often, for several months, without meeting 
 Paul, because he was always at his work ; but one day he 
 came home early, on purpose to find her, to thank her for 
 her goodness, and also to see (Miss Muniment rather shyly 
 intimated) whether she were really so good as his extra- 
 vagant little sister made her out. Rosy had a triumph 
 after that : Paul had to admit that her ladyship was beyond 
 anything that any one in his waking senses would believe. 
 She seemed to want to give up everything to those who 
 were below her, and never to expect any thanks at all. 
 And she wasn't always preaching and showing you your 
 duty ; she wanted to talk to you sociable-like, as if you 
 were just her own sister. And her own sisters were the 
 highest in the land, and you might see her name in the 
 newspapers the day they were presented to the Queen. 
 Lady Aurora had been presented too, with feathers in her 
 head and a long tail to her gown ; but she had turned her 
 back upon it all with a kind of terror a sort of shivering, 
 sinking feeling, which she had often described to Miss 
 Muniment. The day she had first seen Paul was the day 
 they became so intimate (the three of them together), if she 
 might apply such a word as that to such a peculiar con- 
 nection. The little woman, the little girl, as she lay there 
 (Hyacinth scarcely knew how to characterise her), told our 
 
 VOL. I. K 
 
130 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA ix 
 
 young man a very great secret, in which he found himself 
 too much interested to think of criticising so headlong a 
 burst of confidence. The secret was that, of all the people 
 she had ever seen in the world, her ladyship thought Rosy's 
 Paul the very cleverest. And she had seen the greatest, 
 the most famous, the brightest of every kind, for they all 
 came to stay at Inglefield, thirty and forty of them at once. 
 She had talked with them all and heard them say their 
 best (and you could fancy how they would try to give it 
 out at such a place as that, where there was nearly a mile 
 of conservatories and a hundred wax candles were lighted 
 at a time), and at the end of it all she had made the 
 remark to herself and she had made it to Rosy too that 
 there was none of them had such a head on his shoulders 
 as the young man in Audley Court. Rosy wouldn't spread 
 such a rumour as that in the court itself, but she wanted 
 every friend of her brother's (and she could see Hyacinth 
 was that, by the way he listened) to know what was thought 
 of him by them that had an experience of talent. She 
 didn't wish to give it out that her ladyship had lowered 
 herself in any manner to a person that earned his bread in 
 a dirty shop (clever as he might be), but it was easy to see 
 she minded what he said as if he had been a bishop or 
 more, indeed, for she didn't think much of bishops, any 
 more than Paul himself, and that was an idea she had got 
 from him. Oh, she took it none so ill if he came back 
 from his work before she had gone ; and to-night Hyacinth 
 could see for himself how she had lingered. This evening, 
 she was sure, her ladyship woulji let him walk home with 
 her half the way. This announcement gave Hyacinth the 
 prospect of a considerable session with his communicative 
 
ix THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 131 
 
 hostess ; but he was very glad to wait, for he was vaguely, 
 strangely excited by her talk, fascinated by the little queer- 
 smelling, high -perched interior, encumbered with relics, 
 treasured and polished, of a poor north -country home, 
 bedecked with penny ornaments and related in so unex- 
 pected a manner to Belgrave Square and the great landed 
 estates. He spent half an hour with Paul Muniment's 
 small, odd, crippled, chattering, clever, trenchant sister, 
 who gave him an impression of education and native wit 
 (she expressed herself far better than Pinnie, or than 
 Millicent Henning), and who startled, puzzled, and at the 
 same time rather distressed, him by the manner in which 
 she referred herself to the most abject class the class that 
 prostrated itself, that was in a fever and flutter in the pres- 
 ence of its betters. That was Pinnie's attitude, of course ; 
 but Hyacinth had long ago perceived that his adoptive 
 mother had generations of plebeian patience in her blood, 
 and that though she had a tender soul she had not a 
 great one. He was more entertained than afflicted, how- 
 ever, by Miss Muniment's tone, and he was thrilled by the 
 frequency and familiarity of her allusions to a kind of life 
 he had often wondered about ; this was the first time he 
 had heard it described with that degree of authority. By 
 the nature of his mind he was perpetually, almost morbidly, 
 conscious that the circle in which he lived was an infmitesi- 
 mally small, shallow eddy in the roaring vortex of London, 
 and his imagination plunged again and again into the 
 waves that whirled past it and round it, in the hope ol 
 being carried to some brighter, happier vision the vision 
 of societies in which, in splendid rooms, with smiles and 
 soft voices, distinguished men, with women who were both 
 
132 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA ix 
 
 proud and gentle, talked about art, literature and history. 
 When Rosy had delivered herself to her complete satisfac- 
 tion on the subject of Lady Aurora, she became more 
 quiet, asking, as yet, however, no questions about Hyacinth, 
 whom she seemed to take very much for granted. He 
 presently remarked that she must let him come very soon 
 again, and he added, to explain this wish, ' You know you 
 seem to me very curious people.' 
 
 Miss Muniment did not in the least repudiate the im- 
 putation. 'Oh yes, I daresay we seem very curious. I 
 think we are generally thought so ; especially me, being so 
 miserable and yet so lively.' And she laughed till her bed 
 creaked again. 
 
 ' Perhaps it's lucky you are ill ; perhaps if you had your 
 health you would be all over the place,' Hyacinth suggested. 
 And he went on, candidly, ' I can't make it out, your being 
 so up in everything.' 
 
 ' I don't see why you need make it out ! But you 
 would, perhaps, if you had known my father and mother.' 
 
 ' Were they such a rare lot ? ' 
 
 ' I think you would say so if you had ever been in the 
 mines. Yes, in the mines, where the filthy coal is dug out. 
 That's where my father came from he was working in the 
 pit when he was a child of ten. He never had a day's 
 schooling in his life ; but he climbed up out of his black 
 hole into daylight and air, and he invented a machine, and 
 he married my mother, who came out of Durham, and (by 
 her people) out of the pits and misery too. My father 
 had no great figure, but she was magnificent the finest 
 woman in the country, and the bravest, and the best. She's 
 in her grave now, and I couldn't go to look at it even if it 
 
ix THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 133 
 
 were in the nearest churchyard. My father was as black 
 as the coal he worked in : I know I'm just his pattern, 
 barring that he did have his legs, when the liquor hadn't 
 got into them. But between him and my mother, for grand, 
 high intelligence there wasn't much to choose. But what's 
 the use of brains if you haven't got a backbone? My 
 poor father had even less of that than I, for with me it's 
 only the body that can't stand up, and with him it was the 
 spirit. He discovered a kind of wheel, and he sold it, at 
 Bradford, for fifteen pounds : I mean the whole right of it, 
 and every hope and pride of his family. He was always 
 straying, and my mother was always bringing him back. 
 She had plenty to do, with me a puny, ailing brat from the 
 moment I opened my eyes. Well, one night he strayed so 
 far that he never came back ; or only came back a loose, 
 bloody bundle of clothes. He had fallen into a gravel-pit ; 
 he didn't know where he was going. That's the reason my 
 brother will never touch so much as you could wet your 
 finger with, and that I only have a drop once a week or 
 so, in the way of a strengthener. I take what her ladyship 
 brings me, but I take no more. If she could have come 
 to us before my mother went, that would have been a 
 saving ! I was only nine when my father died, and I'm 
 three years older than Paul. My mother did for us with 
 all her might, and she kept us decent if such a useless 
 little mess as me can be said to be decent. At any rate, 
 she kept me alive, and that's a proof she was handy. She 
 went to the wash-tub, and she might have been a queen, as 
 she stood there with her bare arms in the foul linen and 
 her long hair braided on her head. She was terrible hand- 
 some, but he would have been a bold man that would 
 
134 THE PRINCESS CAS A MASS IMA ix 
 
 have taken upon himself to tell her so. And it was from 
 her we got our education she was determined we should 
 rise above the common. You might have thought, in her 
 position, that she couldn't go into such things; but she 
 was a rare one for keeping you at your book. She could 
 hold to her idea when my poor father couldn't ; and her 
 idea, for us, was that Paul should get learning and should 
 look after me. You can see for yourself that that's what has 
 come about. How he got it is more than I can say, as we 
 never had a penny to pay for it ; and of course my mother's 
 cleverness wouldn't have been of much use if he hadn't 
 been clever himself. Well, it was all in the family. Paul 
 was a boy that would learn more from a yellow placard 
 pasted on a wall, or a time-table at a railway station, than 
 many a young fellow from a year at college. That was his 
 only college, poor lad picking up what he could. Mother 
 was taken when she was still needed, nearly five years ago. 
 There was an epidemic of typhoid, and of course it must 
 pass me over, the goose of a thing only that I'd have 
 made a poor feast and just lay that gallant creature on 
 her back. Well, she never again made it ache over her 
 soapsuds, straight and broad as it was. Not having seen 
 her, you wouldn't believe,' said Rose Muniment, in con- 
 clusion ; ' but I just wanted you to understand that our 
 parents had intellect, at least, to give us.' 
 
 Hyacinth listened to this recital with the deepest 
 interest, and without being in the least moved to allow 
 for filial exaggeration; inasmuch as his impression of 
 the brother and sister was such as it would have taken a 
 much more marvellous tale to account for. The very way 
 Rose Muniment sounded the word ' intellect ' made him 
 
ix THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 135 
 
 feel this ; she pronounced it as if she were distributing 
 prizes for a high degree of it. No doubt the tipsy inventor 
 and the regal laundress had been fine specimens, but that 
 didn't diminish the merit of their highly original offspring. 
 The girl's insistence upon her mother's virtues (even now 
 that her age had become more definite to him he thought 
 of her as a girl) touched in his heart a chord that was 
 always ready to throb the chord of melancholy, bitter, 
 aimless wonder as to the difference it would have made 
 in his spirit if there had been some pure, honourable 
 figure like that to shed her influence over it. 
 
 ' Are you very fond of your brother ? ' he inquired, after 
 a little. 
 
 The eyes of his hostess glittered at him for a moment. 
 ' If you ever quarrel with him, you'll see whose side I'll take.' 
 
 ' Ah, before that I shall make you like me? 
 
 ' That's very possible, and you'll see how I'll fling you 
 over ! ' 
 
 ' Why, then, do you object so to his views his ideas 
 about the way the people will come up ? ' 
 
 ' Because I think he'll get over them.' 
 
 ' Never never ! ' cried Hyacinth. ' I have only known 
 him an hour or two, but I deny that, with all my strength.' 
 
 ' Is that the way you are going to make me like you 
 contradicting me so ? ' Miss Muniment inquired, with 
 familiar archness. 
 
 ' What's the use, when you tell me I shall be sacrificed ? 
 One might as well perish for a lamb as for a sheep.' 
 
 ' I don't believe you're a lamb at all. Certainly you are 
 not, if you want all the great people pulled down, and the 
 most dreadful scenes enacted.' 
 
136 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA ix 
 
 ' Don't you believe in human equality ? Don't you want 
 anything done for the groaning, toiling millions those who 
 have been cheated and crushed and bamboozled from the 
 beginning of time ? ' 
 
 Hyacinth asked this question with considerable heat, 
 but the effect of it was to send his companion off into a 
 new fit of laughter. ' You say that just like a man that my 
 brother described to me three days ago ; a little man at 
 some club, whose hair stood up Paul imitated the way he 
 glowered and screamed. I don't mean that you scream, 
 you know ; but you use almost the same words that he did.' 
 Hyacinth scarcely knew what to make of this allusion, or of 
 the picture offered to him of Paul Muniment casting ridicule 
 upon those who spoke in the name of the down-trodden. 
 But Rosy went on, before he had time to do more than 
 reflect that there would evidently be a great deal more to 
 learn about her brother : ' I haven't the least objection to 
 seeing the people improved, but I don't want to see the 
 aristocracy lowered an inch. I like so much to look at it 
 up there/ 
 
 ' You ought to know my aunt Pinnie she's just such 
 another benighted idolater ! ' Hyacinth exclaimed. 
 
 ' Oh, you are making me like you very fast ! And pray, 
 who is your aunt Pinnie ? ' 
 
 ' She's a dressmaker, and a charming little woman. I 
 should like her to come and see you.' 
 
 ' I'm afraid I'm not in her line I never had on a dress 
 in my life. But, as a charming woman, I should be 
 delighted to see her.' 
 
 ' I will bring her some day/ said Hyacinth. And then 
 he added, rather incongruously, for he was irritated by the 
 
ix THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 137 
 
 girl's optimism, thinking it a shame that her sharpness 
 should be enlisted on the wrong side, * Don't you want, for 
 yourself, a better place to live in ? ' 
 
 She jerked herself up, and for a moment he thought she 
 would jump out of her bed at him. ' A better place than 
 this ? Pray, how could there be a better place ? Every 
 one thinks it's lovely ; you should see our view by daylight 
 you should see everything I've got. Perhaps you are 
 used to something very fine, but Lady Aurora says that in 
 all Belgrave Square there isn't such a cosy little room. If 
 you think I'm not perfectly content, you are very much 
 mistaken ! ' 
 
 Such a sentiment as that could only exasperate Hyacinth, 
 and his exasperation made him indifferent to the fact that 
 he had appeared to cast discredit on Miss Muniment's 
 apartment. Pinnie herself, submissive as she was, had 
 spared him that sort of displeasure ; she groaned over the 
 dinginess of Lomax Place sufficiently to remind him that 
 she had not been absolutely stultified by misery. ' Don't 
 you sometimes make your brother very angry ? ' he asked, 
 smiling, of Rose Muniment. 
 
 ' Angry ? I don't know what you take us for ! I never 
 saw him lose his temper in his life.' 
 
 ' He must be a rum customer ! Doesn't he really care 
 for for what we were talking about ? ' 
 
 For a moment Rosy was silent ; then she replied, ' What 
 my brother really cares for well, one of these days, when 
 you know, you'll tell me.' 
 
 Hyacinth stared. ' But isn't he tremendously deep 
 in ' He hesitated. 
 
 * Deep in what ? ' 
 
138 THE PRINCESS CASAMASS1MA ix 
 
 ' Well, in what's going on, beneath the surface. Doesn't 
 he belong to things ? ' 
 
 * I'm sure I don't know what he belongs to you may 
 ask him ! ' cried Rosy, laughing gaily again, as the opening 
 door readmitted the subject of their conversation. ' You 
 must have crossed the water with her ladyship,' she went 
 on. ' I wonder who enjoyed their walk most.' 
 
 'She's a handy old girl, and she has a goodish stride,' 
 said the young man. 
 
 'I think she's in love with you, simply, Mr. Muni- 
 ment/ 
 
 ' Really, my dear, for an admirer of the aristocracy you 
 allow yourself a license,' Paul murmured, smiling at 
 Hyacinth. 
 
 Hyacinth got up, feeling that really he had paid a long 
 visit ; his curiosity was far from satisfied, but there was a 
 limit to the time one should spend in a young lady's sleep- 
 ing apartment. ' Perhaps she is ; why not ? ' he remarked. 
 
 ' Perhaps she is, then ; she's daft enough for anything.' 
 
 1 There have been fine folks before who have patted the 
 people on the back and pretended to enter into their life/ 
 Hyacinth said. '* Is she only playing with that idea, or is 
 she in earnest ? ' 
 
 ' In earnest in terrible earnest, my dear fellow. I 
 think she must be rather crowded out at home.' 
 
 'Crowded out of Inglefield? Why, there's room for 
 three hundred ! ' Rosy broke in. 
 
 * Well, if that's the kind of mob that's in possession, no 
 wonder she prefers Camberwell. We must be kind to the 
 poor lady,' Paul added, in a tone 'which Hyacinth noticed. 
 He attributed a remarkable meaning to it ; it seemed to say 
 
ix THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 139 
 
 that people such as he were now so sure of their game that 
 they could afford to be magnanimous ; or else it expressed 
 a prevision of the doom which hung over her ladyship's 
 head. Muniment asked if Hyacinth and Rosy had made 
 friends, and the girl replied that Mr. Robinson had made 
 himself very agreeable. ' Then you must tell me all about 
 him after he goes, for you know I don't know him much 
 myself,' said her brother. 
 
 ' Oh yes, I'll tell you everything you know how I like 
 describing.' 
 
 Hyacinth was laughing to himself at the young lady's 
 account of his efforts to please her, the fact being that he 
 had only listened to her own eager discourse, without open- 
 ing his mouth ; but Paul, whether or no he guessed the 
 truth, said to him very pertinently, * It's very wonderful : 
 she can describe things she has never seen. And they are 
 just like the reality.' 
 
 ' There's nothing I've never seen,' Rosy rejoined. ' That's 
 the advantage of my lying here in such a manner. I see 
 everything in the world.' 
 
 'You don't seem to see your brother's meetings his 
 secret societies and clubs. You put that aside when I 
 asked you.' 
 
 ' Oh, you mustn't ask her that sort of thing,' said Paul, 
 lowering at Hyacinth with a fierce frown an expression 
 which he perceived in a moment to be humorously assumed. 
 
 ' What am I to do, then, since you won't tell me any- 
 thing definite yourself? ' 
 
 1 It will be definite enough when you get hanged for it ! ' 
 Rosy exclaimed, mockingly. 
 
 ' Why do you want to poke your head into black holes ? 
 
140 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA ix 
 
 Muniment asked, laying his hand on Hyacinth's shoulder, 
 and shaking it gently. 
 
 ' Don't you belong to the party of action ?' said Hyacinth, 
 solemnly. 
 
 ' Look at the way he has picked up all the silly bits of 
 catchwords ! ' Paul cried, laughing, to his sister. ' You 
 must have got that precious phrase out of the newspapers, 
 out of some drivelling leader. Is that the party you want 
 to belong to ? ' he went on, with his clear eyes ranging over 
 his diminutive friend. 
 
 * If you'll show me the thing itself I shall have no more 
 occasion to mind the newspapers,' Hyacinth pleaded. It 
 was his view of himself, and it was not an unfair one, that 
 his was a character that would never beg for a favour ; but 
 now he felt that in any relation he might have with Paul 
 Muniment such a law would be suspended. This man he 
 could entreat, pray to, go on his knees to, without a sense 
 of humiliation. 
 
 'What thing do you mean, infatuated, deluded youth?' 
 Paul went on, refusing to be serious. 
 
 'Well, you know you do go to places you had far 
 better keep out of, and that often when I lie here and 
 listen to steps on the stairs I'm sure they are coming in to 
 make a search for your papers,' Miss Muniment lucidly 
 interposed. 
 
 'The day they find my papers, my dear, will be the 
 day you'll get up and dance.' 
 
 'What did you ask me to come home with you for?' 
 Hyacinth demanded, twirling his hat. It was an effort for 
 him, for a moment, to keep the tears out of his eyes ; he 
 found himself forced to put such a different construction on 
 
ix THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 141 
 
 his new friend's hospitality. He had had a happy impres- 
 sion that Muniment perceived in him a possible associate, 
 of a high type, in a subterranean crusade against the ex- 
 isting order of things, and now it came over him that the 
 real use he had been put to was to beguile an hour for a 
 pert invalid. That was all very well, and he would sit by 
 Miss Rosy's bedside, were it a part of his service, every 
 day in the week; only in such a case it should be his 
 reward to enjoy the confidence of her brother. This 
 young man, at the present juncture, justified the high 
 estimate that Lady Aurora Langrish had formed of his 
 intelligence : whatever his natural reply to Hyacinth's 
 question would have been, he invented, at the moment, a 
 better one, and said, at random, smiling, and not knowing 
 exactly what his visitor had meant, 
 
 ' What did I ask you to come with me for ? To see if 
 you would be afraid.' 
 
 What there was to be afraid of was to Hyacinth a 
 quantity equally vague ; but he rejoined, quickly enough, 
 * I think you have only to try me to see.' 
 
 ' I'm sure if you introduce him to some of your low, 
 wicked friends, he'll be quite satisfied after he has looked 
 round a bit,' Miss Muniment remarked, irrepressibly. 
 
 'Those are just the kind of people I want to know,' 
 said Hyacinth, ingenuously. 
 
 His ingenuousness appeared to touch Paul Muniment. 
 'Well, I see you're a good 'un. Just meet me some night.' 
 
 'Where, where?' asked Hyacinth, eagerly. 
 
 ' Oh, I'll tell you where when we get away from her] 
 said his friend, laughing, but leading him out of the room 
 again. 
 
X 
 
 SEVERAL months after Hyacinth had made the acquaint- 
 ance of Paul Muniment, Millicent Henning remarked to 
 him that it was high time he should take her to some 
 place of amusement. He proposed the Canterbury Music 
 Hall; whereupon she tossed her head and affirmed that 
 when a young lady had done for a young man what she 
 had done for him, the least he could do was to take her to 
 some theatre in the Strand. Hyacinth would have been a 
 good deal at a loss to say exactly what she had done for 
 him, but it was familiar to him by this time that she re- 
 garded him as under great obligations. From the day she 
 came to look him up in Lomax Place she had taken a 
 position, largely, fti his life, and he had seen poor Pinnie's 
 wan countenance grow several degrees more blank. 
 Amanda Pynsent's forebodings had been answered to the 
 letter ; that bold-faced apparition had become a permanent 
 influence. She never spoke to him about Millicent but 
 once, several weeks after her interview with the girl ; and 
 this was not in a tone of rebuke, for she had divested her- 
 self for ever of any maternal prerogative. Tearful, tremu- 
 lous, deferential inquiry was now 'her only weapon, and 
 nothing could be more humble and circumspect than the 
 manner in which she made use of it. He was never at 
 
x THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 143 
 
 home of an evening, at present, and he had mysterious 
 ways of spending his Sundays, with which church-going 
 had nothing to do. The time had been when, often, 
 after tea, he sat near the lamp with the dressmaker, and, 
 while her fingers flew, read out to her the works of Dickens 
 and of Scott ; happy hours when he appeared to have 
 forgotten the wrong she had done him and she almost 
 forgot it herself. But now he gulped down his tea so fast 
 that he hardly took off his hat while he sat there, and 
 Pinnie, with her quick eye for all matters of costume, 
 noticed that he wore it still more gracefully askew than 
 usual, with a little victorious, exalted air. He hummed 
 to himself; he fingered his moustache; he looked out 
 of the window when there was nothing to look at ; he 
 seemed pre-occupied, absorbed in intellectual excursions, 
 half anxious and half delighted. During the whole winter 
 Miss Pynsent explained everything by three words mur- 
 mured beneath her breath: 'That forward jade!' On 
 the single occasion, however, on which she sought relief 
 from her agitation in an appeal to Hyacinth, she did not 
 trust herself to designate the girl by any epithet or title. 
 
 1 There is only one thing I want to know,' she said to 
 him, in a manner which might have seemed casual if in 
 her silence, knowing her as well as he did, he had not 
 already perceived the implication of her thought. ' Does 
 she expect you to marry her, dearest?' 
 
 ' Does who expect me ? I should like to see the 
 woman who does !' 
 
 ' Of course you know who I mean. The one that came 
 after you and picked you right up from the other end 
 of London.' And at the remembrance of that insufferable 
 
144 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA x 
 
 scene poor Finnic flamed up for a moment. ' Isn't there 
 plenty of young fellows down in that low part where she 
 lives, without her ravaging over here ? Why can't she 
 stick to her own beat, I should like to know?' Hyacinth 
 had flushed at this inquiry, and she saw something in his 
 face which made her change her tone. ' Just promise me 
 this, my precious child : that if you get into any sort of 
 mess with that piece you'll immediately confide it to your 
 poor old Pinnie.' 
 
 ' My poor old Pinnie sometimes makes me quite sick/ 
 Hyacinth remarked, for answer. ' What sort of a mess do 
 you suppose I'll get into?' 
 
 c Well, suppose she does come it over you that you 
 promised to marry her?' 
 
 'You don't know what you're talking about. She 
 doesn't want to marry any one to-day.' 
 
 'Then what does* she want to do?' 
 
 'Do you imagine I would tell a lady's secrets?' the 
 young man inquired. 
 
 'Dear me, if she was a lady, I shouldn't be afraid!' 
 said Pinnie. , 
 
 ' Every woman's a lady when she has placed herself 
 under one's protection,' Hyacinth rejoined, with his little 
 manner of a man of the world. 
 
 ' Under your protection ? Laws ! ' cried Pinnie, staring. 
 'And pray, who's to protect you ?' 
 
 As soon as she had said this she repented, because it 
 seemed just the sort of exclamation that would have made 
 Hyacinth bite her head off. One of the things she loved 
 him for, however, was that he gave you touching surprises 
 in this line, had sudden inconsistencies of temper that were 
 
x THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 145 
 
 all for your advantage. He was by no means always mild 
 when he ought to have been, but he was sometimes so 
 when there was no obligation. At such moments Pinnie 
 wanted to kiss him, and she had often tried to make Mr. 
 Vetch understand what a fascinating trait of character this 
 was on the part of their young friend. It was rather diffi- 
 cult to describe, and Mr. Vetch never would admit that he 
 understood, or that he had observed anything that seemed 
 to correspond to the dressmaker's somewhat confused 
 psychological sketch. It was a comfort to her in these 
 days, and almost the only one she had, that she was sure 
 Anastasius Vetch understood a good deal more than he 
 felt bound to acknowledge. He was always up to his old 
 game of being a great deal cleverer than cleverness itself 
 required ; and it consoled her present weak, pinched feel- 
 ing to know that, although he still talked of the boy as if 
 it would be a pity to take him too seriously, that wasn't the 
 way he thought of him. He also took him seriously, and 
 he had even a certain sense of duty in regard to him. 
 Miss Pynsent went so far as to say to herself that the 
 fiddler probably had savings, and that no one had ever 
 known of any one else belonging to him. She wouldn't 
 have mentioned it to Hyacinth for the world, for fear of 
 leading up to a disappointment ; but she had visions of a 
 foolscap sheet, folded away in some queer little bachelor's 
 box (she couldn't fancy what men kept in such places), on 
 which Hyacinth's name would have been written down, in 
 very big letters, before a solicitor. 
 
 ' Oh, I'm unprotected, in the nature of things,' he replied, 
 smiling at his too scrupulous companion. Then he added, 
 'At any rate, it isn't from that girl any danger will come to me.' 
 
 VOL. I. L 
 
146 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA x 
 
 ' I can't think why you like her,' Pinnie remarked, as if 
 she had spent on the subject treasures of impartiality. 
 
 ' It's jolly to hear one woman on the subject of another,' 
 Hyacinth said. 'You're kind and good, and yet you're 
 ready ' He gave a philosophic sigh. 
 
 ' Well, what am I ready to do ? I'm not ready to see 
 you gobbled up before my eyes ! ' 
 
 'You needn't be afraid; she won't drag me to the 
 altar/ 
 
 ' And pray, doesn't she think you good enough for one 
 of the beautiful Hennings ? ' 
 
 ' You don't understand, my poor Pinnie,' said Hyacinth, 
 wearily. ' I sometimes think there isn't a single thing in 
 life that you understand. One of these days she'll marry 
 an alderman/ 
 
 * An alderman that creature ? ' 
 
 ' An alderman, or a banker, or a bishop, or some one of 
 that kind. She doesn't want to end her career to-day ; she 
 wants to begin it.' 
 
 ' Well, I wish she would take you later !' the dressmaker 
 exclaimed. 
 
 Hyacinth said nothing for a moment ; then he broke 
 out : ' What are you afraid of ? Look here, we had better 
 clear this up, once for all. Are you afraid of my marrying 
 a girl out of a shop ? ' 
 
 ' Oh, you wouldn't, would you ? ' cried Pinnie, with a 
 kind of conciliatory eagerness. ' That's the way I like to 
 hear you talk ! ' 
 
 ' Do you think I would marry any one who would marry 
 me ? ' Hyacinth went on. ' The' kind of girl who would 
 look at me is the kind of girl I wouldn't look at.' He 
 
THE PRINCESS CASAMASS1MA 147 
 
 struck Finnic as having thought it all out ; which did not 
 surprise her, as she had been familiar, from his youth, with 
 his way of following things up. But she was always 
 delighted when he made a remark which showed he was 
 conscious of being of fine clay flashed out an allusion to 
 his not being what he seemed. He was not what he 
 seemed, but even with Pinnie's valuable assistance he had 
 not succeeded in representing to himself, very definitely, 
 what he was. She had placed at his disposal, for this pur- 
 pose, a passionate idealism which, employed in some case 
 where it could have consequences, might have been termed 
 profligate, and which never cost her a scruple or a com- 
 punction. 
 
 ' I'm sure a princess might look at you and be none the 
 worse ! ' she declared, in her delight at this assurance, more 
 positive than any she had yet received, that he was safe 
 from the worst danger. This the dressmaker considered to 
 be the chance of his marrying some person like herself. 
 Still it came over her that his taste might be lowered, and 
 before the subject was dropped, on this occasion, she said 
 to him that of course he must be quite aware of all that 
 was wanting to such a girl as Millicent Henning she pro- 
 nounced her name at last. 
 
 ' Oh, I don't bother about what's wanting to her ; I'm 
 content with what she has.' 
 
 ' Content, dearest how do you mean ? ' the little dress- 
 maker quavered. ' Content to make an intimate friend of 
 her?' 
 
 ' It is impossible I should discuss these matters with 
 you,' Hyacinth replied, grandly. 
 
 ' Of course I see that. But I should think she 
 
148 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA x 
 
 would bore you sometimes,' Miss Pynsent murmured, 
 cunningly. 
 
 ' She does, I assure you, to extinction ! ' 
 ' Then why do you spend every evening with her ? ' 
 ' Where should you like me to spend my evenings ? At 
 some beastly public-house or at the Italian opera ? ' His 
 association with Miss Henning was not so close as that, 
 but nevertheless he wouldn't take the trouble to prove to 
 poor Finnic that he enjoyed her society only two or three 
 times a week ; that on other evenings he simply strolled 
 about the streets (this boyish habit clung to him), and that 
 he had even occasionally the resource of going to the 
 Poupins', or of gossiping and smoking a pipe at some open 
 house-door, when the night was not cold, with a fellow- 
 mechanic. Later in the winter, after he had made Paul 
 Muniment's acquaintance, the aspect of his life changed 
 considerably, though Millicent continued to be exceedingly 
 mixed up with it. He hated the taste of liquor and still 
 more the taste of the places where it was sold ; besides 
 which the types of misery and vice that one was liable to 
 see collected in them frightened and harrowed him, made 
 him ask himself questions that pierced the deeper because 
 they were met by no answer. It was both a blessing and a 
 drawback to him that the delicate, charming character of 
 the work he did at Mr. Crookenden's, under Eustace 
 Poupin's influence, was a kind of education of the taste, 
 trained him in the finest discriminations, in the perception 
 of beauty and the hatred of ugliness. This made the 
 brutal, garish, stodgy decoration of public-houses, with 
 their deluge of gaslight, their glittering brass and pewter, 
 their lumpish woodwork and false colours, detestable to 
 
x THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 149 
 
 him ; he was still very young when the ' gin-palace ' ceased 
 to convey to him an idea of the palatial. 
 
 For this unfortunate but remarkably organised youth, 
 every displeasure or gratification of the visual sense coloured 
 his whole mind, and though he lived in Pentonville and 
 worked in Soho, though he was poor and obscure and 
 cramped and full of unattainable desires, it may be said of 
 him that what was most important in life for him was 
 simply his impressions. They came from everything he 
 touched, they kept him thrilling and throbbing during a 
 considerable part of his waking consciousness, and they 
 constituted, as yet, the principal events and stages of his 
 career. Fortunately, they were sometimes very delightful. 
 Everything in the field of observation suggested this or 
 that ; everything struck him, penetrated, stirred ; he had, in 
 a word, more impressions than he knew what to do with 
 felt sometimes as if they would consume or asphyxiate 
 him. He liked to talk about them, but it was only a few, 
 here and there, that he could discuss with Millicent Hen- 
 ning. He let Miss Pynsent imagine that his hours of 
 leisure were almost exclusively dedicated to this young lady, 
 because, as he said to himself, if he were to account to her 
 for every evening in the week it would make no differ- 
 ence she would stick to her suspicion ; and he referred 
 this perversity to the general weight of misconception under 
 which (at this crude period of his growth) he held it was his 
 lot to languish. It didn't matter to one whether one were 
 a little more or a little less misunderstood. He might 
 have remembered that it mattered to Finnic, who, after her 
 first relief at hearing him express himself so properly on the 
 subject of a matrimonial connection with Miss Henning, 
 
150 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA x 
 
 allowed her faded, kind, weak face, little by little, to 
 lengthen out to its old solemnity. This came as the days 
 went on, for it wasn't much comfort that he didn't want to 
 marry the young woman in Pimlico, when he allowed him- 
 self to be held as tight as if he did. For the present, 
 indeed, she simply said, c Oh, well, if you see her as she is, 
 I don't care what you do ' a sentiment implying a certain 
 moral recklessness on the part of the good little dress- 
 maker. She was irreproachable herself, but she had lived 
 for more than fifty years in a world of wickedness ; like an 
 immense number of London women of her class and kind, 
 she had acquired a certain innocent cynicism, and she 
 judged it quite a minor evil that Millicent should be left 
 lamenting, if only Hyacinth might get out of the scrape. 
 Between a forsaken maiden and a premature, lowering 
 marriage for her beloved little boy, she very well knew 
 which she preferred. It should be added that her impres- 
 sion of Millicent's power to take care of herself was such as 
 to make it absurd to pity her in advance. Pinnie thought 
 Hyacinth the cleverest young man in the world, but her 
 state of mind implied somehow that the young lady in 
 Pimlico was cleverer. Her ability, at any rate, was of a 
 kind that precluded the idea of suffering, whereas Hyacinth's 
 was rather associated with it. 
 
 By the time he had enjoyed for three months the ac- 
 quaintance of the brother and sister in Audley Court the 
 whole complexion of his life seemed changed ; it was per- 
 vaded by an interest, an excitement, which overshadowed, 
 though it by no means supplanted, the brilliant figure of 
 Miss Henning. It was pitched in a higher key, altogether, 
 and appeared to command a view of horizons equally fresh 
 
x THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 151 
 
 and vast. Millicent, therefore, shared her dominion, with- 
 out knowing exactly what it was that drew her old play- 
 fellow off, and without indeed demanding of him an account 
 which, on her own side, she was not prepared to give. 
 Hyacinth was, in the language of the circle in which she 
 moved, her fancy, and she was content to occupy, as regards 
 himself, the same graceful and somewhat irresponsible posi- 
 tion. She had an idea that she was a very beneficent 
 friend : fond of him and careful of him as an elder sister 
 might be ; warning him as no one else could do against the 
 dangers of the town ; putting that stiff common sense, of 
 which she was convinced that she possessed an extraor- 
 dinary supply, at the service of his incurable verdancy ; and 
 looking after him, generally, as no one, poor child, had ever 
 done. Millicent made light of the little dressmaker, in this 
 view of Hyacinth's past (she thought Pinnie no better than 
 a starved cat), and enjoyed herself immensely in the char- 
 acter of guide and philosopher, while she pushed the young 
 man with a robust elbow or said to him, ' Well, you are a 
 sharp one, you are ! ' Her theory of herself, as we know, 
 was that she was the sweetest girl in the world, as well as 
 the cleverest and handsomest, and there could be no better 
 proof of her kindness of heart than her disinterested affec- 
 tion for a snippet of a bookbinder. Her sociability was 
 certainly great, and so were her vanity, her grossness, her 
 presumption, her appetite for beer, for buns, for entertain- 
 ment of every kind. She represented, for Hyacinth, during 
 this period, the eternal feminine, and his taste, considering 
 that he was fastidious, will be wondered at ; it will be 
 judged that she did not represent it very favourably. 
 
 It may easily be believed that he scrutinised his infatua- 
 
152 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA x 
 
 tion even while he gave himself up to it, and that he often 
 wondered he should care for a girl in whom he found so 
 much to object to. She was vulgar, clumsy and grotesquely 
 ignorant ; her conceit was proportionate, and she had not a 
 grain of tact or of quick perception. And yet there was 
 something so fine about her, to his imagination, and she 
 carried with such an air the advantages she did possess, 
 that her figure constantly mingled itself even with those 
 bright visions that hovered before him after Paul Muniment 
 had opened a mysterious window. She was bold, and free, 
 and generous, and if she was coarse she was neither false 
 nor cruel. She laughed with the laugh of the people, and 
 if you hit her hard enough she would cry with its tears. 
 When Hyacinth was not letting his imagination wander 
 among the haunts of the aristocracy, and fancying him- 
 self stretched in the shadow of an ancestral beech, read- 
 ing the last number of the Revue des Deux Mondes^ he 
 was occupied with contemplations of a very different 
 kind ; he was absorbed in the struggles and sufferings of 
 the millions whose life flowed in the same current as his, 
 and who, though they constantly excited his disgust, and 
 made him shrink and turn away, had the power to chain 
 his sympathy, to make it glow to a kind of ecstasy, to 
 convince him, for the time at least, that real success in 
 the world would be to do something with them and for 
 them. All this, strange to say, was never so vivid to him 
 as when he was in Millicent's company ; which is a proof 
 of his fantastic, erratic way of seeing things. She had no 
 such ideas about herself; they were almost the only ideas 
 she didn't have. She had no theories about redeeming 
 or uplifting the people ; she simply loathed them, because 
 
x THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 153 
 
 they were so dirty, with the outspoken violence of one 
 who had known poverty, and the strange bedfellows it 
 makes, in a very different degree from Hyacinth, brought 
 up, comparatively, with Pinnie to put sugar in his tea 
 and keep him supplied with neckties, like a little swell. 
 
 Millicent, to hear her talk, only wanted to keep her 
 skirts clear and marry some respectable tea -merchant 
 But for our hero she was magnificently plebeian, in the 
 sense that implied a kind of loud recklessness of danger 
 and the qualities that shine forth in a row. She summed 
 up the sociable, humorous, ignorant chatter of the masses, 
 their capacity for offensive and defensive passion, their 
 instinctive perception of their strength on the day they 
 should really exercise it ; and as much as any of this, 
 their ideal of something smug and prosperous, where 
 washed hands, and plates in rows on dressers, and stuffed 
 birds under glass, and family photographs, would symbolise 
 success. She was none the less plucky for being at bottom 
 a shameless Philistine, ambitious of a front -garden with 
 rockwork ; and she presented the plebeian character in none 
 the less plastic a form. Having the history of the French 
 Revolution at his fingers' ends, Hyacinth could easily see 
 her (if there should ever be barricades in the streets of 
 London), with a red cap of liberty on her head and her 
 white throat bared so that she should be able to shout the 
 louder the Marseillaise of that hour, whatever it might be. 
 If the festival of the Goddess of Reason should ever be 
 enacted in the British metropolis (and Hyacinth could con- 
 sider such possibilities without a smile, so much was it a 
 part of the little religion he had to remember, always, that 
 there was no knowing what might happen) if this solem- 
 
154 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 
 
 nity, I say, should be revived in Hyde Park, who was 
 better designated than Miss Henning to figure in a grand 
 statuesque manner, as the heroine of the occasion ? It 
 was plain that she had laid her inconsequent admirer under 
 a peculiar spell, since he could associate her with such 
 scenes as that while she consumed beer and buns at his 
 expense. If she had a weakness, it was for prawns ; and 
 she had, all winter, a plan for his taking her down to 
 Gravesend, where this luxury was cheap and abundant, 
 when the fine long days should arrive. She was never so 
 frank and facetious as when she dwelt on the details of a 
 project of this kind; and then Hyacinth was reminded 
 afresh that it was an immense good fortune for her that she 
 was handsome. If she had been ugly he couldn't have 
 listened to her ; but her beauty glorified even her accent, 
 interfused her cockney genius with prismatic hues, gave her 
 a large and constant impunity. 
 
XI 
 
 SHE desired at last to raise their common experience to a 
 loftier level, to enjoy what she called a high-class treat. 
 Their conversation was condemned, for the most part, to go 
 forward in the streets, the wintry, dusky, foggy streets, 
 which looked bigger and more numerous in their perpetual 
 obscurity, and in which everything was covered with damp, 
 gritty smut, an odour extremely agreeable to Miss Henning. 
 Happily she shared Hyacinth's relish of vague perambula- 
 tion, and was still more addicted than he to looking into 
 the windows of shops, before which, in long, contemplative 
 halts, she picked out freely the articles she shouldn't mind 
 calling her own. Hyacinth always pronounced the objects 
 of her selection hideous, and made no scruple to tell her 
 that she had the worst taste of any girl in the place. 
 Nothing that he could say to her affronted her so much, 
 as her pretensions in the way of a cultivated judgment 
 were boundless. Had not, indeed, her natural aptitude 
 been fortified, in the neighbourhood of Buckingham 
 Palace (there was scarcely anything they didn't sell in 
 the great shop of which she was an ornament), by daily 
 contact with the freshest products of modern industry? 
 Hyacinth laughed this establishment to scorn, and told 
 her there was nothing in it, from top to bottom, that a real 
 
156 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xi 
 
 artist would look at. She inquired, with answering derision, 
 if this were a description of his own few inches ; but in 
 reality she was fascinated, as much as she was provoked, 
 by his air of being difficult to please, of seeing indescrib- 
 able differences among things. She had given herself put, 
 originally, as very knowing, but he could make her feel 
 stupid. When once in a while he pointed out a com- 
 modity that he condescended to like (this didn't happen 
 often, because the only shops in which there was a chance 
 of his making such a discovery were closed at nightfall), 
 she stared, bruised him more or less with her elbow, and 
 declared that if any one should give her such a piece of 
 rubbish she would sell it for fourpence. Once or twice she 
 asked him to be so good as to explain to her in what its 
 superiority consisted she could not rid herself of a sus- 
 picion that there might be something in his opinion, and 
 she was angry at not finding herself as positive as any one. 
 But Hyacinth replied that it was no use attempting to tell 
 her ; she wouldn't understand, and she had better continue 
 to admire the insipid productions of an age which had lost 
 the sense of quality a phrase which she remembered, 
 proposing to herself even to make use of it, on some 
 future occasion, but was quite unable to interpret. 
 
 When her companion demeaned himself in this manner 
 it was not with a view of strengthening the tie which united 
 him to his childhood's friend ; but the effect followed, on 
 Millicent's side, and the girl was proud to think that she 
 was in possession of a young man whose knowledge was of 
 so high an order that it was inexpressible. In spite of her 
 vanity she was not so convinced of her perfection as not 
 to be full of ungratified aspirations ; she had an idea that 
 
xr THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 157 
 
 it might be to her advantage some day to exhibit a sample 
 of that learning ; and at the same time, when, in considera- 
 tion, for instance, of a jeweller's gas-lighted display in Great 
 Portland Street, Hyacinth lingered for five minutes in 
 perfect silence, while she delivered herself according to 
 her wont at such junctures, she was a thousand miles from 
 guessing the feelings which made it impossible for him to 
 speak. She could long for things she was not likely to 
 have ; envy other people for possessing them, and say it 
 was a regular shame (she called it a shtme) ; draw brilliant 
 pictures of what she should do with them if she did have 
 them ; and pass immediately, with a mind unencumbered 
 by superfluous inductions, to some other topic, equally 
 intimate and personal. The sense of privation, with her, 
 was often extremely acute ; but she could always put her 
 finger on the remedy. With the imaginative, irresponsible 
 little bookbinder the case was very different ; the remedy, 
 with him, was terribly vague and impracticable. He was 
 liable to moods in which the sense of exclusion from all 
 that he would have liked most to enjoy in life settled upon 
 him like a pall. They had a bitterness, but they were not 
 invidious they were not moods of vengeance, of imaginary 
 spoliation : they were simply states of paralysing melancholy, 
 of infinite sad reflection, in which he felt that in this world 
 of effort and suffering life was endurable, the spirit able to 
 expand, only in the best conditions, and that a sordid 
 struggle, in which one should go down to the grave without 
 having tasted them, was not worth the misery it would cost, 
 the dull demoralisation it would entail. 
 
 In such hours the great, roaring, indifferent world of 
 London seemed to him a huge organisation for mocking at 
 
158 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xi 
 
 his poverty, at his inanition; and then its vulgarest ornaments, 
 the windows of third-rate jewellers, the young man in a 
 white tie and a crush-hat who dandled by, on his way to a 
 dinner-party, in a hansom that nearly ran over one these 
 familiar phenomena became symbolic, insolent, defiant, took 
 upon themselves to make him smart with the sense that he 
 was out of it. He felt, moreover, that there was no con- 
 solation or refutation in saying to himself that the immense 
 majority of mankind were out of it with him, and appeared 
 to put up well enough with the annoyance. That was 
 their own affair ; he knew nothing of their reasons or their 
 resignation, and if they chose neither to rebel nor to com- 
 pare, he, at least, among the disinherited, would keep up 
 the standard. When these fits were upon the young man, 
 his brothers of the people fared, collectively, badly at his 
 hands; their function then was to represent in massive 
 shape precisely the grovelling interests which attracted one's 
 contempt, and the only acknowledgment one owed them 
 was for the completeness of the illustration. Everything 
 which, in a great city, could touch the sentient faculty of a 
 youth on whom nothing was lost ministered to his convic- 
 tion that there was no possible good fortune in life of too 
 ' quiet ' an order for him to appreciate no privilege, no 
 opportunity, no luxury, to which he should not do justice. 
 It was not so much that he wished to enjoy as that he 
 wished to know; his desire was not to be pampered, but 
 to be initiated. Sometimes, of a Saturday, in the long 
 evenings of June and July, he made his way into Hyde 
 Park at the hour when the throng of carriages, of riders, 
 of brilliant pedestrians, was thickest ; and though lately, 
 on two or three of these occasions, he had been accom- 
 
xi THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 159 
 
 panied by Miss Henning, whose criticism of the scene was 
 rich and distinct, a tremendous little drama had taken place, 
 privately, in his soul. He wanted to drive in every carriage, 
 to mount on every horse, to feel on his arm the hand of 
 every pretty woman in the place. In the midst of this his 
 sense was vivid that he belonged to the class whom the 
 upper ten thousand, as they passed, didn't so much as rest 
 their eyes upon for a quarter of a second. They looked 
 at Millicent, who was safe to be looked at anywhere, and 
 was one of the handsomest girls in any company, but they 
 only reminded him of the high human walls, the deep 
 gulfs of tradition, the steep embankments of privilege and 
 dense layers of stupidity, which fenced him off from social 
 recognition. 
 
 And this was not the fruit of a morbid vanity on his 
 part, or of a jealousy that could not be intelligent; his 
 personal discomfort was the result of an exquisite admiration 
 for what he had missed. There were individuals whom he 
 followed with his eyes, with his thoughts, sometimes even 
 with his steps ; they seemed to tell him what it was to be 
 the flower of a high civilisation. At moments he was 
 aghast when he reflected that the cause he had secretly 
 espoused, the cause from which M. Poupin and Paul 
 Muniment (especially the latter) had within the last few 
 months drawn aside the curtain, proposed to itself to bring 
 about a state of things in which that particular scene would 
 be impossible. It made him even rather faint to think that 
 he must choose ; that he couldn't (with any respect for his 
 own consistency) work, underground, for the enthronement 
 of the democracy, and continue to enjoy, in however 
 platonic a manner, a spectacle which rested on a hideous 
 
160 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA XI 
 
 social inequality. He must either suffer with the people, 
 as he had suffered before, or he must apologise to others, 
 as he sometimes came so near doing to himself, for the 
 rich inasmuch as the day was certainly near when these 
 two mighty forces would come to a death-grapple. Hya- 
 cinth thought himself obliged, at present, to have reasons 
 for his feelings ; his intimacy with Paul Muniment, which 
 had now grown very great, laid a good deal of that sort of 
 responsibility upon him. Muniment laughed at his reasons, 
 whenever he produced them, but he appeared to expect 
 him, nevertheless, to have them ready, on demand, and 
 Hyacinth had an immense desire to do what he expected. 
 There were times when he said to himself that it might 
 very well be his fate to be divided, to the point of tor- 
 ture, to be split open by sympathies that pulled him in 
 different ways; for hadn't he an extraordinarily mingled 
 current in his blood, and from the time he could remember 
 was there not one half of him that seemed to be always 
 playing tricks on the other, or getting snubs and pinches 
 from it ? 
 
 That dim, dreadful, confused legend of his mother's 
 
 i 
 history, as regards which what Pinnie had been able to tell 
 
 him when he first began to question her was at once too 
 much and too little this stupefying explanation had sup- 
 plied him, first and last, with a hundred different theories 
 of his identity. What he knew, what he guessed, sickened 
 him, and what he didn't know tormented him ; but in his 
 illuminated ignorance he had fashioned forth an article of 
 faith. This had gradually emerged from the depths of 
 darkness in which he found himself plunged as a conse- 
 quence of the challenge he had addressed to Pinnie while 
 
xi THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 161 
 
 he was still only a child on the memorable day which 
 transformed the whole face of his future. It was one 
 January afternoon. He had come in from a walk; she 
 was seated at her lamp, as usual with her work, and she 
 began to tell him of a letter that one of the lodgers had 
 got, describing the manner in which his brother-in-law's 
 shop, at Nottingham, had been rifled by burglars. He 
 listened to her story, standing in front of her, and then, by 
 way of response, he said to her, ' Who was that woman you 
 took me to see ever so long ago ? ' The expression of her 
 white face, as she looked up at him, her fear of such an 
 attack all dormant, after so many years her strange, 
 scared, sick glance was a thing he could never forget, any 
 more than the tone, with her breath failing her, in which 
 she had repeated, l That woman ? ' 
 
 ' That woman, in the prison, years ago how old was I ? 
 who was dying, and who kissed me so as I have never 
 been kissed, as I never shall be again ! Who was she, 
 who WAS she ? ' Poor Finnic, to do her justice, had made, 
 after she recovered her breath, a gallant fight : it lasted a 
 week ; it was to leave her spent and sore for evermore, and 
 before it was over Anastasius Vetch had been called in. 
 At his instance she retracted the falsehoods with which she 
 had tried to put him off, and she made, at last, a confes- 
 sion, a report, which he had reason to believe was as com- 
 plete as her knowledge. Hyacinth could never have told 
 you why the crisis occurred on such a day, why his ques- 
 tion broke out at that particular moment. The strangeness 
 of the matter to himself was that the germ of his curiosity 
 should have developed so slowly ; that the haunting 
 wonder, which now, as he looked back, appeared to fill his . 
 
 VOL. I. M 
 
1 62 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xi 
 
 whole childhood, should only after so long an interval have 
 crept up to the air. It was only, of course, little by little 
 that he had recovered his bearings in his new and more 
 poignant consciousness ; little by little that he reconstructed 
 his antecedents, took the measure, so far as was possible, of 
 his heredity. His having the courage to disinter, in the 
 Times ) in the reading-room of the British Museum, a report 
 of his mother's trial for the murder of Lord Frederick 
 Purvis, which was very copious, the affair having been quite 
 a cause celebre ; his resolution in sitting under that splendid 
 dome, and, with his head bent to hide his hot eyes, going 
 through every syllable of the ghastly record, had been an 
 achievement of comparatively recent years. There were 
 certain things that Finnic knew which appalled him ; and 
 there were others, as to which he would have given his 
 hand to have some light, that it made his heart ache 
 supremely to find she was honestly ignorant of. He 
 scarcely knew what sort of favour Mr. Vetch wished to 
 make with him (as a compensation for the precious part he 
 had played in the business years before), when the fiddler 
 permitted himself to pass judgment on the family of the 
 wretched young nobleman for not having provided in some 
 manner for the infant child of his assassin. Why should 
 they have provided, when it was evident that they refused 
 absolutely to recognise his lordship's responsibility ? Pinnie 
 had to admit this, under Hyacinth's terrible cross -ques- 
 tioning ; she could not pretend, with any show of evidence, 
 that Lord Whiteroy and the other brothers (there had been 
 no less than seven, most of them still living) had, at the 
 time of the trial, given any symptom of believing Florentine 
 Vivier's asseverations. That was their affair ; he had long 
 
xi THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 163 
 
 since made up his mind that his own was very different. 
 One couldn't believe at will, and fortunately, in the case, he 
 had no effort to make ; for from the moment he began to 
 consider the established facts (few as they were, and poor 
 and hideous) he regarded himself, irresistibly, as the son of 
 the recreant, sacrificial Lord Frederick. 
 
 He had no need to reason about it ; all his nerves and 
 pulses pleaded and testified. His mother had been a 
 daughter of the wild French people (all that Finnic could 
 tell him of her parentage was that Florentine had once 
 mentioned that in her extreme childhood her father had 
 fallen, in the blood-stained streets of Paris, on a barricade, 
 with his gun in his hand) ; but on the other side it took an 
 English aristocrat though a poor specimen, apparently, 
 had to suffice to account for him. This, with its further 
 implications, became Hyacinth's article of faith ; the reflec- 
 tion that he was a bastard involved in a remarkable manner 
 the reflection that he was a gentleman. He was conscious 
 that he didn't hate the image of his father, as he might 
 have been expected to do ; and he supposed this was 
 because Lord Frederick had paid so tremendous a penalty. 
 It was in the exaction of that penalty that the moral proof, 
 for Hyacinth, resided ; his mother would not have armed 
 herself on account of any injury less cruel than the episode 
 of which her miserable baby was the living sign. She had 
 avenged herself because she had been thrown over, and the 
 bitterness of that wrong had been in the fact that he, Hya- 
 cinth, lay there in her lap. He was the one to have been 
 killed : that remark our young man often made to himself. 
 That his attitude on this whole subject was of a tolerably 
 exalted, transcendent character, and took little account of 
 
1 64 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xi 
 
 any refutation that might be based on a vulgar glance at 
 three or four obtrusive items, is proved by the importance 
 that he attached, for instance, to the name by which his 
 mother had told poor Pinnie (when this excellent creature 
 consented to take him) that she wished him to be called. 
 Hyacinth had been the name of her father, a republican 
 clockmaker, the martyr of his opinions, whose memory she 
 professed to worship ; and when Lord Frederick insinuated 
 himself into her confidence he had reasons for preferring to 
 be known as plain Mr. Robinson reasons, however, which, 
 in spite of the light thrown upon them at the trial, it was 
 difficult, after so many years, to enter into. 
 
 Hyacinth never knew that Mr. Vetch had said more 
 than once to Pinnie, 'If her contention as regards that 
 dissolute young swell was true, why didn't she make the 
 child bear his real name, instead of his false one?' an 
 inquiry which the dressmaker answered with some in- 
 genuity, by remarking that she couldn't call him after a 
 man she had murdered, and that she supposed the un 
 happy girl didn't wish to publish to every one the boy's 
 connection with a crime that had been so much talked 
 about. If Hyacinth had assisted at this little discussion it 
 is needless to say that he would have sided with Miss 
 Pynsent; though that his judgment was independently 
 formed is proved by the fact that Pinnie's fearfully indis- 
 creet attempts at condolence should not have made him 
 throw up his version in disgust. It was after the complete 
 revelation that he understood the romantic innuendoes 
 with which his childhood had been surrounded, and of 
 which he had never caught the meaning they having 
 seemed but part and parcel of the habitual and pro- 
 
xi THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 165 
 
 miscuous divagations of his too constructive companion. 
 When it came over him that, for years, she had made a 
 fool of him, to himself and to others, he could have 
 beaten her, for grief and shame; and yet, before he 
 administered this rebuke he had to remember that she 
 only chattered (though she professed to have been extra- 
 ordinarily dumb) about a matter which he spent nine- 
 tenths of his time in brooding over. When she tried to 
 console him for the horror of his mother's history by des- 
 canting on the glory of the Purvises, and reminding him 
 that he was related, through them, to half the aristocracy 
 of England, he felt that she was turning the tragedy of his 
 life into a monstrous farce ; and yet he none the less con- 
 tinued to cherish the belief that he was a gentleman born. 
 He allowed her to tell him nothing about the family in 
 question, and his stoicism on this subject was one of the 
 reasons of the deep dejection of her later years. If he 
 had only let her idealise him a little to himself she would 
 have felt that she was making up, by so much, for her 
 grand mistake. He sometimes saw the name of his 
 father's relations in the newspaper, but he always turned 
 away his eyes from it. He had nothing to ask of them, 
 and he wished to prove to himself that he could ignore 
 them (who had been willing to let him die like a rat) as 
 completely as they ignored him. Decidedly, he cried to 
 himself at times, he was with the people, and every pos- 
 sible vengeance of the people, as against such shameless 
 egoism as that ; but all the same he was happy to feel 
 that he had blood in his veins which would account for the 
 finest sensibilities. 
 
 He had no money to pay for places at a theatre in the 
 
166 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xi 
 
 Strand ; Millicent Henning having made it clear to him 
 that on this occasion she expected something better than 
 the pit. ' Should you like the royal box, or a couple of 
 stalls at ten shillings apiece?' he asked of her, with a 
 frankness of irony which, with this young lady, fortunately, 
 it was perfectly possible to practise. She had answered 
 that she would content herself with a seat in the second 
 balcony, in the very front ; and as such a position in- 
 volved an expenditure which he was still unable to meet, 
 he waited one night upon Mr. Vetch, to whom he had 
 already, more than once, had recourse in moments of 
 pecuniary embarrassment. His relations with the caustic 
 fiddler were peculiar ; they were much better in fact than 
 they were in theory. Mr. Vetch had let him know long 
 before this, and with the purpose of covering Finnic to the 
 utmost the part he had played when the question of the 
 child's being taken to Mrs. Bowerbank's institution was so 
 distressingly presented ; and Hyacinth, in the face of this 
 information, had inquired, with some sublimity, what the 
 devil the fiddler had to do with his private affairs. Anas- 
 tasius Vetch ha4 replied that it was not as an affair of his, 
 but as an affair of Pinnie's, that he had considered the 
 matter; and Hyacinth afterwards had let the question 
 drop, though he had never been formally reconciled to 
 his officious neighbour. Of course his feeling about him 
 had been immensely modified by the trouble Mr. Vetch 
 had taken to get him a place with old Crookenden ; and 
 at the period of which I write it had long been familiar to 
 him that the fiddler didn't care a straw what he thought of 
 his advice at the famous crisis, and entertained himself 
 with watching the career of a youth put together of such 
 
xi THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 167 
 
 queer pieces. It was impossible to Hyacinth not to per- 
 ceive that the old man's interest was kindly ; and to-day, 
 at any rate, our hero would have declared that nothing 
 could have made up to him for not knowing the truth, 
 horrible as the truth might be. His miserable mother's 
 embrace seemed to furnish him with an inexhaustible fund 
 of motive, and under the circumstances that was a bene- 
 fit. What he chiefly objected to in Mr. Vetch was a 
 certain air of still regarding him as extremely juvenile ; he 
 would have got on with him much better if the fiddler had 
 consented to recognise the degree in which he was already 
 a man of the world. Vetch knew an immense deal about 
 society, and he seemed to know the more because he never 
 swaggered it was only little by little you discovered it ; 
 but that was no reason for his looking as if his chief 
 entertainment resided in a private, diverting commentary 
 on the conversation of his young friend. Hyacinth felt 
 that he himself gave considerable evidence of liking his 
 fellow-resident in Lomax Place when he asked him to lend 
 him half- a -crown. Somehow, circumstances, of old, had 
 tied them together, and though this partly vexed the little 
 bookbinder it also touched him ; he had more than once 
 solved the problem of deciding how to behave (when the 
 fiddler exasperated him) by simply asking him some ser- 
 vice. The old man had never refused. It was satisfactory 
 to Hyacinth to remember this, as he knocked at his door, 
 very late, after he had allowed him time to come home 
 from the theatre. He knew his habits : Mr. Vetch 
 never went straight to bed, but sat by his fire an hour, 
 smoking his pipe, mixing a grog, and reading some 
 old book. Hyacinth knew when to go up by the 
 
168 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xi 
 
 light in his window, which he could see from a court 
 behind. 
 
 'Oh, I know I haven't been to see you for a long 
 time,' he said, in response to the remark with which the 
 fiddler greeted him ; ' and I may as well tell you immedi- 
 ately what has brought me at present in addition to the 
 desire to ask after your health. I want to take a young 
 lady to the theatre.' 
 
 Mr. Vetch was habited in a tattered dressing-gown ; 
 his apartment smelt strongly of the liquor he was con- 
 suming. Divested of his evening-gear he looked to our 
 hero so plucked and blighted that on the spot Hyacinth 
 ceased to hesitate as to his claims in the event of a social 
 liquidation ; he, too, was unmistakably a creditor. ' I'm 
 afraid you find your young lady rather expensive.' 
 
 ' I find everything expensive,' said Hyacinth, as if to 
 finish that subject. 
 
 ' Especially, I suppose, your secret societies.' 
 
 'What do you mean by that?' the young man asked, 
 staring. 
 
 ' Why, you told me, in the autumn, that you were just 
 about to join a few.' 
 
 ' A few ? How many do you suppose ?' And Hyacinth 
 checked himself. ' Do you suppose if I had been serious 
 I would tell?' 
 
 ' Oh dear, oh dear,' Mr. Vetch murmured, with a sigh. 
 Then he went on : ' You want to take her to my shop, 
 eh?' 
 
 ' I'm sorry to say she won't go there. She wants some- 
 thing in the Strand : that's a great point. She wants very 
 much to see the Pearl of Paraguay. I don't wish to pay 
 
xi THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 169 
 
 anything, if possible ; I am sorry to say I haven't a penny. 
 But as you know people at the other theatres, and I have 
 heard you say that you do each other little favours, from 
 place to place a charge de revanche, as the French say 
 it occurred to me that you might be able to get me an 
 order. The piece has been running a long time, and most 
 people (except poor devils like me) must have seen it : 
 therefore there probably isn't a rush.' 
 
 Mr. Vetch listened in silence, and presently he said, 
 'Do you want a box?' 
 
 1 Oh no ; something more modest.' 
 
 'Why not a box?' asked the fiddler, in a tone which 
 Hyacinth knew. 
 
 ' Because I haven't got the clothes that people wear in 
 that sort of place, if you must have such a definite reason.' 
 
 'And your young lady has she got the clothes?' 
 
 'Oh, I daresay; she seems to have everything.' 
 
 ' Where does she get them ? ' 
 
 'Oh, I don't know. She belongs to a big shop; she 
 has to be fine.' 
 
 'Won't you have a pipe?' Mr. Vetch asked, pushing an 
 old tobacco-pouch across the table to his visitor; and 
 while the young man helped himself he puffed a while in 
 silence. 'What will she do with you?' he inquired at 
 last. 
 
 'What will who do with me?' 
 
 'Your big beauty Miss Henning. I know all about 
 her from Pinnie.' 
 
 ' Then you know what she'll do with me ! ' Hyacinth 
 returned, with rather a scornful laugh. 
 
 ' Yes, but, after all, it doesn't very much matter.' 
 
1 70 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xi 
 
 ' I don't know what you are talking about, ' said 
 Hyacinth. 
 
 1 Well, now the other matter the International are 
 you very deep in that?' the fiddler went on, as if he had 
 not heard him. 
 
 ' Did Pinnie tell you also about that?' his visitor asked. 
 
 ' No, our friend Eustace has told me a good deal. He 
 knows you have put your head into something. Besides, 
 I see it,' said Mr. Vetch. 
 
 ' How do you see it, pray ?' 
 
 ' You have got such a speaking eye. Any one can 
 tell, to look at you, that you have become a nihilist, that 
 you're a member of a secret society. You seem to say to 
 every one, " Slow torture won't induce me to tell where it 
 meets ! " ' 
 
 'You won't get me an order, then?' Hyacinth said, in 
 a moment. 
 
 ' My dear boy, I offer you a box. I take the greatest 
 interest in you.' 
 
 They smoked together a while, and at last Hyacinth 
 remarked, ' It has nothing to do with the International.' 
 
 'Is it more terrible more deadly secret?' his com- 
 panion inquired, looking at him with extreme seriousness. 
 
 ' I thought you pretended to be a radical,' answered 
 Hyacinth. 
 
 'Well, so I am of the old-fashioned, constitutional, 
 milk-and-water, jog-trot sort. I'm not an exterminator.' 
 
 ' We don't know what we may be when the time 
 comes,' Hyacinth rejoined, more sententiously than he 
 intended. 
 
 'Is the time coming, then, my dear boy?' 
 
XT THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 171 
 
 ' I don't think I have a right to give you any more of 
 a warning than that,' said our hero, smiling. 
 
 ' It's very kind of you to do so much, I'm sure, and to 
 rush in here at the small hours for the purpose. Mean- 
 while, in the few weeks, or months, or years, or whatever 
 they are, that are left, you wish to put in as much enjoy- 
 ment as you can squeeze, with the young ladies : that's a 
 very natural inclination.' Then, irrelevantly, Mr. Vetch 
 inquired, ' Do you see many foreigners?' 
 
 'Yes, I see a good many.' 
 
 'And what do you think of them ?' 
 
 'Oh, all sorts of things. I rather like Englishmen 
 better.' 
 
 'Mr. Muniment, for example?' 
 
 'I say, what do you know about him?' Hyacinth 
 asked. 
 
 ' I've seen him at Eustace's. I know that you and he 
 are as thick as thieves.' 
 
 'He will distinguish himself some day, very much,' 
 said Hyacinth, who was perfectly willing, and indeed very 
 proud, to be thought a close ally of the chemist's assistant. 
 
 'Very likely very likely. And what will he do with 
 you?' the fiddler inquired. 
 
 Hyacinth got up ; the two men looked at each other 
 for an instant. ' Do get me two good places in the second 
 balcony,' said Hyacinth. 
 
 Mr. Vetch replied that he would do what he could, and 
 three days afterwards he gave the coveted order to his 
 young friend. As he placed it in his hands he exclaimed, 
 ' You had better put in all the fun you can, you know ! ' 
 
BOOK SECOND 
 
XII 
 
 HYACINTH and his companion took their seats with extreme 
 promptitude before the curtain rose upon the Pearl of 
 Paraguay. Thanks to Millicent's eagerness not to be late 
 they encountered the discomfort which had constituted her 
 main objection to going into the pit : they waited for twenty 
 minutes at the door of the theatre, in a tight, stolid crowd, 
 before the official hour of opening. Millicent, bareheaded 
 and very tightly laced, presented a most splendid appear- 
 ance and, on Hyacinth's part, gratified a certain youthful, 
 ingenuous pride of possession in every respect save a 
 tendency, while ingress was denied them, to make her 
 neighbours feel her elbows and to comment, loudly and 
 sarcastically, on the situation. It was more clear to him 
 even than it had been before that she was a young lady who 
 in public places might easily need a champion or an 
 apologist. Hyacinth knew there was only one way to 
 apologise for a ' female,' when the female was attached very 
 closely and heavily to one's arm, and was reminded afresh 
 how little constitutional aversion Miss Henning had to a 
 row. He had an idea she might think his own taste ran 
 even too little in that direction, and had visions of violent, 
 confused scenes, in which he should in some way distinguish 
 himself: he scarcely knew in what way, and imagined him- 
 
1 76 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xn 
 
 self more easily routing some hulking adversary by an 
 exquisite application of the retort courteous than by flying 
 at him with a pair of very small fists. 
 
 By the time they had reached their places in the balcony 
 Millicent was rather flushed and a good deal ruffled ; but 
 she had composed herself in season for the rising of the curtain 
 upon the farce which preceded the melodrama and which 
 the pair had had no intention of losing. At this stage a 
 more genial agitation took possession of her, and she 
 surrendered her sympathies to the horse -play of the 
 traditional prelude. Hyacinth found it less amusing, but 
 the theatre, in any conditions, was full of sweet deception for 
 him. His imagination projected itself lovingly across the 
 footlights, gilded and coloured the shabby canvas and 
 battered accessories, and lost itself so effectually in the 
 fictive world that the end of the piece, however , long, or 
 however short, brought with it a kind of alarm, like a 
 stoppage of his personal life. It was impossible to be more 
 friendly to the dramatic illusion. Millicent, as the audience 
 thickened, rejoiced more largely and loudly, held herself as 
 a lady, surveyed the place as if she knew all about it, leaned 
 back and leaned forward, fanned herself with majesty, gave 
 her opinion upon the appearance and coiffure of every 
 woman within sight, abounded in question and conjecture, 
 and produced, from her pocket, a little paper of peppermint- 
 drops, of which, under cruel threats, she compelled Hyacinth 
 to partake. She followed with attention, though not always 
 with success, the complicated adventures of the Pearl of 
 Paraguay, through scenes luxuriantly tropical, in which the 
 male characters wore sombreros and stilettos, and the ladies 
 either danced the cachucha or fled from licentious pursuit ; 
 
xir THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 177 
 
 but her eyes wandered, during considerable periods, to the 
 occupants of the boxes and stalls, concerning several of 
 whom she had theories which she imparted to Hyacinth 
 while the play went on, greatly to his discomfiture, he being 
 unable to conceive of such levity. She had the pretension 
 of knowing who every one was ; not individually and by 
 name, but as regards their exact social station, the quarter 
 of London in which they lived, and the amount of money 
 they were prepared to spend in the neighbourhood of 
 Buckingham Palace. She had seen the whole town pass 
 through her establishment there, and though Hyacinth, 
 from his infancy, had been watching it from his own point 
 of view, his companion made him feel that he had missed a 
 thousand characteristic points, so different were most of her 
 interpretations from his, and so very bold and irreverent. 
 Miss Henning's observation of human society had not been 
 of a nature to impress her with its high moral tone, and she 
 had a free off-hand cynicism which imposed itself. She 
 thought most ladies were hypocrites, and had, in all ways, a 
 low opinion of her own sex, which, more than once, before 
 this, she had justified to Hyacinth by narrating observations 
 of the most surprising kind, gathered during her career as a 
 shop-girl. There was a pleasing inconsequence, therefore, 
 in her being moved to tears in the third act of the play, 
 when the Pearl of Paraguay, dishevelled and distracted, 
 dragging herself on her knees, implored the stern hidalgo 
 her father, to believe in her innocence in spite of the cir- 
 cumstances which seemed to condemn her a midnight 
 meeting with the wicked hero in the grove of cocoanuts. 
 It was at this crisis, none the less, that she asked Hyacinth 
 who his friends were in the principal box on the left of the 
 
 VOL. I. N 
 
178 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xn 
 
 stage, and let him know that a gentleman seated there had 
 been watching him, at intervals, for the past half hour. 
 
 ' Watching me ! I like that ! ' said the young man. 
 * When I want to be watched I take you with me.' 
 
 1 Of course he has looked at me,' Millicent answered, as 
 if she had no interest in denying that. ' But you're the one 
 he wants to get hold of.' 
 
 'To get hold of!' 
 
 ' Yes, you ninny : don't hang back. He may make your 
 fortune.' 
 
 ' Well, if you would like him to come and sit by you I'll 
 go and take a walk in the Strand,' said Hyacinth, entering 
 into the humour of the occasion but not seeing, from where 
 he was placed, any gentleman in the box. Millicent explained 
 that the mysterious observer had just altered his position; 
 he had gone into the back of the box, which had consider- 
 able depth. There were other persons in it, out of sight ; 
 she and Hyacinth were too much on the same side. One 
 of them was a lady, concealed by the curtain ; her arm, 
 bare save for its bracelets, was visible at moments on the 
 cushioned ledge. Hyacinth saw it, in effect, reappear there, 
 and even while the play went on contemplated it with a 
 certain interest ; but until the curtain fell at the end of the 
 act there was no further symptom that a gentleman wished 
 to get hold of him. 
 
 ' Now do you say it's me he's after ? ' Millicent asked 
 abruptly, giving him a sidelong dig, as the fiddlers in the 
 orchestra began to scrape their instruments for the interlude. 
 
 ' Of course ; I am only the pretext,' Hyacinth replied, 
 after he had looked a moment, in a manner which he 
 flattered himself was a proof of quick self-possession. The 
 
xii THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 179 
 
 gentleman designated by his companion was once more at 
 the front, leaning forward, with his arms on the edge. 
 Hyacinth saw that he was looking straight at him, and our 
 young man returned his gaze an effort not rendered the 
 more easy by the fact that, after an instant, he recognised 
 him. 
 
 ' Well, if he knows us he might give some sign, and if 
 he doesn't he might leave us alone,' Millicent declared, 
 abandoning the distinction she had made between herself 
 and her companion. She had no sooner spoken than the 
 gentleman complied with the first mentioned of these con- 
 ditions ; he smiled at Hyacinth across the house he 
 nodded to him with unmistakable friendliness. Millicent, 
 perceiving this, glanced at the young man from Lpmax 
 Place and saw that the demonstration had brought a deep 
 colour to his cheek. He was blushing, flushing ; whether 
 with pleasure or embarrassment was not immediately 
 apparent to her. ' I say, I say is it one of your grand 
 relations ? ' she promptly exclaimed. ' Well, I can stare 
 as well as him ; ' and she told Hyacinth it was a ' shime ' 
 to bring a young lady to the play when you hadn't so much 
 as an opera-glass for her to look at the company. ' Is he 
 one of those lords your aunt was always talking about in 
 the Plice ? Is he your uncle, or your grandfather, or your 
 first or second cousin ? No, he's too young for your grand- 
 father. What a pity I can't see if he looks like you !' 
 
 At any other time Hyacinth would have thought these 
 inquiries in the worst possible taste, but now he was too 
 much given up to other reflections. It pleased him that 
 the gentleman in the box should recognise and notice him, 
 because even so small a fact as this was an extension of his 
 
i8o THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xn 
 
 social existence ; but it also surprised and puzzled him, 
 and it produced, generally, in his easily-excited organism, 
 an agitation of which, in spite of his attempted self-control, 
 the appearance he presented to Millicent was the sign. 
 They had met three times, he and his fellow -spectator ; 
 but they had met under circumstances which, to Hyacinth's 
 mind, would have made a furtive wink, a mere tremor of 
 the eyelid, a more judicious reference to the fact than so 
 public a salutation. Hyacinth would never have per- 
 mitted himself to greet him first ; and this was not because 
 the gentleman in the box belonged conspicuously as he 
 did so to a different walk of society. He was apparently 
 a man of forty, tall and lean and loose-jointed ; he fell 
 into lounging, dawdling attitudes, and even at a distance 
 he looked lazy. He had a long, smooth, amused, contented 
 face, unadorned with moustache or whisker, and his brown 
 hair parted itself evenly over his forehead, and came forward 
 on either temple in a rich, well-brushed lock which gave 
 his countenance a certain analogy to portraits of English 
 gentlemen about the year 1820. Millicent Henning had a 
 glance of such range and keenness that she was able to 
 make out the details of his evening -dress, of which she 
 appreciated the * form' ; to observe the character of his 
 large hands ; and to note that he appeared to be perpetu- 
 ally smiling, that his eyes were extraordinarily light in colour, 
 and that in spite of the dark, well-marked brows arching 
 over them, his fine skin never had produced, and never 
 would produce, a beard. Our young lady pronounced him 
 mentally a ' swell ' of the first magnitude, and wondered 
 more than ever where he had picked up Hyacinth. Her 
 companion seemed to echo her thought when he exclaimed, 
 
xii THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 181 
 
 with a little surprised sigh, almost an exhalation of awe, 
 ' Well, I had no idea he was one of that lot ! ' 
 
 'You might at least tell me his name, so that I shall 
 know what to call him when he comes round to speak to 
 us,' the girl said, provoked at her companion's incommuni- 
 cativeness. 
 
 ' Comes round to speak to us a chap like that ! ' 
 Hyacinth exclaimed. 
 
 * Well, I'm sure if he had been your own brother he 
 couldn't have grinned at you more ! He may want to 
 make my acquaintance after all ; he won't be the first.' 
 
 The gentleman had once more retreated from sight, 
 and there was as much evidence as that of the intention 
 Millicent attributed to him. 'I don't think I'm at all 
 clear that I have a right to tell his name,' he remarked, 
 with sincerity, but with a considerable disposition at the 
 same time to magnify an incident which deepened the 
 brilliancy of the entertainment he had been able to offer 
 Miss Henning. ' I met him in a place where he may not 
 like to have it known that he goes.' 
 
 ' Do you go to places that people are ashamed of? Is 
 it one of your political clubs, as you call them, where that 
 dirty young man from Camberwell, Mr. Monument (what do 
 you call him ?) fills your head with ideas that'll bring you 
 to no good? I'm sure your friend over there doesn't look 
 as if he'd be on your side.' 
 
 Hyacinth had indulged in this reflection himself; but 
 the only answer he made to Millicent was, 'Well, then, 
 perhaps he'll be on yours ! ' 
 
 ' Laws, I hope she ain't one of the aristocracy ! ' Milli- 
 cent exclaimed, with apparent irrelevance ; and following 
 
1 82 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xn 
 
 the direction of her eyes Hyacinth saw that the chair his 
 mysterious acquaintance had quitted in the stage-box was 
 now occupied by a lady hitherto invisible not the one 
 who had given them a glimpse of her shoulder and bare 
 arm. This was an ancient personage, muffled in a volu- 
 minous, crumpled white shawl a stout, odd, foreign-look- 
 ing woman, whose head apparently was surmounted with a 
 light-coloured wig. She had a placid, patient air and a 
 round, wrinkled face, in which, however, a small, bright 
 eye moved quickly enough. Her rather soiled white 
 gloves were too large for her, and round her head, horizont- 
 ally arranged, as if to keep her wig in its place, she wore a 
 narrow band of tinsel, decorated, in the middle of the fore- 
 head, by a jewel which the rest of her appearance would 
 lead the spectator to suppose false. ' Is the old woman his 
 mother ? Where did she dig up her clothes ? They look 
 as if she had hired them for the evening. Does she come 
 to your wonderful club, too ? I daresay she cuts it fine, 
 don't she ? ' Millicent went on ; and when Hyacinth 
 suggested, sportively, that the old lady might be, not the 
 gentleman's mother, but his wife or his ' fancy,' she declared 
 that in that case, if he should come to see them, she wasn't 
 afraid. No wonder he wanted to get out of that box ! The 
 woman in the wig was sitting there on purpose to look at 
 them, but she couldn't say she was particularly honoured 
 by the notice of such an old guy. Hyacinth pretended 
 that he liked her appearance and thought her very hand- 
 some ; he offered to bet another paper of peppermints that 
 if they could find out she would be some tremendous old 
 dowager, some one with a handle to her name. To this 
 Millicent replied, with an air of experience, that she had 
 
xii THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 183 
 
 never thought the greatest beauty was in the upper class ; 
 and her companion could see that she was covertly looking 
 over her shoulder to watch for his political friend and that 
 she would be disappointed if he did not come. This idea 
 did not make Hyacinth jealous, for his mind was occupied 
 with another side of the business ; and if he offered sportive 
 suggestions it was because he was really excited, dazzled, 
 by an incident of which the reader will have failed as yet 
 to perceive the larger relations. What moved him was not 
 the pleasure of being patronised by a rich man ; it was 
 simply the prospect of new experience a sensation for 
 which he was always ready to exchange any present boon ; 
 and he was convinced that if the gentleman with whom he 
 had conversed in a small occult back-room in Bloomsbury 
 as Captain Godfrey Sholto the Captain had given him his 
 card had more positively than in Millicent's imagination 
 come out of the stage-box to see him, he would bring with 
 him rare influences. This nervous presentiment, lighting on 
 our young man, was so keen that it constituted almost a pre- 
 paration ; therefore, when at the end of a few minutes he 
 became aware that Millicent, with her head turned (her 
 face was in his direction), was taking the measure of some 
 one who had come in behind them, he felt that fate was 
 doing for him, by way of a change, as much as could be 
 expected. He got up in his place, but not too soon to 
 see that Captain Sholto had been standing there a moment 
 in contemplation of Millicent, and that this young lady 
 had performed with deliberation the ceremony of taking his 
 measure. The Captain had his hands in his pockets, and 
 wore a crush-hat, pushed a good deal backward. He 
 laughed at the young couple in the balcony in the friend- 
 
1 84 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xn 
 
 liest way, as if he had known them both for years, and 
 Millicent could see, on a nearer view, that he was a fine 
 distinguished, easy, genial gentleman, at least six feet high, 
 in spite of a habit, or an affectation, of carrying himself in 
 a casual, relaxed, familiar manner. Hyacinth felt a little, 
 after the first moment, as if he were treating them rather 
 too much as a pair of children whom he had stolen upon, 
 to startle ; but this impression was speedily removed by 
 the air with which he said, laying his hand on our hero's 
 shoulder as he stood in the little passage at the end of the 
 bench where the holders of Mr. Vetch's order occupied 
 the first seats, 'My dear fellow, I really thought I must 
 come round and speak to you. My spirits are all gone 
 with this brute of a play. And those boxes are fearfully 
 stuffy, you know,' he added, as if Hyacinth had had at 
 least an equal experience of that part of the theatre. 
 
 1 It's hot here, too,' Millicent's companion murmured. 
 He had suddenly become much more conscious of the 
 high temperature, of his proximity to the fierce chandelier, 
 and he added that the plot of the play certainly was un- 
 natural, though he thought the piece rather well acted. 
 
 ' Oh, it's the good old stodgy British tradition. This is 
 the only place where you find it still, and even here it can't 
 last much longer ; it can't survive old Baskerville and Mrs. 
 Ruffler. 'Gad, how old they are ! I remember her, long 
 past her prime, when I used to be taken to the play, as a 
 boy, in the Christmas holidays. Between them, they must 
 be something like a hundred and eighty, eh? I believe 
 one is supposed to cry a good deal about the middle,' 
 Captain Sholto continued, in the same friendly, familiar, 
 encouraging way, addressing himself to Millicent, upon 
 
xii THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 185 
 
 whom, indeed, his eyes had rested almost uninterruptedly 
 from the first. She sustained his glance with composure, 
 but with just enough of an expression of reserve to intimate 
 (what was perfectly true) that she was not in the habit of 
 conversing with gentlemen with whom she was not ac- 
 quainted. She turned away her face at this (she had 
 already given the visitor the benefit of a good deal of it), 
 and left him, as in the little passage he leaned against the 
 parapet of the balcony with his back to the stage, con- 
 fronted with Hyacinth, who was now wondering, with rather 
 more vivid a sense of the relations of things, what he had 
 come for. He wanted to do him honour, in return for his 
 civility, but he did not know what one could talk about, at 
 such short notice, to a person whom he immediately per- 
 ceived to be, in a most extensive, a really transcendent 
 sense of the term, a man of the world. He instantly saw 
 Captain Sholto did not take the play seriously, so that he 
 felt himself warned off that topic, on which, otherwise, he 
 might have had much to say. On the other hand he could 
 not, in the presence of a third person, allude to the matters 
 they had discussed at the ' Sun and Moon ' ; nor could he 
 suppose his visitor would expect this, though indeed he 
 impressed him as a man of humours and whims, who was 
 amusing himself with everything, including esoteric socialism 
 and a little bookbinder who had so much more of the 
 gentleman about him than one would expect. Captain 
 Sholto may have been a little embarrassed, now that he 
 was completely launched in his attempt at fraternisation, 
 especially after failing to elicit a smile from Millicent's 
 respectability; but he left to Hyacinth the burden of no 
 initiative, and went on to say that it was just this prospect 
 
1 86 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xn 
 
 of the dying-out of the old British tradition that had 
 brought him to-night. He was with a friend, a lady who 
 had lived much abroad, who had never seen anything of 
 the kind, and who liked everything that was characteristic. 
 ' You know the foreign school of acting is a very different 
 affair,' he said again to Millicent, who this time replied, 
 ' Oh yes, of course/ and considering afresh the old lady in 
 the box, reflected that she looked as if there were nothing 
 in the world that she, at least, hadn't seen. 
 
 ' We have never been abroad,' said Hyacinth, candidly, 
 looking into his friend's curious light-coloured eyes, the 
 palest in tint he had ever encountered. 
 
 'Oh, well, there's a lot of nonsense talked about that !' 
 Captain Sholto replied ; while Hyacinth remained uncertain 
 as to exactly what he referred to, and Millicent decided to 
 volunteer a remark. 
 
 ' They are making a tremendous row on the stage. I 
 should think it would be very bad in those boxes.' There 
 was a banging and thumping behind the curtain, the sound 
 of heavy scenery pushed about. 
 
 'Oh yes; it's much better here, every way. I think 
 you have the best seats in the house,' said Captain Sholto. 
 * I should like very much to finish my evening beside you. 
 The trouble is I have ladies a pair of them,' he went on, 
 as if he were seriously considering this possibility. Then, 
 laying his hand again on Hyacinth's shoulder, he smiled at 
 him a moment and indulged in a still greater burst of 
 frankness. ' My dear fellow, that is just what, as a partial 
 reason, has brought me up here to see you. One of my 
 ladies has a great desire to make your acquaintance ! ' 
 
 ' To make my acquaintance ? ' Hyacinth felt himself 
 
xii THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 187 
 
 turning pale ; the first impulse he could have, in connection 
 with such an announcement as that and it lay far down, 
 in the depths of the unspeakable was a conjecture that 
 it had something to do with his parentage on his father's 
 side. Captain Sholto's smooth, bright face, irradiating 
 such unexpected advances, seemed for an instant to swim 
 before him. The Captain went on to say that he had 
 told the lady of the talks they had had, that she was 
 immensely interested in such matters 'You know what 
 I mean, she really is ' and that as a consequence of 
 what he had said she had begged him to come and ask his 
 a his young friend (Hyacinth saw in a moment that the 
 Captain had forgotten his name) to descend into her box 
 for a little while. 
 
 ' She has a tremendous desire. to talk with some one who 
 looks at the whole business from your standpoint, don't you 
 see ? And in her position she scarcely ever has a chance, 
 she doesn't come across them to her great annoyance. 
 So when I spotted you to-night she immediately said that 
 I must introduce you at any cost. I hope you don't mind, 
 for a quarter of an hour. I ought perhaps to tell you 
 that she is a person who is used to having nothing refused 
 her. " Go up and bring him down," you know, as if it 
 were the simplest thing in the world. She is really very 
 much in earnest : I don't mean about wishing to see you 
 that goes without saying but about the whole matter that 
 you and I care for. Then I should add it doesn't spoil 
 anything that she is the most charming woman in the 
 world, simply ! Honestly, my dear boy, she is perhaps the 
 most remarkable woman in Europe.' 
 
 So Captain Sholto delivered himself, with the highest 
 
1 88 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xn 
 
 naturalness and plausibility, and Hyacinth, listening, felt 
 that he himself ought perhaps to resent the idea of being 
 served up for the entertainment of imperious triflers, but 
 that somehow he didn't, and that it was more worthy of the 
 part he aspired to play in life to meet such occasions calmly 
 and urbanely than to take the trouble of dodging and going 
 roundabout. Of course the lady in the box couldn't be 
 sincere ; she might think she was, though even that was 
 questionable ; but you couldn't really care for the cause 
 that was exemplified in the little back room in Bloomsbury 
 if you came to the theatre in that style. It was Captain 
 Sholto's style as well, but it had been by no means clear 
 to Hyacinth hitherto that he really cared. All the same, 
 this was no time for going into the question of the lady's 
 sincerity, and at the end of sixty seconds our young man 
 had made up his mind that he could afford to humour her. 
 None the less, I must add, the whole proposal continued to 
 make things dance, to appear fictive, delusive ; so that it 
 sounded, in comparison, like a note of reality when Milli- 
 cent, who had been looking from one of the men to the 
 other, exclaimed 
 
 * That's all very well, but who is to look after me ? ' Her 
 assumption of the majestic had broken down, and this was 
 the cry of nature. 
 
 Nothing could have been pleasanter and more indulgent 
 of her alarm than the manner in which Captain Sholto re- 
 assured her. ' My dear young lady, can you suppose I have 
 been unmindful of that ? I have been hoping that after I 
 have taken down our friend and introduced him you 
 would allow me to come back and, in his absence, occupy 
 his seat.' 
 
xii THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 189 
 
 Hyacinth was preoccupied with the idea of meeting the 
 most remarkable woman in Europe ; but at this juncture he 
 looked at Millicent Henning with some curiosity. She rose 
 to the situation, and replied, ' I am much obliged to you, 
 but I don't know who you are.' 
 
 1 Oh, I'll tell you all about that ! ' the Captain exclaimed, 
 benevolently. 
 
 ' Of course I should introduce you,' said Hyacinth, and 
 he mentioned to Miss Henning the name of his distinguished 
 acquaintance. 
 
 ' In the army ? ' the young lady inquired, as if she must 
 have every guarantee of social position. 
 
 ' Yes not in the navy ! I have left the army, but it 
 always sticks to one.' 
 
 * Mr. Robinson, is it your intention to leave me ? ' 
 Millicent asked, in a tone of the highest propriety. 
 
 Hyacinth's imagination had taken such a flight that the 
 idea of what he owed to the beautiful girl who had placed 
 herself under his care for the evening had somehow effaced 
 itself. Her words put it before him in a manner that 
 threw him quickly and consciously back upon his 
 honour ; yet there was something in the way she uttered 
 them that made him look at her harder still before he 
 replied, 'Oh dear, no, of course it would never do. I 
 must defer to some other occasion the honour of making 
 the acquaintance of your friend,' he added, to Captain 
 Sholto. 
 
 'Ah, my dear fellow, we might manage it so easily 
 now,' this gentleman murmured, with evident disappoint- 
 ment. ' It is not as if Miss a Miss a were to be 
 alone.' 
 
190 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xn 
 
 It flashed upon Hyacinth that the root of the project 
 might be a desire of Captain Sholto to insinuate himself 
 into Millicent's graces ; then he asked himself why the most 
 remarkable woman in Europe should lend herself to that 
 design, consenting even to receive a visit from a little book- 
 binder for the sake of furthering it. Perhaps, after all, she 
 was not the most remarkable ; still, even at a lower esti- 
 mate, of what advantage could such a complication be to 
 her? To Hyacinth's surprise, Millicent's eye made ac_ 
 knowledgment of his implied renunciation ; and she said to 
 Captain Sholto, as if she were considering the matter very 
 impartially, ' Might one know the name of the lady who 
 sent you ? ' 
 
 ' The Princess Casamassima.' 
 
 * Laws ! ' cried Millicent Henning. And then, quickly, 
 as if to cover up the crudity of this ejaculation, ' And might 
 one also know what it is, as you say, that she wants to talk 
 to him about ? ' 
 
 ' About the lower orders, the rising democracy, the spread 
 of nihilism, and all that' 
 
 'The lower , orders ? Does she think we belong to 
 them?' the girl demanded, with a strange, provoking 
 laugh. 
 
 Captain Sholto was certainly the readiest of men. ' If 
 she could see you, she would think you one of the first 
 ladies in the land.' 
 
 * She'll never see me ! ' Millicent replied, in a manner 
 which made it plain that she, at least, was not to be whistled 
 for. 
 
 Being whistled for by a princess presented itself to 
 Hyacinth as an indignity endured gracefully enough by 
 
xii THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 191 
 
 the heroes of several French novels in which he had found 
 a thrilling interest ; nevertheless, he said, incorruptibly, to 
 the Captain, who hovered there like a Mephistopheles con- 
 verted to disinterested charity, ' Having been in the army, 
 you will know that one can't desert one's post.' 
 
 The Captain, for the third time, laid his hand on his 
 young friend's shoulder, and for a minute his smile rested, 
 in silence, on Millicent Henning. ' If I tell you simply I 
 want to talk with this young lady, that certainly won't help 
 me, particularly, and there is no reason why it should. 
 Therefore I'll tell you the whole truth : I want to talk with 
 her about you ! ' And he patted Hyacinth in a way which 
 conveyed at once that this idea must surely commend him 
 to the young man's companion and that he himself liked 
 him infinitely. 
 
 Hyacinth was conscious of the endearment, but he re- 
 marked to Millicent that he would do just as she liked ; he 
 was determined not to let a member of the bloated upper 
 class suppose that he held any daughter of the people 
 cheap. 
 
 'Oh, I don't care if you go,' said Miss Henning. 'You 
 had better hurry the curtain's going to rise.' 
 
 ' That's charming of you ! I'll rejoin you in three 
 minutes ! ' Captain Sholto exclaimed. 
 
 He passed his hand into Hyacinth's arm, and as our 
 hero lingered still, a little uneasy and questioning Millicent 
 always with his eyes, the girl went on, with her bright bold- 
 ness, ' That kind of princess I should like to hear all 
 about her.' \^ 
 
 ' Oh, I'll tell you that, too,' the Captain rejoined, with 
 his imperturbable pleasantness, as he led his young friend 
 
192 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xn 
 
 away. It must be confessed that Hyacinth also rather 
 wondered what kind of princess she was, and his suspense 
 on this point made his heart beat fast when, after traversing 
 steep staircases and winding corridors, they reached the 
 small door of the stage-box. 
 
XIII 
 
 HYACINTH'S first consciousness, after his companion had 
 opened it, was of his nearness to the stage, on which the 
 curtain had now risen again. The play was in progress, 
 the actors' voices came straight into the box, and it was 
 impossible to speak without disturbing them. This at least 
 was his inference from the noiseless way his conductor drew 
 him in, and, without announcing or introducing him, simply 
 pointed to a chair and whispered, ' Just drop into that ; 
 you'll see and hear beautifully.' He heard the door close 
 behind him, and became aware that Captain Sholto had 
 already retreated. Millicent, at any rate, would not be left 
 to languish in solitude very long. Two ladies were seated 
 in the front of the box, which was so large that there was 
 a considerable space between them ; and as he stood there, 
 where Captain Sholto had planted him they appeared not 
 to have noticed the opening of the door they turned their 
 heads and looked at him. The one on whom his eyes first 
 rested was the old lady whom he had already contemplated 
 at a distance ; she looked queerer still on a closer view, and 
 gave him a little friendly, jolly nod. Her companion was 
 partly overshadowed by the curtain of the box, which she 
 had drawn forward with the intention of shielding herself 
 from the observation of the house ; she had still the air of 
 VOL. i. o 
 
194 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xm 
 
 youth, and the simplest way to express the instant effect 
 upon Hyacinth of her fair face of welcome is to say that she 
 was dazzling. He remained as Sholto had left him, staring 
 rather confusedly and not moving an inch ; whereupon the 
 younger lady put out her hand it was her left, the other 
 rested on the ledge of the box with the expectation, as he 
 perceived, to his extreme mortification, too late, that he 
 would give her his own. She converted the gesture into a 
 sign of invitation, and beckoned him, silently but graciously, 
 to move his chair forward. He did so, and seated himself 
 between the two ladies; then, for ten minutes, stared straight 
 before him, at the stage, not turning his eyes sufficiently 
 even to glance up at Millicent in the balcony. He looked 
 at the play, but he was far from seeing it ; he had no sense 
 of anything but the woman who sat there, close to him, on 
 his right, with a fragrance in her garments and a light about 
 her which he seemed to see even while his head was averted. 
 The vision had been only of a moment, but it hung before 
 him, threw a vague white mist over the proceedings on the 
 stage. He was embarrassed, overturned, bewildered, and 
 he knew it ; He made a great effort to collect himself, to 
 consider the situation lucidly. He wondered whether he 
 ought to speak, to look at her again, to behave differently, 
 in some way ; whether she would take him for a clown, for 
 an idiot ; whether she were really as beautiful as she had 
 seemed or it were only a superficial glamour, which a 
 renewed inspection would dissipate. While he asked him- 
 self these questions the minutes went on, and neither of his 
 hostesses spoke ; they watched the play in perfect stillness, 
 so that Hyacinth divined that this was the proper thing and 
 that he himself must remain dumb until a word should be 
 
xin THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 195 
 
 bestowed upon him. Little by little he recovered himself, 
 took possession of his predicament, and at last transferred 
 his eyes to the Princess. She immediately perceived this, 
 and returned his glance, with a soft smile. She might well 
 be a princess it was impossible to conform more to the 
 finest evocations of that romantic word. She was fair, 
 brilliant, slender, with a kind of effortless majesty. Her 
 beauty had an air of perfection ; it astonished and lifted 
 one up, the sight of it seemed a privilege, reward. If the 
 first impression it had given Hyacinth was to make him feel 
 strangely transported, he need not have been too much 
 agitated, for this was the effect the Princess Casamassima 
 produced upon persons of a wider experience and greater 
 pretensions. Her dark eyes, blue or gray, something that 
 was not brown, were as sweet as they were splendid, and 
 there was an extraordinary light nobleness in the way she 
 held her head. That head, where two or three diamond 
 stars glittered in the thick, delicate hair which defined its 
 shape, suggested to Hyacinth something antique and 
 celebrated, which he had admired of old the memory was 
 vague in a statue, in a picture, in a museum. Purity of 
 line and form, of cheek and chin and lip and brow, a colour 
 that seemed to live and glow, a radiance of grace and 
 eminence and success these things were seated in triumph 
 in the face of the Princess, and Hyacinth, as he held 
 himself in his chair, trembling with the revelation, wondered 
 whether she were not altogether of some different substance 
 from the humanity he had hitherto known. She might be 
 divine, but he could see that she understood human needs 
 that she wished him to be at his ease and happy ; there 
 was something familiar in her smile, as if she had seen him 
 
196 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xnr 
 
 many times before. Her dress was dark and rich ; she had 
 pearls round her neck, and an old rococo fan in her hand. 
 Hyacinth took in all these things, and finally said to himself 
 that if she wanted nothing more of him than that, he was 
 content, he would like it to go on ; so pleasant was it to sit 
 with fine ladies, in a dusky, spacious receptacle which 
 framed the bright picture of the stage and made one's own 
 situation seem a play within the play. The act was a long 
 one, and the repose in which his companions left him might 
 have been a calculated indulgence, to enable him to get 
 used to them, to see how harmless they were. He looked 
 at Millicent, in the course of time, and saw that Captain 
 Sholto, seated beside her, had not the same standard of 
 propriety, inasmuch as he made a remark to her every few 
 minutes. Like himself, the young lady in the balcony was 
 losing the play, thanks to her eyes being fixed on her friend 
 from Lomax Place, whose position she thus endeavoured to 
 gauge. Hyacinth had quite given up the Paraguayan com- 
 plications ; by the end of the half hour his attention might 
 have come back to them, had he not then been engaged in 
 wondering whaj: the Princess would say to him after the 
 descent of the curtain or whether she would say anything. 
 The consideration of this problem, as the moment of the 
 solution drew nearer, made his heart again beat faster. He 
 watched the old lady on his left, and supposed it was 
 natural that a princess should have an attendant he took 
 for granted she was an attendant as different as possible 
 from herself. This ancient dame was without majesty or 
 grace; huddled together, with her hands folded on her 
 stomach and her lips protruding, she solemnly followed the 
 performance. Several times, however, she turned her head 
 
xin THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 197 
 
 to Hyacinth, and then her expression changed ; she repeated 
 the jovial, encouraging, almost motherly nod with which she 
 had greeted him when he had made his bow, and by which 
 she appeared to wish to intimate that, better than the serene 
 beauty on the other side, she could enter into the oddity, 
 the discomfort, of his situation. She seemed to say to him 
 that he must keep his head, and that if the worst should 
 come to the worst she was there to look after him. Even 
 when, at last, the curtain descended, it was some moments 
 before the Princess spoke, though she rested her smile upon 
 Hyacinth as if she were considering what he would best like 
 her to say. He might at that instant have guessed what he 
 discovered later that among this lady's faults (he was 
 destined to learn that they were numerous), not the least 
 eminent was an exaggerated fear of the commonplace. He 
 expected she would make some remark about the play, but 
 what she said was, very gently and kindly, ' I like to know 
 all sorts of people.' 
 
 * I shouldn't think you would find the least difficulty in 
 that,' Hyacinth replied. 
 
 ' Oh, if one wants anything very much, it's sure to be 
 difficult. Every one isn't as obliging as you.' 
 
 Hyacinth could think, immediately, of no proper re- 
 joinder to this ; but the old lady saved him the trouble by 
 declaring, with a foreign accent, ' I think you were most 
 extraordinarily good-natured. I had no idea you would 
 come to two strange women.' 
 
 ' Yes, we are strange women,' said the Princess, musingly. 
 
 * It's not true that she finds things difficult ; she makes 
 every one do everything,' her companion went on. 
 
 The Princess glanced at her ; then remarked to Hyacinth, 
 
198 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xin 
 
 * Her name is Madame Grandoni.' Her tone was not 
 familiar, but there was a friendly softness in it, as if he had 
 really taken so much trouble for them that it was only 
 just he should be entertained a little at their expense. It 
 seemed to imply, also, that Madame Grandoni's fitness for 
 supplying such entertainment was obvious. 
 
 ' But I am not Italian ah no !' the old lady cried. 
 ' In spite of my name, I am an honest, ugly, unfortunate 
 German. But it doesn't matter. She, also, with such a 
 name, isn't Italian, either. It's an accident ; the world is 
 full of accidents. But she isn't German, poor lady, any 
 more.' Madame Grandoni appeared to have entered into 
 the Princess's view, and Hyacinth thought her exceedingly 
 amusing. In a moment she added, 'That was a very 
 charming person you were with.' 
 
 4 Yes, she is very charming,' Hyacinth replied, not sorry 
 to have a chance to say it. 
 
 The Princess made no remark on this subject, and 
 Hyacinth perceived not only that from her position in the 
 box she could have had no glimpse of Millicent, but that 
 she would never, take up such an allusion as that. It was 
 as if she had not heard it that she asked, ' Do you consider 
 the play very interesting?' 
 
 Hyacinth hesitated a moment, and then told the simple 
 truth. ' I must confess that I have lost the whole of this 
 last act.' 
 
 ' Ah, poor bothered young man ! ' cried Madame Gran- 
 doni. ' You see; you see ! ' 
 
 ' What do I see ? ' the Princess inquired. ' If you are 
 annoyed at being here now, you will like us later ; probably, 
 at feast. We take a great interest in the things you care 
 
XTII THE PRINCESS CASA'MASSIMA 199 
 
 for. We take a great interest in the people,' the Princess 
 went on. 
 
 ' Oh, allow me, allow me, and speak only for yourself ! ' 
 the elder lady interposed. ' I take no interest in the 
 people; I don't understand them, and I know nothing 
 about them. An honourable nature, of any class, I 
 always respect it ; but I will not pretend to a passion for 
 the ignorant masses, because I have it not. Moreover, 
 that doesn't touch the gentleman.' 
 
 The Princess Casamassima had, evidently, a faculty of 
 completely ignoring things of which she wished to take no 
 account ; it was not in the least the air of contempt, but 
 a kind of thoughtful, tranquil absence, after which she came 
 back to the point where she wished to be. She made no 
 protest against her companion's speech, but said to Hyacinth, 
 as if she were only vaguely conscious that the old lady 
 had been committing herself in some absurd way, ' She 
 lives with me; she is everything to me; she is the best 
 woman in the world.' 
 
 ' Yes, fortunately, with many superficial defects, I am 
 very good,' Madame Grandoni remarked. 
 
 Hyacinth, by this time, was less embarrassed than when 
 he presented himself to the Princess Casamassima, but he 
 was not less mystified ; he wondered afresh whether he 
 were not being practised upon for some inconceivable end ; 
 so strange did it seem to him that two such fine ladies 
 should, of their own movement, take the trouble to explain 
 each other to a miserable little bookbinder. This idea 
 made him flush ; it was as if it had come over him that he 
 had fallen into a trap. He was conscious that he looked 
 frightened, and he was conscious the moment afterwards 
 
200 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xm 
 
 that the Princess noticed it. This was, apparently, what 
 made her say, 'If you have lost so much of the play I 
 ought to tell you what has happened.' 
 
 ' Do you think he would follow that any more?' Madame 
 Grandoni exclaimed. 
 
 ' If you would tell me if you would tell me ' And 
 
 then Hyacinth stopped. He had been going to say, 'If 
 you would tell me what all this means and what you want 
 of me, it would be more to the point ! ' but the words died 
 on his lips, and he sat staring, for the woman at his right 
 hand was simply too beautiful. She was too beautiful to 
 question, to judge by common logic ; and how could he 
 know, moreover, what was natural to a person in that 
 exaltation of grace and splendour? Perhaps it was her 
 habit to send out every evening for some naif stranger, to 
 amuse her; perhaps that was the way the foreign aris- 
 tocracy lived. There was no sharpness in her face, at the 
 present moment at least ; there was nothing but luminous 
 sweetness, yet she looked as if she knew what was going on 
 in his mind. She made no eager attempt to reassure him, 
 but there was a world of delicate consideration in the tone 
 in which she said, ' Do you know, I am afraid I have already 
 forgotten what they have been doing in the play? It's 
 terribly complicated ; some one or other was hurled over 
 a precipice.' 
 
 ' Ah, you're a brilliant pair,' Madame Grandoni remarked, 
 with a laugh of long experience. ' I could describe every- 
 thing. The person who was hurled over the precipice was 
 the virtuous hero, and you will see, in the next act, that 
 he was only slightly bruised.' 
 
 ' Don't describe anything ; I have so much to ask.' 
 
xni THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 201 
 
 Hyacinth had looked away, in tacit deprecation, at hearing 
 himself ' paired ' with the Princess, and he felt that she 
 was watching him. 'What do you think of Captain 
 Sholto ? ' she went on, suddenly, to his surprise, if any- 
 thing, in his position, could excite that sentiment more 
 than anything else ; and as he hesitated, not knowing what 
 to say, she added, ' Isn't he a very curious type ?' 
 
 * I know him very little,' Hyacinth replied ; and he had 
 no sooner uttered the words than it struck him they were 
 far from brilliant they were poor and flat, and very little 
 calculated to satisfy the Princess. Indeed, he reflected 
 that he had said nothing at all that could place him in a 
 favourable light ; so he continued, at a venture : ' I mean 
 I have never seen him at home/ That sounded still more 
 
 ' At home ? Oh, he is never at home ; he is all over 
 the world. To-night he was as likely to have been in 
 Paraguay, for instance, as here. He is what they call a 
 cosmopolite. I don't know whether you know that species ; 
 very modern, more and more frequent, and exceedingly 
 tiresome. I prefer the Chinese ! He had told me he had 
 had a great deal of interesting talk with you. That was 
 what made me say to him, " Oh, do ask him to come in 
 and see me. A little interesting talk, that would be a 
 change!"' 
 
 ' She is very complimentary to me ! ' said Madame 
 Grandoni. 
 
 4 Ah, my dear, you and I, you know, we never talk : we 
 understand each other without that ! ' Then the Princess 
 pursued, addressing herself to Hyacinth, 'Do you never 
 admit women ? ' 
 
202 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xin 
 
 ' Admit women ? ' 
 
 'Into those seances what do you call them? those 
 little meetings that Captain Sholto described to me. I 
 should like so much to be present. Why not ?' 
 
 ' I haven't seen any ladies/ Hyacinth said. ' I don't 
 know whether it's a rule, but I have seen nothing but 
 men ;' and he added, smiling, though he thought the 
 dereliction rather serious, and couldn't understand the 
 part Captain Sholto was playing, nor, considering the 
 grand company he kept, how he had originally secured 
 admittance into the subversive little circle in Bloomsbury, 
 ' You know I'm not sure Captain Sholto ought to go about 
 reporting our proceedings.' 
 
 ' I see. Perhaps you think he's a spy, or something of 
 that sort.' 
 
 ' No,' said Hyacinth, after a moment. ' I think a spy 
 would be more careful would disguise himself more. 
 Besides, after all, he has heard very little.' And Hyacinth 
 smiled again. 
 
 'You mean he hasn't really been behind the scenes?' 
 the Princess asked, bending forward a little, and now 
 covering the young man steadily with her deep, soft eyes, 
 as if by this time he must have got used to her and 
 wouldn't flinch from such attention. ' Of course he hasn't, 
 and he never will be ; he knows that, and that it's quite 
 out of his power to tell any real secrets. What he repeated 
 to me was interesting, but of course I could see that there 
 was nothing the authorities, anywhere, could put their hand 
 on. It was mainly the talk he had had with you which 
 struck him so very much, and which struck me, as you see. 
 Perhaps you didn't know how he was drawing you out.' 
 
THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 
 
 1 1 am afraid that's rather easy,' said Hyacinth, with 
 perfect candour, as it came over him that he had chattered, 
 with a vengeance, in Bloomsbury, and had thought it 
 natural enough then that his sociable fellow-visitor should 
 offer him cigars and attach importance to the views of a 
 clever and original young artisan. 
 
 ' I am not sure that I find it so ! However, I ought to 
 tell you that you needn't have the least fear of Captain 
 Sholto. He's a perfectly honest man, so far as he goes ; 
 and even if you had trusted him much more than you 
 appear to have done, he would be incapable of betraying 
 you. However, don't trust him : not because he's not 
 
 safe, but because No matter, you will see for yourself. 
 
 He has gone into that sort of thing simply to please me. 
 I should tell you, merely to" make you understand, that 
 he would do anything for that. That's his own affair. I 
 wanted to know something, to learn something, to ascertain 
 what really is going on ; and for a woman everything of 
 that sort is so difficult, especially for a woman in my posi- 
 tion, who is known, and to whom every sort of bad faith is 
 sure to be imputed. So Sholto said he would look into 
 the subject for me ; poor man, he has had to look into so 
 many subjects ! What I particularly wanted was that he 
 should make friends with some of the leading spirits, 
 really characteristic types.' The Princess's voice was low 
 and rather deep, and her tone very quick ; her manner of 
 speaking was altogether new to her listener, for whom the 
 pronunciation of her words and the very punctuation of 
 her sentences were a kind of revelation of ' society.' 
 
 1 Surely Captain Sholto doesn't suppose that / am a 
 leading spirit !' Hyacinth exclaimed, with the determi- 
 
204 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xin 
 
 nation not to be laughed at any more than he could 
 help. 
 
 The Princess hesitated a moment ; then she said, ' He 
 told me you were very original.' 
 
 ' He doesn't know, and if you will allow me to say so 
 I don't think you know. How should you ? I am one 
 of many thousands of young men of my class you know, 
 I suppose, what that is in whose brains certain ideas are 
 fermenting. There is nothing original about me at all. I 
 am very young and very ignorant ; it's only a few months 
 since I began to talk of the possibility of a social revolution 
 with men who have considered the whole ground much 
 more than I have done. I'm a mere particle in the im- 
 mensity of the people. All I pretend to is my good faith, 
 and a great desire that justice shall be done.' 
 
 The Princess listened to him intently, and her attitude 
 made him feel how little /ie, in comparison, expressed him- 
 self like a person who had the habit of conversation ; he 
 seemed to himself to stammer and emit common sounds. 
 For a moment she said nothing, only looking at him with 
 her pure smile. ' I do draw you out !' she exclaimed, at 
 last. ' You are much more interesting to me than if you 
 were an exception.' At these last words Hyacinth flinched 
 a hair's breadth ; the movement was shown by his dropping 
 his eyes. We know to what extent he really regarded him- 
 self as of the stuff of the common herd. The Princess 
 doubtless guessed it as well, for she quickly added, ' At the 
 same time, I can see that you are remarkable enough.' 
 
 ' What do you think I am remarkable for ? ' 
 
 * Well, you have general ideas.' 
 
 'Every one has them to-day. They have them in 
 
xiir THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 205 
 
 Bloomsbury to a terrible degree. I have a friend (who 
 understands the matter much better than I) who has no 
 patience with them : he declares they are our danger and 
 our bane. A few very special ideas if they are the right 
 ones are what we want.' 
 
 * Who is your friend ? ' the Princess asked, abruptly. 
 
 'Ah, Christina, Christina,' Madame Grandoni mur- 
 mured from the other side of the box. 
 
 Christina took no notice of her, and Hyacinth, not 
 understanding the warning, and only remembering how 
 personal women always are, replied, 'A young man who 
 lives in Camberwell, an assistant at a wholesale chemist's.' 
 
 If he had expected that this description of his friend 
 was a bigger dose than his hostess would be able to digest, 
 he was greatly mistaken. She seemed to look tenderly at 
 the picture suggested by his words, and she immediately 
 inquired whether the young man were also clever, and 
 whether she might not hope to know him. Hadn't Captain 
 Sholto seen him ; and if so, why hadn't he spoken of him, 
 too ? When Hyacinth had replied that Captain Sholto had 
 probably seen him, but that he believed he had had no 
 particular conversation with him, the Princess inquired, 
 with startling frankness, whether her visitor wouldn't bring 
 his friend, some day, to see her. 
 
 Hyacinth glanced at Madame Grandoni, but that 
 worthy woman was engaged in a survey of the house, 
 through an old-fashioned eye-glass with a long gilt handle. 
 He had perceived, long before this, that the Princess 
 Casamassima had no desire for vain phrases, and he had 
 the good taste to feel that, from himself to such a per- 
 sonage, compliments, even if he had wished to pay them, 
 
206 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xin 
 
 would have had no suitability. * I don't know whether he 
 would be willing to come. He's the sort of man that, in 
 such a case, you can't answer for.' 
 
 ' That makes me want to know him all the more. But 
 you'll come yourself, at all events, eh ? ' 
 
 Poor Hyacinth murmured something about the un- 
 expected honour ; for, after all, he had a French heredity, 
 and it was not so easy for him to make unadorned speeches. 
 But Madame Grandoni, laying down her eye-glass, almost 
 took the words out of his mouth, with the cheerful exhor- 
 tation, ' Go and see her go and see her once or twice. 
 She will treat you like an angel.' 
 
 'You must think me very peculiar,' the Princess re- 
 marked, sadly. 
 
 ' I don't know what I think. It will take a good while.' 
 
 ' I wish I could make you trust me inspire you with 
 confidence,' she went on. ' I don't mean only you, per- 
 sonally, but others who think as you do. You would find 
 I would go with you-=-pretty far. I was answering just 
 now for Captain Sholto ; but who in the world is to 
 answer for me i) ' And her sadness merged itself in a smile 
 which appeared to Hyacinth extraordinarily magnanimous 
 and touching. 
 
 ' Not I, my dear, I promise you ! ' her ancient com- 
 panion ejaculated, with a laugh which made the people in 
 the stalls look up at the box. 
 
 Her mirth was contagious ; it gave Hyacinth the auda- 
 city to say to her, ' I would trust you, if you did ! ' though 
 he felt, the next minute, that this was even a more familiar 
 speech than if he had said he wouldn't trust her. 
 
 ' It comes, then, to the same thing,' the Princess went 
 
xiii THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 207 
 
 on. ' She would not show herself with me in public if I 
 were not respectable. If you knew more about me you 
 would understand what has led me to turn my attention to 
 the great social question. It is a long story, and the 
 details wouldn't interest you ; but perhaps some day, if we 
 have more talk, you will put yourself a little in my place. 
 I am very serious, you know ; I am not amusing myself 
 with peeping and running away. I am convinced that we 
 are living in a fool's paradise, that the ground is heaving 
 under our feet.' 
 
 ' It's not the ground, my dear ; it's you that are turning 
 somersaults,' Madame Grandoni interposed. 
 
 'Ah, you, my friend, you have the happy faculty of 
 believing what you like to believe. I have to believe what 
 I see.' 
 
 ' She wishes to throw herself into the revolution, to 
 guide it, to enlighten it,' Madame Grandoni said to Hya- 
 cinth, speaking now with imperturbable gravity. 
 
 ' I am sure she could direct it- in any sense she would 
 wish ! ' the young man responded, in a glow. The pure, 
 high dignity with which the Princess had just spoken, 
 and which appeared to cover a suppressed tremor of 
 passion, set Hyacinth's pulses throbbing, and though he 
 scarcely saw what she meant her aspirations seeming so 
 vague her tone, her voice, her wonderful face, showed 
 that she had a generous soul. 
 
 She answered his eager declaration with a serious smile 
 and a melancholy head-shake. ' I have no such preten- 
 sions, and my good old friend is laughing at me. Of 
 course that is very easy ; for what, in fact, can be more 
 absurd, on the face of it, than for a woman with a title, 
 
208 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSLMA xrn 
 
 with diamonds, with a carriage, with servants, with a 
 position, as they call it, to sympathise with the upward 
 struggles of those who are below? "Give all that up, 
 and we'll believe you," you have a right to say. I am 
 ready to give them up the moment it will help the cause ; 
 I assure you that's the least difficulty. I don't want to 
 teach, I want to learn ; and, above all, I want to know 
 a quoi m'en tenir. Are we on the eve of great changes, 
 or are we not? Is everything that is gathering force, 
 underground, in the dark, in the night, in little hidden 
 rooms, out of sight of governments and policemen and 
 idiotic " statesmen " heaven save them ! is all this going 
 to burst forth some fine morning and set the world on 
 fire ? Or is it to sputter out and spend itself in vain con- 
 spiracies, be dissipated in sterile heroisms and abortive 
 isolated movements ? I want to know a quoi m'en tenir] 
 she repeated, fixing her visitor with more brilliant eyes, as 
 if he could tell her on the spot. Then, suddenly, she 
 added in a totally different tone, ' Excuse me, I have an 
 idea you speak French. Didn't Captain Sholto tell me so?' 
 
 * I have some little acquaintance with it,' Hyacinth mur- 
 mured. ' I have French blood in my veins.' 
 
 She considered him as if he had proposed to her some 
 kind of problem. ' Yes, I can see that you are not 
 le premier venu. Now, your friend, of whom you were 
 speaking, is a chemist; and you, yourself what is your 
 occupation ? ' 
 
 ' I'm just a bookbinder.' 
 
 * That must be delightful. I wonder if you would bind 
 some books for me.' 
 
 ' You would have to bring them to our shop, and I can 
 
xiii THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 209 
 
 do there only the work that's given out to me. I might 
 manage it by myself, at home,' Hyacinth added, smiling. 
 
 ' I should like that better. And what do you call 
 home ? ' 
 
 ' The place I live in, in the north of London : a little 
 street you certainly never heard of.' 
 
 ' What is it called ? ' 
 
 1 Lomax Place, at your service,' said Hyacinth, laughing 
 
 She laughed back at him, and he didn't know whether 
 her brightness or her gravity were the more charming. 
 ' No, I don't think I have heard of it. I don't know Lon- 
 don very well ; I haven't lived here long. I have spent 
 most of my life abroad. My husband is a foreigner, an 
 Italian. We don't live together much. I haven't the 
 manners of this country not of any class ; have I, eh ? 
 Oh, this country there is a great deal to be said about it; 
 and a great deal to be done, as you, of course, understand 
 better than any one. But I want to know London ; it 
 interests me more than I can say the huge, swarming, 
 smoky, human city. I mean real London, the people and 
 all their sufferings and passions ; not Park Lane and Bond 
 Street. Perhaps you can help me it would be a great 
 kindness : that's what I want to know men like you for. 
 You see it isn't idle, my having given you so much trouble 
 to-night' 
 
 'I shall be very glad to show you all I know. But 
 it isn't much, and above all it isn't pretty,' said Hyacinth. 
 
 ' Whom do you live with, in Lomax Place ? ' the Prin- 
 cess asked, by way of rejoinder to this. 
 
 ( Captain Sholto is leaving the young lady he is coming 
 back here,' Madame Grandoni announced, inspecting the 
 VOL. i. P 
 
210 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xm 
 
 balcony with her instrument. The orchestra had been for 
 some time playing the overture to the following act. 
 
 Hyacinth hesitated a moment. ' I live with a dress- 
 maker.' 
 
 ' With a dressmaker ? Do you mean do you mean 
 ?' And the Princess paused. 
 
 ' Do you mean she's your wife ? ' asked Madame Gran- 
 el on i, humorously. 
 
 ' Perhaps she gives you rooms/ remarked the Princess. 
 
 ' How many do you think I have ? She gives me 
 everything, or she has done so in the past She brought 
 me up ; she is the best little woman in the world.' 
 
 ' You had better command a dress ! ' exclaimed Madame 
 Grandoni. 
 
 ' And your family, where are they ? ' the Princess con- 
 tinued. 
 
 ' I have no family.' 
 
 ' None at all ? ' 
 
 ' None at all. I never had.' 
 
 ' But the French blood that you speak of, and which I 
 see perfectly in your face you haven't the English expres- 
 sion, or want* of expression that must have come to you 
 through some one.' 
 
 ' Yes, through my mother.' 
 
 ' And she is dead ? ' 
 
 'Long ago.' 
 
 ' That's a great loss, because French mothers are usually 
 so much to their sons.' The Princess looked at her 
 painted fan a moment, as she opened and closed it ; after 
 which she said, ' Well, then, yo,u'll come some day. We'll 
 arrange it.' 
 
xiii THE PRINCESS CASAMASS1MA 211 
 
 Hyacinth felt that the answer to this could be only 
 a silent inclination of his little person ; and to make it he 
 rose from his chair. As he stood there, conscious that he 
 had stayed long enough and yet not knowing exactly how to 
 withdraw, the Princess, with her fan closed, resting upright 
 on her knee, and her hands clasped on the end of it, turned 
 up her strange, lovely eyes at him, and said 
 
 ' Do you think anything will occur soon ? ' 
 
 1 Will occur?' 
 
 ' That there will be a crisis that you'll make yourselves 
 felt ? ' 
 
 In this beautiful woman's face there was to Hyacinth's 
 bewildered perception something at once inspiring, tempting 
 and mocking ; and the effect of her expression was to make 
 him say, rather clumsily, * I'll try and ascertain ; ' as if she 
 had asked him whether her carriage were at the door. 
 
 ' I don't quite know what you are talking about ; but 
 please don't have it for another hour or two. I want to see 
 what becomes of the Pearl ! ' Madame Grandoni interposed. 
 
 ' Remember what I told you : I would give up every- 
 thing everything ! ' the Princess went on, looking up at 
 the young man in the same way. Then she held out her 
 hand, and this time he knew sufficiently what he was about 
 to take it. 
 
 When he bade good-night to Madame Grandoni the old 
 lady exclaimed to him, with a comical sigh, ' Well, she is 
 respectable ! ' and out in the lobby, when he had closed the 
 door of the box behind him, he found himself echoing these 
 words and repeating mechanically, ' She is respectable ! ' 
 They were on his lips as he stood, suddenly, face to face 
 with Captain Sholto, who laid his hand on his shoulder 
 
212 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xm 
 
 once more and shook him a little, in that free yet insinu- 
 ating manner for which this officer appeared to be remark- 
 able. 
 
 ' My dear fellow, you were born under a lucky star.' 
 ' I never supposed it/ said Hyacinth, changing colour. 
 'Why, what in the world would you have? You have 
 the faculty, the precious faculty, of inspiring women with 
 an interest but an interest ! ' 
 
 1 Yes, ask them in the box there ! I behaved like a 
 cretin,' Hyacinth declared, overwhelmed now with a sense 
 of opportunities missed. 
 
 ' They won't tell me that. And the lady upstairs ? ' 
 ' Well,' said Hyacinth gravely, ' what about her ? ' 
 The Captain considered him a moment. ' She wouldn't 
 talk to me of anything but you. You may imagine how I 
 liked it ! ' 
 
 ' I don't like it, either. But I must go up.' 
 ' Oh yes, she counts the minutes. Such a charming 
 person ! ' Captain Sholto added, with more propriety of 
 tone. As Hyacinth left him he called after him, ' Don't be 
 afraid you'll go far.' 
 
 When the young man took his place in the balcony 
 beside Millicent this damsel gave him no greeting, nor 
 asked any question about his adventures in the more 
 aristocratic part of the house. She only turned her fine 
 complexion upon him for some minutes, and as he himself 
 was not in the mood to begin to chatter, the silence con- 
 tinued continued till after the curtain had risen on the 
 last act of the play. Millicent's attention was now, 
 evidently, not at her disposal ' for the stage, and in the 
 midst of a violent scene, which included pistol-shots and 
 
xin THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 213 
 
 shrieks, she said at last to her companion, ' She's a tidy 
 lot, your Princess, by what I learn.' 
 
 ' Pray, what do you know about her ? ' 
 
 ' I know what that fellow told me.' 
 
 ' And pray, what was that ? ' 
 
 ' Well, she's a bad 'un, as ever was. Her own husband 
 has had to turn her out of the house.' 
 
 Hyacinth remembered the allusion the lady herself had 
 made to her matrimonial situation ; nevertheless, what he 
 would have liked to reply to Miss Henning was that he 
 didn't believe a word of it. He withheld the doubt, and 
 after a moment remarked quietly, 'I don't care.' 
 
 ' You don't care ? Well, I do, then ! ' Millicent cried. 
 And as it was impossible, in view of the performance and 
 the jealous attention of their neighbours, to continue the 
 conversation in this pitch, she contented herself with 
 ejaculating, in a somewhat lower key, at the end of five 
 minutes, during which she had been watching the stage, 
 ' Gracious, what dreadful common stuff ! ' 
 
XIV 
 
 HYACINTH did not mention to Finnic or Mr. Vetch that he 
 had been taken up by a great lady ; but he mentioned it to 
 Paul Muniment, to whom he now confided a great many 
 things. He had, at first, been in considerable fear of his 
 straight, loud, north-country friend, who showed signs of 
 cultivating logic and criticism to a degree that was hostile 
 to free conversation ; but he discovered later that he was 
 a man to whom one could say anything in the world, if one 
 didn't think it of more importance to be sympathised with 
 than to be understood. For a revolutionist, he was 
 strangely good-natured. The sight of all the things he 
 wanted to change had seemingly no power to irritate him, 
 and if he joked about questions that lay very near his 
 heart his pleasantry was not bitter nor invidious ; the fault 
 that Hyacinth sometimes found with it, rather, was that it 
 was innocent to puerility. Our hero envied his power of 
 combining a care for the wide misery of mankind with the 
 apparent state of mind of the cheerful and virtuous young 
 workman who, on Sunday morning, has put on a clean 
 shirt, and, not having taken the gilt off his wages the night 
 before, weighs against each other, for a happy day, the 
 respective attractions of Epping Forest and Gravesend, 
 He was never sarcastic about his personal lot and his daily 
 
xiv THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 215 
 
 life ; it had not seemed to occur to him, for instance, that 
 ' society ' was really responsible for the condition of his 
 sister's spinal column, though Eustache Poupin and his 
 wife (who practically, however, were as patient as he), did 
 everything they could to make him say so, believing, 
 evidently, that it would relieve him. Apparently he cared 
 nothing for women, talked of them rarely, and always 
 decently, and had never a sign of a sweetheart, unless Lady 
 Aurora Langrish might pass for one. He never drank a 
 drop of beer nor touched a pipe ; he always had a clear 
 tone, a fresh cheek and a smiling eye, and once excited on 
 Hyacinth's part a kind of elder -brotherly indulgence by 
 the open-mouthed glee and credulity with which, when the 
 pair were present, in the sixpenny gallery, at Astley's, at an 
 equestrian pantomime, he followed the tawdry spectacle. 
 He once told the young bookbinder that he was a sug- 
 gestive little beggar, and , Hyacinth's opinion of him, by 
 this time, was so exalted that the remark had almost the 
 value of a patent of nobility. Our hero treated himself to 
 an unlimited belief in him ; he had always dreamed of 
 having some grand friendship, and this was the best opening 
 he had ever encountered. No one could entertain a senti- 
 ment of that sort better than Hyacinth, or cultivate a greater 
 luxury of confidence. It disappointed him, sometimes, that 
 it was not more richly repaid ; that on certain important 
 points of the socialistic programme Muniment would never 
 commit himself; and that he had not yet shown the fond 
 du sac, as Eustache Poupin called it, to so ardent an 
 admirer. He answered particular questions freely enough, 
 and answered them occasionally in a manner that made 
 Hyacinth jump, as when, in reply to an inquiry in regard to 
 
216 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xiv 
 
 his view of capital punishment, he said that, so far from 
 wishing it abolished, he should go in for extending it much 
 further he should impose it on those who habitually lied 
 or got drunk ; but his friend had always a feeling that he 
 kept back his best card and that even in the listening circle 
 in Bloomsbury, when only the right men were present, there 
 were unspoken conclusions in his mind which he didn't as 
 yet think any one good enough to be favoured with. So 
 far, therefore, from suspecting him of half-heartedness, 
 Hyacinth was sure that he had extraordinary things in his 
 head ; that he was thinking them out to the logical end, 
 wherever it might land him ; and that the night he should 
 produce them, with the door of the club-room guarded and 
 the company bound by a tremendous oath, the others would 
 look at each other and turn pale. 
 
 ' She wants to see you ; she asked me to bring you ; she 
 was very serious,' Hyacinth said, relating his interview with 
 the ladies in the box at the play which, however, now that 
 he looked back upon it, seemed as queer as a dream, and 
 not much more likely than that sort of experience to have 
 a continuation in one's waking hours. 
 
 ' To bring me to bring me where ? ' asked Muniment. 
 ' You talk as if I were a sample out of your shop, or a little 
 dog you had for sale. Has she ever seen me ? Does she 
 think I'm smaller than you ? What does she know about me ? ' 
 
 ' Well, principally, that you're a friend of mine that's 
 enough for her.' 
 
 ' Do you mean that it ought to be enough for me that 
 she's a friend of yours ? I have a notion you'll have some 
 queer ones before you're done ; 'a good many more than I 
 have time to talk to. And how can I go to see a delicate 
 
xiv THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 217 
 
 female, with those paws ? ' Muniment inquired, exhibiting 
 ten work-stained fingers. 
 
 ' Buy a pair of gloves/ said Hyacinth, who recognised 
 the serious character of this obstacle. But after a moment 
 he added, * No, you oughtn't to do that ; she wants to see 
 dirty hands.' 
 
 ' That's easy enough ; she needn't send for me for the 
 purpose. But isn't she making game of you ? ' 
 
 ' It's very possible, but I don't see what good it can do 
 her.' 
 
 ' You are not obliged to find excuses for the pampered 
 classes. Their bloated luxury begets evil, impudent desires ; 
 they are capable of doing harm for the sake of harm. 
 Besides, is she genuine ? ' 
 
 ' If she isn't, what becomes of your explanation ? ' asked 
 Hyacinth. 
 
 1 Oh, it doesn't matter ; at night all cats are gray. What 
 ever she is, she's an idle, bedizened jade.' 
 
 ' If you had seen her, you wouldn't talk of her that way. 
 
 'God forbid I should see her, then, if she's going to 
 corrupt me ! ' 
 
 ' Do you suppose she'll corrupt me ?' Hyacinth demanded, 
 with an expression of face and a tone of voice which pro- 
 duced, on his friend's part, an explosion of mirth. 
 
 ' How can she, after all, when you are already such a 
 little mass of corruption ? ' 
 
 'You don't think that,' said Hyacinth, looking very 
 grave. 
 
 ' Do you mean that if I did I wouldn't say it ? Haven't 
 you noticed that I say what I think ? ' 
 
 * No, you don't, not half of it : you're as close as a fish.' 
 
218 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xiv 
 
 Paul Muniment looked at his companion a moment, as 
 if he were rather struck with the penetration of that remark ; 
 then he said, ' Well, then, if I should give you the other 
 half of my opinion of you, do you think you'd fancy it ? ' 
 
 '111 save you the trouble. I'm a very clever, con- 
 scientious, promising young chap, and any one would be 
 proud to claim me as a friend.' 
 
 ' Is that what your Princess told you ? She must be a 
 precious piece of goods ! ' Paul Muniment exclaimed. ' Did 
 she pick your pocket meanwhile ? ' 
 
 ' Oh yes ; a few minutes later I missed a silver cigar- 
 case, engraved with the arms of the Robinsons. Seriously/ 
 Hyacinth continued, ' don't you consider it possible that a 
 woman of that class should want to know what is going on 
 among the like of us ? 
 
 ' It depends upon what class you mean.' 
 
 ' Well, a woman with a lot of jewels and the manners of 
 an angel. It's queer of course, but it's conceivable ; why 
 not ? There may be unselfish natures ; there may be dis- 
 interested feelings.' 
 
 'And there may be fine ladies in an awful funk about 
 their jewels, and 'even about their manners. Seriously, as 
 you say, it's perfectly conceivable. I am not in the least 
 surprised at the aristocracy being curious to know what we 
 are up to, and wanting very much to look into it ; in their 
 place I should be very uneasy, and if I were a woman 
 with angelic manners very likely I too should be glad to 
 get hold of a soft, susceptible little bookbinder, and pump 
 him dry, bless his heart ! ' 
 
 ' Are you afraid I'll tell her secrets ? ' cried Hyacinth, 
 flushing with virtuous indignation. 
 
xiv THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 219 
 
 ' Secrets ? What secrets could you tell her, my pretty 
 lad?' 
 
 Hyacinth stared a moment. ' You don't trust me you 
 never have.' 
 
 ' We will, some day don't be afraid,' said Muniment, 
 who, evidently, had no intention of unkindness, a thing that 
 appeared to be impossible to him. ' And when we do, 
 you'll cry with disappointment.' 
 
 ' Well, you won't,' Hyacinth declared. And then he 
 asked whether his friend thought the Princess Casamassima 
 a spy ; and why, if she were in that line, Mr. Sholto was 
 not inasmuch as it must be supposed he was not, since 
 they had seen fit to let him walk in and out, at that rate, 
 in the place in Bloomsbury. Muniment did not even know 
 whom he meant, not having had any relations with the 
 gentleman ; but he summoned a sufficient image when his 
 companion had described the Captain's appearance. He 
 then remarked, with his usual geniality, that he didn't take 
 him for a spy he took him for an ass ; but even if he had 
 edged himself into the place with every intention to betray 
 them, what handle could he possibly get what use, against 
 them, could he make of anything he had seen or heard ? 
 If he had a fancy to dip into working-men's clubs (Muniment 
 remembered, now, the first night he came ; he had been 
 brought by that German cabinetmaker, who had a stiff neck 
 and smoked a pipe with a bowl as big as a stove) ; if it 
 amused him to put on a bad hat, and inhale foul tobacco, 
 and call his ' inferiors ' ' my dear fellow ' ; if he thought that 
 in doing so he was getting an insight into the people and 
 going half-way to meet them and preparing for what was 
 coming all this was his own affair, and he was very welcome, 
 
220 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xiv 
 
 though a man must be a flat who would spend his evening 
 in a hole like that when he might enjoy his comfort in one 
 of those flaming big shops, full of armchairs and flunkies, 
 in Pall Mall. And what did he see, after all, in Blooms- 
 bury? Nothing but a 'social gathering,' where there were 
 clay pipes, and a sanded floor, and not half enough gas, and 
 the principal newspapers ; and where the men, as any one 
 would know, were advanced radicals, and mostly advanced 
 idiots. He could pat as many of them on the back as he 
 liked, and say the House of Lords wouldn't last till mid- 
 summer ; but what discoveries would he make ? He was 
 simply on the same lay as Hyacinth's Princess ; he was nerv- 
 ous and scared, and he thought he would see for himself. 
 
 ' Oh, he isn't the same sort as the Princess. I'm sure 
 he's in a very different line ! ' Hyacinth exclaimed. 
 
 ' Different, of course ; she's a handsome woman, I 
 suppose, and he's an ugly man ; but I don't think that either 
 of them will save us or spoil us. Their curiosity is natural, 
 but I have got other things to do than to show them over ; 
 therefore you can tell her serene highness that I'm much 
 obliged.' 
 
 Hyacinth reflected a moment, and then he said, ' You 
 show Lady Aurora over j you seem to wish to give her the 
 information she desires ; and what's the difference ? If it's 
 right for her to take an interest, why isn't it right for my 
 Princess ? ' 
 
 ' If she's already yours, what more can she want ? ' 
 Muniment asked. ' All I know of La'dy Aurora, and all I 
 look at, is that she comes and sits with Rosy, and brings 
 her tea, and waits upon her. If the Princess will do as 
 much I'll tell her she's a woman of genius ; but apart from 
 
xiv THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 221 
 
 that I shall never take a grain of interest in her interest in 
 the masses or in this particular mass ! ' And Paul Muni- 
 ment, with his discoloured thumb, designated his own sub- 
 stantial person. His tone was disappointing to Hyacinth, 
 who was surprised at his not appearing to think the episode 
 at the theatre more remarkable and romantic. Muniment 
 seemed to regard his explanation of such a proceeding as 
 all-sufficient ; but when, a moment later, he made use, in 
 referring to the mysterious lady, of the expression that she 
 was ' quaking,' Hyacinth broke out ' Never in the world ; 
 she's not afraid of anything ! ' 
 
 ' Ah, my lad not afraid of you, evidently ! ' 
 
 Hyacinth paid no attention to this coarse sally, but 
 asked in a moment, with a candour that was proof against 
 further ridicule, ' Do you think she can do me a hurt of 
 any kind, if we follow up our acquaintance ? ' 
 
 ' Yes, very likely, but you must hit her back ! That's 
 your line, you know : to go in for what's going, to live 
 your life, to gratify the women. I'm an ugly, grimy brute, 
 I've got to watch the fires and mind the shop ; but you are 
 one of those taking little beggars who ought to run about 
 and see the world ; you ought to be an ornament 
 to society, like a young man in an illustrated story-book. 
 Only,' Muniment added in a moment, ' you know, if 
 she should hurt you very much, then I would go and see 
 her!' 
 
 Hyacinth had been intending for some time to take 
 Pinnie to call on the prostrate damsel in Audley Court, to 
 whom he had promised that his benefactress (he had told 
 Rose Muniment that she was ' a kind of aunt ') should pay 
 this civility ; but the affair had been delayed by wan hesi- 
 
THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 
 
 tations on the part of the dressmaker, for the poor woman 
 had hard work to imagine, to-day, that there were people 
 in London so forlorn that her countenance could be of 
 value to them. Her social curiosities had become very 
 nearly extinct, and she knew that she no longer made the 
 same figure in public as when her command of the fashions 
 enabled her to illustrate them in her own little person, by 
 the aid of a good deal of whalebone. Moreover she felt 
 that Hyacinth had strange friends and still stranger opinions ; 
 she suspected that he took an unnatural interest in politics 
 and was somehow not on the right side, little as she knew 
 about parties or causes ; and she had a vague conviction 
 that this kind of perversity only multiplied the troubles of 
 the poor, who, according to theories which Pinnie had never 
 reasoned out, but which, in her bosom, were as deep as 
 religion, ought always to be of the same way of thinking as 
 the rich. They were unlike them enough in their poverty, 
 without trying to add other differences. When at last 
 he accompanied Hyacinth to Camberwell, one Saturday 
 evening at midsummer, it was in a sighing, sceptical, second- 
 best manner ; but if he had told her he wished it she would 
 have gone with him to a soiree at a scavenger's. There 
 was no more danger of Rose Muniment's being out than of 
 one of the bronze couchant lions in Trafalgar Square having 
 walked down Whitehall ; but he had let her know in ad- 
 vance, and he perceived, as he opened her door in obedi- 
 ence to a quick, shrill summons, that she had had the 
 happy thought of inviting Lady Aurora to help her to 
 entertain Miss Pynsent. Such, at least, was the inference 
 he drew from seeing her ladyship's memorable figure rise 
 before him for the first time since his own visit. He pre- 
 
xiv THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 223 
 
 sented his companion to their reclining hostess, and Rosy 
 immediately repeated her name to the representative of 
 Belgrave Square. Pinnie curtsied down to the ground, 
 as Lady Aurora put out her hand to her, and slipped 
 noiselessly into a chair beside the bed. Lady Aurora 
 laughed and fidgeted, in a friendly, cheerful, yet at the 
 same time rather pointless manner, and Hyacinth gathered 
 that she had no recollection of having met him before. 
 His attention, however, was mainly given to Pinnie : he 
 watched her jealously, to see whether, on this important 
 occasion, she would not put forth a certain stiff, quaint, 
 polished politeness, of which she possessed the secret and 
 which made her resemble a pair of old-fashioned sugar- 
 tongs. Not only for Pinnie's sake, but for his own as well, 
 he wished her to pass for a superior little woman, and he 
 hoped she wouldn't lose her head if Rosy should begin to 
 talk about Inglefield. She was, evidently, much impressed 
 by Rosy, and kept repeating, ' Dear, dear ! ' under her 
 breath, as the small, strange person in the bed rapidly ex- 
 plained to her that there was nothing in the world she 
 would have liked so much as to follow her delightful pro- 
 fession, but that she couldn't sit up to it, and had never 
 had a needle in her hand but once, when at the end of 
 three minutes it had dropped into the sheets and got into 
 the mattress, so that she had always been afraid it would 
 work out again and stick into her ; but it hadn't done so 
 yet, and perhaps it never would she lay so quiet, she 
 didn't push it about much. ' Perhaps you would think it's 
 me that trimmed the little handkerchief I wear round my 
 neck,' Miss Muniment said ; ' perhaps you would think I 
 couldn't do less, lying here all day long, with complete 
 
224 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xiv 
 
 command of my time. Not a stitch of it. I'm the 
 finest lady in London ; I never lift my finger for myself. 
 It's a present from her ladyship it's her ladyship's own 
 beautiful needlework. What do you think of that ? Have 
 you ever met any one so favoured before ? And the work 
 just look at the work, and tell me what you think of 
 that ! ' The girl pulled off the bit of muslin from her neck 
 and thrust it at Finnic, who looked at it confusedly and 
 exclaimed, ' Dear, dear, dear ! ' partly in sympathy, partly 
 as if, in spite of the consideration she owed every one, 
 those were very strange proceedings. 
 
 ' It's very badly done ; surely you see that,' said Lady 
 Aurora. ' It was only a joke.' 
 
 ' Oh yes, everything's a joke ! ' cried the irrepressible 
 invalid ' everything except my state of health ; that's ad- 
 mitted to be serious. When her ladyship sends me five 
 shillings' worth of coals it's only a joke ; and when she 
 brings me a bottle of the finest port, that's another ; and 
 when she climbs up seventy-seven stairs (there are seventy- 
 seven, I know perfectly, though I never go up or down), 
 at the height of the London season, to spend the evening 
 with me, that's the best of all. I know all about the Lon- 
 don season, though I never go out, and I appreciate what 
 her ladyship gives up. She is very jocular indeed, but, fortu- 
 nately, I know how to take it. You can see that it wouldn't 
 do for me to be touchy, can't you, Miss Pynsent ? ' 
 
 ' Dear, dear, I should be so glad to make you anything 
 myself; it would be better it would be better ' Finnic 
 murmured, hesitating. 
 
 ' It would be better than my ppor work. I don't know 
 how to do that sort of thing, in the least,' said Lady Aurora. 
 
iv THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 225 
 
 ' I'm sure I didn't mean that, my lady I only meant it 
 would be more convenient. Anything in the world she 
 might fancy,' the dressmaker went on, as if it were a ques- 
 tion of the invalid's appetite. 
 
 ' Ah, you see I don't wear things only a flannel jacket, 
 to be a bit tidy,' Miss Muniment rejoined. 'I go in only 
 for smart counterpanes, as you can see for yourself;' and 
 she spread her white hands complacently over her coverlet 
 of brilliant patch-work. ' Now doesn't that look to you, 
 Miss Pynsent, as if it might be one of her ladyship's jokes ? ' 
 
 1 Oh, my good friend, how can you ? I never went so 
 far as that !' Lady Aurora interposed, with visible anxiety. 
 
 ' Well, you've given me almost everything ; I sometimes 
 forget. This only cost me sixpence; so it comes to the 
 same thing as if it had been a present. Yes, only sixpence, 
 in a raffle in a bazaar at Hackney, for the benefit of the 
 Wesleyan Chapel, three years ago. A young man who 
 works with my brother, and lives in that part, offered him 
 a couple of tickets ; and he took one, and I took one. 
 When I say " I," of course I mean that he took the two ; 
 for how should I find (by which I mean, of course, how 
 should he find) a sixpence in that little cup on the chimney- 
 piece unless he had put it there first? Of course my 
 ticket took a prize, and of course, as my bed is my 
 dwelling-place, the prize was a beautiful counterpane, of 
 every colour of the rainbow. Oh, there never was such 
 luck as mine !' Rosy exclaimed, flashing her gay, strange 
 eyes at Hyacinth, as if on purpose to irritate him with her 
 contradictious optimism. 
 
 ' It's very lovely ; but if you would like another, for a 
 change, I've got a great many pieces,' Finnic remarked, 
 VOL. i. Q 
 
226 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xiv 
 
 with a generosity which made the young man feel that she 
 was acquitting herself finely. 
 
 Rose Muniment laid her little hand on the dressmaker's 
 arm, and responded, quickly, ' No, not a change, not a 
 change. How can there be a change when there's already 
 everything? There's everything here every colour that 
 was ever seen, or composed, or dreamed of, since the 
 world began.' And with her other hand she stroked, 
 affectionately, her variegated quilt. 'You have a great 
 many pieces, but you haven't as many as there are here ; 
 and the more you should patch them together the more 
 the whole thing would resemble this dear, dazzling old 
 friend. I have another idea, very, very charming, and 
 perhaps her ladyship can guess what it is.' Rosy kept 
 her fingers on Pinnie's arm, and, smiling, turned her 
 brilliant eyes from one of her female companions to the 
 other, as if she wished to associate them as much as 
 possible in their interest in her. 'In connection with 
 what we were talking about a few minutes ago couldn't 
 your ladyship just go a little further, in the same line?' 
 Then, as Lady Aurora looked troubled and embarrassed, 
 blushing at befrig called upon to answer a conundrum, as 
 it were, so publicly, her infirm friend came to her assist- 
 ance. ' It will surprise you at first, but it won't when I 
 have explained it : my idea is just simply a pink dressing- 
 gown !' 
 
 ' A pink dressing-gown ! ' Lady Aurora repeated. 
 
 ' With a neat black trimming ! Don't you see the con- 
 nection with what we were talking of before our good 
 visitors came in?' 
 
 ' That would be very pretty,' said Pinnie. ' I have 
 
xiv THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 227 
 
 made them like that, in my time. Or blue, trimmed with 
 white. 5 
 
 ' No, pink and black, pink and black to suit my com- 
 plexion. Perhaps you didn't know I have a complexion ; 
 but there are very few things I haven't got ! Anything at 
 all I should fancy, you were so good as to say. Well now, 
 I fancy that ! Your ladyship does see the connection by 
 this time, doesn't she?' 
 
 Lady Aurora looked distressed, as if she felt that she 
 certainly ought to see it but was not sure that even yet it 
 didn't escape her, and as if, at the same time, she were 
 struck with the fact that this sudden evocation might 
 result in a strain on the little dressmaker's resources. ' A 
 pink dressing-gown would certainly be very becoming, and 
 Miss Pynsent would be very kind,' she said; while 
 Hyacinth made the mental comment that it was a largeish 
 order, as Finnic would have, obviously, to furnish the 
 materials as well as the labour. The amiable coolness 
 with which the invalid laid her under contribution was, 
 however, to his sense, quite in character, and he reflected 
 that, after all, when you were stretched on your back like 
 that you had the right to reach out your hands (it wasn't 
 far you could reach at best), and seize what you could get. 
 Pinnie declared that she knew just the article Miss Muni- 
 ment wanted, and that she would undertake to make a 
 sweet thing of it ; and Rosy went on to say that she must 
 explain of what use such an article would be, but for this 
 purpose there must be another guess. She would give it 
 to Miss Pynsent and Hyacinth as many times as they 
 liked : What had she and Lady Aurora been talking about 
 before they came in? She clasped her hands, and her 
 
228 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xiv 
 
 eyes glittered with her eagerness, while she continued to 
 turn them from Lady Aurora to the dressmaker. What 
 would they imagine ? What would they think natural, 
 delightful, magnificent if one could only end, at last, by 
 making out the right place to put it ? Hyacinth suggested, 
 successively, a cage of Java sparrows, a music-box and a 
 shower-bath or perhaps even a full-length portrait of her 
 ladyship ; and Pinnie looked at him askance, in a frightened 
 way, as if perchance he were joking too broadly. Rosy at 
 last relieved their suspense and announced, ' A sofa, just a 
 sofa, now ! What do you say to that ? Do you suppose 
 that's an idea that could have come from any one but her 
 ladyship ? She must have all the credit of it ; she came 
 out with it in the course of conversation. I believe we 
 were talking of the peculiar feeling that comes just under 
 the shoulder-blades if one never has a change. She men- 
 tioned it as she might have mentioned a plaster, or another 
 spoonful of that American stuff. We are thinkihg it over, 
 and one of these days, if we give plenty of time to the 
 question, we shall find the place, the very nicest and 
 snuggest of all, and no other. I hope you see the con- 
 nection with the pink dressing-gown,' she remarked to 
 Pinnie, 'and I hope you see the importance of the 
 question, Shall anything go? I should like you to look 
 round a bit, and tell me what you would answer if I were 
 to say to you, Can anything go?' 
 
XV 
 
 * I'M sure there's nothing / should like to part with,' 
 Finnic returned ; and while she surveyed the scene Lady 
 Aurora, with delicacy, to lighten Amanda's responsibility, 
 got up and turned to the window, which was open to the 
 summer -evening and admitted still the last rays of the 
 long day. Hyacinth, after a moment, placed himself 
 beside her, looking out with her at the dusky multitude of 
 chimney-pots and the small black houses, roofed with 
 grimy tiles. The thick, warm air of a London July 
 floated beneath them, suffused with the everlasting up- 
 roar of the town, which appeared to have sunk into quiet- 
 ness but again became a mighty voice as soon as one 
 listened for it ; here and there, in poor windows, glimmered 
 a turbid light, and high above, in a clearer, smokeless zone, 
 a sky still fair and luminous, a faint silver star looked 
 down. The sky was the same that, far away in the 
 country, bent over golden fields and purple hills and 
 gardens where nightingales sang; but from this point of 
 view everything that covered the earth was ugly and 
 sordid, and seemed to express, or to represent, the weari- 
 ness of toil. In an instant, to Hyacinth's surprise, Lady 
 Aurora said to him, ' You never came, after all, to get the 
 books.' 
 
230 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xv 
 
 ' Those you kindly offered to lend me ? I didn't know 
 it was an understanding.' 
 
 Lady Aurora gave an uneasy laugh. * I have picked 
 them out; they are quite ready.' 
 
 ' It's very kind of you,' the young man rejoined. ' I 
 will come and get them some day, with pleasure.' He 
 was not very sure that he would ; but it was the least he 
 could say. 
 
 ' She'll tell you where I live, you know,' Lady Aurora 
 went on, with a movement of her head in the direction of 
 the bed, as if she were too shy to mention it herself. 
 
 ' Oh, I have no doubt she knows the way she could 
 tell me every street and every turn !' Hyacinth exclaimed. 
 
 ' She has made me describe to her, very often, how I 
 come and go. I think that few people know more about 
 London than she. She never forgets anything.' 
 
 1 She's a wonderful little witch she terrifies me ! ' 
 said Hyacinth. 
 
 Lady Aurora turned her modest eyes upon him. ' Oh, 
 she's so good, she's so patient !' 
 
 ' Yes, and so wise, and so self-possessed.' 
 
 'Oh, she's immensely clever/ said her ladyship. 
 'Which do you think the cleverest?' 
 
 'The cleverest?' 
 
 ' I mean of the girl and her brother.' 
 
 ' Oh, I think he, some day, will be prime minister of 
 England.' 
 
 - ' Do you really ? I'm so glad ! ' cried Lady Aurora, 
 with a flush of colour in her face. ' I'm so glad you think 
 that will be possible. You know it ought to be, if things 
 were right.' 
 
xv THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 231 
 
 Hyacinth had not professed this high faith for the pur- 
 pose of playing upon her ladyship's feelings, but when he 
 perceived her eager responsiveness he felt almost as if he 
 had been making sport of her. Still, he said no more 
 than he believed when he remarked, in a moment, that 
 he had the greatest expectations of Paul Muniment's 
 future : he was sure that the world would hear of him, 
 that England would feel him, that the public, some day, 
 would acclaim him. It was impossible to associate with 
 him without feeling that he was very strong, that he must 
 play an important part. 
 
 'Yes, people wouldn't believe they wouldn't believe,' 
 Lady Aurora murmured softly, appreciatively. She was 
 evidently very much pleased with what Hyacinth was 
 saying. It was moreover a pleasure to himself to place 
 on record his opinion of his friend ; it seemed to make 
 that opinion more clear, to give it the force of an invoca- 
 tion, a prophecy. This was especially the case when he 
 asked why on earth nature had endowed Paul Muniment 
 with such extraordinary powers of mind, and powers of 
 body too because he was as strong as a horse if it had 
 not been intended that he should do something great for 
 his fellow-men. Hyacinth confided to her ladyship that 
 he thought the people in his own class generally very stupid 
 what he should call third-rate minds. He wished it 
 were not so, for heaven knew that he felt kindly to them 
 and only asked to cast his lot with theirs; but he was 
 obliged to confess that centuries of poverty, of ill-paid toil, 
 of bad, insufficient food and wretched homes, had not a 
 favourable effect upon the higher faculties. All the more 
 reason that when there was a splendid exception, like Paul 
 
232 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xv 
 
 Muniment, it should count for a tremendous force it had 
 so much to make up for, to act for. And then Hyacinth 
 repeated that in his own low walk of life people had really 
 not the faculty of thought ; their minds had been simplified 
 reduced to two or three elements. He saw that this 
 declaration made his interlocutress very uncomfortable ; she 
 turned and twisted herself, vaguely, as if she wished to 
 protest, but she was far too considerate to interrupt him. 
 He had no desire to distress her, but there were times in 
 which it was impossible for him to withstand the perverse 
 satisfaction he took in insisting on his lowliness of station, 
 in turning the knife about in the wound inflicted by such 
 explicit reference, and in letting it be seen that if his place 
 in the world was immeasurably small he at least had no 
 illusions about either himself or his fellows. Lady Aurora 
 replied, as quickly as possible, that she knew a great deal 
 about the poor not the poor like Rose Muniment, but the 
 terribly, hopelessly poor, with whom she was more familiar 
 than Hyacinth would perhaps believe and that she was 
 often struck with their great talents, with their quick wit, 
 with their conversation being really much more entertaining, 
 to her at least, than what one usually heard in drawing-rooms. 
 She often found them immensely clever. 
 
 Hyacinth smiled at her, and said, ' Ah, when you get to 
 the lowest depths of poverty, they may become very brilliant 
 again. But I'm afraid I haven't gone so far down. In 
 spite of my opportunities, I don't know many absolute 
 paupers.' 
 
 * I know a great many.' Lady Aurora hesitated, as if 
 she didn't like to boast, and theft she added, ' I daresay 
 I know more than any one.' There was something 
 
xv THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 233 
 
 touching, beautiful, to Hyacinth, in this simple, diffident 
 admission ; it confirmed his impression that Lady Aurora 
 was in some mysterious, incongruous, and even slightly 
 ludicrous manner a heroine, a creature of a noble ideal. 
 She perhaps guessed that he was indulging in reflections 
 that might be favourable to her, for she said, precipitately, 
 the next minute, as if there were nothing she dreaded so 
 much as the danger of a compliment, * I think your aunt's 
 so very attractive and I'm sure Rose Muniment thinks 
 so.' No sooner had she spoken than she blushed again ; 
 it appeared to have occurred to her that he might suppose 
 she wished to contradict him by presenting this case of his 
 aunt as a proof that the baser sort, even in a prosaic upper 
 layer, were not without redeeming points. There was no 
 
 reason why she should not have had this intention ; so 
 
 without sparing her, Hyacinth replied 
 
 ' You mean that she's an exception to what I was saying?' 
 Lady Aurora stammered a little; then, at last, as if, 
 
 since he wouldn't spare her, she wouldn't spare him, either, 
 
 1 Yes, and you're an exception, too ; you'll not make me 
 
 believe you're wanting in intelligence. The Muniments 
 
 don't think so,' she added. 
 
 'No more do I myself; but that doesn't prove that 
 
 exceptions are not frequent. I have blood in my veins 
 
 that is not the blood of the people.' 
 
 ' Oh, I see,' said Lady Aurora, sympathetically. And 
 
 with a smile she went on : ' Then you're all the more of an 
 
 exception in the upper class ! ' 
 
 Her smile was the kindest in the world, but it did not 
 
 blind Hyacinth to the fact that from his own point of view 
 
 he had been extraordinarily indiscreet. He believed a 
 
234 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xv 
 
 moment before that he would have been proof against the 
 strongest temptation to refer to the mysteries of his lineage, 
 inasmuch as, if made in a boastful spirit (and he had no 
 desire as yet to make it an exercise in humility) any such 
 reference would inevitably contain an element of the 
 grotesque. He had never opened his lips to any one about 
 his birth (since the dreadful days when the question was 
 discussed, with Mr. Vetch's assistance, in Lomax Place) ; 
 never even to Paul Muniment, never to Millicent Henning 
 nor to Eustache Poupin. He had an impression that 
 people had ideas about him, and with some of Miss 
 Henning's he had been made acquainted : they were 
 of such a nature that he sometimes wondered whether 
 the tie which united him to her were not, on her 
 own side, a secret determination to satisfy her utmost 
 curiosity before she had done with him. But he flattered 
 himself that he was impenetrable, and none the less he had 
 begun to swagger, idiotically, the first time a temptation (to 
 call a temptation) presented itself. He turned crimson as 
 soon as he had spoken, partly at the sudden image of what 
 he had to swagger about, and partly at the absurdity of a 
 challenge having appeared to proceed from the bashful 
 gentlewoman before him. He hoped she didn't par- 
 ticularly regard what he had said (and indeed she gave no 
 sign whatever of being startled by his claim to a pedigree 
 she had too much quick delicacy for that ; she appeared 
 to notice only the symptoms of confusion that followed it), 
 but as soon as possible he gave himself a lesson in humility 
 by remarking, ' I gather that you spend most of your time 
 among the poor, and I am sure you carry blessings with 
 you. But I frankly confess that I don't understand a lady 
 
 
 
xv THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 235 
 
 giving herself up to people like us when there is no obli- 
 gation. Wretched company we must be, when there is so 
 much better to be had.' 
 
 ' I like it very much you don't understand.' 
 
 ' Precisely that is what I say. Our little friend on 
 the I bed is perpetually talking about your house, your 
 family, your splendours, your gardens and green-houses ; 
 they must be magnificent, of course ' 
 
 ' Oh, I wish she wouldn't ; really, I wish she wouldn't. 
 It makes one feel dreadfully ! ' Lady Aurora interposed, 
 with vehemence. 
 
 ' Ah, you had better give her her way ; it's such a 
 pleasure to her.' 
 
 ' Yes, more than to any of us ! ' sighed her ladyship, 
 helplessly. 
 
 ' Well, how can you leave all those beautiful things, to 
 come and breathe this beastly air, surround yourself with 
 hideous images, and associate with people whose smallest 
 fault is that they are ignorant, brutal and dirty ? I don't 
 speak of the ladies here present,' Hyacinth added, with the 
 manner which most made Millicent Henning (who at' once 
 admired and hated it), wonder where on earth he had got it. 
 
 ' Oh, I wish I could make you understand ! ' cried Lady 
 Aurora, looking at him with troubled, appealing eyes, as if 
 he were unexpectedly discouraging. 
 
 ' After all, I do understand ! Charity exists in your 
 nature as a kind of passion.' 
 
 ' Yes, yes, it's a kind of passion ! ' her ladyship repeated, 
 eagerly, very thankful for the word. ' I don't know whether 
 it's charity I don't mean that. But whatever it is, it's a 
 passion it's my life it's all I care for.' She hesitated 
 
236 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xv 
 
 a moment, as if there might be something indecent in the 
 confession, or dangerous in the recipient ; and then, 
 evidently, she was mastered by the comfort of being able to 
 justify herself for an eccentricity that had excited notice, 
 as well as by the luxury of discharging her soul of a long 
 accumulation of timid, sacred sentiment. ' Already, when 
 I was fifteen years old, I wanted to sell all I had and give 
 to the poor. And ever since, I have wanted to do some- 
 thing ; it has seemed as if my heart would break if I 
 shouldn't be able ! ' 
 
 Hyacinth was struck with a great respect, which, how- 
 ever, did not prevent him (the words sounded patronising, 
 even to himself), from saying in a moment, ' I suppose you 
 are very religious.' 
 
 Lady Aurora looked away, into the thickening dusk, at 
 the smutty housetops, the blurred emanation, above the 
 streets, of lamplight. * I don't know one has one's ideas 
 some of them may be strange. I think a great many clergy- 
 men do good, but there are others I don't like at all. I dare- 
 say we had too many, always, at home ; my father likes 
 them so much. I think I have known too many bishops ; 
 I have had the church too much on my back. I daresay 
 they wouldn't think at home, you know, that one was 
 quite what one ought to be \ but of course they consider 
 me very odd, in every way, as there's no doubt I am. I 
 should tell you that I don't tell them everything ; for what's 
 the use, when people don't understand ? We are twelve at 
 home, and eight of us are girls ; and if you think it's so 
 very splendid, and she thinks so, I should like you both to 
 try it for a little ! My father isn't rich, and there is only 
 one of us married, and we are not at all handsome, and 
 
xv THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 237 
 
 oh, there are all kinds of things,' the young woman went on, 
 looking round at him an instant, shyly but excitedly. 'I 
 don't like society ; and neither would you if you were to see 
 the kind there is in London at least in some parts,' Lady 
 Aurora added, considerately. * I daresay you wouldn't 
 believe all the humbuggery and the tiresomeness that one 
 has to go through. But I've got out of it ; I do as I like, 
 though it has been rather a struggle. I have my liberty, 
 and that is the greatest blessing in life, except the reputation 
 of being queer, and even a little mad, which is a greater 
 advantage still. I'm a little mad, you know ; you needn't 
 be surprised if you hear it. That's because I stop in town 
 when they go into the country ; all the autumn, all the 
 winter, when there's no one here (except three or four 
 millions), and the rain drips, drips, drips, from the trees in 
 the big, dull park, where my people live. I daresay I 
 oughtn't to say such things to you, but, as I tell you, I'm 
 a little mad, and I might as well keep up my character. 
 When one is one of eight daughters, and there's very little 
 money (for any of us, at least), and there's nothing to do 
 but to go out with three or four others in a mackintosh, one 
 can easily go off one's head. Of course there's the village, 
 and it's not at all a nice one, and there are the people to 
 look after, and heaven knows they're in want of it ; but one 
 must work with the vicarage, and at the vicarage there are 
 four more daughters, all old maids, and it's dreary, and it's 
 dreadful, and one has too much of it, and they don't under- 
 stand what one thinks or feels, or a single word one says to 
 them ! Besides they are stupid, I admit the country poor ; 
 they are very, very dense. I like Camberwell better,' said 
 Lady Aurora, smiling and taking breath, at the end of her 
 
238 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xv 
 
 nervous, hurried, almost incoherent speech, of which she 
 had delivered herself pantingly, with strange intonations and 
 grotesque movements of her neck, as if she were afraid 
 from one moment to the other that she would repent, not 
 of her confidence, but of her egotism. 
 
 It placed her, for Hyacinth, in an unexpected light, and 
 made him feel that her awkward, aristocratic spinsterhood 
 was the cover of tumultuous passions. No one could have 
 less the appearance of being animated by a vengeful irony ; 
 but he saw that this delicate, shy, generous, and evidently 
 most tender creature was not a person to spare, wherever 
 she could prick them, the institutions among which she had 
 been brought up and against which she had violently reacted. 
 Hyacinth had always supposed that a reactionary meant a 
 backslider from the liberal faith, but Rosy's devotee gave a 
 new value to the term ; she appeared to have been driven 
 to her present excesses by the squire and the parson and 
 the conservative influences of that upper-class British home 
 which our young man had always supposed to be the highest 
 fruit of civilisation. It was clear that her ladyship was an 
 original, and an original with force ; but it gave Hyacinth 
 a real pang to 'hear her make light of Inglefield (especially 
 the park), and of the opportunities that must have abounded 
 in Belgrave Square. It had been his belief that in a world 
 of suffering and injustice these things were, if not the most 
 righteous, at least the most fascinating. If they didn't give 
 one the finest sensations, where were such sensations to be 
 had ? He looked at Lady Aurora with a face which was a 
 tribute to her sudden vividness, and said, ( I can easily 
 understand your wanting to do , some good in the world, 
 because you're a kind of saint.' 
 
xv THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 239 
 
 ' A very curious kind ! ' laughed her ladyship. 
 
 'But I don't understand your not liking what your 
 position gives you.' 
 
 ' I don't know anything about my position. I want to 
 live ! ' 
 
 ' And do you call this life ? ' 
 
 * I'll tell you what my position is, if you want to know : 
 it's the deadness of the grave ! ' 
 
 Hyacinth was startled by her tone, but he nevertheless 
 laughed back at her, ' Ah, as I say, you're a kind of saint ! ' 
 She made no reply, for at that moment the door opened, 
 and Paul Muniment's tall figure emerged from the blackness 
 of the staircase into the twilight, now very faint, of the 
 rqom. Lady Aurora's eyes, as they rested upon him, seemed 
 to declare that such a vision as that, at least, was life. 
 Another person, as tall as himself, appeared behind him, 
 and Hyacinth recognised with astonishment their insinuating 
 friend Captain Sholto. Muniment had brought him up for 
 Rosy's entertainment, being ready, and more than ready, 
 always, to usher in any one in the world, from the prime 
 minister to the common hangman, who might give that 
 young lady a sensation. They must have met at the ' Sun 
 and Moon,' and if the Captain, some accident smoothing 
 the way, had made him half as many advances as he had 
 made some other people Hyacinth could see that it wouldn't 
 take long for Paul to lay him under contribution. But what 
 the mischief was the Captain up to? It cannot be said 
 that our young man arrived, this evening, at an answer to 
 that question. The occasion proved highly festal, and the 
 hostess rose to it without lifting her head from the pillow 
 Her brother introduced Captain Sholto as a gentleman who 
 
240 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xv 
 
 had a great desire to know extraordinary people, and she 
 made him take possession of the chair at her bedside, out 
 of which Miss Pynsent quickly edged herself, and asked him 
 who he was, and where he came from, and how Paul had 
 made his acquaintance, and whether he had many friends 
 in Camberwell. Sholto had not the same grand air that 
 hovered about him at the theatre ; he was shabbily dressed, 
 very much like Hyacinth himself; but his appearance gave 
 our young man an opportunity to wonder what made him 
 so unmistakably a gentleman in spite of his seedy coat and 
 trousers in spite too, of his rather overdoing the manner 
 of being appreciative even to rapture and thinking every- 
 thing and every one most charming and curious. He stood 
 out, in poor Rosy's tawdry little room, among her hideous 
 attempts at decoration, and looked to Hyacinth a being 
 from another sphere, playing over the place and company 
 a smile (one couldn't call it false or unpleasant, yet it was 
 distinctly not natural), of which he had got the habit in 
 camps and courts. It became brilliant when it rested on 
 Hyacinth, and the Captain greeted him as he might have 
 done a dear young friend from whom he had been long and 
 painfully separated. He was easy, he was familiar, he was 
 exquisitely benevolent and bland, and altogether incom- 
 prehensible. 
 
 Rosy was a match for him, however. He evidently didn't 
 puzzle her in the least ; she thought his visit the most 
 natural thing in the world. She expressed all the gratitude 
 that decency required, but appeared to assume that people 
 who climbed her stairs would always find themselves repaid. 
 She remarked that her brother mu$t have met him for the first 
 time that day, for the way that he sealed a new acquaintance 
 
xv THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 241 
 
 was usually by bringing the person immediately to call upon 
 her. And when the Captain said that if she didn't like 
 them he supposed the poor wretches were dropped on the 
 spot, she admitted that this would be true if if ever happened 
 that she disapproved ; as yet, however, she had not been 
 obliged to draw the line. This was perhaps partly because 
 he had not brought up any of his political friends people 
 that he knew only for political reasons. Of these people, 
 in general, she had a very small opinion, and she would not 
 conceal from Captain Sholto that she hoped he was not one 
 of them. Rosy spoke as if her brother represented the 
 Camberwell district in the House of Commons and she had 
 discovered that a parliamentary career lowered the moral 
 tone. The Captain, however, entered quite into her views, 
 and told her that it was as common friends of Mr. Hyacinth 
 Robinson that Mr. Muniment and he had come together ; 
 they were both so fond of him that this had immediately 
 constituted a kind of tie. On hearing himself commemorated 
 in such a brilliant way Mr. Hyacinth Robinson averted 
 himself; he saw that Captain Sholto might be trusted to 
 make as great an effort for Rosy's entertainment as he 
 gathered that he had made for that of Millicent Henning, 
 that evening at the theatre. There were not chairs enough 
 to go round, and Paul fetched a three-legged stool from his 
 own apartment, after which he undertook to make tea for 
 the company, with the aid of a tin kettle and a spirit-lamp 
 these implements having been set out, flanked by half a 
 dozen cups, in honour, presumably, of the little dressmaker, 
 who was to come such a distance. The little dressmaker, 
 Hyacinth observed with pleasure, fell into earnest conver- 
 sation with Lady Aurora, who bent over her, flushed, 
 VOL. i. R 
 
242 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xv 
 
 smiling, stammering, and apparently so nervous that Pinnie, 
 in comparison, was majestic and serene. They communicated 
 presently to Hyacinth a plan they had unanimously evolved, 
 to the effect that Miss Pynsent should go home to Belgrave 
 Square with her ladyship, to settle certain preliminaries in 
 regard to the pink dressing-gown, toward which, if Miss 
 Pynsent assented, her ladyship hoped to be able to con- 
 tribute sundry morsels of stuff which had proved their 
 quality in honourable service and might be dyed to the 
 proper tint. Pinnie, Hyacinth could see, was in a state of 
 religious exaltation ; the visit to Belgrave Square and the 
 idea of co-operating in such a manner with the nobility were 
 privileges she could not take solemnly enough. The latter 
 luxury, indeed, she began to enjoy without delay; Lady 
 Aurora suggesting that Mr. Muniment might be rather 
 awkward about making tea, and that they should take the 
 business off his hands. Paul gave it up to them, with a 
 pretence of compassion for their conceit, remarking that at 
 any rate it took two women to supplant one man; and 
 Hyacinth drew him to the window, to ask where he had 
 encountered Sholto and how he liked him. 
 
 They had* met in Bloomsbury, as Hyacinth sup- 
 posed, and Sholto had made up to him very much as a 
 country curate might make up to an archbishop. He 
 wanted to know what he thought of this and that : of the 
 state of the labour market at the East End, of the terrible 
 case of the old woman who had starved to death at Wai- 
 ham Green, of the practicability of more systematic 
 out-of-door agitation, and the prospects of their getting 
 one of their own men one, of the Bloomsbury lot 
 into Parliament. ' He was mighty civil,' Muniment 
 
xv THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 243 
 
 said, * and I don't find that he has picked my pocket. 
 He looked as if he would like me to suggest that he 
 should stand as one of our own men, one of the Blooms- 
 bury lot. He asks too many questions, but he makes up 
 for it by not paying any attention to the answers. He told 
 me he would give the world to see a working-man's " inte- 
 rior." I didn't know what he meant at first : he wanted a 
 favourable specimen, one of the best ; he had seen one or 
 two that he didn't believe to be up to the average. I 
 suppose he meant Schinkel, the cabinetmaker, and he 
 wanted to compare. I told him I didn't know what sort 
 of a specimen my place would be, but that he was welcome 
 to look round, and that it contained at any rate one or 
 two original features. I expect he has found that's the 
 case with Rosy and the noble lady. I wanted to show 
 him off to Rosy ; he's good for that, if he isn't good for 
 anything else. I told him we expected a little company 
 this evening, so it might be a good time ; and he assured 
 me that to mingle in such an occasion as that was the 
 dream of his existence. He seemed in a rare hurry, as if 
 I were going to show him a hidden treasure, and insisted 
 on driving me over in a hansom. Perhaps his idea is to 
 introduce the use of cabs among the working-classes ; 
 certainly, I'll vote for him for Parliament, if that's his line. 
 On our way over he talked to me about you ; told me you 
 were an intimate friend of his.' 
 
 'What did he say about me?' Hyacinth inquired, with 
 promptness. 
 
 1 Vain little beggar ! ' 
 
 1 Did he call me that?' said Hyacinth, ingenuously. 
 
 * He said you were simply astonishing.' 
 
244 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xv 
 
 'Simply astonishing?' Hyacinth repeated. 
 
 ' For a person of your low extraction.' 
 
 'Well, I may be queer, but he is certainly queerer. 
 Don't you think so, now you know him ? ' 
 
 Paul Muniment looked at his young friend a moment. 
 ' Do you want to know what he is ? He's a tout.' 
 
 * A tout ? What do you mean ?' 
 
 ' Well, a cat's-paw, if you like better.' 
 
 Hyacinth stared. * For whom, pray ? ' 
 
 'Or a fisherman, if you like better still. I give 
 you your choice of comparisons. I made them up as 
 we came along in the hansom. He throws his nets 
 and hauls in the little fishes the pretty little shining, 
 wriggling fishes. They are all for her ; she swallows, 'em 
 down.' 
 
 ' For her? Do you mean the Princess ?' 
 
 ' Who else should I mean ? Take care, my tadpole ! ' 
 
 * Why should I take care ? The other day you told 
 me not to.' 
 
 ' Yes, I remember. But now I see more.' 
 
 ' Did he speak of her ? What did he say ? ' asked Hya- 
 cinth, eagerly. ' 
 
 ' I can't tell you now what he said, but I'll tell you 
 what I guessed.' 
 
 ' And what's that ? ' 
 
 They had been talking, of course, in a very low tone, 
 and their voices were covered by Rosy's chatter in the 
 corner, by the liberal laughter with which Captain Sholto 
 accompanied it, and by the much more discreet, though 
 earnest, intermingled accents of, Lady Aurora and Miss 
 Pynsent. But Paul Muniment spoke more softly still 
 
xv THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 245 
 
 Hyacinth felt a kind of suspense as he replied in a mo- 
 ment, ' Why, she's a monster ! ' 
 
 ' A monster ? ' repeated our young man, from whom, 
 this evening, Paul Muniment seemed destined to elicit 
 ejaculations and echoes. 
 
 Muniment glanced toward the Captain, who was appa- 
 rently more and more fascinated by Rosy. ' In him I 
 think there's no great harm. He's only a conscientious 
 fisherman !' 
 
 It must be admitted that Captain Sholto justified to 
 a certain extent this definition by the manner in which 
 he baited his hook for such little facts as might help 
 him to a more intimate knowledge of his host and hostess. 
 When the tea was made, Rose Muniment asked Miss 
 Pynsent to be so good as to hand it about. They must 
 let her poor ladyship rest a little, must they not? and 
 Hyacinth could see that in her innocent but inveterate 
 self-complacency she wished to reward and encourage 
 the dressmaker, draw her out and present her still more, 
 by offering her this graceful exercise. Sholto sprang up 
 at this, and begged Pinnie to let him relieve her, taking 
 a cup from her hand ; and poor Pinnie, who perceived 
 in a moment that he was some kind of masquerading 
 gentleman, who was bewildered by the strange mixture of 
 elements that surrounded her and unused to being treated 
 like a duchess (for the Captain's manner was a triumph 
 of respectful gallantry), collapsed, on the instant, into a 
 chair, appealing to Lady Aurora with a frightened smile 
 and conscious that, deeply versed as she might be in the 
 theory of decorum, she had no precedent that could meet 
 such an occasion. ' Now, how many families would there 
 
246 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xv 
 
 be in such a house as this, and what should you say about 
 the sanitary arrangements? Would there be others on 
 this floor what is it, the third, the fourth ? beside your- 
 selves, you know, and should you call it a fair specimen of 
 a tenement of its class?' It was with such inquiries as 
 this that Captain Sholto beguiled their tea-drinking, while 
 Hyacinth made the reflection that, though he evidently 
 meant them very well, they were characterised by a want 
 of fine tact, by too patronising a curiosity. The Captain 
 requested information as to the position in life, the avoca- 
 tions and habits, of the other lodgers, the rent they paid, 
 their relations with each other, both in and out of the 
 family. ' Now, would there be a good deal of close packing, 
 do you suppose, and any perceptible want of a sobriety ? ' 
 Paul Muniment, who had swallowed his cup of tea at 
 a single gulp there was no offer of a second gazed out 
 of the window into the dark, which had now come on, 
 with his hands in his pockets, whistling, impolitely, no 
 doubt, but with brilliant animation. He had the manner 
 of having made over their visitor altogether to Rosy and of 
 thinking that whatever he said or did it was all so much 
 grist to her indefatigable little mill. Lady Aurora looked 
 distressed and embarrassed, and it is a proof of the degree 
 to which our little hero had the instincts of a man of the 
 world that he guessed exactly how vulgar she thought this 
 new acquaintance. She was doubtless rather vexed, also 
 Hyacinth had learned this evening that Lady Aurora 
 could be vexed at the alacrity of Rosy's responses ; the 
 little person in the bed gave the Captain every satisfaction, 
 considered his questions as a proper tribute to humble re- 
 spectability, and supplied him, as regards the population 
 
xv THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 247 
 
 of Audley Court, with statistics and anecdotes which she 
 had picked up by mysterious processes of her own. At last 
 Lady Aurora, upon whom Paul Muniment had not been at 
 pains to bestow much conversation, took leave of her, and 
 signified to Hyacinth that for the rest of the evening she 
 would assume the care of Miss Pynsent. Finnic looked 
 very tense and solemn, now that she was really about to be 
 transported to Belgrave Square, but Hyacinth was sure she 
 would acquit herself only the more honourably ; and when 
 he offered to call for her there, later, she reminded him, 
 under her breath, with a little sad smile, of the many years 
 during which, after nightfall, she had carried her work, 
 pinned up in cloth, about London. 
 
 Paul Muniment, according to his habit, lighted Lady 
 Aurora downstairs, and Captain Sholto and Hyacinth were 
 alone for some minutes with Rosy ; which gave the former, 
 taking up his hat and stick, an opportunity to say to his 
 young friend, ' Which way are you going ? Not my way, 
 by chance?' Hyacinth saw that he hoped for his com- 
 pany, and he became conscious that, strangely as Muni- 
 ment had indulged him and too promiscuously investigating 
 as he had just shown himself, this ingratiating personage 
 was not more easy to resist than he had been the other 
 night at the theatre. The Captain bent over Rosy's bed as 
 if she had been a fine lady on a satin sofa, promising 
 to come back very soon and very often, and the two men 
 went downstairs. On their way they met Paul Muniment 
 coming up, and Hyacinth felt rather ashamed, he could 
 scarcely tell why, that his friend should see him marching 
 off with the 'tout.' After all, if Muniment had brought 
 him to see his sister, might not he at least walk with him ? 
 
248 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 
 
 'I'm coming again, you know, very often. I daresay you'll 
 find me a great bore ! ' the Captain announced, as he bade 
 good-night to his host. . ' Your sister is a most interesting 
 creature, one of the most interesting creatures I have ever 
 seen, and the whole thing, you know, exactly the sort 
 of thing I wanted to get at, only much more really, much 
 more original and curious. It has been a great success, 
 a grand success ! ' 
 
 And the Captain felt his way down the dusky shaft, while 
 Paul Muniment, above, gave him the benefit of rather a 
 wavering candlestick, and answered his civil speech with an 
 ' Oh, well, you take us as you find us, you know ! ' and an 
 outburst of frank but not unfriendly laughter. 
 
 Half-an-hour later Hyacinth found himself in Captain 
 Sholto's chambers, seated on a big divan covered with 
 Persian rugs and cushions and smoking the most delectable 
 cigar that had ever touched his lips. As they left Audley 
 Court the Captain had taken his arm, and they had walked 
 along together in a desultory, colloquial manner, till on 
 Westminster Bridge (they had followed the embankment, 
 beneath St. Thomas's Hospital) Sholto said, ' By the way, 
 why shouldn't you come home with me and see my little 
 place ? I've got a few things that might amuse you some 
 pictures, some odds and ends I've picked up, and a few 
 bindings ; you might tell me what you think of them.' 
 Hyacinth assented, without hesitation ; he had still in his 
 ear the reverberation of the Captain's inquiries in Rose 
 Muniment's room, and he saw no reason why he, on his 
 side, should not embrace an occasion of ascertaining how, 
 as his companion would have sai'd, a man of fashion would 
 live now. 
 
xv THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 249 
 
 This particular specimen lived in a large, old-fashioned 
 house in Queen Anne Street, of which he occupied the 
 upper floors, and whose high, wainscoted rooms he had 
 filled with the spoils of travel and the ingenuities of 
 modern taste. There was not a country in the world he 
 did not appear to have ransacked, and to Hyacinth his 
 trophies represented a wonderfully long purse. The whole 
 establishment, from the low-voiced, inexpressive valet who, 
 after he had poured brandy into tall tumblers, gave dignity 
 to the popping of soda-water corks, to the quaint little 
 silver receptacle in which he was invited to deposit the 
 ashes of his cigar, was such a revelation for our appreciative 
 hero that he felt himself hushed and made sad, so poignant 
 was the thought that it took thousands of things which he, 
 then, should never possess nor know to make an accom- 
 plished man. He had often, in evening-walks, wondered 
 what was behind the walls of certain spacious, bright- 
 windowed houses in the West End, and now he got an 
 idea. The first effect of the idea was to overwhelm 
 him. 
 
 ' Well, now, tell me what you thought of our friend the 
 Princess,' the Captain said, thrusting out the loose yellow 
 slippers which his servant had helped to exchange for his 
 shoes. He spoke as if he had been waiting impatiently 
 for the proper moment to ask that question, so much might 
 depend on the answer. 
 
 ' She's beautiful beautiful,' Hyacinth answered, almost 
 dreamily, with his eyes wandering all over the room. 
 
 'She was so interested in all you said to her; she 
 would like so much to see you again. She means to 
 write to you I suppose she can address to the " Sun and 
 
250 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xv 
 
 Moon"? and I hope you'll go to her house, if she pro- 
 poses a day.' 
 
 ' I don't know I don't know. It seems so strange.' 
 
 'What seems strange, my dear fellow?' 
 
 ' Everything ! My sitting here with you ; my introduc- 
 tion to that lady ; the idea of her wanting, as you say, to 
 see me again, and of her writing to me ; and this whole 
 place of yours, with all these dim, rich curiosities hanging 
 on the walls and glinting in the light of that rose-coloured 
 lamp. You yourself, too you are strangest of all.' 
 
 The Captain looked at him, in silence, so fixedly for a 
 while, through the fumes of their tobacco, after he had 
 made this last charge, that Hyacinth . thought he was 
 perhaps offended ; but this impression was presently dissi- 
 pated by further manifestations of sociability and hospitality, 
 and Sholto took occasion, later, to let him know how 
 important it was, in the days they were living in, not to 
 have too small a measure of the usual, destined as they 
 certainly were 'in the whole matter of the relations of 
 class with class, and all that sort of thing, you know' to 
 witness some very startling developments. The Captain 
 spoke as if, for 'his part, he were a child of his age (so that 
 he only wanted to see all it could show him), down to the 
 point of his yellow slippers. Hyacinth felt that he himself 
 had not been very satisfactory about the Princess ; but as 
 his nerves began to tremble a little more into tune with 
 the situation he repeated to his host what Millicent 
 Henning had said about her at the theatre asked if this 
 young lady had correctly understood him in believing that 
 she had been turned out of the house by her husband. 
 
 ' Yes, he literally pushed her into the street or into the 
 
xv THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA 251 
 
 garden ; I believe the scene took place in the country. 
 Hut perhaps Miss Henning didn't mention, or perhaps I 
 didn't mention, that the Prince would at the present hour 
 give everything he owns ' in the world to get her back. 
 Fancy such a scene!' said the Captain, laughing in a 
 manner that struck Hyacinth as rather profane. 
 
 He stared, with dilated eyes, at this picture, which 
 seemed to evoke a comparison with the only incident of 
 the sort that had come within his experience the forcible 
 ejection of intoxicated females from public houses. ' That 
 magnificent being what had she done ? ' 
 
 * Oh, she had made him feel he was an ass ! ' the Cap- 
 tain answered, promptly. He turned the conversation to 
 Miss Henning; said he was so glad Hyacinth gave him 
 an opportunity to speak of her. He got on with her 
 famously j perhaps she had told him. They became im- 
 mense friends en tout bien tout honneur, s'entend. Now, 
 there was another London type, plebeian but brilliant ; 
 and how little justice one usually did it, how magnificent it 
 was ! But she, of course, was a wonderful specimen. ' My 
 dear fellow, I have seen many women, and the women of 
 many countries,' the Captain went on, * and I have seen 
 them intimately, and I know what I am talking about ; and 
 
 when I tell you that that one that one ' Then he 
 
 suddenly paused, laughing in his democratic way. 'But 
 perhaps I am going too far : you must always pull me up, 
 you know, when I do. At any rate, I congratulate you ; 
 I do, heartily. Have another cigar. Now what sort of 
 a salary would she receive at her big shop, you know ? I 
 know where it is ; I mean to go there and buy some 
 pocket-handkerchiefs.' 
 
252 THE PRINCESS CASAMASSIMA xv 
 
 Hyacinth knew neither how far Captain Sholto had been 
 going, nor exactly on what he congratulated him; and 
 he pretended, at least, an equal ignorance on the subject 
 of Millicent's salary. He didn't want to talk about her, 
 moreover, nor about his own life ; he wanted to talk about 
 the Captain's, and to elicit information that would be in 
 harmony with his romantic chambers, which reminded our 
 hero somehow of Bulwer's novels. His host gratified this 
 desire most liberally, and told him twenty stories of things 
 that had happened to him in Albania, in Madagascar, and 
 even in Paris. Hyacinth induced him easily to talk about 
 Paris (from a different point of view from M. Poupin's), and 
 sat there drinking in enchantments. The only thing that 
 fell below the high level of his entertainment was the 
 bindings of the Captain's books, which he told him frankly^ 
 with the conscience of an artist, were not very good. After 
 he left Queen Anne Street he was quite too excited to go 
 straight home ; he walked about with his mind full of 
 images and strange speculations, till the gray London 
 streets began to grow clear with the summer dawn.Cf 
 
 END OF VOL I. 
 
 Printed by R. & R. CLARK, Edinburgh. 
 
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