“Ah, my dear fellow, we might manage it so easily now,” this gentleman murmured with evident disappointment. “It’s not as if Miss—a—Miss—a—were to be alone.” It flashed upon Hyacinth that the root of the project might be a desire of Captain Sholto to insinuate himself into Millicent’s good graces; then he wondered why the most remarkable woman in Europe should lend herself to that design, consenting even to receive a visit from a little bookbinder for the sake of furthering it. Perhaps after all she was not the most remarkable; still, even at a lower estimate, of what advantage could such a complication be to her? To Hyacinth’s surprise Millicent’s face made acknowledgment 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 this crudity: “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 ideas 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’d 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 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 converted to inscrutable good: “Having been in the army you’ll 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’s 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 put before Millicent that he would do just as she liked; he was determined not to let a member of a justly-doomed patriciate suppose 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.