“And when will it be over?”
“They give him several days and, I believe, minute instructions,” said Muniment, “with, however, considerable discretion in respect to seizing his chance. The thing is made remarkably easy for him. All this I know from Schinkel, who himself knew nothing on Sunday, being a mere medium of transmission, but who saw Hyacinth yesterday morning.”
“Schinkel trusts you, then?” the Princess remarked.
Muniment looked at her steadily a moment. “Yes, but he won’t trust you. Hyacinth is to receive a card of invitation to a certain big house,” he went on, “a card with the name left in blank, so that he may fill it out himself. It is to be good for each of two grand parties which are to be given at a few days’ interval. That’s why they give him the job—because at a grand party he’ll look in his place.”
“He will like that,” said the Princess, musingly—“repaying hospitality with a pistol-shot.”
“If he doesn’t like it he needn’t do it.”
The Princess made no rejoinder to this, but in a moment she said, “I can easily find out the place you mean—the big house where two parties are to be given at a few days’ interval and where the master is worth your powder.”
“Easily, no doubt. And do you want to warn him?”
“No, I want to do the business first, so that it won’t be left for another. If Hyacinth will look in his place at a grand party, should not I look still more in mine? And as I know the individual I should be able to approach him without exciting the smallest suspicion.”
Muniment appeared to consider her suggestion a moment, as if it were practical and interesting; but presently he answered, placidly, “To fall by your hand would be too good for him.”