“May I be told how you know it?”
She waited but an instant. “Mr. Muniment keeps me informed.”
“And how does he know?”
“We’ve information. My poor dear friend,” the Princess went on, “you’re so much out of it now that if I were to tell you I fear you wouldn’t understand.”
“Yes, no doubt I’m out of it; but I still have a right to say, all the same, in contradiction to your charge of a moment ago, that I take interest in the ‘real business’ exactly as much as I ever did.”
“My poor Hyacinth, my dear, infatuated, little aristocrat, was that ever very much?” she asked.
“It was enough, and it’s still enough, to make me willing to lay down my life for anything that will clearly help.”
“Yes, and of course you must decide for yourself what that is—or rather what it’s not.”
“I didn’t decide when I gave my promise. I agreed to abide by the decision of others,” Hyacinth answered.
“Well, you said just now that in relation to this business of yours you had thought of many things,” his friend pursued. “Have you ever by chance thought of anything that will do their work?”