“You can’t believe I’ve already gone so far? Why not? I’ve given you a certain amount of proof that I don’t hang back.”
“Well, if you know my friend you’ve gone very far indeed.”
The Princess appeared on the point of pronouncing a name; but she checked herself and said instead, suddenly eager: “Don’t they also want by chance an obliging young woman?”
“I happen to know he doesn’t think much of women, my first-rate man. He doesn’t trust them.”
“Is that why you call him first-rate? You’ve very nearly betrayed him to me.”
“Do you imagine there’s only one of that opinion?” Hyacinth returned.
“Only one who, having it, still remains a superior man. That’s a very difficult opinion to reconcile with others it’s important to have.”
“Schopenhauer did so, successfully,” said Hyacinth.
“How delightful you should know old Schopenhauer!” the Princess exclaimed. “The gentleman I have in my eye is also German.” Hyacinth let this pass, not challenging her, because he wished not to be challenged in return, and she went on: “Of course such an engagement as you speak of must make a tremendous difference in everything.”
“It has made this difference, that I’ve now a far other sense from any I had before of the reality, the solidity, of what’s being prepared. I was hanging about outside, on the steps of the temple, among the loafers and the gossips, but now I’ve been in the innermost sanctuary. Yes, I’ve seen the holy of holies.”