“Finer than what?”
“Than what he’ll be called upon to do.”
“And pray what’s that?” the young man demanded. “You know nothing about it; no more do I,” he added in a moment. “It will require whatever it will. Besides, if some one else might have done it no one else volunteered. It happened that Robinson did.”
“Yes, and you nipped him up!” the Princess returned.
This expression made Muniment laugh. “I’ve no doubt you can easily keep him if you want him.”
“I should like to do it in his place—that’s what I should like,” said the Princess.
“As I say, you don’t even know what it is.”
“It may be nothing,” she went on with her grave eyes fixed on her visitor. “I daresay you think that what I wanted to see you for was to beg you to let him off. But it wasn’t. Of course it’s his own affair and you can do nothing. But oughtn’t it to make some difference if his opinions have changed?”
“His opinions? He never had any opinions,” Muniment replied. “He’s not like you and me.”
“Well then, his feelings, his attachments. He hasn’t the passion for the popular triumph that he had when I first knew him. He’s much more tepid.”