The Princess Casamassima. Frank J. Morlock
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I’m sorry you’re only a journeyman.
Hyacinth
So am I! But the art of bookbinding is an exquisite art, I’ll say that. Even if it doesn’t pay well.
Milly
So Pinnie told me! Have you got some samples? I’d like to look at some.
Hyacinth (condescendingly)
You wouldn’t know how good they are.
Milly (irritated)
That’s just the way you used to talk to me years ago in the Place.
Hyacinth
I don’t care about that. I hate all that time.
Milly
If you come to that, so do I! You always used to have your nose in a book. I never thought you’d work with your hands.
Hyacinth
Depend upon it, I won’t do it an hour longer than I have to.
Milly
What will you do then?
Hyacinth
You’ll see someday. I had to do something. I couldn’t go on living off Pinnie. I took what I could get. Thank God I help her a little now.
Milly
You talk like a reg’lar gentleman.
Hyacinth
I’m not. I’m just an obscure little beggar born of a French woman to a supposed English Lord—living in a squalid little corner of London. And so, I’m a bookbinder.
Milly
I didn’t think I could ever fancy anyone in that line.
Hyacinth
Allow me to see you out.
Milly
I should be delighted. (aside) A reg’lar gentleman.
(Exit Milly and Hyacinth out the street door. After a moment, enter Mr. Vetch with Poupin, Madame Poupin, and Paul Muniment.)
Vetch
Pinnie was good enough to let us meet here.
(They close the shutters. Poupin coughs terribly, and is helped by his wife.)
Vetch
Are you all right, my dear Poupin?
Poupin
I’m suffering extremely, but we must all suffer so long as the social question is so abominably, iniquitously neglected.
Madame
Ah yes, the politicians never think of the poor. There are times when I ask myself how long it will go on.
Poupin (passionately)
It will go on till the measure of their infamy is full. Till the day of justice! Till the day the disinherited shake the globe!
Madame
Oh, we always see things continue; we never see them change.
Poupin
We may not see it, but They will see it.
Paul
What do you mean, shake the globe?
Poupin
I mean that force will make the bourgeoisie go down to their cellars and hide—behind their barrels of wine and their heaps of gold.
(Hyacinth quietly reenters; he is expected and the discussion continues without interruption. Someone says “You’re late.”)
Madame
And, in this country, I hope in their coal bins. La, la, we shall find them even there.
Poupin
Eighty-nine was an irresistible force.
Paul
Yes, I know, I know you fought them. But everything is yet to be tried.
Poupin
Oh, the trial will be on a grand scale. Soyez tranquille.
Madame (indicating Hyacinth and Paul)
You ought to present these gentlemen.
Poupin
Monsieur Hyacinth is a gifted child—a child in whom I take a tender interest—a child who has an account to settle. Oh, a thumping big one! Isn’t that so, mon petit?
Hyacinth
Oh, I only want them to leave me alone.
Poupin
He’s very young.
Madame
He’s the person we have seen in this country that we like the best.
Paul
Perhaps he’s French.
Hyacinth
Oh, I’m nothing.
Madame
Do you mean to say you’re not as good as anyone else in this world? I should like to see—!
Paul
We all have an account to settle, don’t you know?
Madame
It is a shame not to take Monsieur Hyacinth in.
Poupin
All in good time, all in good time. Monsieur Hyacinth knows that I count on him, whether I make him an intern today or tomorrow.
Hyacinth
What do you mean “intern”?
Poupin
Do not trifle with state secrets. You are too young.
Madame
One is never too young to do one’s bit.
Paul
Can you keep a secret?
Hyacinth
Is it a plot? A conspiracy?
Poupin
He asks as if he were asking for plum pudding. It’s terribly serious, my child.
Paul
It’s a group of workers to which he (indicating Poupin) and I, and a good many others belong. (Poupin scowls) There’s no harm in telling him that.
Madame
I advise you not to tell it to Miz Pinnie; she’s quite in the old ideas.
Vetch
I quite agree. Pinnie thinks we are merely having a social gathering.
Hyacinth
If you’ve got some plan, something to which one can give one’s self— I think you might tell me.
Poupin
It’s an accident you haven’t met Paul here before.
Madame
How could they have met, when Mr. Paul never comes? He doesn’t spoil us!
Paul (seriously)
Well, you see, I have my little sister at home to take care of. This afternoon, luckily, a lady came to sit with her.
Madame
A lady—a real lady?
Paul
Oh yes, every inch a lady.
Madame
Why do you permit them to thrust themselves in on you, simply because you have the misfortune to be poor? It seems to be the