"Stupendous!" said Christina. "To go from one end to the other, the
prince must have out his golden carriage." This was apparently an
allusion to one of the other items of the young man's grandeur.
"You always laugh at me," said the prince. "I know no more what to say!"
She looked at him with a sad smile and shook her head. "No, no, dear
prince, I don't laugh at you. Heaven forbid! You are much too serious an
affair. I assure you I feel your importance. What did you inform us was
the value of the hereditary diamonds of the Princess Casamassima?"
"Ah, you are laughing at me yet!" said the poor young man, standing
rigid and pale.
"It does n't matter," Christina went on. "We have a note of it; mamma
writes all those things down in a little book!"
"If you are laughed at, dear prince, at least it 's in company," said
Mrs. Light, caressingly; and she took his arm, as if to resist his
possible displacement under the shock of her daughter's sarcasm. But the
prince looked heavy-eyed toward Rowland and Roderick, to whom the
young girl was turning, as if he had much rather his lot were cast with
theirs.
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