The Wings of the Dove Henry James (android based ebook reader TXT) đ
- Author: Henry James
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Kateâs face struck him as replying at first that his derisive speech deserved no satisfaction; then she appeared to yield to a need of her ownâ âthe need to make the point that âas ill as she lookedâ was what Milly scarce could be. If she had been as ill as she looked she could scarce be a question with them, for her end would in that case be near. She believed herself neverthelessâ âand Kate couldnât help believing her tooâ âseriously menaced. There was always the fact that they had been on the point of leaving town, the two ladies, and had suddenly been pulled up. âWe bade them goodbyeâ âor all butâ âAunt Maud and I, the night before Milly, popping so very oddly into the National Gallery for a farewell look, found you and me together. They were then to get off a day or two later. But theyâve not got offâ âtheyâre not getting off. When I see themâ âand I saw them this morningâ âthey have showy reasons. They do mean to go, but theyâve postponed it.â With which the girl brought out: âTheyâve postponed it for you.â He protested so far as a man might without fatuity, since a protest was itself credulous; but Kate, as ever, understood herself. âYouâve made Milly change her mind. She wants not to miss youâ âthough she wants also not to show she wants you; which is why, as I hinted a moment ago, she may consciously have hung back tonight. She doesnât know when she may see you againâ âshe doesnât know she ever may. She doesnât see the future. It has opened out before her in these last weeks as a dark confused thing.â
Densher wondered. âAfter the tremendous time youâve all been telling me she has had?â
âThatâs it. Thereâs a shadow across it.â
âThe shadow, you consider, of some physical breakup?â
âSome physical breakdown. Nothing less. Sheâs scared. She has so much to lose. And she wants more.â
âAh well,â said Densher with a sudden strange sense of discomfort, âcouldnât one say to her that she canât have everything?â
âNoâ âfor one wouldnât want to. She really,â Kate went on, âhas been somebody here. Ask Aunt Maudâ âyou may think me prejudiced,â the girl oddly smiled. âAunt Maud will tell youâ âthe worldâs before her. It has all come since you saw her, and itâs a pity youâve missed it, for it certainly would have amused you. She has really been a perfect successâ âI mean of course so far as possible in the scrap of timeâ âand she has taken it like a perfect angel. If you can imagine an angel with a thumping bank-account youâll have the simplest expression of the kind of thing. Her fortuneâs absolutely huge; Aunt Maud has had all the facts, or enough of them, in the last confidence, from âSusie,â and Susie speaks by book. Take them then, in the last confidence, from me. There she is.â Kate expressed above all what it most came to. âItâs open to her to make, you see, the very greatest marriage. I assure you weâre not vulgar about her. Her possibilities are quite plain.â
Densher showed he neither disbelieved nor grudged them. âBut what good then on earth can I do her?â
Well, she had it ready. âYou can console her.â
âAnd for what?â
âFor all that, if sheâs stricken, she must see swept away. I shouldnât care for her if she hadnât so much,â Kate very simply said. And then as it made him laugh not quite happily: âI shouldnât trouble about her if there were one thing she did have.â The girl spoke indeed with a noble compassion. âShe has nothing.â
âNot all the young dukes?â
âWell we must seeâ âsee if anything can come of them. She at any rate does love life. To have met a person like you,â Kate further explained, âis to have felt you become, with all the other fine things, a part of life. Oh she has you arranged!â
âYou have, it strikes me, my dearââ âand he looked both detached and rueful. âPray what am I to do with the dukes?â
âOh the dukes will be disappointed!â
âThen why shanât I be?â
âYouâll have expected less,â Kate wonderfully smiled. âBesides, you will be. Youâll have expected enough for that.â
âYet itâs what you want to let me in for?â
âI want,â said the girl, âto make things pleasant for her. I use, for the purpose, what I have. Youâre what I have of most precious, and youâre therefore what I use most.â
He looked at her long. âI wish I could use you a little more.â After which, as she continued to smile at him, âIs it a bad case of lungs?â he asked.
Kate showed for a little as if she wished it might be. âNot lungs, I think. Isnât consumption, taken in time, now curable?â
âPeople are, no doubt, patched up.â But he wondered. âDo you mean she has something thatâs past patching?â And before she could answer: âItâs really as if her appearance put her outside of such thingsâ âbeing, in spite of her youth, that of a person who has been through all itâs conceivable she should be exposed to. She affects one, I should say, as a creature saved from a shipwreck. Such a creature may surely, in these days, on the doctrine of chances, go to sea again with confidence. She has had her wreckâ âshe has met her adventure.â
âOh I grant you her wreck!ââ âKate was all response so far. âBut do let her have still her adventure. There are wrecks that are not adventures.â
âWellâ âif there be also adventures that are not wrecks!â Densher in short was willing, but he came back to his point. âWhat I mean is that she has none of the effectâ âon oneâs nerves or whateverâ âof an invalid.â
Kate on her side did this justice. âNoâ âthatâs the beauty of her.â
âThe beautyâ â?â
âYes, sheâs so wonderful. She wonât show for that, any more than your watch, when itâs about to stop for want of being wound up, gives you convenient notice or shows as different from usual. She wonât die, she
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