The Golden Bowl Henry James (spicy books to read txt) đ
- Author: Henry James
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âI seeâ âI see.â She had paused, meeting all the while his listening look, and the fever of her retrospect had so risen with her talk that the desire was visibly strong in him to meet her, on his side, but with cooling breath. âOne quite understands, my dear.â
It only, however, kept her there sombre. âI naturally see, love, what you understand; which sits again, perfectly, in your eyes. You see that I saw that Maggie would accept her in helpless ignorance. Yes, dearestââ âand the grimness of her dreariness suddenly once more possessed her: âyouâve only to tell me that that knowledge was my reason for what I did. How, when you do, can I stand up to you? You see,â she said with an ineffable headshake, âthat I donât stand up! Iâm down, down, down,â she declared; âyetâ she as quickly addedâ ââthereâs just one little thing that helps to save my life.â And she kept him waiting but an instant. âThey might easilyâ âthey would perhaps even certainlyâ âhave done something worse.â
He thought. âWorse than that Charlotteâ â?â
âAh, donât tell me,â she cried, âthat there could have been nothing worse. There might, as they were, have been many things. Charlotte, in her way, is extraordinary.â
He was almost simultaneous. âExtraordinary!â
âShe observes the forms,â said Fanny Assingham.
He hesitated. âWith the Princeâ â?â
âFor the Prince. And with the others,â she went on. âWith Mr. Ververâ âwonderfully. But above all with Maggie. And the formsââ âshe had to do even them justiceâ ââare two-thirds of conduct. Say he had married a woman who would have made a hash of them.â
But he jerked back. âAh, my dear, I wouldnât say it for the world!â
âSay,â she none the less pursued, âhe had married a woman the Prince would really have cared for.â
âYou mean then he doesnât care for Charlotteâ â?â This was still a new view to jump to, and the Colonel, perceptibly, wished to make sure of the necessity of the effort. For that, while he stared, his wife allowed him time; at the end of which she simply said: âNo!â
âThen what on earth are they up to?â Still, however, she only looked at him; so that, standing there before her with his hands in his pockets, he had time, further, to risk, soothingly, another question. âAre the âformsâ you speak ofâ âthat are two-thirds of conductâ âwhat will be keeping her now, by your hypothesis, from coming home with him till morning?â
âYesâ âabsolutely. Their forms.â
âââTheirsââ â?â
âMaggieâs and Mr. Ververâsâ âthose they impose on Charlotte and the Prince. Those,â she developed, âthat, so perversely, as I say, have succeeded in setting themselves up as the right ones.â
He consideredâ âbut only now, at last, really to relapse into woe. âYour âperversity,â my dear, is exactly what I donât understand. The state of things existing hasnât grown, like a field of mushrooms, in a night. Whatever they, all round, may be in for now is at least the consequence of what theyâve done. Are they mere helpless victims of fate?â
Well, Fanny at last had the courage of it, âYesâ âthey are. To be so abjectly innocentâ âthat is to be victims of fate.â
âAnd Charlotte and the Prince are abjectly innocentâ â?â
It took her another minute, but she rose to the full height. âYes. That is they wereâ âas much so in their way as the others. There were beautiful intentions all round. The Princeâs and Charlotteâs were beautifulâ âof that I had my faith. They wereâ âIâd go to the stake. Otherwise,â she added, âI should have been a wretch. And Iâve not been a wretch. Iâve only been a double-dyed donkey.â
âAh then,â he asked, âwhat does our muddle make them to have been?â
âWell, too much taken up with considering each other. You may call such a mistake as that by what ever name you please; it at any rate means, all round, their case. It illustrates the misfortune,â said Mrs. Assingham gravely, âof being too, too charming.â
This was another matter that took some following, but the Colonel again did his best. âYes, but to whom?â âdoesnât it rather depend on that? To whom have the Prince and Charlotte then been too charming?â
âTo each other, in the first placeâ âobviously. And then both of them together to Maggie.â
âTo Maggie?â he wonderingly echoed.
âTo Maggie.â She was now crystalline. âBy having accepted, from the first, so guilelesslyâ âyes, so guilelessly, themselvesâ âher guileless idea of still having her father, of keeping him fast, in her life.â
âThen isnât one supposed, in common humanity, and if one hasnât quarrelled with him, and one has the means, and he, on his side, doesnât drink or kick up rowsâ âisnât one supposed to keep oneâs aged parent in oneâs life?â
âCertainlyâ âwhen there arenât particular reasons against it. That there may be others than his getting drunk is exactly the moral of what is before us. In the first place Mr. Verver isnât aged.â
The Colonel just hung fireâ âbut it came. âThen why the deuce does heâ âoh, poor dear man!â âbehave as if he were?â
She took a moment to meet it. âHow do you know how he behaves?â
âWell, my own love, we see how Charlotte does!â Again, at this, she faltered; but again she rose. âAh, isnât my whole point that heâs charming to her?â
âDoesnât it depend a bit on what she regards as charming?â
She faced the question as if
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