The Wings of the Dove Henry James (android based ebook reader TXT) đ
- Author: Henry James
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It made her, none the less, in her odd charming way, challenge him afresh. âWhy do you say sympathy?â
âWell, itâs doubtless a pale word. What we shall feel for you will be much nearer worship.â
âAs near then as you like!â With which at last Kateâs name was sounded. âThe people Iâd most come back for are the people you know. Iâd do it for Mrs. Lowder, who has been beautifully kind to me.â
âSo she has to me,â said Densher. âI feel,â he added as she at first answered nothing, âthat, quite contrary to anything I originally expected, Iâve made a good friend of her.â
âI didnât expect it eitherâ âits turning out as it has. But I did,â said Milly, âwith Kate. I shall come back for her too. Iâd do anythingââ âshe kept it upâ ââfor Kate.â
Looking at him as with conscious clearness while she spoke, she might for the moment have effectively laid a trap for whatever remains of the ideal straightness in him were still able to pull themselves together and operate. He was afterwards to say to himself that something had at that moment hung for him by a hair. âOh I know what one would do for Kate!ââ âit had hung for him by a hair to break out with that, which he felt he had really been kept from by an element in his consciousness stronger still. The proof of the truth in question was precisely in his silence; resisting the impulse to break out was what he was doing for Kate. This at the time moreover came and went quickly enough; he was trying the next minute but to make Millyâs allusion easy for herself. âOf course I know what friends you areâ âand of course I understand,â he permitted himself to add, âany amount of devotion to a person so charming. Thatâs the good turn then sheâll do us allâ âI mean her working for your return.â
âOh you donât know,â said Milly, âhow much Iâm really on her hands.â
He could but accept the appearance of wondering how much he might show he knew. âAh sheâs very masterful.â
âSheâs great. Yet I donât say she bullies me.â
âNoâ âthatâs not the way. At any rate it isnât hers,â he smiled. He remembered, however, then that an undue acquaintance with Kateâs ways was just what he mustnât show; and he pursued the subject no further than to remark with a good intention that had the further merit of representing a truth: âI donât feel as if I knew herâ âreally to call know.â
âWell, if you come to that, I donât either!â she laughed. The words gave him, as soon as they were uttered, a sense of responsibility for his own; though during a silence that ensued for a minute he had time to recognise that his own contained after all no element of falsity. Strange enough therefore was it that he could go too farâ âif it was too farâ âwithout being false. His observation was one he would perfectly have made to Kate herself. And before he again spoke, and before Milly did, he took time for more stillâ âfor feeling how just here it was that he must break short off if his mind was really made up not to go further. It was as if he had been at a cornerâ âand fairly put there by his last speech; so that it depended on him whether or no to turn it. The silence, if prolonged but an instant, might even have given him a sense of her waiting to see what he would do. It was filled for them the next thing by the sound, rather voluminous for the August afternoon, of the approach, in the street below them, of heavy carriage-wheels and of horses trained to âstep.â A rumble, a great shake, a considerable effective clatter, had been apparently succeeded by a pause at the door of the hotel, which was in turn accompanied by a due display of diminished prancing and stamping. âYouâve a visitor,â Densher laughed, âand it must be at least an ambassador.â
âItâs only my own carriage; it does thatâ âisnât it wonderful?â âevery day. But we find it, Mrs. Stringham and I, in the innocence of our hearts, very amusing.â She had got up, as she spoke, to assure herself of what she said; and at the end of a few steps they were together on the balcony and looking down at her waiting chariot, which made indeed a brave show. âIs it very awful?â
It was to Densherâs eyesâ âsave for its absurd heavinessâ âonly pleasantly pompous. âIt seems to me delightfully rococo. But how do I know? Youâre mistress of these things, in contact with the highest wisdom. You occupy a position, moreover, thanks to which your carriageâ âwell, by this time, in the eye of London, also occupies one.â But she was going out, and he mustnât stand in her way. What had happened the next minute was first that she had denied she was going out, so that he might prolong his stay; and second that she had said she would go out with pleasure if he would like to driveâ âthat in fact there were always things to do, that there had been a question for her today of several in particular, and that this in short was why the carriage had been ordered so early. They perceived, as she said these things, that an enquirer had presented himself, and, coming back, they found Millyâs servant announcing the carriage and prepared to accompany her. This appeared to have for her the effect of settling the matterâ âon the basis, that is, of Densherâs happy response. Densherâs happy response, however, had as yet hung fire, the process we have described in him operating by this time with extreme intensity. The system of not pulling up, not breaking off, had already brought him headlong, he
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