The Wings of the Dove Henry James (android based ebook reader TXT) đ
- Author: Henry James
Book online «The Wings of the Dove Henry James (android based ebook reader TXT) đ». Author Henry James
âThe thing is to go fast if I see the case right. What had I after all but my instinct of that on coming back with you, night before last, to pick up Kate? I felt what I feltâ âI knew in my bones the man had returned.â
âThatâs just where, as I say, youâre magnificent. But wait,â said Mrs. Stringham, âtill youâve seen him.â
âI shall see him immediatelyââ âMrs. Lowder took it up with decision. âWhat is then,â she asked, âyour impression?â
Mrs. Stringhamâs impression seemed lost in her doubts. âHow can he ever care for her?â
Her companion, in her companionâs heavy manner, sat on it. âBy being put in the way of it.â
âFor Godâs sake then,â Mrs. Stringham wailed, âput him in the way! You have him, one feels, in your hand.â
Maud Lowderâs eyes at this rested on her friendâs. âIs that your impression of him?â
âItâs my impression, dearest, of you. You handle everyone.â
Mrs. Lowderâs eyes still rested, and Susan Shepherd now felt, for a wonder, not less sincere by seeing that she pleased her. But there was a great limitation. âI donât handle Kate.â
It suggested something that her visitor hadnât yet had from herâ âsomething the sense of which made Mrs. Stringham gasp. âDo you mean Kate cares for him?â
That fact the lady of Lancaster Gate had up to this moment, as we know, enshrouded, and her friendâs quick question had produced a change in her face. She blinkedâ âthen looked at the question hard; after which, whether she had inadvertently betrayed herself or had only reached a decision and then been affected by the quality of Mrs. Stringhamâs surprise, she accepted all results. What took place in her for Susan Shepherd was not simply that she made the best of them, but that she suddenly saw more in them to her purpose than she could have imagined. A certain impatience in fact marked in her this transition: she had been keeping back, very hard, an important truth, and wouldnât have liked to hear that she hadnât concealed it cleverly. Susie nevertheless felt herself pass as not a little of a fool with her for not having thought of it. What Susie indeed, however, most thought of at present, in the quick, new light of it, was the wonder of Kateâs dissimulation. She had time for that view while she waited for an answer to her cry. âKate thinks she cares. But sheâs mistaken. And no one knows it.â These things, distinct and responsible, were Mrs. Lowderâs retort. Yet they werenât all of it. âYou donât know itâ âthat must be your line. Or rather your line must be that you deny it utterly.â
âDeny that she cares for him?â
âDeny that she so much as thinks that she does. Positively and absolutely. Deny that youâve so much as heard of it.â
Susie faced this new duty. âTo Milly, you meanâ âif she asks?â
âTo Milly, naturally. No one else will ask.â
âWell,â said Mrs. Stringham after a moment, âMilly wonât.â
Mrs. Lowder wondered. âAre you sure?â
âYes, the more I think of it. And luckily for me. I lie badly.â
âI lie well, thank God,â Mrs. Lowder almost snorted, âwhen, as sometimes will happen, thereâs nothing else so good. One must always do the best. But without lies then,â she went on, âperhaps we can work it out.â Her interest had risen; her friend saw her, as within some minutes, more enrolled and inflamedâ âpresently felt in her what had made the difference. Mrs. Stringham, it was true, descried this at the time but dimly; she only made out at first that Maud had found a reason for helping her. The reason was that, strangely, she might help Maud too, for which she now desired to profess herself ready even to lying. What really perhaps most came out for her was that her hostess was a little disappointed at her doubt of the social solidity of this appliance; and that in turn was to become a steadier light. The truth about Kateâs delusion, as her aunt presented it, the delusion about the state of her affections, which might be removedâ âthis was apparently the ground on which they now might more intimately meet. Mrs. Stringham saw herself recruited for the removal of Kateâs delusionâ âby arts, however, in truth, that she as yet quite failed to compass. Or was it perhaps to be only for the removal of Mr. Densherâs?â âsuccess in which indeed might entail other successes. Before that job, unfortunately, her heart had already failed. She felt that she believed in her bones what Milly believed, and what would now make working for Milly such a dreadful upward tug. All this within her was confusedly presentâ âa cloud of questions out of which Maud Manninghamâs large seated self loomed, however, as a mass more and more definite, taking in fact for the consultative relation something of the form of an oracle. From the oracle the sound did comeâ âor at any rate the sense did, a sense all accordant with the insufflation she had just seen working. âYes,â the sense was, âIâll help you for Milly, because if that comes off I shall be helped, by its doing so, for Kateââ âa view into which Mrs. Stringham could now sufficiently enter. She found herself of a sudden, strange to say, quite willing to operate to Kateâs harm, or at least to Kateâs good as Mrs. Lowder with a noble anxiety measured it. She found herself in short not caring what became of Kateâ âonly convinced at bottom of the predominance of Kateâs star. Kate wasnât in danger, Kate wasnât pathetic; Kate Croy, whatever happened, would take care of Kate Croy. She saw moreover by this time that her friend was travelling even beyond her own speed. Mrs. Lowder had already, in mind, drafted a rough plan of action, a plan vividly enough thrown off as she said: âYou must stay on a few days, and you must immediately, both of you, meet him at dinner.â In addition to which Maud claimed the merit of having by an instinct of pity, of prescient wisdom, done much, two nights before, to prepare that ground. âThe poor
Comments (0)