The Wings of the Dove Henry James (android based ebook reader TXT) đ
- Author: Henry James
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He took again one of his turns, not meeting what she had last said; he mooned a minute, as he would have called it, at a window; and of course she could see that she had driven him to the wall. She did clearly, without delay, see it; on which her sense of having âcaughtâ him became as promptly a scruple, which she spoke as if not to press. âWhat I mean is that he told her youâve been all the while engaged to Miss Croy.â
He gave a jerk round; it was almostâ âto hear itâ âthe touch of a lash; and he saidâ âidiotically, as he afterwards knewâ âthe first thing that came into his head. âAll what while?â
âOh itâs not I who say it.â She spoke in gentleness. âI only repeat to you what he told her.â
Densher, from whom an impatience had escaped, had already caught himself up. âPardon my brutality. Of course I know what youâre talking about. I saw him, toward the evening,â he further explained, âin the Piazza; only just saw himâ âthrough the glass at Florianâsâ âwithout any words. In fact I scarcely know himâ âthere wouldnât have been occasion. It was but once, moreoverâ âhe must have gone that night. But I knew he wouldnât have come for nothing, and I turned it overâ âwhat he would have come for.â
Oh so had Mrs. Stringham. âHe came for exasperation.â
Densher approved. âHe came to let her know that he knows better than she for whom it was she had a couple of months before, in her foolâs paradise, refused him.â
âHow you do know!ââ âand Mrs. Stringham almost smiled.
âI know thatâ âbut I donât know the good it does him.â
âThe good, he thinks, if he has patienceâ ânot too muchâ âmay be to come. He doesnât know what he has done to her. Only we, you see, do that.â
He saw, but he wondered. âShe kept from himâ âwhat she felt?â
âShe was ableâ âIâm sure of itâ ânot to show anything. He dealt her his blow, and she took it without a sign.â Mrs. Stringham, it was plain, spoke by book, and it brought into play again her appreciation of what she related. âSheâs magnificent.â
Densher again gravely assented. âMagnificent!â
âAnd he,â she went on, âis an idiot of idiots.â
âAn idiot of idiots.â For a moment, on it all, on the stupid doom in it, they looked at each other. âYet heâs thought so awfully clever.â
âSo awfullyâ âitâs Maud Lowderâs own view. And he was nice, in London,â said Mrs. Stringham, âto me. One could almost pity himâ âhe has had such a good conscience.â
âThatâs exactly the inevitable ass.â
âYes, but it wasnâtâ âI could see from the only few things she first told meâ âthat he meant her the least harm. He intended none whatever.â
âThatâs always the ass at his worst,â Densher returned. âHe only of course meant harm to me.â
âAnd good to himselfâ âhe thought that would come. He had been unable to swallow,â Mrs. Stringham pursued, âwhat had happened on his other visit. He had been then too sharply humiliated.â
âOh I saw that.â
âYes, and he also saw you. He saw you received, as it were, while he was turned away.â
âPerfectly,â Densher saidâ ââIâve filled it out. And also that he has known meanwhile for what I was then received. For a stay of all these weeks. He had had it to think of.â
âPreciselyâ âit was more than he could bear. But he has it,â said Mrs. Stringham, âto think of still.â
âOnly, after all,â asked Densher, who himself somehow, at this point, was having more to think of even than he had yet hadâ ââonly, after all, how has he happened to know? That is, to know enough.â
âWhat do you call enough?â Mrs. Stringham enquired.
âHe can only have actedâ âit would have been his sole safetyâ âfrom full knowledge.â
He had gone on without heeding her question; but, face to face as they were, something had none the less passed between them. It was this that, after an instant, made her again interrogative. âWhat do you mean by full knowledge?â
Densher met it indirectly. âWhere has he been since October?â
âI think he has been back to England. He came in fact, Iâve reason to believe, straight from there.â
âStraight to do this job? All the way for his half-hour?â
âWell, to try againâ âwith the help perhaps of a new fact. To make himself possibly right with herâ âa different attempt from the other. He had at any rate something to tell her, and he didnât know his opportunity would reduce itself to half an hour. Or perhaps indeed half an hour would be just what was most effective. It has been!â said Susan Shepherd.
Her companion took it in, understanding but too well; yet as she lighted the matter for him more, really, than his own courage had quite daredâ âputting the absent dots on several iâsâ âhe saw new questions swarm. They had been till now in a bunch, entangled and confused; and they fell apart, each showing for itself. The first he put to her was at any rate abrupt. âHave you heard of late from Mrs. Lowder.â
âOh yes, two or three times. She depends naturally upon news of Milly.â
He hesitated. âAnd does she depend, naturally, upon news of me?â
His friend matched for an instant his deliberation.
âIâve given her none that hasnât been decently good. This will have been the first.â
âââThisâ?â Densher was thinking.
âLord Markâs having been here, and her being as she is.â
He thought a moment longer. âWhat has Mrs. Lowder written about him? Has she written that he has been with them?â
âShe has mentioned him but onceâ âit was in her letter before the last. Then she said something.â
âAnd what did she say?â
Mrs. Stringham produced it with an effort. âWell it was in reference to Miss Croy. That she thought Kate was thinking of him. Or perhaps I should say rather that he was thinking of herâ âonly it seemed this time to have struck Maud that he was seeing the way more open to him.â
Densher listened with his eyes on the ground, but he presently raised them to speak, and there was that in his face which proved him aware of a
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