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
She waited for him to say more, but he only, with his hands in his pockets, turned again away, going this time to the single window of the room, where in the absence of lamplight the blind hadnât been drawn. He looked out into the lamplit fog, lost himself in the small sordid London streetâ âfor sordid, with his other association, he felt itâ âas he had lost himself, with Mrs. Stringhamâs eyes on him, in the vista of the Grand Canal. It was present then to his recording consciousness that when he had last been driven to such an attitude the very depth of his resistance to the opportunity to give Kate away was what had so driven him. His waiting companion had on that occasion waited for him to say he would; and what he had meantime glowered forth at was the inanity of such a hope. Kateâs attention, on her side, during these minutes, rested on the back and shoulders he thus familiarly presentedâ ârested as with a view of their expression, a reference to things unimparted, links still missing and that she must ever miss, try to make them out as she would. The result of her tension was that she again took him up. âYou receivedâ âwhat you spoke ofâ âlast night?â
It made him turn round. âComing in from Fleet Streetâ âearlier by an hour than usualâ âI found it with some other letters on my table. But my eyes went straight to it, in an extraordinary way, from the door. I recognised it, knew what it was, without touching it.â
âOne can understand.â She listened with respect. His tone however was so singular that she presently added: âYou speak as if all this while you hadnât touched it.â
âOh yes, Iâve touched it. I feel as if, ever since, Iâd been touching nothing else. I quite firmly,â he pursued as if to be plainer, âtook hold of it.â
âThen where is it?â
âOh I have it here.â
âAnd youâve brought it to show me?â
âIâve brought it to show you.â
So he said with a distinctness that had, among his other oddities, almost a sound of cheer, yet making no movement that matched his words. She could accordingly but offer again her expectant face, while his own, to her impatience, seemed perversely to fill with another thought. âBut now that youâve done so you feel you donât want to.â
âI want to immensely,â he said. âOnly you tell me nothing.â
She smiled at him, with this, finally, as if he were an unreasonable child. âIt seems to me I tell you quite as much as you tell me. You havenât yet even told me how it is that such explanations as you require donât come from your document itself.â Then as he answered nothing she had a flash. âYou mean you havenât read it?â
âI havenât read it.â
She stared. âThen how am I to help you with it?â
Again leaving her while she never budged he paced five strides, and again he was before her. âBy telling me this. Itâs something, you know, that you wouldnât tell me the other day.â
She was vague. âThe other day?â
âThe first time after my returnâ âthe Sunday I came to you. Whatâs he doing,â Densher went on, âat that hour of the morning with her? What does his having been with her there mean?â
âOf whom are you talking?â
âOf that manâ âLord Mark of course. What does it represent?â
âOh with Aunt Maud?â
âYes, my dearâ âand with you. It comes more or less to the same thing; and itâs what you didnât tell me the other day when I put you the question.â
Kate tried to remember the other day. âYou asked me nothing about any hour.â
âI asked you when it was you last saw himâ âprevious, I mean, to his second descent at Venice. You wouldnât say, and as we were talking of a matter comparatively more important I let it pass. But the fact remains, you know, my dear, that you havenât told me.â
Two things in this speech appeared to have reached Kate more distinctly than the others. âI âwouldnât sayâ?â âand you âlet it passâ?â She looked just coldly blank. âYou really speak as if I were keeping something back.â
âWell, you see,â Densher persisted, âyouâre not even telling me now. All I want to know,â he nevertheless explained, âis whether there was a connection between that proceeding on his part, which was practicallyâ âoh beyond all doubt!â âthe shock precipitating for her what has now happened, and anything that had occurred with him previously for yourself. How in the world did he know weâre engaged?â
VKate slowly rose; it was, since she had lighted the candles and sat down, the first movement she had made. âAre you trying to fix it on me that I must have told him?â
She spoke not so much in resentment as in pale dismayâ âwhich he showed he immediately took in. âMy dear child, Iâm not trying to âfixâ anything; but Iâm extremely tormented and I seem not to understand. What has the brute to do with us anyway?â
âWhat has he indeed?â Kate asked.
She shook her head as if in recovery, within the minute, of some mild allowance for his unreason. There was in itâ âand for his reason reallyâ âone of those half-inconsequent sweetnesses by which she had often before made, over some point of difference, her own terms with him. Practically she was making them now, and essentially he was knowing it; yet inevitably, all the same, he was accepting it. She stood there close to him, with something in her patience that suggested her having supposed, when he spoke more appealingly, that he was going to kiss her. He hadnât been, it appeared; but his continued appeal was none the less the quieter. âWhatâs he doing, from ten oâclock on Christmas morning, with Mrs. Lowder?â
Kate looked surprised. âDidnât she tell you heâs staying there?â
âAt Lancaster Gate?â Densherâs surprise met it. âââStayingâ?â âsince when?â
âSince day before
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