The Wings of the Dove Henry James (android based ebook reader TXT) đ
- Author: Henry James
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âYou stayed for thinking ofâ âVenice?â
âOf course we did. For what else? And even a little,â Kate wonderfully addedâ ââitâs true at least of Aunt Maudâ âfor thinking of you.â
He appreciated. âI see. Nice of you every way. But whom,â he enquired, âhas Lord Mark stayed for thinking of?â
âHis being in London, I believe, is a very commonplace matter. He has some rooms which he has had suddenly some rather advantageous chance to letâ âsuch as, with his confessed, his decidedly proclaimed want of money, he hasnât had it in him, in spite of everything, not to jump at.â
Densherâs attention was entire. âIn spite of everything? In spite of what?â
âWell, I donât know. In spite, say, of his being scarcely supposed to do that sort of thing.â
âTo try to get money?â
âTo try at any rate in little thrifty ways. Apparently however he has had for some reason to do what he can. He turned at a couple of daysâ notice out of his place, making it over to his tenant; and Aunt Maud, whoâs deeply in his confidence about all such matters, said: âCome then to Lancaster Gateâ âto sleep at leastâ âtill, like all the world, you go to the country.â He was to have gone to the countryâ âI think to Matchamâ âyesterday afternoon: Aunt Maud, that is, told me he was.â
Kate had been somehow, for her companion, through this statement, beautifully, quite soothingly, suggestive. âTold you, you mean, so that you neednât leave the house?â
âYesâ âso far as she had taken it into her head that his being there was part of my reason.â
âAnd was it part of your reason?â
âA little if you like. Yet thereâs plenty hereâ âas I knew there would beâ âwithout it. So that,â she said candidly, âdoesnât matter. Iâm glad I am here: even if for all the good I doâ â!â She implied however that that didnât matter either. âHe didnât, as you tell me, get off then to Matcham; though he may possibly, if it is possible, be going this afternoon. But what strikes me as most probableâ âand itâs really, Iâm bound to say, quite amiable of himâ âis that he has declined to leave Aunt Maud, as Iâve been so ready to do, to spend her Christmas alone. If moreover he has given up Matcham for her itâs a procĂ©dĂ© that wonât please her less. Itâs small wonder therefore that she insists, on a dull day, in driving him about. I donât pretend to know,â she wound up, âwhat may happen between them; but thatâs all I see in it.â
âYou see in everything, and you always did,â Densher returned, âsomething that, while Iâm with you at least, I always take from you as the truth itself.â
She looked at him as if consciously and even carefully extracting the sting of his reservation; then she spoke with a quiet gravity that seemed to show how fine she found it. âThank you.â It had for him, like everything else, its effect. They were still closely face to face, and, yielding to the impulse to which he hadnât yielded just before, he laid his hands on her shoulders, held her hard a minute and shook her a little, far from untenderly, as if in expression of more mingled things, all difficult, than he could speak. Then bending his head he applied his lips to her cheek. He fell, after this, away for an instant, resuming his unrest, while she kept the position in which, all passive and as a statue, she had taken his demonstration. It didnât prevent her, however, from offering him, as if what she had had was enough for the moment, a further indulgence. She made a quiet lucid connection and as she made it sat down again. âIâve been trying to place exactly, as to its date, something that did happen to me while you were in Venice. I mean a talk with him. He spoke to meâ âspoke out.â
âAh there you are!â said Densher who had wheeled round.
âWell, if Iâm âthere,â as you so gracefully call it, by having refused to meet him as he wantedâ âas he pressedâ âI plead guilty to being so. Would you have liked me,â she went on, âto give him an answer that would have kept him from going?â
It made him a little awkwardly think. âDid you know he was going?â
âNever for a moment; but Iâm afraid thatâ âeven if it doesnât fit your strange suppositionsâ âI should have given him just the same answer if I had known. If itâs a matter I havenât, since your return, thrust upon you, thatâs simply because itâs not a matter in the memory of which I find a particular joy. I hope that if Iâve satisfied you about it,â she continued, âitâs not too much to ask of you to let it rest.â
âCertainly,â said Densher kindly, âIâll let it rest.â But the next moment he pursued: âHe saw something. He guessed.â
âIf you mean,â she presently returned, âthat he was unfortunately the one person we hadnât deceived, I canât contradict you.â
âNoâ âof course not. But why,â Densher still risked, âwas he unfortunately the one personâ â? Heâs not really a bit intelligent.â
âIntelligent enough apparently to have seen a mystery, a riddle, in anything so unnatural asâ âall things considered and when it came to the pointâ âmy attitude. So he gouged out his conviction, and on his conviction he acted.â
Densher seemed for a little to look at Lord Markâs conviction as if it were a blot on the face of nature. âDo you mean because you had appeared to him to have encouraged him?â
âOf course I had been decent to him. Otherwise where were we?â
âââWhereââ â?â
âYou and I.
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