The Golden Bowl Henry James (spicy books to read txt) đ
- Author: Henry James
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âYou know I think heâs a real galantuomoâ ââand no mistake.â There are plenty of sham ones about. He seems to me simply the best man Iâve ever seen in my life.â
âWell, my dear, why shouldnât he be?â the girl had gaily inquired.
It was this, precisely, that had set the Prince to think. The things, or many of them, that had made Mr. Verver what he was seemed practically to bring a charge of waste against the other things that, with the other people known to the young man, had failed of such a result. âWhy, his âform,âââ he had returned, âmight have made one doubt.â
âFatherâs form?â She hadnât seen it. âIt strikes me he hasnât got any.â
âHe hasnât got mineâ âhe hasnât even got yours.â
âThank you for âevenâ!â the girl had laughed at him. âOh, yours, my dear, is tremendous. But your father has his own. Iâve made that out. So donât doubt it. Itâs where it has brought him outâ âthatâs the point.â
âItâs his goodness that has brought him out,â our young woman had, at this, objected.
âAh, darling, goodness, I think, never brought anyone out. Goodness, when itâs real, precisely, rather keeps people in.â He had been interested in his discrimination, which amused him. âNo, itâs his way. It belongs to him.â
But she had wondered still. âItâs the American way. Thatâs all.â
âExactlyâ âitâs all. Itâs all, I say! It fits himâ âso it must be good for something.â
âDo you think it would be good for you?â Maggie Verver had smilingly asked.
To which his reply had been just of the happiest. âI donât feel, my dear, if you really want to know, that anything much can now either hurt me or help me. Such as I amâ âbut youâll see for yourself. Say, however, I am a galantuomoâ âwhich I devoutly hope: Iâm like a chicken, at best, chopped up and smothered in sauce; cooked down as a creme de volaille, with half the parts left out. Your fatherâs the natural fowl running about the bassecour. His feathers, movements, his soundsâ âthose are the parts that, with me, are left out.â
âAll, as a matter of courseâ âsince you canât eat a chicken alive!â
The Prince had not been annoyed at this, but he had been positive. âWell, Iâm eating your father aliveâ âwhich is the only way to taste him. I want to continue, and as itâs when he talks American that he is most alive, so I must also cultivate it, to get my pleasure. He couldnât make one like him so much in any other language.â
It mattered little that the girl had continued to demurâ âit was the mere play of her joy. âI think he could make you like him in Chinese.â
âIt would be an unnecessary trouble. What I mean is that heâs a kind of result of his inevitable tone. My liking is accordingly for the toneâ âwhich has made him possible.â
âOh, youâll hear enough of it,â she laughed, âbefore youâve done with us.â
Only this, in truth, had made him frown a little.
âWhat do you mean, please, by my having âdoneâ with you?â
âWhy, found out about us all there is to find.â
He had been able to take it indeed easily as a joke. âAh, love, I began with that. I know enough, I feel, never to be surprised. Itâs you yourselves meanwhile,â he continued, âwho really know nothing. There are two parts of meââ âyes, he had been moved to go on. âOne is made up of the history, the doings, the marriages, the crimes, the follies, the boundless betises of other peopleâ âespecially of their infamous waste of money that might have come to me. Those things are writtenâ âliterally in rows of volumes, in libraries; are as public as theyâre abominable. Everybody can get at them, and youâve, both of you, wonderfully, looked them in the face. But thereâs another part, very much smaller doubtless, which, such as it is, represents my single self, the unknown, unimportant, unimportantâ âunimportant save to youâ âpersonal quantity. About this youâve found out nothing.â
âLuckily, my dear,â the
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