The Golden Bowl Henry James (spicy books to read txt) đ
- Author: Henry James
Book online «The Golden Bowl Henry James (spicy books to read txt) đ». Author Henry James
She was high, she was lucid, she was almost inspired; and it was but the deeper drop therefore to her husbandâs flat common sense. âIn other words Maggie is, by her ignorance, in danger? Then if sheâs in danger, there is danger.â
âThere wonât beâ âwith Charlotteâs understanding of it. Thatâs where she has had her conception of being able to be heroic, of being able in fact to be sublime. She is, she will beââ âthe good lady by this time glowed. âSo she sees itâ âto become, for her best friend, an element of positive safety.â
Bob Assingham looked at it hard. âWhich of them do you call her best friend?â
She gave a toss of impatience. âIâll leave you to discover!â But the grand truth thus made out she had now completely adopted. âItâs for us, therefore, to be hers.â
âââHersâ?â
âYou and I. Itâs for us to be Charlotteâs. Itâs for us, on our side, to see her through.â
âThrough her sublimity?â
âThrough her noble, lonely life. Onlyâ âthatâs essentialâ âit mustnât be lonely. It will be all right if she marries.â
âSo weâre to marry her?â
âWeâre to marry her. It will be,â Mrs. Assingham continued, âthe great thing I can do.â She made it out more and more. âIt will make up.â
âMake up for what?â As she said nothing, however, his desire for lucidity renewed itself. âIf everythingâs so all right what is there to make up for?â
âWhy, if I did do either of them, by any chance, a wrong. If I made a mistake.â
âYouâll make up for it by making another?â And then as she again took her time: âI thought your whole point is just that youâre sure.â
âOne can never be ideally sure of anything. There are always possibilities.â
âThen, if we can but strike so wild, why keep meddling?â
It made her again look at him. âWhere would you have been, my dear, if I hadnât meddled with you?â
âAh, that wasnât meddlingâ âI was your own. I was your own,â said the Colonel, âfrom the moment I didnât object.â
âWell, these people wonât object. They are my own tooâ âin the sense that Iâm awfully fond of them. Also in the sense,â she continued, âthat I think theyâre not so very much less fond of me. Our relation, all round, existsâ âitâs a reality, and a very good one; weâre mixed up, so to speak, and itâs too late to change it. We must live in it and with it. Therefore to see that Charlotte gets a good husband as soon as possibleâ âthat, as I say, will be one of my ways of living. It will cover,â she said with conviction, âall the ground.â And then as his own conviction appeared to continue as little to match: âThe ground, I mean, of any nervousness I may ever feel. It will be in fact my duty and I shanât rest till my dutyâs performed.â She had arrived by this time at something like exaltation. âI shall give, for the next year or two if necessary, my life to it. I shall have done in that case what I can.â
He took it at last as it came. âYou hold thereâs no limit to what you âcanâ?â
âI donât say thereâs no limit, or anything of the sort. I say there are good chancesâ âenough of them for hope. Why shouldnât there be when a girl is, after all, all that she is?â
âBy after âallâ you mean after sheâs in love with somebody else?â
The Colonel put his question with a quietude doubtless designed to be fatal; but it scarcely pulled her up. âSheâs not too much in love not herself to want to marry. She would now particularly like to.â
âHas she told you so?â
âNot yet. Itâs too soon. But she will. Meanwhile, however, I donât require the information. Her marrying will prove the truth.â
âAnd what truth?â
âThe truth of everything I say.â
âProve it to whom?â
âWell, to myself, to begin with. That will be enough for meâ âto work for her. What it will prove,â Mrs. Assingham presently went on, âwill be that sheâs cured. That she accepts the situation.â
He paid this the tribute of a long pull at his pipe. âThe situation of doing the one thing she can that will really seem to cover her tracks?â
His wife looked at him, the good dry man, as if now at last he was merely vulgar. âThe one thing she can do that will really make new tracks altogether. The thing that, before any other, will be wise and right. The thing that will best give her her chance to be magnificent.â
He slowly emitted his smoke. âAnd best give you, by the same token, yours to be magnificent with her?â
âI shall be as magnificent, at least, as I can.â
Bob Assingham got up. âAnd you call me immoral?â
She hesitated. âIâll call you stupid if you prefer. But stupidity pushed to a certain point is, you know, immorality. Just so what is morality but high intelligence?â This he was unable to tell her; which left her more definitely to conclude. âBesides, itâs all, at the worst, great fun.â
âOh, if you simply put it at thatâ â!â
His implication was that in this case they had a common ground; yet even thus he couldnât catch her by it. âOh, I donât mean,â she said from the threshold, âthe fun that you mean. Good night.â
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