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
âI donât care what you make of it, and I donât ask anything whatever of youâ âanything but this. I want to have said itâ âthatâs all; I want not to have failed to say it. To see you once and be with you, to be as we are now and as we used to be, for one small hourâ âor say for twoâ âthatâs what I have had for weeks in my head. I mean, of course, to get it beforeâ âbefore what youâre going to do. So, all the while, you see,â she went on with her eyes on him, âit was a question for me if I should be able to manage it in time. If I couldnât have come now I probably shouldnât have come at allâ âperhaps even ever. Now that Iâm here I shall stay, but there were moments, over there, when I despaired. It wasnât easyâ âthere were reasons; but it was either this or nothing. So I didnât struggle, you see, in vain. Afterâ âoh, I didnât want that! I donât mean,â she smiled, âthat it wouldnât have been delightful to see you even thenâ âto see you at any time; but I would never have come for it. This is different. This is what I wanted. This is what Iâve got. This is what I shall always have. This is what I should have missed, of course,â she pursued, âif you had chosen to make me miss it. If you had thought me horrid, had refused to come, I should, naturally, have been immensely âsold.â I had to take the risk. Well, youâre all I could have hoped. Thatâs what I was to have said. I didnât want simply to get my time with you, but I wanted you to know. I wanted youââ âshe kept it up, slowly, softly, with a small tremor of voice, but without the least failure of sense or sequenceâ ââI wanted you to understand. I wanted you, that is, to hear. I donât care, I think, whether you understand or not. If I ask nothing of you I donâtâ âI maynâtâ âask even so much as that. What you may think of meâ âthat doesnât in the least matter. What I want is that it shall always be with youâ âso that youâll never be able quite to get rid of itâ âthat I did. I wonât say that you didâ âyou may make as little of that as you like. But that I was here with you where we are and as we areâ âI just saying this. Giving myself, in other words, awayâ âand perfectly willing to do it for nothing. Thatâs all.â
She paused as if her demonstration was completeâ âyet, for the moment, without moving; as if in fact to give it a few minutes to sink in; into the listening air, into the watching space, into the conscious hospitality of nature, so far as nature was, all Londonised, all vulgarised, with them there; or even, for that matter, into her own open ears, rather than into the attention of her passive and prudent friend. His attention had done all that attention could do; his handsome, slightly anxious, yet still more definitely âamusedâ face sufficiently played its part. He clutched, however, at what he could best clutch atâ âthe fact that she let him off, definitely let him off. She let him off, it seemed, even from so much as answering; so that while he smiled back at her in return for her information he felt his lips remain closed to the successive vaguenesses of rejoinder, of objection, that rose for him from within. Charlotte herself spoke again at lastâ ââYou may want to know what I get by it. But thatâs my own affair.â He really didnât want to know even thisâ âor continued, for the safest plan, quite to behave as if he didnât; which prolonged the mere dumbness of diversion in which he had taken refuge. He was glad when, finallyâ âthe point she had wished to make seeming established to her satisfactionâ âthey brought to what might pass for a close the moment of his life at which he had had least to say. Movement and progress, after this, with more impersonal talk, were naturally a relief; so that he was not again, during their excursion, at a loss for the right word. The air had been, as it were, cleared; they had their errand itself to discuss, and the opportunities of London, the sense of the wonderful place, the pleasures of prowling there, the question of shops, of possibilities, of particular objects, noticed by each in previous prowls. Each professed surprise at the extent of the otherâs knowledge; the Prince in especial wondered at his friendâs possession of her London. He had rather prized his own possession, the guidance he could really often give a cabman; it was a
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