The Ambassadors Henry James (novel24 txt) đ
- Author: Henry James
Book online «The Ambassadors Henry James (novel24 txt) đ». Author Henry James
He was altogether easy about it, and this made Strether now see how at bottom, and in spite of the shade of shyness that really cost him nothing, he had from the first moment been easy about everything. The shade of shyness was mere good taste. People with manners formed could apparently have, as one of their best cards, the shade of shyness too. He had leaned a little forward to speak; his elbows were on the table; and the inscrutable new face that he had got somewhere and somehow was brought by the movement nearer to his criticâs. There was a fascination for that critic in its not being, this ripe physiognomy, the face that, under observation at least, he had originally carried away from Woollett. Strether found a certain freedom on his own side in defining it as that of a man of the worldâ âa formula that indeed seemed to come now in some degree to his relief; that of a man to whom things had happened and were variously known. In gleams, in glances, the past did perhaps peep out of it; but such lights were faint and instantly merged. Chad was brown and thick and strong, and of old Chad had been rough. Was all the difference therefore that he was actually smooth? Possibly; for that he was smooth was as marked as in the taste of a sauce or in the rub of a hand. The effect of it was generalâ âit had retouched his features, drawn them with a cleaner line. It had cleared his eyes and settled his colour and polished his fine square teethâ âthe main ornament of his face; and at the same time that it had given him a form and a surface, almost a design, it had toned his voice, established his accent, encouraged his smile to more play and his other motions to less. He had formerly, with a great deal of action, expressed very little; and he now expressed whatever was necessary with almost none at all. It was as if in short he had really, copious perhaps but shapeless, been put into a firm mould and turned successfully out. The phenomenonâ âStrether kept eyeing it as a phenomenon, an eminent caseâ âwas marked enough to be touched by the finger. He finally put his hand across the table and laid it on Chadâs arm. âIf youâll promise meâ âhere on the spot and giving me your word of honourâ âto break straight off, youâll make the future the real right thing for all of us alike. Youâll ease off the strain of this decent but none the less acute suspense in which Iâve for so many days been waiting for you, and let me turn in to rest. I shall leave you with my blessing and go to bed in peace.â
Chad again fell back at this and, his hands pocketed, settled himself a little; in which posture he looked, though he rather anxiously smiled, only the more earnest. Then Strether seemed to see that he was really nervous, and he took that as what he would have called a wholesome sign. The only mark of it hitherto had been his more than once taking off and putting on his wide-brimmed crush hat. He had at this moment made the motion again to remove it, then had only pushed it back, so that it hung informally on his strong young grizzled crop. It was a touch that gave the note of the familiarâ âthe intimate and the belatedâ âto their quiet colloquy; and it was indeed by some such trivial aid that Strether became aware at the same moment of something else. The observation was at any rate determined in him by some light too fine to distinguish from so many others, but it was none the less sharply determined. Chad looked unmistakeably during these instantsâ âwell, as Strether put it to himself, all he was worth. Our friend had a sudden apprehension of what that would on certain sides be. He saw him in a flash as the young man marked out by women; and for a concentrated minute the dignity, the comparative austerity, as he funnily fancied it, of this character affected him almost with awe. There was an experience on his interlocutorâs part that looked out at him from under the displaced hat, and that looked out moreover by a force of its own, the deep fact of its quantity and quality, and not through Chadâs intending bravado or swagger. That was then the way men marked out by women wereâ âand also the men by whom the women were doubtless in turn sufficiently distinguished. It affected Strether for thirty seconds as a relevant truth, a truth which, however, the next minute, had fallen into its relation. âCanât you imagine there being some questions,â Chad asked, âthat a fellowâ âhowever much impressed by your charming way of stating thingsâ âwould like to put to you first?â
âOh yesâ âeasily. Iâm here to answer everything. I think I can even tell you things, of the greatest interest to you, that you wonât know enough to ask me. Weâll take as many days to it as you like. But I want,â Strether wound up, âto go to bed now.â
âReally?â
Chad had spoken in such surprise that he was amused. âCanât you believe it?â âwith what you put me through?â
The young man seemed to consider. âOh I havenât put you through muchâ âyet.â
âDo you mean thereâs so much more to come?â Strether laughed. âAll the more reason then that I should gird myself.â And as if to mark what he felt he could by this time count on he was already on his feet.
Chad, still seated, stayed him, with a hand against him, as he passed between their table and the next. âOh we shall get on!â
The tone was,
Comments (0)