Henry James: Complete Stories 1864-1874 (107 page)

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Page 637
that people would, as I had said to Mrs. Peck, enter into her affairs.
Jasper Nettlepoint went down at certain times to see his mother, and I watched for one of these occasions (on the third day out) and took advantage of it to go and sit by Miss Mavis. She wore a blue veil drawn tightly over her face, so that if the smile with which she greeted me was dim I could account for it partly by that.
Well, we are getting onwe are getting on, I said, cheerfully, looking at the friendly, twinkling sea.
Are we going very fast?
Not fast, but steadily.
Ohne Hast, ohne Rast
do you know German?
Well, I've studied itsome.
It will be useful to you over there when you travel.
Well yes, if we do. But I don't suppose we shall much. Mr. Nettlepoint says we ought, my interlocutress added in a moment.
Ah, of course
he
thinks so. He has been all over the world.
Yes, he has described some of the places. That's what I should like. I didn't know I should like it so much.
Like what so much?
Going on this way. I could go on for ever, for ever and ever.
Ah, you know it's not always like this, I rejoined.
Well, it's better than Boston.
It isn't so good as Paris, I said, smiling.
Oh, I know all about Paris. There is no freshness in that. I feel as if I had been there.
You mean you have heard so much about it?
Oh yes, nothing else for ten years.
I had come to talk with Miss Mavis because she was attractive, but I had been rather conscious of the absence of a good topic, not feeling at liberty to revert to Mr. Porterfield. She had not encouraged me, when I spoke to her as we were leaving Boston, to go on with the history of my acquaintance with this gentleman; and yet now, unexpectedly, she appeared to imply (it was doubtless one of the disparities mentioned by Mrs. Nettlepoint) that he might be glanced at without indelicacy.
 
Page 638
I see, you mean by letters, I remarked.
I shan't live in a good part. I know enough to know that, she went on.
Dear young lady, there are no bad parts, I answered, reassuringly.
Why, Mr. Nettlepoint says it's horrid.
It's horrid?
Up there in the Batignolles. It's worse than Merrimac Avenue.
Worsein what way?
Why, even less where the nice people live.
He oughtn't to say that, I returned. Don't you call Mr. Porterfield a nice person? I ventured to subjoin.
Oh, it doesn't make any difference. She rested her eyes on me a moment through her veil, the texture of which gave them a suffused prettiness. Do you know him very well? she asked.
Mr. Porterfield?
No, Mr. Nettlepoint.
Ah, very little. He's a good deal younger than I.
She was silent a moment; after which she said: He's younger than me, too. I know not what drollery there was in this but it was unexpected and it made me laugh. Neither do I know whether Miss Mavis took offence at my laughter, though I remember thinking at the moment with compunction that it had brought a certain colour to her cheek. At all events she got up, gathering her shawl and her books into her arm. I'm going downI'm tired.
Tired of me, I'm afraid.
No, not yet.
I'm like you, I pursued. I should like it to go on and on.
She had begun to walk along the deck to the companion-way and I went with her. Oh, no, I shouldn't, after all!
I had taken her shawl from her to carry it, but at the top of the steps that led down to the cabins I had to give it back. Your mother would be glad if she could know, I observed as we parted.
If she could know?
How well you are getting on. And that good Mrs. Allen.
 
Page 639
Oh, mother, mother! She made me come, she pushed me off. And almost as if not to say more she went quickly below.
I paid Mrs. Nettlepoint a morning visit after luncheon and another in the evening, before she turned in. That same day, in the evening, she said to me suddenly, Do you know what I have done? I have asked Jasper.
Asked him what?
Why, if
she
asked him, you know.
I don't understand.
You do perfectly. If that girl really asked himon the balconyto sail with us.
My dear friend, do you suppose that if she did he would tell you?
That's just what he says. But he says she didn't.
And do you consider the statement valuable? I asked, laughing out. You had better ask Miss Gracie herself.
Mrs. Nettlepoint stared. I couldn't do that.
Incomparable friend, I am only joking. What does it signify now?
I thought you thought everything signified. You were so full of signification!
Yes, but we are farther out now, and somehow in midocean everything becomes absolute.
What else
can
he do with decency? Mrs. Nettlepoint went on. If, as my son, he were never to speak to her it would be very rude and you would think that stranger still. Then
you
would do what he does, and where would be the difference?
How do you know what he does? I haven't mentioned him for twenty-four hours.
Why, she told me herself: she came in this afternoon.
What an odd thing to tell you! I exclaimed.
Not as she says it. She says he's full of attention, perfectly devotedlooks after her all the while. She seems to want me to know it, so that I may commend him for it.
That's charming; it shows her good conscience.
Yes, or her great cleverness.
Something in the tone in which Mrs. Nettlepoint said this caused me to exclaim in real surprise, Why, what do you suppose she has in her mind?
 
Page 640
To get hold of him, to make him go so far that he can't retreat, to marry him, perhaps.
To marry him? And what will she do with Mr. Porterfield?
She'll ask me just to explain to himor perhaps you.
Yes, as an old friend! I replied, laughing. But I asked more seriously, Do you see Jasper caught like that?
Well, he's only a boyhe's younger at least than she.
Precisely; she regards him as a child.
As a child?
She remarked to me herself to-day that he is so much younger.
Mrs. Nettlepoint stared. Does she talk of it with you? That shows she has a plan, that she has thought it over!
I have sufficiently betrayed that I deemed Grace Mavis a singular girl, but I was far from judging her capable of laying a trap for our young companion. Moreover my reading of Jasper was not in the least that he was catchablecould be made to do a thing if he didn't want to do it. Of course it was not impossible that he might be inclined, that he might take it (or already have taken it) into his head to marry Miss Mavis; but to believe this I should require still more proof than his always being with her. He wanted at most to marry her for the voyage. If you have questioned him perhaps you have tried to make him feel responsible, I said to his mother.
A little, but it's very difficult. Interference makes him perverse. One has to go gently. Besides, it's too absurdthink of her age. If she can't take care of herself! cried Mrs. Nettlepoint.
Yes, let us keep thinking of her age, though it's not so prodigious. And if things get very bad you have one resource left, I added.
What is that?
You can go upstairs.
Ah, never, never! If it takes that to save her she must be lost. Besides, what good would it do? If I were to go up she could come down here.
Yes, but you could keep Jasper with you.
Could I? Mrs. Nettlepoint demanded, in the manner of a woman who knew her son.
In the saloon the next day, after dinner, over the red cloth
 
Page 641
of the tables, beneath the swinging lamps and the racks of tumblers, decanters and wine-glasses, we sat down to whist, Mrs. Peck, among others, taking a hand in the game. She played very badly and talked too much, and when the rubber was over assuaged her discomfiture (though not minewe had been partners) with a Welsh rabbit and a tumbler of something hot. We had done with the cards, but while she waited for this refreshment she sat with her elbows on the table shuffling a pack.
She hasn't spoken to me yetshe won't do it, she remarked in a moment.
Is it possible there is any one on the ship who hasn't spoken to you?
Not that girlshe knows too well! Mrs. Peck looked round our little circle with a smile of intelligenceshe had familiar, communicative eyes. Several of our company had assembled, according to the wont, the last thing in the evening, of those who are cheerful at sea, for the consumption of grilled sardines and devilled bones.
What then does she know?
Oh, she knows that I know.
Well, we know what Mrs. Peck knows, one of the ladies of the group observed to me, with an air of privilege.
Well, you wouldn't know if I hadn't told youfrom the way she acts, said Mrs. Peck, with a small laugh.
She is going out to a gentleman who lives over therehe's waiting there to marry her, the other lady went on, in the tone of authentic information. I remember that her name was Mrs. Gotch and that her mouth looked always as if she were whistling.
Oh, he knowsI've told him, said Mrs. Peck.
Well, I presume every one knows, Mrs. Gotch reflected.
Dear madam, is it every one's business? I asked.
Why, don't you think it's a peculiar way to act? Mrs. Gotch was evidently surprised at my little protest.
Why, it's right therestraight in front of you, like a play at the theatreas if you had paid to see it, said Mrs. Peck. If you don't call it public!
Aren't you mixing things up? What do you call public?
Why, the way they go on. They are up there now.
 
Page 642
They cuddle up there half the night, said Mrs. Gotch. I don't know when they come down. Any hour you likewhen all the lights are out they are up there still.
Oh, you can't tire them out. They don't want relieflike the watch! laughed one of the gentlemen.
Well, if they enjoy each other's society what's the harm? another asked. They'd do just the same on land.
They wouldn't do it on the public streets, I suppose, said Mrs. Peck. And they wouldn't do it if Mr. Porterfield was round!
Isn't that just where your confusion comes in? I inquired. It's public enough that Miss Mavis and Mr. Nettlepoint are always together, but it isn't in the least public that she is going to be married.
Why, how can you saywhen the very sailors know it! The captain knows it and all the officers know it; they see them thereespecially at night, when they're sailing the ship.
I thought there was some rule said Mrs. Gotch.
Well, there isthat you've got to behave yourself, Mrs. Peck rejoined. So the captain told mehe said they have some rule. He said they have to have, when people are too demonstrative.
Too demonstrative?
When they attract so much attention.
Ah, it's we who attract the attentionby talking about what doesn't concern us and about what we really don't know, I ventured to declare.
She said the captain said he would tell on her as soon as we arrive, Mrs. Gotch interposed.
She
said? I repeated, bewildered.
Well, he did say so, that he would think it his duty to inform Mr. Porterfield, when he comes on to meet herif they keep it up in the same way, said Mrs. Peck.
Oh, they'll keep it up, don't you fear! one of the gentlemen exclaimed.
Dear madam, the captain is laughing at you.
No, he ain'the's right down scandalised. He says he regards us all as a real family and wants the family to be properly behaved. I could see Mrs. Peck was irritated by my controversial tone: she challenged me with considerable spirit. How

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