Henry James: Complete Stories 1864-1874 (33 page)

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Authors: Henry James

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BOOK: Henry James: Complete Stories 1864-1874
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Page 188
That's what your mother calls it when she means that you will give me up.
How can I give you up? the girl demanded. Why can't we go on being friends, as I asked you the evening you dined here?
What do you mean by friends?
Well, not making everything impossible.
You didn't think anything impossible of old, Raymond rejoined, bitterly. I thought you liked me then, and I have even thought so since.
I like you more than I like any one. I like you so much that it's my principal happiness.
Then why are there impossibilities?
Oh, some day I'll tell you! said Dora, with a quick sigh. Perhaps after Tishy is married. And meanwhile, are you not going to remain in Paris, at any rate? Isn't your work here? You are not here for me only. You can come to the house often. That's what I mean by our being friends.
Her companion sat looking at her with a gloomy stare, as if he were trying to make up the deficiencies in her logic.
After Tishy is married? I don't see what that has to do with it. Tishy is little more than a baby; she may not be married for ten years.
That is very true.
And you dispose of the interval by a simple meanwhile? My dear Dora, your talk is strange, Raymond continued, with his voice passionately lowered. And I may come to the houseoften? How often do you meanin ten years? Five timesor even twenty? He saw that her eyes were filling with tears, but he went on: It has been coming over me little by little (I notice things very much if I have a reason), and now I think I understand your mother's system.
Don't say anything against my mother, the girl broke in, beseechingly.
I shall not say anything unjust. That is if I am unjust you must tell me. This is my idea, and your speaking of Tishy's marriage confirms it. To begin with she has had immense plans for you all; she wanted each of you to be a princess or a duchessI mean a good one. But she has had to give
you
up.
 
Page 189
No one has asked for me, said Dora, with unexpected honesty.
I don't believe it. Dozens of fellows have asked for you, and you have shaken your head in that divine way (divine for me, I mean) in which you shook it the other night.
My mother has never said an unkind word to me in her life, the girl declared, in answer to this.
I never said she had, and I don't know why you take the precaution of telling me so. But whatever you tell me or don't tell me, Raymond pursued, there is one thing I see very wellthat so long as you won't marry a duke Cousin Maria has found means to prevent you from marrying till your sisters have made rare alliances.
Has found means? Dora repeated, as if she really wondered what was in his thought.
Of course I mean only through your affection for her. How she works that, you know best yourself.
It's delightful to have a mother of whom every one is so fond, said Dora, smiling.
She is a most remarkable woman. Don't think for a moment that I don't appreciate her. You don't want to quarrel with her, and I daresay you are right.
Why, Raymond, of course I'm right!
It proves you are not madly in love with me. It seems to me that for you
I
would have quarrelled_____
Raymond, Raymond! she interrupted, with the tears again rising.
He sat looking at her, and then he said, Well, when they
are
married?
I don't know the futureI don't know what may happen.
You mean that Tishy is so smallshe doesn't growand will therefore be difficult? Yes, she
is
small. There was bitterness in his heart, but he laughed at his own words. However, Effie ought to go off easily, he went on, as Dora said nothing. I really wonder that, with the Marquise and all, she hasn't gone off yet. This thing, to-night, ought to do a great deal for her.
Dora listened to him with a fascinated gaze; it was as if he expressed things for her and relieved her spirit by making them clear and coherent. Her eyes managed, each time, to be
 
Page 190
dry again, and now a somewhat wan, ironical smile moved her lips. Mamma knows what she wantsshe knows what she will take. And she will take only that.
Preciselysomething tremendous. And she is willing to wait, eh? Well, Effie is very young, and she's charming. But she won't be charming if she has an ugly appendage in the shape of a poor unsuccessful American artist (not even a good one), whose father went bankrupt, for a brother-in-law. That won't smooth the way, of course; and if a prince is to come into the family, the family must be kept tidy to receive him. Dora got up quickly, as if she could bear his lucidity no longer, but he kept close to her as she walked away. And she can sacrifice you like that, without a scruple, without a pang?
I might have escapedif I would marry, the girl replied.
Do you call that escaping? She has succeeded with you, but is it a part of what the Marquise calls her
succès de bonté?
Nothing that you can say (and it's far worse than the reality) can prevent her being delightful.
Yes, that's your loyalty, and I could shoot you for it! he exclaimed, making her pause on the threshold of the adjoining room. So you think it will take about ten years, considering Tishy's sizeor want of size? He himself again was the only one to laugh at this. Your mother is closeted, as much as she can be closeted now, with Madame de Brives, and perhaps this time they are really settling something.
I have thought that before and nothing has come. Mamma wants something so good; not only every advantage and every grandeur, but every virtue under heaven, and every guarantee. Oh, she wouldn't expose them!
I see; that's where her goodness comes in and where the Marquise is impressed. He took Dora's hand; he felt that he must go, for she exasperated him with her irony that stopped short and her patience that wouldn't stop. You simply propose that I should wait? he said, as he held her hand.
It seems to me that you might, if
I
can. Then the girl remarked, Now that you are here, it's far better.
There was a sweetness in this which made him, after glancing about a moment, raise her hand to his lips. He went away without taking leave of Cousin Maria, who was still out of sight, her conference with the Marquise apparently not having
 
Page 191
terminated. This looked (he reflected as he passed out) as if something might come of it. However, before he went home he fell again into a gloomy forecast. The weather had changed, the stars were all out, and he walked the empty streets for an hour. Tishy's perverse refusal to grow and Cousin Maria's conscientious exactions promised him a terrible probation. And in those intolerable years what further interference, what meddlesome, effective pressure, might not make itself felt? It may be added that Tishy is decidedly a dwarf and his probation is not yet over.
 
Page 192
Louisa Pallant
N
EVER SAY
you know the last word about any human heart! I was once treated to a revelation which startled and touched me, in the nature of a person with whom I had been acquainted (well, as I supposed) for years, whose character I had had good reasons, heaven knows, to appreciate and in regard to whom I flattered myself that I had nothing more to learn.
It was on the terrace of the Kursaal at Homburg, nearly ten years ago, one lovely night toward the end of July. I had come to the place that day from Frankfort, with vague intentions, and was mainly occupied in waiting for my young nephew, the only son of my sister, who had been intrusted to my care by a very fond mother for the summer (I was expected to show him Europeonly the very best of it), and was on his way from Paris to join me. The excellent band discoursed music not too abstruse, and the air was filled besides with the murmur of different languages, the smoke of many cigars, the creak on the gravel of the gardens of strolling shoes and the thick tinkle of beer-glasses. There were a hundred people walking about, there were some in clusters at little tables and many on benches and rows of chairs, watching the others as if they had paid for the privilege and were rather disappointed. I was among these last; I sat by myself, smoking my cigar and thinking of nothing very particular while families and couples passed and repassed me.
I scarcely know how long I had sat there when I became aware of a recognition which made my meditations definite. It was on my own part, and the object of it was a lady who moved to and fro, unconscious of my observation, with a young girl at her side. I had not seen her for ten years, and what first struck me was the fact not that she was Mrs. Henry Pallant but that the girl who was with her was remarkably prettyor rather first of all that every one who passed her turned round to look at her. This led me to look at the young lady myself, and her charming face diverted my attention for some time from that of her companion. The latter, moreover,
 
Page 193
though it was night, wore a thin, light veil which made her features vague. The couple walked and walked, slowly, but though they were very quiet and decorous, and also very well dressed, they seemed to have no friends. Every one looked at them but no one spoke; they appeared even to talk very little to each other. Moreover they bore with extreme composure and as if they were thoroughly used to it the attention they excited. I am afraid it occurred to me to take for granted that they were not altogether honourable and that if they had been the elder lady would have covered the younger up a little more from the public stare and not have been so ashamed to exhibit her own face. Perhaps this question came into my mind too easily just thenin view of my prospective mentorship to my nephew. If I was to show him only the best of Europe I should have to be very careful about the people he should meetespecially the ladiesand the relations he should form. I suspected him of knowing very little of life and I was rather uneasy about my responsibilities. Was I completely relieved and reassured when I perceived that I simply had Louisa Pallant before me and that the girl was her daughter Linda, whom I had known as a childLinda grown up into a regular beauty?
The question is delicate and the proof that I was not very sure is perhaps that I forbore to speak to the ladies immediately. I watched them awhileI wondered what they would do. No great harm, assuredly; but I was anxious to see if they were really isolated. Homburg is a great resort of the Englishthe London season takes up its tale there toward the first of Augustand I had an idea that in such a company as that Louisa would naturally know people. It was my impression that she cultivated the English, that she had been much in London and would be likely to have views in regard to a permanent settlement there. This supposition was quickened by the sight of Linda's beauty, for I knew there is no country in which a handsome person is more appreciated. You will see that I took time, and I confess that as I finished my cigar I thought it all over. There was no good reason in fact why I should have rushed into Mrs. Pallant's arms. She had not treated me well and we had never really made it up. Somehow even the circumstance that (after the first soreness) I was glad to have lost her had never put us quite right with each other;
 
Page 194
nor, for herself, had it made her less ashamed of her heartless behaviour that poor Pallant after all turned out no great catch. I had forgiven her; I had not felt that it was anything but an escape not to have married a girl who had it in her to take back her given word and break a fellow's heart, for mere fleshpotsor the shallow promise, as it pitifully proved, of fleshpots; moreover we had met since then, on the occasion of my former visit to Europe; we had looked each other in the eyes, we had pretended to be free friends and had talked of the wickedness of the world as composedly as if we were the only just, the only pure. I knew then what she had given outthat I had driven her off by my insane jealousy before she ever thought of Henry Pallant, before she had ever seen him. This had not been then and it could not be to-day a ground of real reunion, especially if you add to it that she knew perfectly what I thought of her. It is my belief that it does not often minister to friendship that your friend shall know your real opinion, for he knows it mainly when it is unfavourable, and this is especially the case when (if the solecism may pass) he is a woman. I had not followed Mrs. Pallant's fortunes; the years elapsed, for me, in my own country, whereas she led her life, which I vaguely believed to be difficult after her husband's deathvirtually that of a bankruptin foreign lands. I heard of her from time to time; always as established somewhere, but on each occasion in a different place. She drifted from country to country, and if she had been of a hard composition at the beginning it could never occur to me that her struggle with society, as it might be called, would have softened the paste. Whenever I heard a woman spoken of as horribly worldly I thought immediately of the object of my early passion. I imagined she had debts, and when I now at last made up my mind to recall myself to her it was present to me that she might ask me to lend her money. More than anything else, at this time of day, I was sorry for her, so that such an idea did not operate as a deterrent.
She pretended afterwards that she had not noticed meexpressing great surprise and wishing to know where I had dropped from; but I think the corner of her eye had taken me in and she was waiting to see what I would do. She had ended by sitting down with her girl on the same row of chairs

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