The Awkward Age - Henry James (ap literature book list .txt) š
- Author: Henry James
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This was more interesting than he had expected, and the effect produced by his interlocutress, as well as doubtless not lost on her, was shown in his suppressed start. āThere has been no reason why I should attribute to you any judgement of the matter; but Iāve had one myself, and I donāt see why I shouldnāt say frankly that itās very much the one you express. It would be a very good thing.ā
āA very good thing, but none of my business?āāthe Duchessās vivacity was not unamiable.
It was on this circumstance that her companion for an instant perhaps meditated. āItās probably not in my interest to say that. I should give you too easy a retort. It would strike any one as quite as much your business as mine.ā
āWell, it ought to be somebodyās, you know. One would suppose it to be her motherāsāher fatherās; but in this country the parents are even more emancipated than the children. Suppose, really, since it appears to be nobodyās affair, that you and I do make it ours. We neednāt either of us,ā she continued, ābe concerned for the otherās reasons, though Iām perfectly ready, I assure you, to put my cards on the table. Youāve your feelingsāwe know theyāre beautiful. I, on my side, have mineāfor which I donāt pretend anything but that theyāre strong. They can dispense with being beautiful when theyāre so perfectly settled. Besides, I may mention, theyāre rather nice than otherwise. Edward and I have a cousinage, though for all he does to keep it upā! If he leaves his children to play in the street I take it seriously enough to make an occasional dash for them before theyāre run over. And I want for Nanda simply the man she herself wantsāit isnāt as if I wanted for her a dwarf or a hunchback or a coureur or a drunkard. Vanderbankās a man whom any woman, donāt you think? might beāwhom more than one woman ISāglad of for herself: beau comme le jour, awfully conceited and awfully patronising, but clever and successful and yet liked, and without, so far as I know, any of the terrific appendages which in this country so often diminish the value of even the pleasantest people. He hasnāt five horrible unmarried sisters for his wife to have always on a visit. The way your women donāt marry is the ruin here of society, and Iāve been assured in good quartersāthough I donāt know so much about thatāthe ruin also of conversation and of literature. Isnāt it precisely just a little to keep Nanda herself from becoming that kind of appendageāsay to poor Harold, say, one of these days, to her younger brother and sisterāthat friends like you and me feel the importance of bestirring ourselves in time? Of course sheās supposedly young, but sheās really any age you like: your London world so fearfully batters and bruises them.ā She had gone fast and far, but it had given Mr. Longdon time to feel himself well afloat. There were so many things in it all to take up that he laid his handāof which, he was not unconscious, the feebleness exposed himāon the nearest. āWhy Iām sure her motherāafter twenty years of itāis fresh enough.ā
āFresh? You find Mrs. Brook fresh?ā The Duchess had a manner that, in its all-knowingness, rather humiliated than encouraged; but he was all the more resolute for being conscious of his own reserves. āIt seems to me itās fresh to look about thirty.ā
āThat indeed would be perfect. But she doesnātāshe looks about three. She simply looks a baby.ā
āOh Duchess, youāre really too particular!ā he retorted, feeling that, as the trodden worm will turn, anxiety itself may sometimes tend to wit.
She met him in her own way. āI know what I mean. My niece is a person I call fresh. Itās warranted, as they say in the shops. Besides,ā she went on, āif a married woman has been knocked about thatās only a part of her condition. Elle lāa lien voulu, and if youāre married youāre married; itās the smokeāor call it the soot!āof the fire. You know, yourself,ā she roundly pursued, āthat Nandaās situation appals you.ā
āOh āappalsā!ā he restrictively murmured.
It even tried a little his companionās patience. āThere you are, you Englishāyouāll never face your own music. Itās amazing what youād rather do with a thingāanything not to shoot at or to make money withā than look at its meaning. If I wished to save the girl as YOU wish it I should know exactly from what. But why differ about reasons,ā she asked, āwhen weāre at one about the fact? I donāt mention the greatest of Vanderbankās merits,ā she addedāāhis having so delicious a friend. By whom, let me hasten to assure you,ā she laughed, āI donāt in the least mean Mrs. Brook! She IS delicious if you like, but believe me when I tell you, caro mioāif you need to be toldāthat for effective action on him youāre worth twenty of her.ā
What was most visible in Mr. Longdon was that, however it came to him, he had rarely before, all at once, had so much given him to think about. Again the only way to manage was to take what came uppermost. āBy effective action you mean action on the matter of his proposing for Nanda?ā
The Duchessās assent was noble. āYou can make him proposeāyou can make, I mean, a sure thing of it. You can doter the bride.ā Then as with the impulse to meet benevolently and more than halfway her companionās imperfect apprehension: āYou can settle on her something that will make her a parti.ā His apprehension was perhaps imperfect, but it could still lead somehow to his flushing all over, and this demonstration the Duchess as quickly took into account. āPoor Edward, you know, wonāt give her a penny.ā
Decidedly she went fast, but Mr. Longdon in a moment had caught up. āMr. Vanderbankāyour idea isāwould require on the part of his wife something of that sort?ā
āPray who wouldnātāin the world we all move inārequire it quite as much? Mr. Vanderbank, Iām assured, has no means of his own at all, and if he doesnāt believe in impecunious marriages itās not I who shall be shocked at him. For myself I simply despise them. He has nothing but a poor official salary. If itās enough for one it would be little for two, and would be still less for half a dozen. Theyāre just the people to have, that blessed pair, a fine old English family.ā
Mr. Longdon was now fairly abreast of it. āWhat it comes to then, the idea youāre so good as to put before me, is to bribe him to take her.ā
The Duchess remained bland, but she fixed him. āYou say that as if you were scandalised, but if you try Mr. Van with it I donāt think heāll be. And you wonāt persuade me,ā she went on finely, āthat you havenāt yourself thought of it.ā She kept her eyes on him, and the effect of them, soon enough visible in his face, was such as presently to make her exult at her felicity. āYouāre of a limpidity, dear manāyouāve only to be said ābo!ā to and you confess. Consciously or unconsciouslyāthe former, really, Iām inclined to thinkāyouāve wanted him for her.ā She paused an instant to enjoy her triumph, after which she continued: āAnd youāve wanted her for him. I make you out, youāll sayāfor I see you comingāone of those horrible benevolent busy-bodies who are the worst of the class, but youāve only to think a littleāif I may go so farāto see that no āmakingā at all is required. Youāve only one link with the Brooks, but that link is golden. How can we, all of us, by this time, not have grasped and admired the beauty of your feeling for Lady Julia? There it isāI make you wince: to speak of it is to profane it. Let us by all means not speak of it then, but let us act on it.ā He had at last turned his face from her, and it now took in, from the vantage of his high position, only the loveliness of the place and the hour, which included a glimpse of Lord Petherton and little Aggie, who, down in the garden, slowly strolled in familiar union. Each had a hand in the otherās, swinging easily as they went; their talk was evidently of flowers and fruits and birds; it was quite like father and daughter. One could see half a mile off in short that THEY werenāt flirting. Our friendās bewilderment came in odd cold gusts: these were unreasoned and capricious; one of them, at all events, during his companionās pause, must have roared in his ears. Was it not therefore through some continuance of the sound that he heard her go on speaking? āOf course you know the poor childās own condition.ā
It took him a good while to answer. āDo YOU know it?ā he asked with his eyes still away.
āIf your questionās ironical,ā she laughed, āyour ironyās perfectly wasted. I should be ashamed of myself if, with my relationship and my interest, I hadnāt made sure. Nandaās fairly sickāas sick as a little catāwith her passion.ā It was with an intensity of silence that he appeared to accept this; he was even so dumb for a minute that the oddity of the image could draw from him no natural sound. The Duchess once more, accordingly, recognised an occasion. āIt has doubtless already occurred to you that, since your sentiment for the living is the charming fruit of your sentiment for the dead, there would be a sacrifice to Lady Juliaās memory more exquisite than any other.ā
At this finally Mr. Longdon turned. āThe effortāon the lines you speak ofāfor Nandaās happiness?ā
She fairly glowed with hope. āAnd by the same token such a piece of poetic justice! Quite the loveliest it would be, I think, one had ever heard of.ā
So, for some time more, they sat confronted. āI donāt quite see your difficulty,ā he said at last. āI do happen to know, I confess, that Nanda herself extremely desires the execution of your project.ā
His friendās smile betrayed no surprise at this effect of her eloquence. āYouāre bad at dodging. Nandaās desire is inevitably to stop off for herself every question of any one but Vanderbank. If she wants me to succeed in arranging with Mr. Mitchett can you ask for a plainer sign of her private predicament? But youāve signs enough, I seeāāshe caught herself up: āwe may take them all for granted. Iāve known perfectly from the first that the only difficulty would come from her motherābut also that that would be stiff.ā
The movement with which Mr. Longdon removed his glasses might have denoted a certain fear to participate in too much of what the Duchess had known. āIāve not been ignorant that Mrs. Brookenham favours Mr. Mitchett.ā
But he was not to be let off with that. āThen youāve not been blind, I suppose, to her reason for doing so.ā He might not have been blind, but his vision, at this, scarce showed sharpness, and it determined in his interlocutress the shortest of short cuts. āShe favours Mr. Mitchett because she wants āold Vanā herself.ā
He was evidently conscious of looking at her hard. āIn what senseā herself?ā
āAh you must supply the sense; I
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