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@@ -0,0 +1,14270 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Roderick Hudson, by Henry James + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Roderick Hudson + +Author: Henry James + +Release Date: March 12, 2006 [EBook #176] +[Last updated: August 15, 2011] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RODERICK HUDSON *** + + + + +Produced by Judy Boss and David Widger + + + + + +RODERICK HUDSON + +by Henry James + + + +CONTENTS + + I. Rowland + II. Roderick + III. Rome + IV. Experience + V. Christina + VI. Frascati + VII. St. Cecilia's + VIII. Provocation + IX. Mary Garland + X. The Cavaliere + XI. Mrs. Hudson + XII. The Princess Casamassima + XIII. Switzerland + + + + +CHAPTER I. Rowland + +Mallet had made his arrangements to sail for Europe on the first +of September, and having in the interval a fortnight to spare, he +determined to spend it with his cousin Cecilia, the widow of a nephew of +his father. He was urged by the reflection that an affectionate farewell +might help to exonerate him from the charge of neglect frequently +preferred by this lady. It was not that the young man disliked her; on +the contrary, he regarded her with a tender admiration, and he had not +forgotten how, when his cousin had brought her home on her marriage, he +had seemed to feel the upward sweep of the empty bough from which the +golden fruit had been plucked, and had then and there accepted the +prospect of bachelorhood. The truth was, that, as it will be part of +the entertainment of this narrative to exhibit, Rowland Mallet had an +uncomfortably sensitive conscience, and that, in spite of the seeming +paradox, his visits to Cecilia were rare because she and her misfortunes +were often uppermost in it. Her misfortunes were three in number: first, +she had lost her husband; second, she had lost her money (or the +greater part of it); and third, she lived at Northampton, Massachusetts. +Mallet's compassion was really wasted, because Cecilia was a very clever +woman, and a most skillful counter-plotter to adversity. She had made +herself a charming home, her economies were not obtrusive, and there +was always a cheerful flutter in the folds of her crape. It was the +consciousness of all this that puzzled Mallet whenever he felt tempted +to put in his oar. He had money and he had time, but he never could +decide just how to place these gifts gracefully at Cecilia's service. +He no longer felt like marrying her: in these eight years that fancy had +died a natural death. And yet her extreme cleverness seemed somehow to +make charity difficult and patronage impossible. He would rather chop +off his hand than offer her a check, a piece of useful furniture, or +a black silk dress; and yet there was some sadness in seeing such a +bright, proud woman living in such a small, dull way. Cecilia had, +moreover, a turn for sarcasm, and her smile, which was her pretty +feature, was never so pretty as when her sprightly phrase had a lurking +scratch in it. Rowland remembered that, for him, she was all smiles, and +suspected, awkwardly, that he ministered not a little to her sense of +the irony of things. And in truth, with his means, his leisure, and his +opportunities, what had he done? He had an unaffected suspicion of +his uselessness. Cecilia, meanwhile, cut out her own dresses, and was +personally giving her little girl the education of a princess. + +This time, however, he presented himself bravely enough; for in the way +of activity it was something definite, at least, to be going to Europe +and to be meaning to spend the winter in Rome. Cecilia met him in the +early dusk at the gate of her little garden, amid a studied combination +of floral perfumes. A rosy widow of twenty-eight, half cousin, half +hostess, doing the honors of an odorous cottage on a midsummer evening, +was a phenomenon to which the young man's imagination was able to do +ample justice. Cecilia was always gracious, but this evening she was +almost joyous. She was in a happy mood, and Mallet imagined there was +a private reason for it--a reason quite distinct from her pleasure in +receiving her honored kinsman. The next day he flattered himself he was +on the way to discover it. + +For the present, after tea, as they sat on the rose-framed porch, while +Rowland held his younger cousin between his knees, and she, enjoying +her situation, listened timorously for the stroke of bedtime, Cecilia +insisted on talking more about her visitor than about herself. + +"What is it you mean to do in Europe?" she asked, lightly, giving a +turn to the frill of her sleeve--just such a turn as seemed to Mallet to +bring out all the latent difficulties of the question. + +"Why, very much what I do here," he answered. "No great harm." + +"Is it true," Cecilia asked, "that here you do no great harm? Is not a +man like you doing harm when he is not doing positive good?" + +"Your compliment is ambiguous," said Rowland. + +"No," answered the widow, "you know what I think of you. You have a +particular aptitude for beneficence. You have it in the first place in +your character. You are a benevolent person. Ask Bessie if you don't +hold her more gently and comfortably than any of her other admirers." + +"He holds me more comfortably than Mr. Hudson," Bessie declared, +roundly. + +Rowland, not knowing Mr. Hudson, could but half appreciate the eulogy, +and Cecilia went on to develop her idea. "Your circumstances, in +the second place, suggest the idea of social usefulness. You are +intelligent, you are well-informed, and your charity, if one may call it +charity, would be discriminating. You are rich and unoccupied, so that +it might be abundant. Therefore, I say, you are a person to do something +on a large scale. Bestir yourself, dear Rowland, or we may be taught to +think that virtue herself is setting a bad example." + +"Heaven forbid," cried Rowland, "that I should set the examples of +virtue! I am quite willing to follow them, however, and if I don't +do something on the grand scale, it is that my genius is altogether +imitative, and that I have not recently encountered any very striking +models of grandeur. Pray, what shall I do? Found an orphan asylum, or +build a dormitory for Harvard College? I am not rich enough to do either +in an ideally handsome way, and I confess that, yet awhile, I feel +too young to strike my grand coup. I am holding myself ready for +inspiration. I am waiting till something takes my fancy irresistibly. If +inspiration comes at forty, it will be a hundred pities to have tied up +my money-bag at thirty." + +"Well, I give you till forty," said Cecilia. "It 's only a word to +the wise, a notification that you are expected not to run your course +without having done something handsome for your fellow-men." + +Nine o'clock sounded, and Bessie, with each stroke, courted a closer +embrace. But a single winged word from her mother overleaped her +successive intrenchments. She turned and kissed her cousin, and +deposited an irrepressible tear on his moustache. Then she went and +said her prayers to her mother: it was evident she was being admirably +brought up. Rowland, with the permission of his hostess, lighted a cigar +and puffed it awhile in silence. Cecilia's interest in his career seemed +very agreeable. That Mallet was without vanity I by no means intend to +affirm; but there had been times when, seeing him accept, hardly less +deferentially, advice even more peremptory than the widow's, you +might have asked yourself what had become of his vanity. Now, in the +sweet-smelling starlight, he felt gently wooed to egotism. There was a +project connected with his going abroad which it was on his tongue's end +to communicate. It had no relation to hospitals or dormitories, and yet +it would have sounded very generous. But it was not because it would +have sounded generous that poor Mallet at last puffed it away in +the fumes of his cigar. Useful though it might be, it expressed most +imperfectly the young man's own personal conception of usefulness. He +was extremely fond of all the arts, and he had an almost passionate +enjoyment of pictures. He had seen many, and he judged them sagaciously. +It had occurred to him some time before that it would be the work of a +good citizen to go abroad and with all expedition and secrecy purchase +certain valuable specimens of the Dutch and Italian schools as to which +he had received private proposals, and then present his treasures out of +hand to an American city, not unknown to aesthetic fame, in which at +that time there prevailed a good deal of fruitless aspiration toward an +art-museum. He had seen himself in imagination, more than once, in +some mouldy old saloon of a Florentine palace, turning toward the deep +embrasure of the window some scarcely-faded Ghirlandaio or Botticelli, +while a host in reduced circumstances pointed out the lovely drawing +of a hand. But he imparted none of these visions to Cecilia, and he +suddenly swept them away with the declaration that he was of course an +idle, useless creature, and that he would probably be even more so in +Europe than at home. "The only thing is," he said, "that there I shall +seem to be doing something. I shall be better entertained, and shall be +therefore, I suppose, in a better humor with life. You may say that that +is just the humor a useless man should keep out of. He should cultivate +discontentment. I did a good many things when I was in Europe before, +but I did not spend a winter in Rome. Every one assures me that this is +a peculiar refinement of bliss; most people talk about Rome in the same +way. It is evidently only a sort of idealized form of loafing: a passive +life in Rome, thanks to the number and the quality of one's impressions, +takes on a very respectable likeness to activity. It is still +lotus-eating, only you sit down at table, and the lotuses are served up +on rococo china. It 's all very well, but I have a distinct prevision of +this--that if Roman life does n't do something substantial to make you +happier, it increases tenfold your liability to moral misery. It seems +to me a rash thing for a sensitive soul deliberately to cultivate its +sensibilities by rambling too often among the ruins of the Palatine, or +riding too often in the shadow of the aqueducts. In such recreations the +chords of feeling grow tense, and after-life, to spare your intellectual +nerves, must play upon them with a touch as dainty as the tread of +Mignon when she danced her egg-dance." + +"I should have said, my dear Rowland," said Cecilia, with a laugh, "that +your nerves were tough, that your eggs were hard!" + +"That being stupid, you mean, I might be happy? Upon my word I am not. +I am clever enough to want more than I 've got. I am tired of myself, my +own thoughts, my own affairs, my own eternal company. True happiness, +we are told, consists in getting out of one's self; but the point is not +only to get out--you must stay out; and to stay out you must have some +absorbing errand. Unfortunately, I 've got no errand, and nobody will +trust me with one. I want to care for something, or for some one. And I +want to care with a certain ardor; even, if you can believe it, with +a certain passion. I can't just now feel ardent and passionate about a +hospital or a dormitory. Do you know I sometimes think that I 'm a man +of genius, half finished? The genius has been left out, the faculty of +expression is wanting; but the need for expression remains, and I spend +my days groping for the latch of a closed door." + +"What an immense number of words," said Cecilia after a pause, "to say +you want to fall in love! I 've no doubt you have as good a genius for +that as any one, if you would only trust it." + +"Of course I 've thought of that, and I assure you I hold myself ready. +But, evidently, I 'm not inflammable. Is there in Northampton some +perfect epitome of the graces?" + +"Of the graces?" said Cecilia, raising her eyebrows and suppressing too +distinct a consciousness of being herself a rosy embodiment of several. +"The household virtues are better represented. There are some excellent +girls, and there are two or three very pretty ones. I will have them +here, one by one, to tea, if you like." + +"I should particularly like it; especially as I should give you a chance +to see, by the profundity of my attention, that if I am not happy, it 's +not for want of taking pains." + +Cecilia was silent a moment; and then, "On the whole," she resumed, "I +don't think there are any worth asking. There are none so very pretty, +none so very pleasing." + +"Are you very sure?" asked the young man, rising and throwing away his +cigar-end. + +"Upon my word," cried Cecilia, "one would suppose I wished to keep +you for myself. Of course I am sure! But as the penalty of your +insinuations, I shall invite the plainest and prosiest damsel that can +be found, and leave you alone with her." + +Rowland smiled. "Even against her," he said, "I should be sorry to +conclude until I had given her my respectful attention." + +This little profession of ideal chivalry (which closed the conversation) +was not quite so fanciful on Mallet's lips as it would have been on +those of many another man; as a rapid glance at his antecedents may help +to make the reader perceive. His life had been a singular mixture of the +rough and the smooth. He had sprung from a rigid Puritan stock, and had +been brought up to think much more intently of the duties of this life +than of its privileges and pleasures. His progenitors had submitted in +the matter of dogmatic theology to the relaxing influences of recent +years; but if Rowland's youthful consciousness was not chilled by the +menace of long punishment for brief transgression, he had at least been +made to feel that there ran through all things a strain of right and of +wrong, as different, after all, in their complexions, as the texture, to +the spiritual sense, of Sundays and week-days. His father was a chip of +the primal Puritan block, a man with an icy smile and a stony frown. He +had always bestowed on his son, on principle, more frowns than smiles, +and if the lad had not been turned to stone himself, it was because +nature had blessed him, inwardly, with a well of vivifying waters. Mrs. +Mallet had been a Miss Rowland, the daughter of a retired sea-captain, +once famous on the ships that sailed from Salem and Newburyport. He +had brought to port many a cargo which crowned the edifice of fortunes +already almost colossal, but he had also done a little sagacious trading +on his own account, and he was able to retire, prematurely for so +sea-worthy a maritime organism, upon a pension of his own providing. He +was to be seen for a year on the Salem wharves, smoking the best tobacco +and eying the seaward horizon with an inveteracy which superficial +minds interpreted as a sign of repentance. At last, one evening, he +disappeared beneath it, as he had often done before; this time, +however, not as a commissioned navigator, but simply as an amateur of an +observing turn likely to prove oppressive to the officer in command of +the vessel. Five months later his place at home knew him again, and made +the acquaintance also of a handsome, blonde young woman, of redundant +contours, speaking a foreign tongue. The foreign tongue proved, after +much conflicting research, to be the idiom of Amsterdam, and the young +woman, which was stranger still, to be Captain Rowland's wife. Why +he had gone forth so suddenly across the seas to marry her, what had +happened between them before, and whether--though it was of questionable +propriety for a good citizen to espouse a young person of mysterious +origin, who did her hair in fantastically elaborate plaits, and in whose +appearance "figure" enjoyed such striking predominance--he would +not have had a heavy weight on his conscience if he had remained an +irresponsible bachelor; these questions and many others, bearing with +varying degrees of immediacy on the subject, were much propounded but +scantily answered, and this history need not be charged with resolving +them. Mrs. Rowland, for so handsome a woman, proved a tranquil neighbor +and an excellent housewife. Her extremely fresh complexion, however, was +always suffused with an air of apathetic homesickness, and she played +her part in American society chiefly by having the little squares of +brick pavement in front of her dwelling scoured and polished as nearly +as possible into the likeness of Dutch tiles. Rowland Mallet remembered +having seen her, as a child--an immensely stout, white-faced lady, +wearing a high cap of very stiff tulle, speaking English with a +formidable accent, and suffering from dropsy. Captain Rowland was a +little bronzed and wizened man, with eccentric opinions. He advocated +the creation of a public promenade along the sea, with arbors and little +green tables for the consumption of beer, and a platform, surrounded by +Chinese lanterns, for dancing. He especially desired the town library +to be opened on Sundays, though, as he never entered it on week-days, +it was easy to turn the proposition into ridicule. If, therefore, Mrs. +Mallet was a woman of an exquisite moral tone, it was not that she had +inherited her temper from an ancestry with a turn for casuistry. +Jonas Mallet, at the time of his marriage, was conducting with silent +shrewdness a small, unpromising business. Both his shrewdness and his +silence increased with his years, and at the close of his life he was an +extremely well-dressed, well-brushed gentleman, with a frigid gray eye, +who said little to anybody, but of whom everybody said that he had +a very handsome fortune. He was not a sentimental father, and the +roughness I just now spoke of in Rowland's life dated from his early +boyhood. Mr. Mallet, whenever he looked at his son, felt extreme +compunction at having made a fortune. He remembered that the fruit had +not dropped ripe from the tree into his own mouth, and determined it +should be no fault of his if the boy was corrupted by luxury. Rowland, +therefore, except for a good deal of expensive instruction in foreign +tongues and abstruse sciences, received the education of a poor man's +son. His fare was plain, his temper familiar with the discipline of +patched trousers, and his habits marked by an exaggerated simplicity +which it really cost a good deal of money to preserve unbroken. He was +kept in the country for months together, in the midst of servants who +had strict injunctions to see that he suffered no serious harm, but +were as strictly forbidden to wait upon him. As no school could be found +conducted on principles sufficiently rigorous, he was attended at home +by a master who set a high price on the understanding that he was to +illustrate the beauty of abstinence not only by precept but by example. +Rowland passed for a child of ordinary parts, and certainly, during his +younger years, was an excellent imitation of a boy who had inherited +nothing whatever that was to make life easy. He was passive, +pliable, frank, extremely slow at his books, and inordinately fond of +trout-fishing. His hair, a memento of his Dutch ancestry, was of +the fairest shade of yellow, his complexion absurdly rosy, and his +measurement around the waist, when he was about ten years old, quite +alarmingly large. This, however, was but an episode in his growth; he +became afterwards a fresh-colored, yellow-bearded man, but he was never +accused of anything worse than a tendency to corpulence. He emerged from +childhood a simple, wholesome, round-eyed lad, with no suspicion that a +less roundabout course might have been taken to make him happy, but with +a vague sense that his young experience was not a fair sample of human +freedom, and that he was to make a great many discoveries. When he was +about fifteen, he achieved a momentous one. He ascertained that his +mother was a saint. She had always been a very distinct presence in his +life, but so ineffably gentle a one that his sense was fully opened to +it only by the danger of losing her. She had an illness which for many +months was liable at any moment to terminate fatally, and during her +long-arrested convalescence she removed the mask which she had worn for +years by her husband's order. Rowland spent his days at her side and +felt before long as if he had made a new friend. All his impressions at +this period were commented and interpreted at leisure in the future, and +it was only then that he understood that his mother had been for fifteen +years a perfectly unhappy woman. Her marriage had been an immitigable +error which she had spent her life in trying to look straight in the +face. She found nothing to oppose to her husband's will of steel but the +appearance of absolute compliance; her spirit sank, and she lived for +a while in a sort of helpless moral torpor. But at last, as her child +emerged from babyhood, she began to feel a certain charm in patience, to +discover the uses of ingenuity, and to learn that, somehow or other, one +can always arrange one's life. She cultivated from this time forward a +little private plot of sentiment, and it was of this secluded precinct +that, before her death, she gave her son the key. Rowland's allowance at +college was barely sufficient to maintain him decently, and as soon as +he graduated, he was taken into his father's counting-house, to do small +drudgery on a proportionate salary. For three years he earned his living +as regularly as the obscure functionary in fustian who swept the office. +Mr. Mallet was consistent, but the perfection of his consistency was +known only on his death. He left but a third of his property to his +son, and devoted the remainder to various public institutions and local +charities. Rowland's third was an easy competence, and he never felt +a moment's jealousy of his fellow-pensioners; but when one of the +establishments which had figured most advantageously in his father's +will bethought itself to affirm the existence of a later instrument, in +which it had been still more handsomely treated, the young man felt a +sudden passionate need to repel the claim by process of law. There was a +lively tussle, but he gained his case; immediately after which he made, +in another quarter, a donation of the contested sum. He cared nothing +for the money, but he had felt an angry desire to protest against a +destiny which seemed determined to be exclusively salutary. It seemed to +him that he would bear a little spoiling. And yet he treated himself +to a very modest quantity, and submitted without reserve to the great +national discipline which began in 1861. When the Civil War broke out he +immediately obtained a commission, and did his duty for three long years +as a citizen soldier. His duty was obscure, but he never lost a certain +private satisfaction in remembering that on two or three occasions +it had been performed with something of an ideal precision. He had +disentangled himself from business, and after the war he felt a profound +disinclination to tie the knot again. He had no desire to make money, +he had money enough; and although he knew, and was frequently reminded, +that a young man is the better for a fixed occupation, he could discover +no moral advantage in driving a lucrative trade. Yet few young men of +means and leisure ever made less of a parade of idleness, and indeed +idleness in any degree could hardly be laid at the door of a young +man who took life in the serious, attentive, reasoning fashion of +our friend. It often seemed to Mallet that he wholly lacked the prime +requisite of a graceful flaneur--the simple, sensuous, confident relish +of pleasure. He had frequent fits of extreme melancholy, in which he +declared that he was neither fish nor flesh nor good red herring. He was +neither an irresponsibly contemplative nature nor a sturdily practical +one, and he was forever looking in vain for the uses of the things +that please and the charm of the things that sustain. He was an awkward +mixture of strong moral impulse and restless aesthetic curiosity, +and yet he would have made a most ineffective reformer and a very +indifferent artist. It seemed to him that the glow of happiness must be +found either in action, of some immensely solid kind, on behalf of +an idea, or in producing a masterpiece in one of the arts. Oftenest, +perhaps, he wished he were a vigorous young man of genius, without a +penny. As it was, he could only buy pictures, and not paint them; and +in the way of action, he had to content himself with making a rule to +render scrupulous moral justice to handsome examples of it in others. On +the whole, he had an incorruptible modesty. With his blooming complexion +and his serene gray eye, he felt the friction of existence more than was +suspected; but he asked no allowance on grounds of temper, he assumed +that fate had treated him inordinately well and that he had no excuse +for taking an ill-natured view of life, and he undertook constantly to +believe that all women were fair, all men were brave, and the world was +a delightful place of sojourn, until the contrary had been distinctly +proved. + +Cecilia's blooming garden and shady porch had seemed so friendly to +repose and a cigar, that she reproached him the next morning with +indifference to her little parlor, not less, in its way, a monument to +her ingenious taste. "And by the way," she added as he followed her in, +"if I refused last night to show you a pretty girl, I can at least show +you a pretty boy." + +She threw open a window and pointed to a statuette which occupied the +place of honor among the ornaments of the room. Rowland looked at it a +moment and then turned to her with an exclamation of surprise. She +gave him a rapid glance, perceived that her statuette was of altogether +exceptional merit, and then smiled, knowingly, as if this had long been +an agreeable certainty. + +"Who did it? where did you get it?" Rowland demanded. + +"Oh," said Cecilia, adjusting the light, "it 's a little thing of Mr. +Hudson's." + +"And who the deuce is Mr. Hudson?" asked Rowland. But he was absorbed; +he lost her immediate reply. The statuette, in bronze, something less +than two feet high, represented a naked youth drinking from a gourd. The +attitude was perfectly simple. The lad was squarely planted on his feet, +with his legs a little apart; his back was slightly hollowed, his head +thrown back, and both hands raised to support the rustic cup. There was +a loosened fillet of wild flowers about his head, and his eyes, under +their drooped lids, looked straight into the cup. On the base was +scratched the Greek word Dhipsa, Thirst. The figure might have +been some beautiful youth of ancient fable,--Hylas or Narcissus, Paris +or Endymion. Its beauty was the beauty of natural movement; nothing had +been sought to be represented but the perfection of an attitude. This +had been most attentively studied, and it was exquisitely rendered. +Rowland demanded more light, dropped his head on this side and that, +uttered vague exclamations. He said to himself, as he had said more than +once in the Louvre and the Vatican, "We ugly mortals, what beautiful +creatures we are!" Nothing, in a long time, had given him so much +pleasure. "Hudson--Hudson," he asked again; "who is Hudson?" + +"A young man of this place," said Cecilia. + +"A young man? How old?" + +"I suppose he is three or four and twenty." + +"Of this place, you say--of Northampton, Massachusetts?" + +"He lives here, but he comes from Virginia." + +"Is he a sculptor by profession?" + +"He 's a law-student." + +Rowland burst out laughing. "He has found something in Blackstone that I +never did. He makes statues then simply for his pleasure?" + +Cecilia, with a smile, gave a little toss of her head. "For mine!" + +"I congratulate you," said Rowland. "I wonder whether he could be +induced to do anything for me?" + +"This was a matter of friendship. I saw the figure when he had modeled +it in clay, and of course greatly admired it. He said nothing at the +time, but a week ago, on my birthday, he arrived in a buggy, with +this. He had had it cast at the foundry at Chicopee; I believe it 's a +beautiful piece of bronze. He begged me to accept." + +"Upon my word," said Mallet, "he does things handsomely!" And he fell to +admiring the statue again. + +"So then," said Cecilia, "it 's very remarkable?" + +"Why, my dear cousin," Rowland answered, "Mr. Hudson, of Virginia, is +an extraordinary--" Then suddenly stopping: "Is he a great friend of +yours?" he asked. + +"A great friend?" and Cecilia hesitated. "I regard him as a child!" + +"Well," said Rowland, "he 's a very clever child. Tell me something +about him: I should like to see him." + +Cecilia was obliged to go to her daughter's music-lesson, but she +assured Rowland that she would arrange for him a meeting with the young +sculptor. He was a frequent visitor, and as he had not called for some +days it was likely he would come that evening. Rowland, left alone, +examined the statuette at his leisure, and returned more than once +during the day to take another look at it. He discovered its weak +points, but it wore well. It had the stamp of genius. Rowland envied the +happy youth who, in a New England village, without aid or encouragement, +without models or resources, had found it so easy to produce a lovely +work. + +In the evening, as he was smoking his cigar on the veranda, a light, +quick step pressed the gravel of the garden path, and in a moment a +young man made his bow to Cecilia. It was rather a nod than a bow, and +indicated either that he was an old friend, or that he was scantily +versed in the usual social forms. Cecilia, who was sitting near the +steps, pointed to a neighboring chair, but the young man seated himself +abruptly on the floor at her feet, began to fan himself vigorously with +his hat, and broke out into a lively objurgation upon the hot weather. +"I 'm dripping wet!" he said, without ceremony. + +"You walk too fast," said Cecilia. "You do everything too fast." + +"I know it, I know it!" he cried, passing his hand through his abundant +dark hair and making it stand out in a picturesque shock. "I can't +be slow if I try. There 's something inside of me that drives me. A +restless fiend!" + +Cecilia gave a light laugh, and Rowland leaned forward in his hammock. +He had placed himself in it at Bessie's request, and was playing that he +was her baby and that she was rocking him to sleep. She sat beside him, +swinging the hammock to and fro, and singing a lullaby. When he raised +himself she pushed him back and said that the baby must finish its nap. +"But I want to see the gentleman with the fiend inside of him," said +Rowland. + +"What is a fiend?" Bessie demanded. "It 's only Mr. Hudson." + +"Very well, I want to see him." + +"Oh, never mind him!" said Bessie, with the brevity of contempt. + +"You speak as if you did n't like him." + +"I don't!" Bessie affirmed, and put Rowland to bed again. + +The hammock was swung at the end of the veranda, in the thickest shade +of the vines, and this fragment of dialogue had passed unnoticed. +Rowland submitted a while longer to be cradled, and contented himself +with listening to Mr. Hudson's voice. It was a soft and not altogether +masculine organ, and was pitched on this occasion in a somewhat +plaintive and pettish key. The young man's mood seemed fretful; he +complained of the heat, of the dust, of a shoe that hurt him, of having +gone on an errand a mile to the other side of the town and found the +person he was in search of had left Northampton an hour before. + +"Won't you have a cup of tea?" Cecilia asked. "Perhaps that will restore +your equanimity." + +"Aye, by keeping me awake all night!" said Hudson. "At the best, it 's +hard enough to go down to the office. With my nerves set on edge by a +sleepless night, I should perforce stay at home and be brutal to my poor +mother." + +"Your mother is well, I hope." + +"Oh, she 's as usual." + +"And Miss Garland?" + +"She 's as usual, too. Every one, everything, is as usual. Nothing ever +happens, in this benighted town." + +"I beg your pardon; things do happen, sometimes," said Cecilia. "Here +is a dear cousin of mine arrived on purpose to congratulate you on your +statuette." And she called to Rowland to come and be introduced to +Mr. Hudson. The young man sprang up with alacrity, and Rowland, coming +forward to shake hands, had a good look at him in the light projected +from the parlor window. Something seemed to shine out of Hudson's face +as a warning against a "compliment" of the idle, unpondered sort. + +"Your statuette seems to me very good," Rowland said gravely. "It has +given me extreme pleasure." + +"And my cousin knows what is good," said Cecilia. "He 's a connoisseur." + +Hudson smiled and stared. "A connoisseur?" he cried, laughing. "He 's +the first I 've ever seen! Let me see what they look like;" and he drew +Rowland nearer to the light. "Have they all such good heads as that? I +should like to model yours." + +"Pray do," said Cecilia. "It will keep him a while. He is running off to +Europe." + +"Ah, to Europe!" Hudson exclaimed with a melancholy cadence, as they sat +down. "Happy man!" + +But the note seemed to Rowland to be struck rather at random, for he +perceived no echo of it in the boyish garrulity of his later talk. +Hudson was a tall, slender young fellow, with a singularly mobile and +intelligent face. Rowland was struck at first only with its responsive +vivacity, but in a short time he perceived it was remarkably handsome. +The features were admirably chiseled and finished, and a frank smile +played over them as gracefully as a breeze among flowers. The fault of +the young man's whole structure was an excessive want of breadth. The +forehead, though it was high and rounded, was narrow; the jaw and +the shoulders were narrow; and the result was an air of insufficient +physical substance. But Mallet afterwards learned that this fair, slim +youth could draw indefinitely upon a mysterious fund of nervous +force, which outlasted and outwearied the endurance of many a sturdier +temperament. And certainly there was life enough in his eye to furnish +an immortality! It was a generous dark gray eye, in which there came +and went a sort of kindling glow, which would have made a ruder visage +striking, and which gave at times to Hudson's harmonious face an +altogether extraordinary beauty. There was to Rowland's sympathetic +sense a slightly pitiful disparity between the young sculptor's delicate +countenance and the shabby gentility of his costume. He was dressed for +a visit--a visit to a pretty woman. He was clad from head to foot in a +white linen suit, which had never been remarkable for the felicity of +its cut, and had now quite lost that crispness which garments of this +complexion can as ill spare as the back-scene of a theatre the radiance +of the footlights. He wore a vivid blue cravat, passed through a ring +altogether too splendid to be valuable; he pulled and twisted, as he +sat, a pair of yellow kid gloves; he emphasized his conversation with +great dashes and flourishes of a light, silver-tipped walking-stick, +and he kept constantly taking off and putting on one of those slouched +sombreros which are the traditional property of the Virginian or +Carolinian of romance. When this was on, he was very picturesque, in +spite of his mock elegance; and when it was off, and he sat nursing it +and turning it about and not knowing what to do with it, he could hardly +be said to be awkward. He evidently had a natural relish for brilliant +accessories, and appropriated what came to his hand. This was visible in +his talk, which abounded in the florid and sonorous. He liked words with +color in them. + +Rowland, who was but a moderate talker, sat by in silence, while +Cecilia, who had told him that she desired his opinion upon her friend, +used a good deal of characteristic finesse in leading the young man to +expose himself. She perfectly succeeded, and Hudson rattled away for +an hour with a volubility in which boyish unconsciousness and manly +shrewdness were singularly combined. He gave his opinion on twenty +topics, he opened up an endless budget of local gossip, he described +his repulsive routine at the office of Messrs. Striker and Spooner, +counselors at law, and he gave with great felicity and gusto an account +of the annual boat-race between Harvard and Yale, which he had lately +witnessed at Worcester. He had looked at the straining oarsmen and the +swaying crowd with the eye of the sculptor. Rowland was a good deal +amused and not a little interested. Whenever Hudson uttered some +peculiarly striking piece of youthful grandiloquence, Cecilia broke into +a long, light, familiar laugh. + +"What are you laughing at?" the young man then demanded. "Have I said +anything so ridiculous?" + +"Go on, go on," Cecilia replied. "You are too delicious! Show Mr. Mallet +how Mr. Striker read the Declaration of Independence." + +Hudson, like most men with a turn for the plastic arts, was an excellent +mimic, and he represented with a great deal of humor the accent and +attitude of a pompous country lawyer sustaining the burden of this +customary episode of our national festival. The sonorous twang, the +see-saw gestures, the odd pronunciation, were vividly depicted. But +Cecilia's manner, and the young man's quick response, ruffled a little +poor Rowland's paternal conscience. He wondered whether his cousin was +not sacrificing the faculty of reverence in her clever protege to +her need for amusement. Hudson made no serious rejoinder to Rowland's +compliment on his statuette until he rose to go. Rowland wondered +whether he had forgotten it, and supposed that the oversight was a sign +of the natural self-sufficiency of genius. But Hudson stood a moment +before he said good night, twirled his sombrero, and hesitated for the +first time. He gave Rowland a clear, penetrating glance, and then, with +a wonderfully frank, appealing smile: "You really meant," he +asked, "what you said a while ago about that thing of mine? It is +good--essentially good?" + +"I really meant it," said Rowland, laying a kindly hand on his shoulder. +"It is very good indeed. It is, as you say, essentially good. That is +the beauty of it." + +Hudson's eyes glowed and expanded; he looked at Rowland for some time in +silence. "I have a notion you really know," he said at last. "But if you +don't, it does n't much matter." + +"My cousin asked me to-day," said Cecilia, "whether I supposed you knew +yourself how good it is." + +Hudson stared, blushing a little. "Perhaps not!" he cried. + +"Very likely," said Mallet. "I read in a book the other day that +great talent in action--in fact the book said genius--is a kind of +somnambulism. The artist performs great feats, in a dream. We must not +wake him up, lest he should lose his balance." + +"Oh, when he 's back in bed again!" Hudson answered with a laugh. "Yes, +call it a dream. It was a very happy one!" + +"Tell me this," said Rowland. "Did you mean anything by your young +Water-drinker? Does he represent an idea? Is he a symbol?" + +Hudson raised his eyebrows and gently scratched his head. "Why, he 's +youth, you know; he 's innocence, he 's health, he 's strength, he 's +curiosity. Yes, he 's a good many things." + +"And is the cup also a symbol?" + +"The cup is knowledge, pleasure, experience. Anything of that kind!" + +"Well, he 's guzzling in earnest," said Rowland. + +Hudson gave a vigorous nod. "Aye, poor fellow, he 's thirsty!" And on +this he cried good night, and bounded down the garden path. + +"Well, what do you make of him?" asked Cecilia, returning a short +time afterwards from a visit of investigation as to the sufficiency of +Bessie's bedclothes. + +"I confess I like him," said Rowland. "He 's very immature,--but there +'s stuff in him." + +"He 's a strange being," said Cecilia, musingly. + +"Who are his people? what has been his education?" Rowland asked. + +"He has had no education, beyond what he has picked up, with little +trouble, for himself. His mother is a widow, of a Massachusetts country +family, a little timid, tremulous woman, who is always on pins and +needles about her son. She had some property herself, and married a +Virginian gentleman of good estates. He turned out, I believe, a very +licentious personage, and made great havoc in their fortune. Everything, +or almost everything, melted away, including Mr. Hudson himself. This +is literally true, for he drank himself to death. Ten years ago his wife +was left a widow, with scanty means and a couple of growing boys. +She paid her husband's debts as best she could, and came to establish +herself here, where by the death of a charitable relative she had +inherited an old-fashioned ruinous house. Roderick, our friend, was her +pride and joy, but Stephen, the elder, was her comfort and support. +I remember him, later; he was an ugly, sturdy, practical lad, very +different from his brother, and in his way, I imagine, a very fine +fellow. When the war broke out he found that the New England blood ran +thicker in his veins than the Virginian, and immediately obtained +a commission. He fell in some Western battle and left his mother +inconsolable. Roderick, however, has given her plenty to think about, +and she has induced him, by some mysterious art, to abide, nominally at +least, in a profession that he abhors, and for which he is about as fit, +I should say, as I am to drive a locomotive. He grew up a la grace de +Dieu, and was horribly spoiled. Three or four years ago he graduated at +a small college in this neighborhood, where I am afraid he had given a +good deal more attention to novels and billiards than to mathematics and +Greek. Since then he has been reading law, at the rate of a page a day. +If he is ever admitted to practice I 'm afraid my friendship won't avail +to make me give him my business. Good, bad, or indifferent, the boy is +essentially an artist--an artist to his fingers' ends." + +"Why, then," asked Rowland, "does n't he deliberately take up the +chisel?" + +"For several reasons. In the first place, I don't think he more than +half suspects his talent. The flame is smouldering, but it is never +fanned by the breath of criticism. He sees nothing, hears nothing, to +help him to self-knowledge. He 's hopelessly discontented, but he +does n't know where to look for help. Then his mother, as she one +day confessed to me, has a holy horror of a profession which consists +exclusively, as she supposes, in making figures of people without their +clothes on. Sculpture, to her mind, is an insidious form of immorality, +and for a young man of a passionate disposition she considers the law a +much safer investment. Her father was a judge, she has two brothers at +the bar, and her elder son had made a very promising beginning in the +same line. She wishes the tradition to be perpetuated. I 'm pretty sure +the law won't make Roderick's fortune, and I 'm afraid it will, in the +long run, spoil his temper." + +"What sort of a temper is it?" + +"One to be trusted, on the whole. It is quick, but it is generous. I +have known it to breathe flame and fury at ten o'clock in the evening, +and soft, sweet music early on the morrow. It 's a very entertaining +temper to observe. I, fortunately, can do so dispassionately, for I 'm +the only person in the place he has not quarreled with." + +"Has he then no society? Who is Miss Garland, whom you asked about?" + +"A young girl staying with his mother, a sort of far-away cousin; a good +plain girl, but not a person to delight a sculptor's eye. Roderick has +a goodly share of the old Southern arrogance; he has the aristocratic +temperament. He will have nothing to do with the small towns-people; he +says they 're 'ignoble.' He cannot endure his mother's friends--the +old ladies and the ministers and the tea-party people; they bore him to +death. So he comes and lounges here and rails at everything and every +one." + +This graceful young scoffer reappeared a couple of evenings later, and +confirmed the friendly feeling he had provoked on Rowland's part. He +was in an easier mood than before, he chattered less extravagantly, and +asked Rowland a number of rather naif questions about the condition of +the fine arts in New York and Boston. Cecilia, when he had gone, said +that this was the wholesome effect of Rowland's praise of his statuette. +Roderick was acutely sensitive, and Rowland's tranquil commendation had +stilled his restless pulses. He was ruminating the full-flavored verdict +of culture. Rowland felt an irresistible kindness for him, a mingled +sense of his personal charm and his artistic capacity. He had an +indefinable attraction--the something divine of unspotted, exuberant, +confident youth. The next day was Sunday, and Rowland proposed that they +should take a long walk and that Roderick should show him the country. +The young man assented gleefully, and in the morning, as Rowland at the +garden gate was giving his hostess Godspeed on her way to church, he +came striding along the grassy margin of the road and out-whistling the +music of the church bells. It was one of those lovely days of August +when you feel the complete exuberance of summer just warned and checked +by autumn. "Remember the day, and take care you rob no orchards," said +Cecilia, as they separated. + +The young men walked away at a steady pace, over hill and dale, through +woods and fields, and at last found themselves on a grassy elevation +studded with mossy rocks and red cedars. Just beneath them, in a great +shining curve, flowed the goodly Connecticut. They flung themselves +on the grass and tossed stones into the river; they talked like old +friends. Rowland lit a cigar, and Roderick refused one with a grimace +of extravagant disgust. He thought them vile things; he did n't see how +decent people could tolerate them. Rowland was amused, and wondered what +it was that made this ill-mannered speech seem perfectly inoffensive +on Roderick's lips. He belonged to the race of mortals, to be pitied +or envied according as we view the matter, who are not held to a strict +account for their aggressions. Looking at him as he lay stretched in the +shade, Rowland vaguely likened him to some beautiful, supple, restless, +bright-eyed animal, whose motions should have no deeper warrant than the +tremulous delicacy of its structure, and be graceful even when they +were most inconvenient. Rowland watched the shadows on Mount Holyoke, +listened to the gurgle of the river, and sniffed the balsam of the +pines. A gentle breeze had begun to tickle their summits, and brought +the smell of the mown grass across from the elm-dotted river meadows. He +sat up beside his companion and looked away at the far-spreading +view. It seemed to him beautiful, and suddenly a strange feeling of +prospective regret took possession of him. Something seemed to tell +him that later, in a foreign land, he would remember it lovingly and +penitently. + +"It 's a wretched business," he said, "this practical quarrel of ours +with our own country, this everlasting impatience to get out of it. Is +one's only safety then in flight? This is an American day, an American +landscape, an American atmosphere. It certainly has its merits, and +some day when I am shivering with ague in classic Italy, I shall accuse +myself of having slighted them." + +Roderick kindled with a sympathetic glow, and declared that America was +good enough for him, and that he had always thought it the duty of an +honest citizen to stand by his own country and help it along. He had +evidently thought nothing whatever about it, and was launching his +doctrine on the inspiration of the moment. The doctrine expanded with +the occasion, and he declared that he was above all an advocate for +American art. He did n't see why we should n't produce the greatest +works in the world. We were the biggest people, and we ought to have the +biggest conceptions. The biggest conceptions of course would bring forth +in time the biggest performances. We had only to be true to ourselves, +to pitch in and not be afraid, to fling Imitation overboard and fix our +eyes upon our National Individuality. "I declare," he cried, "there 's +a career for a man, and I 've twenty minds to decide, on the spot, to +embrace it--to be the consummate, typical, original, national American +artist! It 's inspiring!" + +Rowland burst out laughing and told him that he liked his practice +better than his theory, and that a saner impulse than this had inspired +his little Water-drinker. Roderick took no offense, and three minutes +afterwards was talking volubly of some humbler theme, but half heeded +by his companion, who had returned to his cogitations. At last Rowland +delivered himself of the upshot of these. "How would you like," he +suddenly demanded, "to go to Rome?" + +Hudson stared, and, with a hungry laugh which speedily consigned our +National Individuality to perdition, responded that he would like it +reasonably well. "And I should like, by the same token," he added, +"to go to Athens, to Constantinople, to Damascus, to the holy city of +Benares, where there is a golden statue of Brahma twenty feet tall." + +"Nay," said Rowland soberly, "if you were to go to Rome, you should +settle down and work. Athens might help you, but for the present I +should n't recommend Benares." + +"It will be time to arrange details when I pack my trunk," said Hudson. + +"If you mean to turn sculptor, the sooner you pack your trunk the +better." + +"Oh, but I 'm a practical man! What is the smallest sum per annum, on +which one can keep alive the sacred fire in Rome?" + +"What is the largest sum at your disposal?" + +Roderick stroked his light moustache, gave it a twist, and then +announced with mock pomposity: "Three hundred dollars!" + +"The money question could be arranged," said Rowland. "There are ways of +raising money." + +"I should like to know a few! I never yet discovered one." + +"One consists," said Rowland, "in having a friend with a good deal more +than he wants, and not being too proud to accept a part of it." + +Roderick stared a moment and his face flushed. "Do you mean--do you +mean?".... he stammered. He was greatly excited. + +Rowland got up, blushing a little, and Roderick sprang to his feet. "In +three words, if you are to be a sculptor, you ought to go to Rome and +study the antique. To go to Rome you need money. I 'm fond of fine +statues, but unfortunately I can't make them myself. I have to order +them. I order a dozen from you, to be executed at your convenience. To +help you, I pay you in advance." + +Roderick pushed off his hat and wiped his forehead, still gazing at his +companion. "You believe in me!" he cried at last. + +"Allow me to explain," said Rowland. "I believe in you, if you are +prepared to work and to wait, and to struggle, and to exercise a great +many virtues. And then, I 'm afraid to say it, lest I should disturb +you more than I should help you. You must decide for yourself. I simply +offer you an opportunity." + +Hudson stood for some time, profoundly meditative. "You have not seen my +other things," he said suddenly. "Come and look at them." + +"Now?" + +"Yes, we 'll walk home. We 'll settle the question." + +He passed his hand through Rowland's arm and they retraced their steps. +They reached the town and made their way along a broad country street, +dusky with the shade of magnificent elms. Rowland felt his companion's +arm trembling in his own. They stopped at a large white house, flanked +with melancholy hemlocks, and passed through a little front garden, +paved with moss-coated bricks and ornamented with parterres bordered +with high box hedges. The mansion had an air of antiquated dignity, but +it had seen its best days, and evidently sheltered a shrunken household. +Mrs. Hudson, Rowland was sure, might be seen in the garden of a +morning, in a white apron and a pair of old gloves, engaged in frugal +horticulture. Roderick's studio was behind, in the basement; a large, +empty room, with the paper peeling off the walls. This represented, in +the fashion of fifty years ago, a series of small fantastic landscapes +of a hideous pattern, and the young sculptor had presumably torn it away +in great scraps, in moments of aesthetic exasperation. On a board in +a corner was a heap of clay, and on the floor, against the wall, +stood some dozen medallions, busts, and figures, in various stages of +completion. To exhibit them Roderick had to place them one by one on +the end of a long packing-box, which served as a pedestal. He did so +silently, making no explanations, and looking at them himself with a +strange air of quickened curiosity. Most of the things were portraits; +and the three at which he looked longest were finished busts. One was a +colossal head of a negro, tossed back, defiant, with distended nostrils; +one was the portrait of a young man whom Rowland immediately perceived, +by the resemblance, to be his deceased brother; the last represented a +gentleman with a pointed nose, a long, shaved upper lip, and a tuft on +the end of his chin. This was a face peculiarly unadapted to sculpture; +but as a piece of modeling it was the best, and it was admirable. It +reminded Rowland in its homely veracity, its artless artfulness, of +the works of the early Italian Renaissance. On the pedestal was cut +the name--Barnaby Striker, Esq. Rowland remembered that this was the +appellation of the legal luminary from whom his companion had undertaken +to borrow a reflected ray, and although in the bust there was naught +flagrantly set down in malice, it betrayed, comically to one who could +relish the secret, that the features of the original had often been +scanned with an irritated eye. Besides these there were several rough +studies of the nude, and two or three figures of a fanciful kind. The +most noticeable (and it had singular beauty) was a small modeled design +for a sepulchral monument; that, evidently, of Stephen Hudson. The young +soldier lay sleeping eternally, with his hand on his sword, like an old +crusader in a Gothic cathedral. + +Rowland made no haste to pronounce; too much depended on his judgment. +"Upon my word," cried Hudson at last, "they seem to me very good." + +And in truth, as Rowland looked, he saw they were good. They were +youthful, awkward, and ignorant; the effort, often, was more apparent +than the success. But the effort was signally powerful and intelligent; +it seemed to Rowland that it needed only to let itself go to compass +great things. Here and there, too, success, when grasped, had something +masterly. Rowland turned to his companion, who stood with his hands in +his pockets and his hair very much crumpled, looking at him askance. +The light of admiration was in Rowland's eyes, and it speedily kindled a +wonderful illumination on Hudson's handsome brow. Rowland said at last, +gravely, "You have only to work!" + +"I think I know what that means," Roderick answered. He turned away, +threw himself on a rickety chair, and sat for some moments with his +elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. "Work--work?" he said at +last, looking up, "ah, if I could only begin!" He glanced round the +room a moment and his eye encountered on the mantel-shelf the vivid +physiognomy of Mr. Barnaby Striker. His smile vanished, and he stared at +it with an air of concentrated enmity. "I want to begin," he cried, "and +I can't make a better beginning than this! Good-by, Mr. Striker!" He +strode across the room, seized a mallet that lay at hand, and before +Rowland could interfere, in the interest of art if not of morals, dealt +a merciless blow upon Mr. Striker's skull. The bust cracked into a +dozen pieces, which toppled with a great crash upon the floor. Rowland +relished neither the destruction of the image nor his companion's look +in working it, but as he was about to express his displeasure the door +opened and gave passage to a young girl. She came in with a rapid step +and startled face, as if she had been summoned by the noise. Seeing the +heap of shattered clay and the mallet in Roderick's hand, she gave a +cry of horror. Her voice died away when she perceived that Rowland was a +stranger, but she murmured reproachfully, "Why, Roderick, what have you +done?" + +Roderick gave a joyous kick to the shapeless fragments. "I 've driven +the money-changers out of the temple!" he cried. + +The traces retained shape enough to be recognized, and she gave a little +moan of pity. She seemed not to understand the young man's allegory, but +yet to feel that it pointed to some great purpose, which must be an evil +one, from being expressed in such a lawless fashion, and to perceive +that Rowland was in some way accountable for it. She looked at him with +a sharp, frank mistrust, and turned away through the open door. Rowland +looked after her with extraordinary interest. + + + + + +CHAPTER II. Roderick + +Early on the morrow Rowland received a visit from his new friend. +Roderick was in a state of extreme exhilaration, tempered, however, by +a certain amount of righteous wrath. He had had a domestic struggle, but +he had remained master of the situation. He had shaken the dust of Mr. +Striker's office from his feet. + +"I had it out last night with my mother," he said. "I dreaded the scene, +for she takes things terribly hard. She does n't scold nor storm, and +she does n't argue nor insist. She sits with her eyes full of tears +that never fall, and looks at me, when I displease her, as if I were +a perfect monster of depravity. And the trouble is that I was born to +displease her. She does n't trust me; she never has and she never will. +I don't know what I have done to set her against me, but ever since I +can remember I have been looked at with tears. The trouble is," he went +on, giving a twist to his moustache, "I 've been too absurdly docile. +I 've been sprawling all my days by the maternal fireside, and my dear +mother has grown used to bullying me. I 've made myself cheap! If I 'm +not in my bed by eleven o'clock, the girl is sent out to explore with +a lantern. When I think of it, I fairly despise my amiability. It 's +rather a hard fate, to live like a saint and to pass for a sinner! I +should like for six months to lead Mrs. Hudson the life some fellows +lead their mothers!" + +"Allow me to believe," said Rowland, "that you would like nothing of +the sort. If you have been a good boy, don't spoil it by pretending you +don't like it. You have been very happy, I suspect, in spite of your +virtues, and there are worse fates in the world than being loved too +well. I have not had the pleasure of seeing your mother, but I would lay +you a wager that that is the trouble. She is passionately fond of you, +and her hopes, like all intense hopes, keep trembling into fears." +Rowland, as he spoke, had an instinctive vision of how such a beautiful +young fellow must be loved by his female relatives. + +Roderick frowned, and with an impatient gesture, "I do her justice," he +cried. "May she never do me less!" Then after a moment's hesitation, "I +'ll tell you the perfect truth," he went on. "I have to fill a double +place. I have to be my brother as well as myself. It 's a good deal to +ask of a man, especially when he has so little talent as I for being +what he is not. When we were both young together I was the curled +darling. I had the silver mug and the biggest piece of pudding, and I +stayed in-doors to be kissed by the ladies while he made mud-pies in the +garden and was never missed, of course. Really, he was worth fifty of +me! When he was brought home from Vicksburg with a piece of shell in +his skull, my poor mother began to think she had n't loved him enough. I +remember, as she hung round my neck sobbing, before his coffin, she told +me that I must be to her everything that he would have been. I swore in +tears and in perfect good faith that I would, but naturally I have +not kept my promise. I have been utterly different. I have been idle, +restless, egotistical, discontented. I have done no harm, I believe, but +I have done no good. My brother, if he had lived, would have made +fifty thousand dollars and put gas and water into the house. My mother, +brooding night and day on her bereavement, has come to fix her ideal in +offices of that sort. Judged by that standard I 'm nowhere!" + +Rowland was at loss how to receive this account of his friend's domestic +circumstances; it was plaintive, and yet the manner seemed to him +over-trenchant. "You must lose no time in making a masterpiece," he +answered; "then with the proceeds you can give her gas from golden +burners." + +"So I have told her; but she only half believes either in masterpiece or +in proceeds. She can see no good in my making statues; they seem to her +a snare of the enemy. She would fain see me all my life tethered to the +law, like a browsing goat to a stake. In that way I 'm in sight. 'It +'s a more regular occupation!' that 's all I can get out of her. A +more regular damnation! Is it a fact that artists, in general, are such +wicked men? I never had the pleasure of knowing one, so I could n't +confute her with an example. She had the advantage of me, because she +formerly knew a portrait-painter at Richmond, who did her miniature in +black lace mittens (you may see it on the parlor table), who used to +drink raw brandy and beat his wife. I promised her that, whatever I +might do to my wife, I would never beat my mother, and that as for +brandy, raw or diluted, I detested it. She sat silently crying for an +hour, during which I expended treasures of eloquence. It 's a good thing +to have to reckon up one's intentions, and I assure you, as I pleaded my +cause, I was most agreeably impressed with the elevated character of +my own. I kissed her solemnly at last, and told her that I had said +everything and that she must make the best of it. This morning she has +dried her eyes, but I warrant you it is n't a cheerful house. I long to +be out of it!" + +"I 'm extremely sorry," said Rowland, "to have been the prime cause of +so much suffering. I owe your mother some amends; will it be possible +for me to see her?" + +"If you 'll see her, it will smooth matters vastly; though to tell the +truth she 'll need all her courage to face you, for she considers you an +agent of the foul fiend. She does n't see why you should have come +here and set me by the ears: you are made to ruin ingenuous youths and +desolate doting mothers. I leave it to you, personally, to answer these +charges. You see, what she can't forgive--what she 'll not really ever +forgive--is your taking me off to Rome. Rome is an evil word, in my +mother's vocabulary, to be said in a whisper, as you 'd say 'damnation.' +Northampton is in the centre of the earth and Rome far away in outlying +dusk, into which it can do no Christian any good to penetrate. And there +was I but yesterday a doomed habitue of that repository of every virtue, +Mr. Striker's office!" + +"And does Mr. Striker know of your decision?" asked Rowland. + +"To a certainty! Mr. Striker, you must know, is not simply a +good-natured attorney, who lets me dog's-ear his law-books. He's a +particular friend and general adviser. He looks after my mother's +property and kindly consents to regard me as part of it. Our opinions +have always been painfully divergent, but I freely forgive him his +zealous attempts to unscrew my head-piece and set it on hind part +before. He never understood me, and it was useless to try to make him. +We speak a different language--we 're made of a different clay. I had a +fit of rage yesterday when I smashed his bust, at the thought of all the +bad blood he had stirred up in me; it did me good, and it 's all over +now. I don't hate him any more; I 'm rather sorry for him. See how you +'ve improved me! I must have seemed to him wilfully, wickedly stupid, +and I 'm sure he only tolerated me on account of his great regard for my +mother. This morning I grasped the bull by the horns. I took an armful +of law-books that have been gathering the dust in my room for the last +year and a half, and presented myself at the office. 'Allow me to put +these back in their places,' I said. 'I shall never have need for +them more--never more, never more, never more!' 'So you 've learned +everything they contain?' asked Striker, leering over his spectacles. +'Better late than never.' 'I 've learned nothing that you can teach me,' +I cried. 'But I shall tax your patience no longer. I 'm going to be a +sculptor. I 'm going to Rome. I won't bid you good-by just yet; I shall +see you again. But I bid good-by here, with rapture, to these four +detested walls--to this living tomb! I did n't know till now how I hated +it! My compliments to Mr. Spooner, and my thanks for all you have not +made of me!'" + +"I 'm glad to know you are to see Mr. Striker again," Rowland answered, +correcting a primary inclination to smile. "You certainly owe him a +respectful farewell, even if he has not understood you. I confess you +rather puzzle me. There is another person," he presently added, "whose +opinion as to your new career I should like to know. What does Miss +Garland think?" + +Hudson looked at him keenly, with a slight blush. Then, with a conscious +smile, "What makes you suppose she thinks anything?" he asked. + +"Because, though I saw her but for a moment yesterday, she struck me as +a very intelligent person, and I am sure she has opinions." + +The smile on Roderick's mobile face passed rapidly into a frown. "Oh, +she thinks what I think!" he answered. + +Before the two young men separated Rowland attempted to give as +harmonious a shape as possible to his companion's scheme. "I have +launched you, as I may say," he said, "and I feel as if I ought to see +you into port. I am older than you and know the world better, and +it seems well that we should voyage a while together. It 's on my +conscience that I ought to take you to Rome, walk you through the +Vatican, and then lock you up with a heap of clay. I sail on the fifth +of September; can you make your preparations to start with me?" + +Roderick assented to all this with an air of candid confidence in +his friend's wisdom that outshone the virtue of pledges. "I have no +preparations to make," he said with a smile, raising his arms and +letting them fall, as if to indicate his unencumbered condition. "What I +am to take with me I carry here!" and he tapped his forehead. + +"Happy man!" murmured Rowland with a sigh, thinking of the light +stowage, in his own organism, in the region indicated by Roderick, and +of the heavy one in deposit at his banker's, of bags and boxes. + +When his companion had left him he went in search of Cecilia. She +was sitting at work at a shady window, and welcomed him to a low +chintz-covered chair. He sat some time, thoughtfully snipping tape with +her scissors; he expected criticism and he was preparing a rejoinder. At +last he told her of Roderick's decision and of his own influence in +it. Cecilia, besides an extreme surprise, exhibited a certain fine +displeasure at his not having asked her advice. + +"What would you have said, if I had?" he demanded. + +"I would have said in the first place, 'Oh for pity's sake don't carry +off the person in all Northampton who amuses me most!' I would have said +in the second place, 'Nonsense! the boy is doing very well. Let well +alone!'" + +"That in the first five minutes. What would you have said later?" + +"That for a man who is generally averse to meddling, you were suddenly +rather officious." + +Rowland's countenance fell. He frowned in silence. Cecilia looked at him +askance; gradually the spark of irritation faded from her eye. + +"Excuse my sharpness," she resumed at last. "But I am literally in +despair at losing Roderick Hudson. His visits in the evening, for the +past year, have kept me alive. They have given a silver tip to leaden +days. I don't say he is of a more useful metal than other people, but he +is of a different one. Of course, however, that I shall miss him sadly +is not a reason for his not going to seek his fortune. Men must work and +women must weep!" + +"Decidedly not!" said Rowland, with a good deal of emphasis. He had +suspected from the first hour of his stay that Cecilia had treated +herself to a private social luxury; he had then discovered that she +found it in Hudson's lounging visits and boyish chatter, and he had felt +himself wondering at last whether, judiciously viewed, her gain in the +matter was not the young man's loss. It was evident that Cecilia was not +judicious, and that her good sense, habitually rigid under the demands +of domestic economy, indulged itself with a certain agreeable laxity on +this particular point. She liked her young friend just as he was; she +humored him, flattered him, laughed at him, caressed him--did +everything but advise him. It was a flirtation without the benefits of +a flirtation. She was too old to let him fall in love with her, which +might have done him good; and her inclination was to keep him young, so +that the nonsense he talked might never transgress a certain line. It +was quite conceivable that poor Cecilia should relish a pastime; but if +one had philanthropically embraced the idea that something considerable +might be made of Roderick, it was impossible not to see that her +friendship was not what might be called tonic. So Rowland reflected, in +the glow of his new-born sympathy. There was a later time when he would +have been grateful if Hudson's susceptibility to the relaxing influence +of lovely women might have been limited to such inexpensive tribute as +he rendered the excellent Cecilia. + +"I only desire to remind you," she pursued, "that you are likely to have +your hands full." + +"I 've thought of that, and I rather like the idea; liking, as I do, the +man. I told you the other day, you know, that I longed to have something +on my hands. When it first occurred to me that I might start our +young friend on the path of glory, I felt as if I had an unimpeachable +inspiration. Then I remembered there were dangers and difficulties, +and asked myself whether I had a right to step in between him and his +obscurity. My sense of his really having the divine flame answered the +question. He is made to do the things that humanity is the happier for! +I can't do such things myself, but when I see a young man of genius +standing helpless and hopeless for want of capital, I feel--and it 's +no affectation of humility, I assure you--as if it would give at least a +reflected usefulness to my own life to offer him his opportunity." + +"In the name of humanity, I suppose, I ought to thank you. But I want, +first of all, to be happy myself. You guarantee us at any rate, I hope, +the masterpieces." + +"A masterpiece a year," said Rowland smiling, "for the next quarter of a +century." + +"It seems to me that we have a right to ask more: to demand that you +guarantee us not only the development of the artist, but the security of +the man." + +Rowland became grave again. "His security?" + +"His moral, his sentimental security. Here, you see, it 's perfect. We +are all under a tacit compact to preserve it. Perhaps you believe in +the necessary turbulence of genius, and you intend to enjoin upon your +protege the importance of cultivating his passions." + +"On the contrary, I believe that a man of genius owes as much deference +to his passions as any other man, but not a particle more, and I confess +I have a strong conviction that the artist is better for leading a quiet +life. That is what I shall preach to my protege, as you call him, by +example as well as by precept. You evidently believe," he added in a +moment, "that he will lead me a dance." + +"Nay, I prophesy nothing. I only think that circumstances, with our +young man, have a great influence; as is proved by the fact that +although he has been fuming and fretting here for the last five years, +he has nevertheless managed to make the best of it, and found it easy, +on the whole, to vegetate. Transplanted to Rome, I fancy he 'll put +forth a denser leafage. I should like vastly to see the change. You must +write me about it, from stage to stage. I hope with all my heart that +the fruit will be proportionate to the foliage. Don't think me a bird of +ill omen; only remember that you will be held to a strict account." + +"A man should make the most of himself, and be helped if he needs help," +Rowland answered, after a long pause. "Of course when a body begins to +expand, there comes in the possibility of bursting; but I nevertheless +approve of a certain tension of one's being. It 's what a man is meant +for. And then I believe in the essential salubrity of genius--true +genius." + +"Very good," said Cecilia, with an air of resignation which made +Rowland, for the moment, seem to himself culpably eager. "We 'll drink +then to-day at dinner to the health of our friend." + +* * * + +Having it much at heart to convince Mrs. Hudson of the purity of his +intentions, Rowland waited upon her that evening. He was ushered into a +large parlor, which, by the light of a couple of candles, he perceived +to be very meagrely furnished and very tenderly and sparingly used. The +windows were open to the air of the summer night, and a circle of three +persons was temporarily awed into silence by his appearance. One +of these was Mrs. Hudson, who was sitting at one of the windows, +empty-handed save for the pocket-handkerchief in her lap, which was held +with an air of familiarity with its sadder uses. Near her, on the sofa, +half sitting, half lounging, in the attitude of a visitor outstaying +ceremony, with one long leg flung over the other and a large foot in a +clumsy boot swinging to and fro continually, was a lean, sandy-haired +gentleman whom Rowland recognized as the original of the portrait of Mr. +Barnaby Striker. At the table, near the candles, busy with a substantial +piece of needle-work, sat the young girl of whom he had had a moment's +quickened glimpse in Roderick's studio, and whom he had learned to +be Miss Garland, his companion's kinswoman. This young lady's limpid, +penetrating gaze was the most effective greeting he received. Mrs. +Hudson rose with a soft, vague sound of distress, and stood looking at +him shrinkingly and waveringly, as if she were sorely tempted to +retreat through the open window. Mr. Striker swung his long leg a trifle +defiantly. No one, evidently, was used to offering hollow welcomes or +telling polite fibs. Rowland introduced himself; he had come, he might +say, upon business. + +"Yes," said Mrs. Hudson tremulously; "I know--my son has told me. I +suppose it is better I should see you. Perhaps you will take a seat." + +With this invitation Rowland prepared to comply, and, turning, grasped +the first chair that offered itself. + +"Not that one," said a full, grave voice; whereupon he perceived that a +quantity of sewing-silk had been suspended and entangled over the back, +preparatory to being wound on reels. He felt the least bit irritated at +the curtness of the warning, coming as it did from a young woman whose +countenance he had mentally pronounced interesting, and with regard to +whom he was conscious of the germ of the inevitable desire to produce a +responsive interest. And then he thought it would break the ice to say +something playfully urbane. + +"Oh, you should let me take the chair," he answered, "and have the +pleasure of holding the skeins myself!" + +For all reply to this sally he received a stare of undisguised amazement +from Miss Garland, who then looked across at Mrs. Hudson with a glance +which plainly said: "You see he 's quite the insidious personage we +feared." The elder lady, however, sat with her eyes fixed on the ground +and her two hands tightly clasped. But touching her Rowland felt much +more compassion than resentment; her attitude was not coldness, it was +a kind of dread, almost a terror. She was a small, eager woman, with a +pale, troubled face, which added to her apparent age. After looking at +her for some minutes Rowland saw that she was still young, and that she +must have been a very girlish bride. She had been a pretty one, too, +though she probably had looked terribly frightened at the altar. She +was very delicately made, and Roderick had come honestly by his physical +slimness and elegance. She wore no cap, and her flaxen hair, which was +of extraordinary fineness, was smoothed and confined with Puritanic +precision. She was excessively shy, and evidently very humble-minded; it +was singular to see a woman to whom the experience of life had conveyed +so little reassurance as to her own resources or the chances of things +turning out well. Rowland began immediately to like her, and to feel +impatient to persuade her that there was no harm in him, and that, +twenty to one, her son would make her a well-pleased woman yet. He +foresaw that she would be easy to persuade, and that a benevolent +conversational tone would probably make her pass, fluttering, from +distrust into an oppressive extreme of confidence. But he had an +indefinable sense that the person who was testing that strong young +eyesight of hers in the dim candle-light was less readily beguiled +from her mysterious feminine preconceptions. Miss Garland, according +to Cecilia's judgment, as Rowland remembered, had not a countenance to +inspire a sculptor; but it seemed to Rowland that her countenance might +fairly inspire a man who was far from being a sculptor. She was not +pretty, as the eye of habit judges prettiness, but when you made the +observation you somehow failed to set it down against her, for you had +already passed from measuring contours to tracing meanings. In Mary +Garland's face there were many possible ones, and they gave you the more +to think about that it was not--like Roderick Hudson's, for instance--a +quick and mobile face, over which expression flickered like a candle in +a wind. They followed each other slowly, distinctly, gravely, sincerely, +and you might almost have fancied that, as they came and went, they gave +her a sort of pain. She was tall and slender, and had an air of maidenly +strength and decision. She had a broad forehead and dark eyebrows, a +trifle thicker than those of classic beauties; her gray eye was clear +but not brilliant, and her features were perfectly irregular. Her mouth +was large, fortunately for the principal grace of her physiognomy was +her smile, which displayed itself with magnificent amplitude. Rowland, +indeed, had not yet seen her smile, but something assured him that her +rigid gravity had a radiant counterpart. She wore a scanty white dress, +and had a nameless rustic air which would have led one to speak of her +less as a young lady than as a young woman. She was evidently a girl +of a great personal force, but she lacked pliancy. She was hemming +a kitchen towel with the aid of a large steel thimble. She bent her +serious eyes at last on her work again, and let Rowland explain himself. + +"I have become suddenly so very intimate with your son," he said at +last, addressing himself to Mrs. Hudson, "that it seems just I should +make your acquaintance." + +"Very just," murmured the poor lady, and after a moment's hesitation was +on the point of adding something more; but Mr. Striker here interposed, +after a prefatory clearance of the throat. + +"I should like to take the liberty," he said, "of addressing you a +simple question. For how long a period of time have you been acquainted +with our young friend?" He continued to kick the air, but his head was +thrown back and his eyes fixed on the opposite wall, as if in aversion +to the spectacle of Rowland's inevitable confusion. + +"A very short time, I confess. Hardly three days." + +"And yet you call yourself intimate, eh? I have been seeing Mr. Roderick +daily these three years, and yet it was only this morning that I felt as +if I had at last the right to say that I knew him. We had a few moments' +conversation in my office which supplied the missing links in the +evidence. So that now I do venture to say I 'm acquainted with Mr. +Roderick! But wait three years, sir, like me!" and Mr. Striker laughed, +with a closed mouth and a noiseless shake of all his long person. + +Mrs. Hudson smiled confusedly, at hazard; Miss Garland kept her eyes on +her stitches. But it seemed to Rowland that the latter colored a little. +"Oh, in three years, of course," he said, "we shall know each other +better. Before many years are over, madam," he pursued, "I expect the +world to know him. I expect him to be a great man!" + +Mrs. Hudson looked at first as if this could be but an insidious device +for increasing her distress by the assistance of irony. Then reassured, +little by little, by Rowland's benevolent visage, she gave him an +appealing glance and a timorous "Really?" + +But before Rowland could respond, Mr. Striker again intervened. "Do +I fully apprehend your expression?" he asked. "Our young friend is to +become a great man?" + +"A great artist, I hope," said Rowland. + +"This is a new and interesting view," said Mr. Striker, with an +assumption of judicial calmness. "We have had hopes for Mr. Roderick, +but I confess, if I have rightly understood them, they stopped short of +greatness. We should n't have taken the responsibility of claiming +it for him. What do you say, ladies? We all feel about him here--his +mother, Miss Garland, and myself--as if his merits were rather in the +line of the"--and Mr. Striker waved his hand with a series of fantastic +flourishes in the air--"of the light ornamental!" Mr. Striker bore his +recalcitrant pupil a grudge, but he was evidently trying both to be +fair and to respect the susceptibilities of his companions. But he was +unversed in the mysterious processes of feminine emotion. Ten minutes +before, there had been a general harmony of sombre views; but on hearing +Roderick's limitations thus distinctly formulated to a stranger, the two +ladies mutely protested. Mrs. Hudson uttered a short, faint sigh, and +Miss Garland raised her eyes toward their advocate and visited him with +a short, cold glance. + +"I 'm afraid, Mrs. Hudson," Rowland pursued, evading the discussion +of Roderick's possible greatness, "that you don't at all thank me for +stirring up your son's ambition on a line which leads him so far from +home. I suspect I have made you my enemy." + +Mrs. Hudson covered her mouth with her finger-tips and looked painfully +perplexed between the desire to confess the truth and the fear of being +impolite. "My cousin is no one's enemy," Miss Garland hereupon declared, +gently, but with that same fine deliberateness with which she had made +Rowland relax his grasp of the chair. + +"Does she leave that to you?" Rowland ventured to ask, with a smile. + +"We are inspired with none but Christian sentiments," said Mr. Striker; +"Miss Garland perhaps most of all. Miss Garland," and Mr. Striker +waved his hand again as if to perform an introduction which had been +regrettably omitted, "is the daughter of a minister, the granddaughter +of a minister, the sister of a minister." Rowland bowed deferentially, +and the young girl went on with her sewing, with nothing, apparently, +either of embarrassment or elation at the promulgation of these facts. +Mr. Striker continued: "Mrs. Hudson, I see, is too deeply agitated +to converse with you freely. She will allow me to address you a few +questions. Would you kindly inform her, as exactly as possible, just +what you propose to do with her son?" + +The poor lady fixed her eyes appealingly on Rowland's face and seemed +to say that Mr. Striker had spoken her desire, though she herself would +have expressed it less defiantly. But Rowland saw in Mr. Striker's +many-wrinkled light blue eye, shrewd at once and good-natured, that +he had no intention of defiance, and that he was simply pompous and +conceited and sarcastically compassionate of any view of things in which +Roderick Hudson was regarded in a serious light. + +"Do, my dear madam?" demanded Rowland. "I don't propose to do anything. +He must do for himself. I simply offer him the chance. He 's to study, +to work--hard, I hope." + +"Not too hard, please," murmured Mrs. Hudson, pleadingly, wheeling about +from recent visions of dangerous leisure. "He 's not very strong, and I +'m afraid the climate of Europe is very relaxing." + +"Ah, study?" repeated Mr. Striker. "To what line of study is he to +direct his attention?" Then suddenly, with an impulse of disinterested +curiosity on his own account, "How do you study sculpture, anyhow?" + +"By looking at models and imitating them." + +"At models, eh? To what kind of models do you refer?" + +"To the antique, in the first place." + +"Ah, the antique," repeated Mr. Striker, with a jocose intonation. "Do +you hear, madam? Roderick is going off to Europe to learn to imitate the +antique." + +"I suppose it 's all right," said Mrs. Hudson, twisting herself in a +sort of delicate anguish. + +"An antique, as I understand it," the lawyer continued, "is an image of +a pagan deity, with considerable dirt sticking to it, and no arms, no +nose, and no clothing. A precious model, certainly!" + +"That 's a very good description of many," said Rowland, with a laugh. + +"Mercy! Truly?" asked Mrs. Hudson, borrowing courage from his urbanity. + +"But a sculptor's studies, you intimate, are not confined to the +antique," Mr. Striker resumed. "After he has been looking three or four +years at the objects I describe"-- + +"He studies the living model," said Rowland. + +"Does it take three or four years?" asked Mrs. Hudson, imploringly. + +"That depends upon the artist's aptitude. After twenty years a real +artist is still studying." + +"Oh, my poor boy!" moaned Mrs. Hudson, finding the prospect, under every +light, still terrible. + +"Now this study of the living model," Mr. Striker pursued. "Inform Mrs. +Hudson about that." + +"Oh dear, no!" cried Mrs. Hudson, shrinkingly. + +"That too," said Rowland, "is one of the reasons for studying in Rome. +It 's a handsome race, you know, and you find very well-made people." + +"I suppose they 're no better made than a good tough Yankee," objected +Mr. Striker, transposing his interminable legs. "The same God made us." + +"Surely," sighed Mrs. Hudson, but with a questioning glance at her +visitor which showed that she had already begun to concede much weight +to his opinion. Rowland hastened to express his assent to Mr. Striker's +proposition. + +Miss Garland looked up, and, after a moment's hesitation: "Are the Roman +women very beautiful?" she asked. + +Rowland too, in answering, hesitated; he was looking straight at the +young girl. "On the whole, I prefer ours," he said. + +She had dropped her work in her lap; her hands were crossed upon it, her +head thrown a little back. She had evidently expected a more impersonal +answer, and she was dissatisfied. For an instant she seemed inclined to +make a rejoinder, but she slowly picked up her work in silence and drew +her stitches again. + +Rowland had for the second time the feeling that she judged him to be +a person of a disagreeably sophisticated tone. He noticed too that the +kitchen towel she was hemming was terribly coarse. And yet his answer +had a resonant inward echo, and he repeated to himself, "Yes, on the +whole, I prefer ours." + +"Well, these models," began Mr. Striker. "You put them into an attitude, +I suppose." + +"An attitude, exactly." + +"And then you sit down and look at them." + +"You must not sit too long. You must go at your clay and try to build up +something that looks like them." + +"Well, there you are with your model in an attitude on one side, +yourself, in an attitude too, I suppose, on the other, and your pile of +clay in the middle, building up, as you say. So you pass the morning. +After that I hope you go out and take a walk, and rest from your +exertions." + +"Unquestionably. But to a sculptor who loves his work there is no time +lost. Everything he looks at teaches or suggests something." + +"That 's a tempting doctrine to young men with a taste for sitting by +the hour with the page unturned, watching the flies buzz, or the frost +melt on the window-pane. Our young friend, in this way, must have laid +up stores of information which I never suspected!" + +"Very likely," said Rowland, with an unresentful smile, "he will prove +some day the completer artist for some of those lazy reveries." + +This theory was apparently very grateful to Mrs. Hudson, who had never +had the case put for her son with such ingenious hopefulness, and found +herself disrelishing the singular situation of seeming to side against +her own flesh and blood with a lawyer whose conversational tone betrayed +the habit of cross-questioning. + +"My son, then," she ventured to ask, "my son has great--what you would +call great powers?" + +"To my sense, very great powers." + +Poor Mrs. Hudson actually smiled, broadly, gleefully, and glanced at +Miss Garland, as if to invite her to do likewise. But the young girl's +face remained serious, like the eastern sky when the opposite sunset is +too feeble to make it glow. "Do you really know?" she asked, looking at +Rowland. + +"One cannot know in such a matter save after proof, and proof takes +time. But one can believe." + +"And you believe?" + +"I believe." + +But even then Miss Garland vouchsafed no smile. Her face became graver +than ever. + +"Well, well," said Mrs. Hudson, "we must hope that it is all for the +best." + +Mr. Striker eyed his old friend for a moment with a look of some +displeasure; he saw that this was but a cunning feminine imitation of +resignation, and that, through some untraceable process of transition, +she was now taking more comfort in the opinions of this insinuating +stranger than in his own tough dogmas. He rose to his feet, +without pulling down his waistcoat, but with a wrinkled grin at the +inconsistency of women. "Well, sir, Mr. Roderick's powers are nothing to +me," he said, "nor no use he makes of them. Good or bad, he 's no son +of mine. But, in a friendly way, I 'm glad to hear so fine an account +of him. I 'm glad, madam, you 're so satisfied with the prospect. +Affection, sir, you see, must have its guarantees!" He paused a moment, +stroking his beard, with his head inclined and one eye half-closed, +looking at Rowland. The look was grotesque, but it was significant, and +it puzzled Rowland more than it amused him. "I suppose you 're a very +brilliant young man," he went on, "very enlightened, very cultivated, +quite up to the mark in the fine arts and all that sort of thing. I 'm a +plain, practical old boy, content to follow an honorable profession in a +free country. I did n't go off to the Old World to learn my business; no +one took me by the hand; I had to grease my wheels myself, and, such as +I am, I 'm a self-made man, every inch of me! Well, if our young friend +is booked for fame and fortune, I don't suppose his going to Rome will +stop him. But, mind you, it won't help him such a long way, either. If +you have undertaken to put him through, there 's a thing or two you 'd +better remember. The crop we gather depends upon the seed we sow. He may +be the biggest genius of the age: his potatoes won't come up without his +hoeing them. If he takes things so almighty easy as--well, as one or two +young fellows of genius I 've had under my eye--his produce will never +gain the prize. Take the word for it of a man who has made his way inch +by inch, and does n't believe that we 'll wake up to find our work done +because we 've lain all night a-dreaming of it; anything worth doing is +devilish hard to do! If your young protajay finds things easy and has +a good time and says he likes the life, it 's a sign that--as I may +say--you had better step round to the office and look at the books. That +'s all I desire to remark. No offense intended. I hope you 'll have a +first-rate time." + +Rowland could honestly reply that this seemed pregnant sense, and he +offered Mr. Striker a friendly hand-shake as the latter withdrew. But +Mr. Striker's rather grim view of matters cast a momentary shadow on his +companions, and Mrs. Hudson seemed to feel that it necessitated between +them some little friendly agreement not to be overawed. + +Rowland sat for some time longer, partly because he wished to please the +two women and partly because he was strangely pleased himself. There +was something touching in their unworldly fears and diffident hopes, +something almost terrible in the way poor little Mrs. Hudson seemed +to flutter and quiver with intense maternal passion. She put forth one +timid conversational venture after another, and asked Rowland a number +of questions about himself, his age, his family, his occupations, his +tastes, his religious opinions. Rowland had an odd feeling at last that +she had begun to consider him very exemplary, and that she might +make, later, some perturbing discovery. He tried, therefore, to invent +something that would prepare her to find him fallible. But he could +think of nothing. It only seemed to him that Miss Garland secretly +mistrusted him, and that he must leave her to render him the service, +after he had gone, of making him the object of a little firm derogation. +Mrs. Hudson talked with low-voiced eagerness about her son. + +"He 's very lovable, sir, I assure you. When you come to know him you +'ll find him very lovable. He 's a little spoiled, of course; he has +always done with me as he pleased; but he 's a good boy, I 'm sure he 's +a good boy. And every one thinks him very attractive: I 'm sure he 'd be +noticed, anywhere. Don't you think he 's very handsome, sir? He features +his poor father. I had another--perhaps you 've been told. He was +killed." And the poor little lady bravely smiled, for fear of doing +worse. "He was a very fine boy, but very different from Roderick. +Roderick is a little strange; he has never been an easy boy. Sometimes +I feel like the goose--was n't it a goose, dear?" and startled by the +audacity of her comparison she appealed to Miss Garland--"the goose, or +the hen, who hatched a swan's egg. I have never been able to give him +what he needs. I have always thought that in more--in more brilliant +circumstances he might find his place and be happy. But at the same time +I was afraid of the world for him; it was so large and dangerous and +dreadful. No doubt I know very little about it. I never suspected, I +confess, that it contained persons of such liberality as yours." + +Rowland replied that, evidently, she had done the world but scanty +justice. "No," objected Miss Garland, after a pause, "it is like +something in a fairy tale." + +"What, pray?" + +"Your coming here all unknown, so rich and so polite, and carrying off +my cousin in a golden cloud." + +If this was badinage Miss Garland had the best of it, for Rowland almost +fell a-musing silently over the question whether there was a possibility +of irony in that transparent gaze. Before he withdrew, Mrs. Hudson made +him tell her again that Roderick's powers were extraordinary. He had +inspired her with a clinging, caressing faith in his wisdom. "He will +really do great things," she asked, "the very greatest?" + +"I see no reason in his talent itself why he should not." + +"Well, we 'll think of that as we sit here alone," she rejoined. "Mary +and I will sit here and talk about it. So I give him up," she went on, +as he was going. "I 'm sure you 'll be the best of friends to him, +but if you should ever forget him, or grow tired of him, or lose your +interest in him, and he should come to any harm or any trouble, please, +sir, remember"--And she paused, with a tremulous voice. + +"Remember, my dear madam?" + +"That he is all I have--that he is everything--and that it would be very +terrible." + +"In so far as I can help him, he shall succeed," was all Rowland could +say. He turned to Miss Garland, to bid her good night, and she rose and +put out her hand. She was very straightforward, but he could see that if +she was too modest to be bold, she was much too simple to be shy. "Have +you no charge to lay upon me?" he asked--to ask her something. + +She looked at him a moment and then, although she was not shy, she +blushed. "Make him do his best," she said. + +Rowland noted the soft intensity with which the words were uttered. "Do +you take a great interest in him?" he demanded. + +"Certainly." + +"Then, if he will not do his best for you, he will not do it for me." +She turned away with another blush, and Rowland took his leave. + +He walked homeward, thinking of many things. The great Northampton +elms interarched far above in the darkness, but the moon had risen and +through scattered apertures was hanging the dusky vault with silver +lamps. There seemed to Rowland something intensely serious in the scene +in which he had just taken part. He had laughed and talked and braved it +out in self-defense; but when he reflected that he was really meddling +with the simple stillness of this little New England home, and that he +had ventured to disturb so much living security in the interest of a +far-away, fantastic hypothesis, he paused, amazed at his temerity. It +was true, as Cecilia had said, that for an unofficious man it was a +singular position. There stirred in his mind an odd feeling of annoyance +with Roderick for having thus peremptorily enlisted his sympathies. As +he looked up and down the long vista, and saw the clear white houses +glancing here and there in the broken moonshine, he could almost have +believed that the happiest lot for any man was to make the most of life +in some such tranquil spot as that. Here were kindness, comfort, safety, +the warning voice of duty, the perfect hush of temptation. And as +Rowland looked along the arch of silvered shadow and out into the lucid +air of the American night, which seemed so doubly vast, somehow, and +strange and nocturnal, he felt like declaring that here was beauty +too--beauty sufficient for an artist not to starve upon it. As he stood, +lost in the darkness, he presently heard a rapid tread on the other side +of the road, accompanied by a loud, jubilant whistle, and in a moment +a figure emerged into an open gap of moonshine. He had no difficulty +in recognizing Hudson, who was presumably returning from a visit to +Cecilia. Roderick stopped suddenly and stared up at the moon, with his +face vividly illumined. He broke out into a snatch of song:-- + +"The splendor falls on castle walls +And snowy summits old in story!" + +And with a great, musical roll of his voice he went swinging off into +the darkness again, as if his thoughts had lent him wings. He was +dreaming of the inspiration of foreign lands,--of castled crags and +historic landscapes. What a pity, after all, thought Rowland, as he went +his own way, that he should n't have a taste of it! + +It had been a very just remark of Cecilia's that Roderick would change +with a change in his circumstances. Rowland had telegraphed to New York +for another berth on his steamer, and from the hour the answer came +Hudson's spirits rose to incalculable heights. He was radiant with +good-humor, and his kindly jollity seemed the pledge of a brilliant +future. He had forgiven his old enemies and forgotten his old +grievances, and seemed every way reconciled to a world in which he was +going to count as an active force. He was inexhaustibly loquacious and +fantastic, and as Cecilia said, he had suddenly become so good that +it was only to be feared he was going to start not for Europe but for +heaven. He took long walks with Rowland, who felt more and more the +fascination of what he would have called his giftedness. Rowland +returned several times to Mrs. Hudson's, and found the two ladies doing +their best to be happy in their companion's happiness. Miss Garland, he +thought, was succeeding better than her demeanor on his first visit had +promised. He tried to have some especial talk with her, but her extreme +reserve forced him to content himself with such response to his rather +urgent overtures as might be extracted from a keenly attentive smile. +It must be confessed, however, that if the response was vague, the +satisfaction was great, and that Rowland, after his second visit, kept +seeing a lurking reflection of this smile in the most unexpected places. +It seemed strange that she should please him so well at so slender +a cost, but please him she did, prodigiously, and his pleasure had +a quality altogether new to him. It made him restless, and a trifle +melancholy; he walked about absently, wondering and wishing. He +wondered, among other things, why fate should have condemned him to +make the acquaintance of a girl whom he would make a sacrifice to know +better, just as he was leaving the country for years. It seemed to him +that he was turning his back on a chance of happiness--happiness of a +sort of which the slenderest germ should be cultivated. He asked himself +whether, feeling as he did, if he had only himself to please, he would +give up his journey and--wait. He had Roderick to please now, for whom +disappointment would be cruel; but he said to himself that certainly, if +there were no Roderick in the case, the ship should sail without him. +He asked Hudson several questions about his cousin, but Roderick, +confidential on most points, seemed to have reasons of his own for +being reticent on this one. His measured answers quickened Rowland's +curiosity, for Miss Garland, with her own irritating half-suggestions, +had only to be a subject of guarded allusion in others to become +intolerably interesting. He learned from Roderick that she was the +daughter of a country minister, a far-away cousin of his mother, +settled in another part of the State; that she was one of a half-a-dozen +daughters, that the family was very poor, and that she had come a couple +of months before to pay his mother a long visit. "It is to be a very +long one now," he said, "for it is settled that she is to remain while I +am away." + +The fermentation of contentment in Roderick's soul reached its climax a +few days before the young men were to make their farewells. He had been +sitting with his friends on Cecilia's veranda, but for half an hour past +he had said nothing. Lounging back against a vine-wreathed column and +gazing idly at the stars, he kept caroling softly to himself with that +indifference to ceremony for which he always found allowance, and which +in him had a sort of pleading grace. At last, springing up: "I want to +strike out, hard!" he exclaimed. "I want to do something violent, to let +off steam!" + +"I 'll tell you what to do, this lovely weather," said Cecilia. "Give a +picnic. It can be as violent as you please, and it will have the merit +of leading off our emotion into a safe channel, as well as yours." + +Roderick laughed uproariously at Cecilia's very practical remedy for his +sentimental need, but a couple of days later, nevertheless, the picnic +was given. It was to be a family party, but Roderick, in his magnanimous +geniality, insisted on inviting Mr. Striker, a decision which Rowland +mentally applauded. "And we 'll have Mrs. Striker, too," he said, "if +she 'll come, to keep my mother in countenance; and at any rate we +'ll have Miss Striker--the divine Petronilla!" The young lady thus +denominated formed, with Mrs. Hudson, Miss Garland, and Cecilia, the +feminine half of the company. Mr. Striker presented himself, sacrificing +a morning's work, with a magnanimity greater even than Roderick's, and +foreign support was further secured in the person of Mr. Whitefoot, the +young Orthodox minister. Roderick had chosen the feasting-place; he +knew it well and had passed many a summer afternoon there, lying at his +length on the grass and gazing at the blue undulations of the horizon. +It was a meadow on the edge of a wood, with mossy rocks protruding +through the grass and a little lake on the other side. It was a +cloudless August day; Rowland always remembered it, and the scene, and +everything that was said and done, with extraordinary distinctness. +Roderick surpassed himself in friendly jollity, and at one moment, when +exhilaration was at the highest, was seen in Mr. Striker's high white +hat, drinking champagne from a broken tea-cup to Mr. Striker's health. +Miss Striker had her father's pale blue eye; she was dressed as if she +were going to sit for her photograph, and remained for a long time with +Roderick on a little promontory overhanging the lake. Mrs. Hudson sat +all day with a little meek, apprehensive smile. She was afraid of an +"accident," though unless Miss Striker (who indeed was a little of +a romp) should push Roderick into the lake, it was hard to see what +accident could occur. Mrs. Hudson was as neat and crisp and uncrumpled +at the end of the festival as at the beginning. Mr. Whitefoot, who but +a twelvemonth later became a convert to episcopacy and was already +cultivating a certain conversational sonority, devoted himself to +Cecilia. He had a little book in his pocket, out of which he read to +her at intervals, lying stretched at her feet, and it was a lasting joke +with Cecilia, afterwards, that she would never tell what Mr. Whitefoot's +little book had been. Rowland had placed himself near Miss Garland, +while the feasting went forward on the grass. She wore a so-called gypsy +hat--a little straw hat, tied down over her ears, so as to cast her +eyes into shadow, by a ribbon passing outside of it. When the company +dispersed, after lunch, he proposed to her to take a stroll in the +wood. She hesitated a moment and looked toward Mrs. Hudson, as if for +permission to leave her. But Mrs. Hudson was listening to Mr. Striker, +who sat gossiping to her with relaxed magniloquence, his waistcoat +unbuttoned and his hat on his nose. + +"You can give your cousin your society at any time," said Rowland. "But +me, perhaps, you 'll never see again." + +"Why then should we wish to be friends, if nothing is to come of it?" +she asked, with homely logic. But by this time she had consented, and +they were treading the fallen pine-needles. + +"Oh, one must take all one can get," said Rowland. "If we can be friends +for half an hour, it 's so much gained." + +"Do you expect never to come back to Northampton again?" + +"'Never' is a good deal to say. But I go to Europe for a long stay." + +"Do you prefer it so much to your own country?" + +"I will not say that. But I have the misfortune to be a rather idle man, +and in Europe the burden of idleness is less heavy than here." + +She was silent for a few minutes; then at last, "In that, then, we are +better than Europe," she said. To a certain point Rowland agreed with +her, but he demurred, to make her say more. + +"Would n't it be better," she asked, "to work to get reconciled to +America, than to go to Europe to get reconciled to idleness?" + +"Doubtless; but you know work is hard to find." + +"I come from a little place where every one has plenty," said Miss +Garland. "We all work; every one I know works. And really," she added +presently, "I look at you with curiosity; you are the first unoccupied +man I ever saw." + +"Don't look at me too hard," said Rowland, smiling. "I shall sink into +the earth. What is the name of your little place?" + +"West Nazareth," said Miss Garland, with her usual sobriety. "It is not +so very little, though it 's smaller than Northampton." + +"I wonder whether I could find any work at West Nazareth," Rowland said. + +"You would not like it," Miss Garland declared reflectively. "Though +there are far finer woods there than this. We have miles and miles of +woods." + +"I might chop down trees," said Rowland. "That is, if you allow it." + +"Allow it? Why, where should we get our firewood?" Then, noticing that +he had spoken jestingly, she glanced at him askance, though with no +visible diminution of her gravity. "Don't you know how to do anything? +Have you no profession?" + +Rowland shook his head. "Absolutely none." + +"What do you do all day?" + +"Nothing worth relating. That 's why I am going to Europe. There, at +least, if I do nothing, I shall see a great deal; and if I 'm not a +producer, I shall at any rate be an observer." + +"Can't we observe everywhere?" + +"Certainly; and I really think that in that way I make the most of my +opportunities. Though I confess," he continued, "that I often remember +there are things to be seen here to which I probably have n't done +justice. I should like, for instance, to see West Nazareth." + +She looked round at him, open-eyed; not, apparently, that she exactly +supposed he was jesting, for the expression of such a desire was not +necessarily facetious; but as if he must have spoken with an ulterior +motive. In fact, he had spoken from the simplest of motives. The girl +beside him pleased him unspeakably, and, suspecting that her charm +was essentially her own and not reflected from social circumstance, +he wished to give himself the satisfaction of contrasting her with the +meagre influences of her education. Miss Garland's second movement was +to take him at his word. "Since you are free to do as you please, why +don't you go there?" + +"I am not free to do as I please now. I have offered your cousin to bear +him company to Europe, he has accepted with enthusiasm, and I cannot +retract." + +"Are you going to Europe simply for his sake?" + +Rowland hesitated a moment. "I think I may almost say so." + +Miss Garland walked along in silence. "Do you mean to do a great deal +for him?" she asked at last. + +"What I can. But my power of helping him is very small beside his power +of helping himself." + +For a moment she was silent again. "You are very generous," she said, +almost solemnly. + +"No, I am simply very shrewd. Roderick will repay me. It 's an +investment. At first, I think," he added shortly afterwards, "you would +not have paid me that compliment. You distrusted me." + +She made no attempt to deny it. "I did n't see why you should wish to +make Roderick discontented. I thought you were rather frivolous." + +"You did me injustice. I don't think I 'm that." + +"It was because you are unlike other men--those, at least, whom I have +seen." + +"In what way?" + +"Why, as you describe yourself. You have no duties, no profession, no +home. You live for your pleasure." + +"That 's all very true. And yet I maintain I 'm not frivolous." + +"I hope not," said Miss Garland, simply. They had reached a point where +the wood-path forked and put forth two divergent tracks which lost +themselves in a verdurous tangle. Miss Garland seemed to think that the +difficulty of choice between them was a reason for giving them up and +turning back. Rowland thought otherwise, and detected agreeable grounds +for preference in the left-hand path. As a compromise, they sat down on +a fallen log. Looking about him, Rowland espied a curious wild shrub, +with a spotted crimson leaf; he went and plucked a spray of it and +brought it to Miss Garland. He had never observed it before, but she +immediately called it by its name. She expressed surprise at his not +knowing it; it was extremely common. He presently brought her a specimen +of another delicate plant, with a little blue-streaked flower. "I +suppose that 's common, too," he said, "but I have never seen it--or +noticed it, at least." She answered that this one was rare, and +meditated a moment before she could remember its name. At last she +recalled it, and expressed surprise at his having found the plant in the +woods; she supposed it grew only in open marshes. Rowland complimented +her on her fund of useful information. + +"It 's not especially useful," she answered; "but I like to know the +names of plants as I do those of my acquaintances. When we walk in the +woods at home--which we do so much--it seems as unnatural not to know +what to call the flowers as it would be to see some one in the town with +whom we were not on speaking terms." + +"Apropos of frivolity," Rowland said, "I 'm sure you have very little +of it, unless at West Nazareth it is considered frivolous to walk in the +woods and nod to the nodding flowers. Do kindly tell me a little about +yourself." And to compel her to begin, "I know you come of a race of +theologians," he went on. + +"No," she replied, deliberating; "they are not theologians, though they +are ministers. We don't take a very firm stand upon doctrine; we are +practical, rather. We write sermons and preach them, but we do a great +deal of hard work beside." + +"And of this hard work what has your share been?" + +"The hardest part: doing nothing." + +"What do you call nothing?" + +"I taught school a while: I must make the most of that. But I confess I +did n't like it. Otherwise, I have only done little things at home, as +they turned up." + +"What kind of things?" + +"Oh, every kind. If you had seen my home, you would understand." + +Rowland would have liked to make her specify; but he felt a more urgent +need to respect her simplicity than he had ever felt to defer to the +complex circumstance of certain other women. "To be happy, I imagine," +he contented himself with saying, "you need to be occupied. You need to +have something to expend yourself upon." + +"That is not so true as it once was; now that I am older, I am sure I am +less impatient of leisure. Certainly, these two months that I have been +with Mrs. Hudson, I have had a terrible amount of it. And yet I have +liked it! And now that I am probably to be with her all the while that +her son is away, I look forward to more with a resignation that I don't +quite know what to make of." + +"It is settled, then, that you are to remain with your cousin?" + +"It depends upon their writing from home that I may stay. But that is +probable. Only I must not forget," she said, rising, "that the ground +for my doing so is that she be not left alone." + +"I am glad to know," said Rowland, "that I shall probably often hear +about you. I assure you I shall often think about you!" These words were +half impulsive, half deliberate. They were the simple truth, and he had +asked himself why he should not tell her the truth. And yet they were +not all of it; her hearing the rest would depend upon the way she +received this. She received it not only, as Rowland foresaw, without +a shadow of coquetry, of any apparent thought of listening to it +gracefully, but with a slight movement of nervous deprecation, which +seemed to betray itself in the quickening of her step. Evidently, if +Rowland was to take pleasure in hearing about her, it would have to be a +highly disinterested pleasure. She answered nothing, and Rowland too, +as he walked beside her, was silent; but as he looked along the +shadow-woven wood-path, what he was really facing was a level three +years of disinterestedness. He ushered them in by talking composed +civility until he had brought Miss Garland back to her companions. + +He saw her but once again. He was obliged to be in New York a couple of +days before sailing, and it was arranged that Roderick should overtake +him at the last moment. The evening before he left Northampton he went +to say farewell to Mrs. Hudson. The ceremony was brief. Rowland soon +perceived that the poor little lady was in the melting mood, and, as he +dreaded her tears, he compressed a multitude of solemn promises into a +silent hand-shake and took his leave. Miss Garland, she had told him, +was in the back-garden with Roderick: he might go out to them. He did +so, and as he drew near he heard Roderick's high-pitched voice ringing +behind the shrubbery. In a moment, emerging, he found Miss Garland +leaning against a tree, with her cousin before her talking with great +emphasis. He asked pardon for interrupting them, and said he wished only +to bid her good-by. She gave him her hand and he made her his bow in +silence. "Don't forget," he said to Roderick, as he turned away. "And +don't, in this company, repent of your bargain." + +"I shall not let him," said Miss Garland, with something very like +gayety. "I shall see that he is punctual. He must go! I owe you an +apology for having doubted that he ought to." And in spite of the dusk +Rowland could see that she had an even finer smile than he had supposed. + +Roderick was punctual, eagerly punctual, and they went. Rowland for +several days was occupied with material cares, and lost sight of his +sentimental perplexities. But they only slumbered, and they were +sharply awakened. The weather was fine, and the two young men always sat +together upon deck late into the evening. One night, toward the last, +they were at the stern of the great ship, watching her grind the solid +blackness of the ocean into phosphorescent foam. They talked on these +occasions of everything conceivable, and had the air of having no +secrets from each other. But it was on Roderick's conscience that this +air belied him, and he was too frank by nature, moreover, for permanent +reticence on any point. + +"I must tell you something," he said at last. "I should like you to know +it, and you will be so glad to know it. Besides, it 's only a question +of time; three months hence, probably, you would have guessed it. I am +engaged to Mary Garland." + +Rowland sat staring; though the sea was calm, it seemed to him that the +ship gave a great dizzying lurch. But in a moment he contrived to +answer coherently: "Engaged to Miss Garland! I never supposed--I never +imagined"-- + +"That I was in love with her?" Roderick interrupted. "Neither did I, +until this last fortnight. But you came and put me into such ridiculous +good-humor that I felt an extraordinary desire to tell some woman that I +adored her. Miss Garland is a magnificent girl; you know her too little +to do her justice. I have been quietly learning to know her, these +past three months, and have been falling in love with her without +being conscious of it. It appeared, when I spoke to her, that she had +a kindness for me. So the thing was settled. I must of course make some +money before we can marry. It 's rather droll, certainly, to engage +one's self to a girl whom one is going to leave the next day, for years. +We shall be condemned, for some time to come, to do a terrible deal +of abstract thinking about each other. But I wanted her blessing on my +career and I could not help asking for it. Unless a man is unnaturally +selfish he needs to work for some one else than himself, and I am sure +I shall run a smoother and swifter course for knowing that that fine +creature is waiting, at Northampton, for news of my greatness. If ever I +am a dull companion and over-addicted to moping, remember in justice +to me that I am in love and that my sweetheart is five thousand miles +away." + +Rowland listened to all this with a sort of feeling that fortune had +played him an elaborately-devised trick. It had lured him out into +mid-ocean and smoothed the sea and stilled the winds and given him a +singularly sympathetic comrade, and then it had turned and delivered him +a thumping blow in mid-chest. "Yes," he said, after an attempt at the +usual formal congratulation, "you certainly ought to do better--with +Miss Garland waiting for you at Northampton." + +Roderick, now that he had broken ground, was eloquent and rung a hundred +changes on the assurance that he was a very happy man. Then at last, +suddenly, his climax was a yawn, and he declared that he must go to bed. +Rowland let him go alone, and sat there late, between sea and sky. + + + + + +CHAPTER III. Rome + +One warm, still day, late in the Roman autumn, our two young men were +sitting beneath one of the high-stemmed pines of the Villa Ludovisi. +They had been spending an hour in the mouldy little garden-house, where +the colossal mask of the famous Juno looks out with blank eyes from that +dusky corner which must seem to her the last possible stage of a lapse +from Olympus. Then they had wandered out into the gardens, and +were lounging away the morning under the spell of their magical +picturesqueness. Roderick declared that he would go nowhere else; that, +after the Juno, it was a profanation to look at anything but sky and +trees. There was a fresco of Guercino, to which Rowland, though he had +seen it on his former visit to Rome, went dutifully to pay his respects. +But Roderick, though he had never seen it, declared that it could n't +be worth a fig, and that he did n't care to look at ugly things. He +remained stretched on his overcoat, which he had spread on the grass, +while Rowland went off envying the intellectual comfort of genius, which +can arrive at serene conclusions without disagreeable processes. When +the latter came back, his friend was sitting with his elbows on his +knees and his head in his hands. Rowland, in the geniality of a mood +attuned to the mellow charm of a Roman villa, found a good word to say +for the Guercino; but he chiefly talked of the view from the little +belvedere on the roof of the casino, and how it looked like the prospect +from a castle turret in a fairy tale. + +"Very likely," said Roderick, throwing himself back with a yawn. "But I +must let it pass. I have seen enough for the present; I have reached the +top of the hill. I have an indigestion of impressions; I must work them +off before I go in for any more. I don't want to look at any more of +other people's works, for a month--not even at Nature's own. I want to +look at Roderick Hudson's. The result of it all is that I 'm not afraid. +I can but try, as well as the rest of them! The fellow who did that +gazing goddess yonder only made an experiment. The other day, when I +was looking at Michael Angelo's Moses, I was seized with a kind +of defiance--a reaction against all this mere passive enjoyment of +grandeur. It was a rousing great success, certainly, that rose there +before me, but somehow it was not an inscrutable mystery, and it seemed +to me, not perhaps that I should some day do as well, but that at least +I might!" + +"As you say, you can but try," said Rowland. "Success is only passionate +effort." + +"Well, the passion is blazing; we have been piling on fuel handsomely. +It came over me just now that it is exactly three months to a day since +I left Northampton. I can't believe it!" + +"It certainly seems more." + +"It seems like ten years. What an exquisite ass I was!" + +"Do you feel so wise now?" + +"Verily! Don't I look so? Surely I have n't the same face. Have n't I a +different eye, a different expression, a different voice?" + +"I can hardly say, because I have seen the transition. But it 's very +likely. You are, in the literal sense of the word, more civilized. I +dare say," added Rowland, "that Miss Garland would think so." + +"That 's not what she would call it; she would say I was corrupted." + +Rowland asked few questions about Miss Garland, but he always listened +narrowly to his companion's voluntary observations. + +"Are you very sure?" he replied. + +"Why, she 's a stern moralist, and she would infer from my appearance +that I had become a cynical sybarite." Roderick had, in fact, a Venetian +watch-chain round his neck and a magnificent Roman intaglio on the third +finger of his left hand. + +"Will you think I take a liberty," asked Rowland, "if I say you judge +her superficially?" + +"For heaven's sake," cried Roderick, laughing, "don't tell me she 's +not a moralist! It was for that I fell in love with her, and with rigid +virtue in her person." + +"She is a moralist, but not, as you imply, a narrow one. That 's more +than a difference in degree; it 's a difference in kind. I don't know +whether I ever mentioned it, but I admire her extremely. There is +nothing narrow about her but her experience; everything else is large. +My impression of her is of a person of great capacity, as yet wholly +unmeasured and untested. Some day or other, I 'm sure, she will judge +fairly and wisely of everything." + +"Stay a bit!" cried Roderick; "you 're a better Catholic than the Pope. +I shall be content if she judges fairly of me--of my merits, that is. +The rest she must not judge at all. She 's a grimly devoted little +creature; may she always remain so! Changed as I am, I adore her none +the less. What becomes of all our emotions, our impressions," he went +on, after a long pause, "all the material of thought that life pours +into us at such a rate during such a memorable three months as these? +There are twenty moments a week--a day, for that matter, some days--that +seem supreme, twenty impressions that seem ultimate, that appear to +form an intellectual era. But others come treading on their heels and +sweeping them along, and they all melt like water into water and settle +the question of precedence among themselves. The curious thing is that +the more the mind takes in, the more it has space for, and that all +one's ideas are like the Irish people at home who live in the different +corners of a room, and take boarders." + +"I fancy it is our peculiar good luck that we don't see the limits of +our minds," said Rowland. "We are young, compared with what we may one +day be. That belongs to youth; it is perhaps the best part of it. They +say that old people do find themselves at last face to face with a solid +blank wall, and stand thumping against it in vain. It resounds, it seems +to have something beyond it, but it won't move! That 's only a reason +for living with open doors as long as we can!" + +"Open doors?" murmured Roderick. "Yes, let us close no doors that open +upon Rome. For this, for the mind, is eternal summer! But though my +doors may stand open to-day," he presently added, "I shall see no +visitors. I want to pause and breathe; I want to dream of a statue. +I have been working hard for three months; I have earned a right to a +reverie." + +Rowland, on his side, was not without provision for reflection, and +they lingered on in broken, desultory talk. Rowland felt the need for +intellectual rest, for a truce to present care for churches, statues, +and pictures, on even better grounds than his companion, inasmuch as +he had really been living Roderick's intellectual life the past three +months, as well as his own. As he looked back on these full-flavored +weeks, he drew a long breath of satisfaction, almost of relief. +Roderick, thus far, had justified his confidence and flattered his +perspicacity; he was rapidly unfolding into an ideal brilliancy. He was +changed even more than he himself suspected; he had stepped, without +faltering, into his birthright, and was spending money, intellectually, +as lavishly as a young heir who has just won an obstructive lawsuit. +Roderick's glance and voice were the same, doubtless, as when they +enlivened the summer dusk on Cecilia's veranda, but in his person, +generally, there was an indefinable expression of experience rapidly +and easily assimilated. Rowland had been struck at the outset with the +instinctive quickness of his observation and his free appropriation of +whatever might serve his purpose. He had not been, for instance, half +an hour on English soil before he perceived that he was dressed like +a rustic, and he had immediately reformed his toilet with the most +unerring tact. His appetite for novelty was insatiable, and for +everything characteristically foreign, as it presented itself, he had an +extravagant greeting; but in half an hour the novelty had faded, he had +guessed the secret, he had plucked out the heart of the mystery and was +clamoring for a keener sensation. At the end of a month, he presented, +mentally, a puzzling spectacle to his companion. He had caught, +instinctively, the key-note of the old world. He observed and enjoyed, +he criticised and rhapsodized, but though all things interested him and +many delighted him, none surprised him; he had divined their logic +and measured their proportions, and referred them infallibly to their +categories. Witnessing the rate at which he did intellectual execution +on the general spectacle of European life, Rowland at moments felt +vaguely uneasy for the future; the boy was living too fast, he would +have said, and giving alarming pledges to ennui in his later years. But +we must live as our pulses are timed, and Roderick's struck the hour +very often. He was, by imagination, though he never became in manner, a +natural man of the world; he had intuitively, as an artist, what one may +call the historic consciousness. He had a relish for social subtleties +and mysteries, and, in perception, when occasion offered him an inch he +never failed to take an ell. A single glimpse of a social situation of +the elder type enabled him to construct the whole, with all its complex +chiaroscuro, and Rowland more than once assured him that he made him +believe in the metempsychosis, and that he must have lived in European +society, in the last century, as a gentleman in a cocked hat and +brocaded waistcoat. Hudson asked Rowland questions which poor Rowland +was quite unable to answer, and of which he was equally unable to +conceive where he had picked up the data. Roderick ended by answering +them himself, tolerably to his satisfaction, and in a short time he +had almost turned the tables and become in their walks and talks the +accredited source of information. Rowland told him that when he turned +sculptor a capital novelist was spoiled, and that to match his eye for +social detail one would have to go to Honore de Balzac. In all this +Rowland took a generous pleasure; he felt an especial kindness for his +comrade's radiant youthfulness of temperament. He was so much younger +than he himself had ever been! And surely youth and genius, hand in +hand, were the most beautiful sight in the world. Roderick added to this +the charm of his more immediately personal qualities. The vivacity of +his perceptions, the audacity of his imagination, the picturesqueness +of his phrase when he was pleased,--and even more when he was +displeased,--his abounding good-humor, his candor, his unclouded +frankness, his unfailing impulse to share every emotion and impression +with his friend; all this made comradeship a pure felicity, and +interfused with a deeper amenity their long evening talks at cafe doors +in Italian towns. + +They had gone almost immediately to Paris, and had spent their days at +the Louvre and their evenings at the theatre. Roderick was divided in +mind as to whether Titian or Mademoiselle Delaporte was the greater +artist. They had come down through France to Genoa and Milan, had spent +a fortnight in Venice and another in Florence, and had now been a month +in Rome. Roderick had said that he meant to spend three months in simply +looking, absorbing, and reflecting, without putting pencil to paper. He +looked indefatigably, and certainly saw great things--things greater, +doubtless, at times, than the intentions of the artist. And yet he made +few false steps and wasted little time in theories of what he ought to +like and to dislike. He judged instinctively and passionately, but +never vulgarly. At Venice, for a couple of days, he had half a fit of +melancholy over the pretended discovery that he had missed his way, and +that the only proper vestment of plastic conceptions was the coloring +of Titian and Paul Veronese. Then one morning the two young men had +themselves rowed out to Torcello, and Roderick lay back for a couple +of hours watching a brown-breasted gondolier making superb muscular +movements, in high relief, against the sky of the Adriatic, and at the +end jerked himself up with a violence that nearly swamped the gondola, +and declared that the only thing worth living for was to make a colossal +bronze and set it aloft in the light of a public square. In Rome his +first care was for the Vatican; he went there again and again. But the +old imperial and papal city altogether delighted him; only there he +really found what he had been looking for from the first--the complete +antipodes of Northampton. And indeed Rome is the natural home of those +spirits with which we just now claimed fellowship for Roderick--the +spirits with a deep relish for the artificial element in life and +the infinite superpositions of history. It is the immemorial city of +convention. The stagnant Roman air is charged with convention; it colors +the yellow light and deepens the chilly shadows. And in that still +recent day the most impressive convention in all history was visible to +men's eyes, in the Roman streets, erect in a gilded coach drawn by four +black horses. Roderick's first fortnight was a high aesthetic revel. +He declared that Rome made him feel and understand more things than +he could express: he was sure that life must have there, for all one's +senses, an incomparable fineness; that more interesting things must +happen to one than anywhere else. And he gave Rowland to understand that +he meant to live freely and largely, and be as interested as occasion +demanded. Rowland saw no reason to regard this as a menace of +dissipation, because, in the first place, there was in all dissipation, +refine it as one might, a grossness which would disqualify it for +Roderick's favor, and because, in the second, the young sculptor was +a man to regard all things in the light of his art, to hand over his +passions to his genius to be dealt with, and to find that he could live +largely enough without exceeding the circle of wholesome curiosity. +Rowland took immense satisfaction in his companion's deep impatience to +make something of all his impressions. Some of these indeed found their +way into a channel which did not lead to statues, but it was none the +less a safe one. He wrote frequent long letters to Miss Garland; when +Rowland went with him to post them he thought wistfully of the +fortune of the great loosely-written missives, which cost Roderick +unconscionable sums in postage. He received punctual answers of a more +frugal form, written in a clear, minute hand, on paper vexatiously thin. +If Rowland was present when they came, he turned away and thought of +other things--or tried to. These were the only moments when his +sympathy halted, and they were brief. For the rest he let the days go by +unprotestingly, and enjoyed Roderick's serene efflorescence as he would +have done a beautiful summer sunrise. Rome, for the past month, had been +delicious. The annual descent of the Goths had not yet begun, and sunny +leisure seemed to brood over the city. + +Roderick had taken out a note-book and was roughly sketching a memento +of the great Juno. Suddenly there was a noise on the gravel, and the +young men, looking up, saw three persons advancing. One was a woman +of middle age, with a rather grand air and a great many furbelows. She +looked very hard at our friends as she passed, and glanced back over her +shoulder, as if to hasten the step of a young girl who slowly followed +her. She had such an expansive majesty of mien that Rowland supposed she +must have some proprietary right in the villa and was not just then in +a hospitable mood. Beside her walked a little elderly man, tightly +buttoned in a shabby black coat, but with a flower in his lappet, and a +pair of soiled light gloves. He was a grotesque-looking personage, +and might have passed for a gentleman of the old school, reduced by +adversity to playing cicerone to foreigners of distinction. He had a +little black eye which glittered like a diamond and rolled about like a +ball of quicksilver, and a white moustache, cut short and stiff, like a +worn-out brush. He was smiling with extreme urbanity, and talking in a +low, mellifluous voice to the lady, who evidently was not listening +to him. At a considerable distance behind this couple strolled a young +girl, apparently of about twenty. She was tall and slender, and dressed +with extreme elegance; she led by a cord a large poodle of the most +fantastic aspect. He was combed and decked like a ram for sacrifice; his +trunk and haunches were of the most transparent pink, his fleecy head +and shoulders as white as jeweler's cotton, and his tail and ears +ornamented with long blue ribbons. He stepped along stiffly and solemnly +beside his mistress, with an air of conscious elegance. There was +something at first slightly ridiculous in the sight of a young lady +gravely appended to an animal of these incongruous attributes, and +Roderick, with his customary frankness, greeted the spectacle with a +confident smile. The young girl perceived it and turned her face full +upon him, with a gaze intended apparently to enforce greater deference. +It was not deference, however, her face provoked, but startled, +submissive admiration; Roderick's smile fell dead, and he sat eagerly +staring. A pair of extraordinary dark blue eyes, a mass of dusky hair +over a low forehead, a blooming oval of perfect purity, a flexible +lip, just touched with disdain, the step and carriage of a tired +princess--these were the general features of his vision. The young lady +was walking slowly and letting her long dress rustle over the gravel; +the young men had time to see her distinctly before she averted her +face and went her way. She left a vague, sweet perfume behind her as she +passed. + +"Immortal powers!" cried Roderick, "what a vision! In the name of +transcendent perfection, who is she?" He sprang up and stood looking +after her until she rounded a turn in the avenue. "What a movement, what +a manner, what a poise of the head! I wonder if she would sit to me." + +"You had better go and ask her," said Rowland, laughing. "She is +certainly most beautiful." + +"Beautiful? She 's beauty itself--she 's a revelation. I don't believe +she is living--she 's a phantasm, a vapor, an illusion!" + +"The poodle," said Rowland, "is certainly alive." + +"Nay, he too may be a grotesque phantom, like the black dog in Faust." + +"I hope at least that the young lady has nothing in common with +Mephistopheles. She looked dangerous." + +"If beauty is immoral, as people think at Northampton," said Roderick, +"she is the incarnation of evil. The mamma and the queer old gentleman, +moreover, are a pledge of her reality. Who are they all?" + +"The Prince and Princess Ludovisi and the principessina," suggested +Rowland. + +"There are no such people," said Roderick. "Besides, the little old man +is not the papa." Rowland smiled, wondering how he had ascertained +these facts, and the young sculptor went on. "The old man is a Roman, a +hanger-on of the mamma, a useful personage who now and then gets asked +to dinner. The ladies are foreigners, from some Northern country; I +won't say which." + +"Perhaps from the State of Maine," said Rowland. + +"No, she 's not an American, I 'll lay a wager on that. She 's a +daughter of this elder world. We shall see her again, I pray my stars; +but if we don't, I shall have done something I never expected to--I +shall have had a glimpse of ideal beauty." He sat down again and went +on with his sketch of the Juno, scrawled away for ten minutes, and then +handed the result in silence to Rowland. Rowland uttered an exclamation +of surprise and applause. The drawing represented the Juno as to the +position of the head, the brow, and the broad fillet across the hair; +but the eyes, the mouth, the physiognomy were a vivid portrait of +the young girl with the poodle. "I have been wanting a subject," said +Roderick: "there 's one made to my hand! And now for work!" + +They saw no more of the young girl, though Roderick looked hopefully, +for some days, into the carriages on the Pincian. She had evidently been +but passing through Rome; Naples or Florence now happily possessed her, +and she was guiding her fleecy companion through the Villa Reale or the +Boboli Gardens with the same superb defiance of irony. Roderick went to +work and spent a month shut up in his studio; he had an idea, and he was +not to rest till he had embodied it. He had established himself in +the basement of a huge, dusky, dilapidated old house, in that long, +tortuous, and preeminently Roman street which leads from the Corso to +the Bridge of St. Angelo. The black archway which admitted you might +have served as the portal of the Augean stables, but you emerged +presently upon a mouldy little court, of which the fourth side was +formed by a narrow terrace, overhanging the Tiber. Here, along the +parapet, were stationed half a dozen shapeless fragments of sculpture, +with a couple of meagre orange-trees in terra-cotta tubs, and an +oleander that never flowered. The unclean, historic river swept beneath; +behind were dusky, reeking walls, spotted here and there with hanging +rags and flower-pots in windows; opposite, at a distance, were the bare +brown banks of the stream, the huge rotunda of St. Angelo, tipped with +its seraphic statue, the dome of St. Peter's, and the broad-topped pines +of the Villa Doria. The place was crumbling and shabby and melancholy, +but the river was delightful, the rent was a trifle, and everything was +picturesque. Roderick was in the best humor with his quarters from the +first, and was certain that the working mood there would be intenser +in an hour than in twenty years of Northampton. His studio was a huge, +empty room with a vaulted ceiling, covered with vague, dark traces of an +old fresco, which Rowland, when he spent an hour with his friend, used +to stare at vainly for some surviving coherence of floating draperies +and clasping arms. Roderick had lodged himself economically in the same +quarter. He occupied a fifth floor on the Ripetta, but he was only at +home to sleep, for when he was not at work he was either lounging in +Rowland's more luxurious rooms or strolling through streets and churches +and gardens. + +Rowland had found a convenient corner in a stately old palace not far +from the Fountain of Trevi, and made himself a home to which books and +pictures and prints and odds and ends of curious furniture gave an air +of leisurely permanence. He had the tastes of a collector; he spent half +his afternoons ransacking the dusty magazines of the curiosity-mongers, +and often made his way, in quest of a prize, into the heart of +impecunious Roman households, which had been prevailed upon to +listen--with closed doors and an impenetrably wary smile--to proposals +for an hereditary "antique." In the evening, often, under the lamp, +amid dropped curtains and the scattered gleam of firelight upon polished +carvings and mellow paintings, the two friends sat with their heads +together, criticising intaglios and etchings, water-color drawings and +illuminated missals. Roderick's quick appreciation of every form of +artistic beauty reminded his companion of the flexible temperament of +those Italian artists of the sixteenth century who were indifferently +painters and sculptors, sonneteers and engravers. At times when he saw +how the young sculptor's day passed in a single sustained pulsation, +while his own was broken into a dozen conscious devices for disposing of +the hours, and intermingled with sighs, half suppressed, some of them, +for conscience' sake, over what he failed of in action and missed in +possession--he felt a pang of something akin to envy. But Rowland had +two substantial aids for giving patience the air of contentment: he +was an inquisitive reader and a passionate rider. He plunged into bulky +German octavos on Italian history, and he spent long afternoons in +the saddle, ranging over the grassy desolation of the Campagna. As the +season went on and the social groups began to constitute themselves, he +found that he knew a great many people and that he had easy opportunity +for knowing others. He enjoyed a quiet corner of a drawing-room beside +an agreeable woman, and although the machinery of what calls itself +society seemed to him to have many superfluous wheels, he accepted +invitations and made visits punctiliously, from the conviction that +the only way not to be overcome by the ridiculous side of most of such +observances is to take them with exaggerated gravity. He introduced +Roderick right and left, and suffered him to make his way himself--an +enterprise for which Roderick very soon displayed an all-sufficient +capacity. Wherever he went he made, not exactly what is called a +favorable impression, but what, from a practical point of view, is +better--a puzzling one. He took to evening parties as a duck to water, +and before the winter was half over was the most freely and frequently +discussed young man in the heterogeneous foreign colony. Rowland's +theory of his own duty was to let him run his course and play his +cards, only holding himself ready to point out shoals and pitfalls, +and administer a friendly propulsion through tight places. Roderick's +manners on the precincts of the Pincian were quite the same as his +manners on Cecilia's veranda: that is, they were no manners at all. But +it remained as true as before that it would have been impossible, on the +whole, to violate ceremony with less of lasting offense. He interrupted, +he contradicted, he spoke to people he had never seen, and left his +social creditors without the smallest conversational interest on their +loans; he lounged and yawned, he talked loud when he should have +talked low, and low when he should have talked loud. Many people, in +consequence, thought him insufferably conceited, and declared that he +ought to wait till he had something to show for his powers, before he +assumed the airs of a spoiled celebrity. But to Rowland and to most +friendly observers this judgment was quite beside the mark, and the +young man's undiluted naturalness was its own justification. He +was impulsive, spontaneous, sincere; there were so many people at +dinner-tables and in studios who were not, that it seemed worth while +to allow this rare specimen all possible freedom of action. If Roderick +took the words out of your mouth when you were just prepared to deliver +them with the most effective accent, he did it with a perfect good +conscience and with no pretension of a better right to being heard, but +simply because he was full to overflowing of his own momentary thought +and it sprang from his lips without asking leave. There were persons who +waited on your periods much more deferentially, who were a hundred +times more capable than Roderick of a reflective impertinence. Roderick +received from various sources, chiefly feminine, enough finely-adjusted +advice to have established him in life as an embodiment of the +proprieties, and he received it, as he afterwards listened to criticisms +on his statues, with unfaltering candor and good-humor. Here and there, +doubtless, as he went, he took in a reef in his sail; but he was too +adventurous a spirit to be successfully tamed, and he remained at +most points the florid, rather strident young Virginian whose serene +inflexibility had been the despair of Mr. Striker. All this was what +friendly commentators (still chiefly feminine) alluded to when they +spoke of his delightful freshness, and critics of harsher sensibilities +(of the other sex) when they denounced his damned impertinence. His +appearance enforced these impressions--his handsome face, his radiant, +unaverted eyes, his childish, unmodulated voice. Afterwards, when those +who loved him were in tears, there was something in all this unspotted +comeliness that seemed to lend a mockery to the causes of their sorrow. + +Certainly, among the young men of genius who, for so many ages, have +gone up to Rome to test their powers, none ever made a fairer beginning +than Roderick. He rode his two horses at once with extraordinary good +fortune; he established the happiest modus vivendi betwixt work and +play. He wrestled all day with a mountain of clay in his studio, and +chattered half the night away in Roman drawing-rooms. It all seemed part +of a kind of divine facility. He was passionately interested, he was +feeling his powers; now that they had thoroughly kindled in the glowing +aesthetic atmosphere of Rome, the ardent young fellow should be pardoned +for believing that he never was to see the end of them. He enjoyed +immeasurably, after the chronic obstruction of home, the downright +act of production. He kept models in his studio till they dropped with +fatigue; he drew, on other days, at the Capitol and the Vatican, till +his own head swam with his eagerness, and his limbs stiffened with the +cold. He had promptly set up a life-sized figure which he called +an "Adam," and was pushing it rapidly toward completion. There were +naturally a great many wiseheads who smiled at his precipitancy, and +cited him as one more example of Yankee crudity, a capital recruit to +the great army of those who wish to dance before they can walk. They +were right, but Roderick was right too, for the success of his statue +was not to have been foreseen; it partook, really, of the miraculous. He +never surpassed it afterwards, and a good judge here and there has been +known to pronounce it the finest piece of sculpture of our modern +era. To Rowland it seemed to justify superbly his highest hopes of his +friend, and he said to himself that if he had invested his happiness +in fostering a genius, he ought now to be in possession of a boundless +complacency. There was something especially confident and masterly in +the artist's negligence of all such small picturesque accessories +as might serve to label his figure to a vulgar apprehension. If it +represented the father of the human race and the primal embodiment of +human sensation, it did so in virtue of its look of balanced physical +perfection, and deeply, eagerly sentient vitality. Rowland, in fraternal +zeal, traveled up to Carrara and selected at the quarries the most +magnificent block of marble he could find, and when it came down to +Rome, the two young men had a "celebration." They drove out to Albano, +breakfasted boisterously (in their respective measure) at the inn, and +lounged away the day in the sun on the top of Monte Cavo. Roderick's +head was full of ideas for other works, which he described with infinite +spirit and eloquence, as vividly as if they were ranged on their +pedestals before him. He had an indefatigable fancy; things he saw in +the streets, in the country, things he heard and read, effects he saw +just missed or half-expressed in the works of others, acted upon his +mind as a kind of challenge, and he was terribly restless until, in some +form or other, he had taken up the glove and set his lance in rest. + +The Adam was put into marble, and all the world came to see it. Of the +criticisms passed upon it this history undertakes to offer no record; +over many of them the two young men had a daily laugh for a month, and +certain of the formulas of the connoisseurs, restrictive or indulgent, +furnished Roderick with a permanent supply of humorous catch-words. But +people enough spoke flattering good-sense to make Roderick feel as if +he were already half famous. The statue passed formally into Rowland's +possession, and was paid for as if an illustrious name had been chiseled +on the pedestal. Poor Roderick owed every franc of the money. It was not +for this, however, but because he was so gloriously in the mood, that, +denying himself all breathing-time, on the same day he had given the +last touch to the Adam, he began to shape the rough contour of an Eve. +This went forward with equal rapidity and success. Roderick lost his +temper, time and again, with his models, who offered but a gross, +degenerate image of his splendid ideal; but his ideal, as he assured +Rowland, became gradually such a fixed, vivid presence, that he had only +to shut his eyes to behold a creature far more to his purpose than +the poor girl who stood posturing at forty sous an hour. The Eve was +finished in a month, and the feat was extraordinary, as well as the +statue, which represented an admirably beautiful woman. When the spring +began to muffle the rugged old city with its clambering festoons, it +seemed to him that he had done a handsome winter's work and had fairly +earned a holiday. He took a liberal one, and lounged away the lovely +Roman May, doing nothing. He looked very contented; with himself, +perhaps, at times, a trifle too obviously. But who could have said +without good reason? He was "flushed with triumph;" this classic +phrase portrayed him, to Rowland's sense. He would lose himself in long +reveries, and emerge from them with a quickened smile and a heightened +color. Rowland grudged him none of his smiles, and took an extreme +satisfaction in his two statues. He had the Adam and the Eve transported +to his own apartment, and one warm evening in May he gave a little +dinner in honor of the artist. It was small, but Rowland had meant it +should be very agreeably composed. He thought over his friends and chose +four. They were all persons with whom he lived in a certain intimacy. + +One of them was an American sculptor of French extraction, or remotely, +perhaps, of Italian, for he rejoiced in the somewhat fervid name of +Gloriani. He was a man of forty, he had been living for years in Paris +and in Rome, and he now drove a very pretty trade in sculpture of the +ornamental and fantastic sort. In his youth he had had money; but he +had spent it recklessly, much of it scandalously, and at twenty-six +had found himself obliged to make capital of his talent. This was quite +inimitable, and fifteen years of indefatigable exercise had brought +it to perfection. Rowland admitted its power, though it gave him very +little pleasure; what he relished in the man was the extraordinary +vivacity and frankness, not to call it the impudence, of his ideas. He +had a definite, practical scheme of art, and he knew at least what he +meant. In this sense he was solid and complete. There were so many of +the aesthetic fraternity who were floundering in unknown seas, without +a notion of which way their noses were turned, that Gloriani, conscious +and compact, unlimitedly intelligent and consummately clever, dogmatic +only as to his own duties, and at once gracefully deferential and +profoundly indifferent to those of others, had for Rowland a certain +intellectual refreshment quite independent of the character of his +works. These were considered by most people to belong to a very corrupt, +and by many to a positively indecent school. Others thought them +tremendously knowing, and paid enormous prices for them; and indeed, to +be able to point to one of Gloriani's figures in a shady corner of your +library was tolerable proof that you were not a fool. Corrupt things +they certainly were; in the line of sculpture they were quite the latest +fruit of time. It was the artist's opinion that there is no essential +difference between beauty and ugliness; that they overlap and +intermingle in a quite inextricable manner; that there is no saying +where one begins and the other ends; that hideousness grimaces at you +suddenly from out of the very bosom of loveliness, and beauty blooms +before your eyes in the lap of vileness; that it is a waste of wit to +nurse metaphysical distinctions, and a sadly meagre entertainment to +caress imaginary lines; that the thing to aim at is the expressive, and +the way to reach it is by ingenuity; that for this purpose everything +may serve, and that a consummate work is a sort of hotch-potch of the +pure and the impure, the graceful and the grotesque. Its prime duty is +to amuse, to puzzle, to fascinate, to savor of a complex imagination. +Gloriani's statues were florid and meretricious; they looked like +magnified goldsmith's work. They were extremely elegant, but they had no +charm for Rowland. He never bought one, but Gloriani was such an +honest fellow, and withal was so deluged with orders, that this made +no difference in their friendship. The artist might have passed for a +Frenchman. He was a great talker, and a very picturesque one; he was +almost bald; he had a small, bright eye, a broken nose, and a moustache +with waxed ends. When sometimes he received you at his lodging, he +introduced you to a lady with a plain face whom he called Madame +Gloriani--which she was not. + +Rowland's second guest was also an artist, but of a very different type. +His friends called him Sam Singleton; he was an American, and he had +been in Rome a couple of years. He painted small landscapes, chiefly in +water-colors: Rowland had seen one of them in a shop window, had liked +it extremely, and, ascertaining his address, had gone to see him and +found him established in a very humble studio near the Piazza Barberini, +where, apparently, fame and fortune had not yet found him out. Rowland +took a fancy to him and bought several of his pictures; Singleton made +few speeches, but was grateful. Rowland heard afterwards that when he +first came to Rome he painted worthless daubs and gave no promise +of talent. Improvement had come, however, hand in hand with patient +industry, and his talent, though of a slender and delicate order, was +now incontestable. It was as yet but scantily recognized, and he had +hard work to live. Rowland hung his little water-colors on the parlor +wall, and found that, as he lived with them, he grew very fond of +them. Singleton was a diminutive, dwarfish personage; he looked like +a precocious child. He had a high, protuberant forehead, a transparent +brown eye, a perpetual smile, an extraordinary expression of modesty and +patience. He listened much more willingly than he talked, with a little +fixed, grateful grin; he blushed when he spoke, and always offered his +ideas in a sidelong fashion, as if the presumption were against them. +His modesty set them off, and they were eminently to the point. He was +so perfect an example of the little noiseless, laborious artist whom +chance, in the person of a moneyed patron, has never taken by the hand, +that Rowland would have liked to befriend him by stealth. Singleton had +expressed a fervent admiration for Roderick's productions, but had +not yet met the young master. Roderick was lounging against the +chimney-piece when he came in, and Rowland presently introduced him. The +little water-colorist stood with folded hands, blushing, smiling, and +looking up at him as if Roderick were himself a statue on a pedestal. +Singleton began to murmur something about his pleasure, his admiration; +the desire to make his compliment smoothly gave him a kind of grotesque +formalism. Roderick looked down at him surprised, and suddenly burst +into a laugh. Singleton paused a moment and then, with an intenser +smile, went on: "Well, sir, your statues are beautiful, all the same!" + +Rowland's two other guests were ladies, and one of them, Miss Blanchard, +belonged also to the artistic fraternity. She was an American, she +was young, she was pretty, and she had made her way to Rome alone and +unaided. She lived alone, or with no other duenna than a bushy-browed +old serving-woman, though indeed she had a friendly neighbor in the +person of a certain Madame Grandoni, who in various social emergencies +lent her a protecting wing, and had come with her to Rowland's dinner. +Miss Blanchard had a little money, but she was not above selling her +pictures. These represented generally a bunch of dew-sprinkled roses, +with the dew-drops very highly finished, or else a wayside shrine, and +a peasant woman, with her back turned, kneeling before it. She did backs +very well, but she was a little weak in faces. Flowers, however, were +her speciality, and though her touch was a little old-fashioned and +finical, she painted them with remarkable skill. Her pictures were +chiefly bought by the English. Rowland had made her acquaintance early +in the winter, and as she kept a saddle horse and rode a great deal, +he had asked permission to be her cavalier. In this way they had become +almost intimate. Miss Blanchard's name was Augusta; she was slender, +pale, and elegant looking; she had a very pretty head and brilliant +auburn hair, which she braided with classical simplicity. She talked in +a sweet, soft voice, used language at times a trifle superfine, and made +literary allusions. These had often a patriotic strain, and Rowland had +more than once been irritated by her quotations from Mrs. Sigourney in +the cork-woods of Monte Mario, and from Mr. Willis among the ruins of +Veii. Rowland was of a dozen different minds about her, and was half +surprised, at times, to find himself treating it as a matter of serious +moment whether he liked her or not. He admired her, and indeed there +was something admirable in her combination of beauty and talent, of +isolation and tranquil self-support. He used sometimes to go into the +little, high-niched, ordinary room which served her as a studio, and +find her working at a panel six inches square, at an open casement, +profiled against the deep blue Roman sky. She received him with a +meek-eyed dignity that made her seem like a painted saint on a church +window, receiving the daylight in all her being. The breath of reproach +passed her by with folded wings. And yet Rowland wondered why he did not +like her better. If he failed, the reason was not far to seek. There was +another woman whom he liked better, an image in his heart which refused +to yield precedence. + +On that evening to which allusion has been made, when Rowland was left +alone between the starlight and the waves with the sudden knowledge +that Mary Garland was to become another man's wife, he had made, after a +while, the simple resolution to forget her. And every day since, like a +famous philosopher who wished to abbreviate his mourning for a faithful +servant, he had said to himself in substance--"Remember to forget Mary +Garland." Sometimes it seemed as if he were succeeding; then, suddenly, +when he was least expecting it, he would find her name, inaudibly, on +his lips, and seem to see her eyes meeting his eyes. All this made him +uncomfortable, and seemed to portend a possible discord. Discord was not +to his taste; he shrank from imperious passions, and the idea of finding +himself jealous of an unsuspecting friend was absolutely repulsive. More +than ever, then, the path of duty was to forget Mary Garland, and he +cultivated oblivion, as we may say, in the person of Miss Blanchard. Her +fine temper, he said to himself, was a trifle cold and conscious, her +purity prudish, perhaps, her culture pedantic. But since he was obliged +to give up hopes of Mary Garland, Providence owed him a compensation, +and he had fits of angry sadness in which it seemed to him that to +attest his right to sentimental satisfaction he would be capable of +falling in love with a woman he absolutely detested, if she were the +best that came in his way. And what was the use, after all, of bothering +about a possible which was only, perhaps, a dream? Even if Mary Garland +had been free, what right had he to assume that he would have pleased +her? The actual was good enough. Miss Blanchard had beautiful hair, and +if she was a trifle old-maidish, there is nothing like matrimony for +curing old-maidishness. + +Madame Grandoni, who had formed with the companion of Rowland's rides +an alliance which might have been called defensive on the part of the +former and attractive on that of Miss Blanchard, was an excessively ugly +old lady, highly esteemed in Roman society for her homely benevolence +and her shrewd and humorous good sense. She had been the widow of a +German archaeologist, who had come to Rome in the early ages as an +attache of the Prussian legation on the Capitoline. Her good sense had +been wanting on but a single occasion, that of her second marriage. This +occasion was certainly a momentous one, but these, by common consent, +are not test cases. A couple of years after her first husband's death, +she had accepted the hand and the name of a Neapolitan music-master, ten +years younger than herself, and with no fortune but his fiddle-bow. The +marriage was most unhappy, and the Maestro Grandoni was suspected of +using the fiddle-bow as an instrument of conjugal correction. He had +finally run off with a prima donna assoluta, who, it was to be hoped, +had given him a taste of the quality implied in her title. He was +believed to be living still, but he had shrunk to a small black spot +in Madame Grandoni's life, and for ten years she had not mentioned +his name. She wore a light flaxen wig, which was never very artfully +adjusted, but this mattered little, as she made no secret of it. She +used to say, "I was not always so ugly as this; as a young girl I had +beautiful golden hair, very much the color of my wig." She had worn +from time immemorial an old blue satin dress, and a white crape shawl +embroidered in colors; her appearance was ridiculous, but she had an +interminable Teutonic pedigree, and her manners, in every presence, were +easy and jovial, as became a lady whose ancestor had been cup-bearer +to Frederick Barbarossa. Thirty years' observation of Roman society had +sharpened her wits and given her an inexhaustible store of anecdotes, +but she had beneath her crumpled bodice a deep-welling fund of Teutonic +sentiment, which she communicated only to the objects of her particular +favor. Rowland had a great regard for her, and she repaid it by wishing +him to get married. She never saw him without whispering to him that +Augusta Blanchard was just the girl. + +It seemed to Rowland a sort of foreshadowing of matrimony to see Miss +Blanchard standing gracefully on his hearth-rug and blooming behind +the central bouquet at his circular dinner-table. The dinner was very +prosperous and Roderick amply filled his position as hero of the feast. +He had always an air of buoyant enjoyment in his work, but on this +occasion he manifested a good deal of harmless pleasure in his glory. +He drank freely and talked bravely; he leaned back in his chair with +his hands in his pockets, and flung open the gates of his eloquence. +Singleton sat gazing and listening open-mouthed, as if Apollo in person +were talking. Gloriani showed a twinkle in his eye and an evident +disposition to draw Roderick out. Rowland was rather regretful, for +he knew that theory was not his friend's strong point, and that it was +never fair to take his measure from his talk. + +"As you have begun with Adam and Eve," said Gloriani, "I suppose you are +going straight through the Bible." He was one of the persons who thought +Roderick delightfully fresh. + +"I may make a David," said Roderick, "but I shall not try any more of +the Old Testament people. I don't like the Jews; I don't like pendulous +noses. David, the boy David, is rather an exception; you can think of +him and treat him as a young Greek. Standing forth there on the plain +of battle between the contending armies, rushing forward to let fly his +stone, he looks like a beautiful runner at the Olympic games. After that +I shall skip to the New Testament. I mean to make a Christ." + +"You 'll put nothing of the Olympic games into him, I hope," said +Gloriani. + +"Oh, I shall make him very different from the Christ of tradition; +more--more"--and Roderick paused a moment to think. This was the first +that Rowland had heard of his Christ. + +"More rationalistic, I suppose," suggested Miss Blanchard. + +"More idealistic!" cried Roderick. "The perfection of form, you know, to +symbolize the perfection of spirit." + +"For a companion piece," said Miss Blanchard, "you ought to make a +Judas." + +"Never! I mean never to make anything ugly. The Greeks never made +anything ugly, and I 'm a Hellenist; I 'm not a Hebraist! I have been +thinking lately of making a Cain, but I should never dream of making +him ugly. He should be a very handsome fellow, and he should lift up the +murderous club with the beautiful movement of the fighters in the Greek +friezes who are chopping at their enemies." + +"There 's no use trying to be a Greek," said Gloriani. "If Phidias were +to come back, he would recommend you to give it up. I am half Italian +and half French, and, as a whole, a Yankee. What sort of a Greek should +I make? I think the Judas is a capital idea for a statue. Much obliged +to you, madame, for the suggestion. What an insidious little scoundrel +one might make of him, sitting there nursing his money-bag and his +treachery! There can be a great deal of expression in a pendulous nose, +my dear sir, especially when it is cast in green bronze." + +"Very likely," said Roderick. "But it is not the sort of expression I +care for. I care only for perfect beauty. There it is, if you want to +know it! That 's as good a profession of faith as another. In future, so +far as my things are not positively beautiful, you may set them down as +failures. For me, it 's either that or nothing. It 's against the taste +of the day, I know; we have really lost the faculty to understand beauty +in the large, ideal way. We stand like a race with shrunken muscles, +staring helplessly at the weights our forefathers easily lifted. But I +don't hesitate to proclaim it--I mean to lift them again! I mean to go +in for big things; that 's my notion of my art. I mean to do things +that will be simple and vast and infinite. You 'll see if they won't be +infinite! Excuse me if I brag a little; all those Italian fellows in the +Renaissance used to brag. There was a sensation once common, I am sure, +in the human breast--a kind of religious awe in the presence of a marble +image newly created and expressing the human type in superhuman purity. +When Phidias and Praxiteles had their statues of goddesses unveiled in +the temples of the AEgean, don't you suppose there was a passionate +beating of hearts, a thrill of mysterious terror? I mean to bring it +back; I mean to thrill the world again! I mean to produce a Juno that +will make you tremble, a Venus that will make you swoon!" + +"So that when we come and see you," said Madame Grandoni, "we must be +sure and bring our smelling-bottles. And pray have a few soft sofas +conveniently placed." + +"Phidias and Praxiteles," Miss Blanchard remarked, "had the advantage +of believing in their goddesses. I insist on believing, for myself, that +the pagan mythology is not a fiction, and that Venus and Juno and Apollo +and Mercury used to come down in a cloud into this very city of Rome +where we sit talking nineteenth century English." + +"Nineteenth century nonsense, my dear!" cried Madame Grandoni. "Mr. +Hudson may be a new Phidias, but Venus and Juno--that 's you and +I--arrived to-day in a very dirty cab; and were cheated by the driver, +too." + +"But, my dear fellow," objected Gloriani, "you don't mean to say you +are going to make over in cold blood those poor old exploded Apollos and +Hebes." + +"It won't matter what you call them," said Roderick. "They shall be +simply divine forms. They shall be Beauty; they shall be Wisdom; they +shall be Power; they shall be Genius; they shall be Daring. That 's all +the Greek divinities were." + +"That 's rather abstract, you know," said Miss Blanchard. + +"My dear fellow," cried Gloriani, "you 're delightfully young." + +"I hope you 'll not grow any older," said Singleton, with a flush of +sympathy across his large white forehead. "You can do it if you try." + +"Then there are all the Forces and Mysteries and Elements of Nature," +Roderick went on. "I mean to do the Morning; I mean to do the Night! I +mean to do the Ocean and the Mountains; the Moon and the West Wind. I +mean to make a magnificent statue of America!" + +"America--the Mountains--the Moon!" said Gloriani. "You 'll find it +rather hard, I 'm afraid, to compress such subjects into classic forms." + +"Oh, there 's a way," cried Roderick, "and I shall think it out. My +figures shall make no contortions, but they shall mean a tremendous +deal." + +"I 'm sure there are contortions enough in Michael Angelo," said Madame +Grandoni. "Perhaps you don't approve of him." + +"Oh, Michael Angelo was not me!" said Roderick, with sublimity. There +was a great laugh; but after all, Roderick had done some fine things. + +Rowland had bidden one of the servants bring him a small portfolio of +prints, and had taken out a photograph of Roderick's little statue of +the youth drinking. It pleased him to see his friend sitting there +in radiant ardor, defending idealism against so knowing an apostle of +corruption as Gloriani, and he wished to help the elder artist to be +confuted. He silently handed him the photograph. + +"Bless me!" cried Gloriani, "did he do this?" + +"Ages ago," said Roderick. + +Gloriani looked at the photograph a long time, with evident admiration. + +"It 's deucedly pretty," he said at last. "But, my dear young friend, +you can't keep this up." + +"I shall do better," said Roderick. + +"You will do worse! You will become weak. You will have to take to +violence, to contortions, to romanticism, in self-defense. This sort +of thing is like a man trying to lift himself up by the seat of his +trousers. He may stand on tiptoe, but he can't do more. Here you stand +on tiptoe, very gracefully, I admit; but you can't fly; there 's no use +trying." + +"My 'America' shall answer you!" said Roderick, shaking toward him a +tall glass of champagne and drinking it down. + +Singleton had taken the photograph and was poring over it with a little +murmur of delight. + +"Was this done in America?" he asked. + +"In a square white wooden house at Northampton, Massachusetts," Roderick +answered. + +"Dear old white wooden houses!" said Miss Blanchard. + +"If you could do as well as this there," said Singleton, blushing and +smiling, "one might say that really you had only to lose by coming to +Rome." + +"Mallet is to blame for that," said Roderick. "But I am willing to risk +the loss." + +The photograph had been passed to Madame Grandoni. "It reminds me," she +said, "of the things a young man used to do whom I knew years ago, when +I first came to Rome. He was a German, a pupil of Overbeck and a votary +of spiritual art. He used to wear a black velvet tunic and a very low +shirt collar; he had a neck like a sickly crane, and let his hair grow +down to his shoulders. His name was Herr Schafgans. He never painted +anything so profane as a man taking a drink, but his figures were all +of the simple and slender and angular pattern, and nothing if not +innocent--like this one of yours. He would not have agreed with Gloriani +any more than you. He used to come and see me very often, and in those +days I thought his tunic and his long neck infallible symptoms of +genius. His talk was all of gilded aureoles and beatific visions; he +lived on weak wine and biscuits, and wore a lock of Saint Somebody's +hair in a little bag round his neck. If he was not a Beato Angelico, it +was not his own fault. I hope with all my heart that Mr. Hudson will do +the fine things he talks about, but he must bear in mind the history of +dear Mr. Schafgans as a warning against high-flown pretensions. One fine +day this poor young man fell in love with a Roman model, though she +had never sat to him, I believe, for she was a buxom, bold-faced, +high-colored creature, and he painted none but pale, sickly women. He +offered to marry her, and she looked at him from head to foot, gave a +shrug, and consented. But he was ashamed to set up his menage in Rome. +They went to Naples, and there, a couple of years afterwards, I saw him. +The poor fellow was ruined. His wife used to beat him, and he had taken +to drinking. He wore a ragged black coat, and he had a blotchy, red +face. Madame had turned washerwoman and used to make him go and fetch +the dirty linen. His talent had gone heaven knows where! He was getting +his living by painting views of Vesuvius in eruption on the little boxes +they sell at Sorrento." + +"Moral: don't fall in love with a buxom Roman model," said Roderick. "I +'m much obliged to you for your story, but I don't mean to fall in love +with any one." + +Gloriani had possessed himself of the photograph again, and was looking +at it curiously. "It 's a happy bit of youth," he said. "But you can't +keep it up--you can't keep it up!" + +The two sculptors pursued their discussion after dinner, in the +drawing-room. Rowland left them to have it out in a corner, where +Roderick's Eve stood over them in the shaded lamplight, in vague white +beauty, like the guardian angel of the young idealist. Singleton was +listening to Madame Grandoni, and Rowland took his place on the sofa, +near Miss Blanchard. They had a good deal of familiar, desultory talk. +Every now and then Madame Grandoni looked round at them. Miss Blanchard +at last asked Rowland certain questions about Roderick: who he was, +where he came from, whether it was true, as she had heard, that Rowland +had discovered him and brought him out at his own expense. Rowland +answered her questions; to the last he gave a vague affirmative. +Finally, after a pause, looking at him, "You 're very generous," Miss +Blanchard said. The declaration was made with a certain richness of +tone, but it brought to Rowland's sense neither delight nor confusion. +He had heard the words before; he suddenly remembered the grave +sincerity with which Miss Garland had uttered them as he strolled with +her in the woods the day of Roderick's picnic. They had pleased him +then; now he asked Miss Blanchard whether she would have some tea. + +When the two ladies withdrew, he attended them to their carriage. Coming +back to the drawing-room, he paused outside the open door; he was +struck by the group formed by the three men. They were standing before +Roderick's statue of Eve, and the young sculptor had lifted up the lamp +and was showing different parts of it to his companions. He was talking +ardently, and the lamplight covered his head and face. Rowland stood +looking on, for the group struck him with its picturesque symbolism. +Roderick, bearing the lamp and glowing in its radiant circle, seemed +the beautiful image of a genius which combined sincerity with power. +Gloriani, with his head on one side, pulling his long moustache and +looking keenly from half-closed eyes at the lighted marble, represented +art with a worldly motive, skill unleavened by faith, the mere base +maximum of cleverness. Poor little Singleton, on the other side, with +his hands behind him, his head thrown back, and his eyes following +devoutly the course of Roderick's elucidation, might pass for an +embodiment of aspiring candor, with feeble wings to rise on. In all +this, Roderick's was certainly the beau role. + +Gloriani turned to Rowland as he came up, and pointed back with his +thumb to the statue, with a smile half sardonic, half good-natured. "A +pretty thing--a devilish pretty thing," he said. "It 's as fresh as the +foam in the milk-pail. He can do it once, he can do it twice, he can do +it at a stretch half a dozen times. But--but--" + +He was returning to his former refrain, but Rowland intercepted him. +"Oh, he will keep it up," he said, smiling, "I will answer for him." + +Gloriani was not encouraging, but Roderick had listened smiling. He +was floating unperturbed on the tide of his deep self-confidence. Now, +suddenly, however, he turned with a flash of irritation in his eye, and +demanded in a ringing voice, "In a word, then, you prophesy that I am to +fail?" + +Gloriani answered imperturbably, patting him kindly on the shoulder. "My +dear fellow, passion burns out, inspiration runs to seed. Some fine day +every artist finds himself sitting face to face with his lump of clay, +with his empty canvas, with his sheet of blank paper, waiting in vain +for the revelation to be made, for the Muse to descend. He must learn +to do without the Muse! When the fickle jade forgets the way to your +studio, don't waste any time in tearing your hair and meditating on +suicide. Come round and see me, and I will show you how to console +yourself." + +"If I break down," said Roderick, passionately, "I shall stay down. +If the Muse deserts me, she shall at least have her infidelity on her +conscience." + +"You have no business," Rowland said to Gloriani, "to talk lightly of +the Muse in this company. Mr. Singleton, too, has received pledges from +her which place her constancy beyond suspicion." And he pointed out on +the wall, near by, two small landscapes by the modest water-colorist. + +The sculptor examined them with deference, and Singleton himself began +to laugh nervously; he was trembling with hope that the great +Gloriani would be pleased. "Yes, these are fresh too," Gloriani said; +"extraordinarily fresh! How old are you?" + +"Twenty-six, sir," said Singleton. + +"For twenty-six they are famously fresh. They must have taken you a long +time; you work slowly." + +"Yes, unfortunately, I work very slowly. One of them took me six weeks, +the other two months." + +"Upon my word! The Muse pays you long visits." And Gloriani turned +and looked, from head to foot, at so unlikely an object of her favors. +Singleton smiled and began to wipe his forehead very hard. "Oh, you!" +said the sculptor; "you 'll keep it up!" + +A week after his dinner-party, Rowland went into Roderick's studio and +found him sitting before an unfinished piece of work, with a hanging +head and a heavy eye. He could have fancied that the fatal hour foretold +by Gloriani had struck. Roderick rose with a sombre yawn and flung down +his tools. "It 's no use," he said, "I give it up!" + +"What is it?" + +"I have struck a shallow! I have been sailing bravely, but for the last +day or two my keel has been crunching the bottom." + +"A difficult place?" Rowland asked, with a sympathetic inflection, +looking vaguely at the roughly modeled figure. + +"Oh, it 's not the poor clay!" Roderick answered. "The difficult place +is here!" And he struck a blow on his heart. "I don't know what 's the +matter with me. Nothing comes; all of a sudden I hate things. My old +things look ugly; everything looks stupid." + +Rowland was perplexed. He was in the situation of a man who has been +riding a blood horse at an even, elastic gallop, and of a sudden feels +him stumble and balk. As yet, he reflected, he had seen nothing but the +sunshine of genius; he had forgotten that it has its storms. Of course +it had! And he felt a flood of comradeship rise in his heart which would +float them both safely through the worst weather. "Why, you 're tired!" +he said. "Of course you 're tired. You have a right to be!" + +"Do you think I have a right to be?" Roderick asked, looking at him. + +"Unquestionably, after all you have done." + +"Well, then, right or wrong, I am tired. I certainly have done a fair +winter's work. I want a change." + +Rowland declared that it was certainly high time they should be leaving +Rome. They would go north and travel. They would go to Switzerland, to +Germany, to Holland, to England. Roderick assented, his eye brightened, +and Rowland talked of a dozen things they might do. Roderick walked up +and down; he seemed to have something to say which he hesitated to bring +out. He hesitated so rarely that Rowland wondered, and at last asked him +what was on his mind. Roderick stopped before him, frowning a little. + +"I have such unbounded faith in your good-will," he said, "that I +believe nothing I can say would offend you." + +"Try it," said Rowland. + +"Well, then, I think my journey will do me more good if I take it alone. +I need n't say I prefer your society to that of any man living. For the +last six months it has been everything to me. But I have a perpetual +feeling that you are expecting something of me, that you are measuring +my doings by a terrifically high standard. You are watching me; I don't +want to be watched. I want to go my own way; to work when I choose and +to loaf when I choose. It is not that I don't know what I owe you; it +is not that we are not friends. It is simply that I want a taste of +absolutely unrestricted freedom. Therefore, I say, let us separate." + +Rowland shook him by the hand. "Willingly. Do as you desire, I shall +miss you, and I venture to believe you 'll pass some lonely hours. But I +have only one request to make: that if you get into trouble of any kind +whatever, you will immediately let me know." + +They began their journey, however, together, and crossed the Alps +side by side, muffled in one rug, on the top of the St. Gothard coach. +Rowland was going to England to pay some promised visits; his companion +had no plan save to ramble through Switzerland and Germany as fancy +guided him. He had money, now, that would outlast the summer; when +it was spent he would come back to Rome and make another statue. At +a little mountain village by the way, Roderick declared that he would +stop; he would scramble about a little in the high places and doze in +the shade of the pine forests. The coach was changing horses; the two +young men walked along the village street, picking their way between +dunghills, breathing the light, cool air, and listening to the plash of +the fountain and the tinkle of cattle-bells. The coach overtook them, +and then Rowland, as he prepared to mount, felt an almost overmastering +reluctance. + +"Say the word," he exclaimed, "and I will stop too." + +Roderick frowned. "Ah, you don't trust me; you don't think I 'm able +to take care of myself. That proves that I was right in feeling as if I +were watched!" + +"Watched, my dear fellow!" said Rowland. "I hope you may never have +anything worse to complain of than being watched in the spirit in which +I watch you. But I will spare you even that. Good-by!" Standing in his +place, as the coach rolled away, he looked back at his friend lingering +by the roadside. A great snow-mountain, behind Roderick, was beginning +to turn pink in the sunset. The young man waved his hat, still looking +grave. Rowland settled himself in his place, reflecting after all that +this was a salubrious beginning of independence. He was among forests +and glaciers, leaning on the pure bosom of nature. And then--and +then--was it not in itself a guarantee against folly to be engaged to +Mary Garland? + + + + + + +CHAPTER IV. Experience + +Rowland passed the summer in England, staying with several old friends +and two or three new ones. On his arrival, he felt it on his conscience +to write to Mrs. Hudson and inform her that her son had relieved him of +his tutelage. He felt that she considered him an incorruptible Mentor, +following Roderick like a shadow, and he wished to let her know the +truth. But he made the truth very comfortable, and gave a succinct +statement of the young man's brilliant beginnings. He owed it to +himself, he said, to remind her that he had not judged lightly, and that +Roderick's present achievements were more profitable than his inglorious +drudgery at Messrs. Striker & Spooner's. He was now taking a well-earned +holiday and proposing to see a little of the world. He would work none +the worse for this; every artist needed to knock about and look at +things for himself. They had parted company for a couple of months, for +Roderick was now a great man and beyond the need of going about with a +keeper. But they were to meet again in Rome in the autumn, and then he +should be able to send her more good news. Meanwhile, he was very happy +in what Roderick had already done--especially happy in the happiness it +must have brought to her. He ventured to ask to be kindly commended to +Miss Garland. + +His letter was promptly answered--to his surprise in Miss Garland's own +hand. The same mail brought also an epistle from Cecilia. The latter was +voluminous, and we must content ourselves with giving an extract. + +"Your letter was filled with an echo of that brilliant Roman world, +which made me almost ill with envy. For a week after I got it I thought +Northampton really unpardonably tame. But I am drifting back again to my +old deeps of resignation, and I rush to the window, when any one passes, +with all my old gratitude for small favors. So Roderick Hudson is +already a great man, and you turn out to be a great prophet? My +compliments to both of you; I never heard of anything working so +smoothly. And he takes it all very quietly, and does n't lose his +balance nor let it turn his head? You judged him, then, in a day better +than I had done in six months, for I really did not expect that he would +settle down into such a jog-trot of prosperity. I believed he would do +fine things, but I was sure he would intersperse them with a good many +follies, and that his beautiful statues would spring up out of the midst +of a straggling plantation of wild oats. But from what you tell me, Mr. +Striker may now go hang himself..... There is one thing, however, to say +as a friend, in the way of warning. That candid soul can keep a secret, +and he may have private designs on your equanimity which you don't begin +to suspect. What do you think of his being engaged to Miss Garland? The +two ladies had given no hint of it all winter, but a fortnight ago, when +those big photographs of his statues arrived, they first pinned them up +on the wall, and then trotted out into the town, made a dozen calls, and +announced the news. Mrs. Hudson did, at least; Miss Garland, I suppose, +sat at home writing letters. To me, I confess, the thing was a perfect +surprise. I had not a suspicion that all the while he was coming so +regularly to make himself agreeable on my veranda, he was quietly +preferring his cousin to any one else. Not, indeed, that he was ever at +particular pains to make himself agreeable! I suppose he has picked up +a few graces in Rome. But he must not acquire too many: if he is too +polite when he comes back, Miss Garland will count him as one of the +lost. She will be a very good wife for a man of genius, and such a one +as they are often shrewd enough to take. She 'll darn his stockings and +keep his accounts, and sit at home and trim the lamp and keep up +the fire while he studies the Beautiful in pretty neighbors at +dinner-parties. The two ladies are evidently very happy, and, to do them +justice, very humbly grateful to you. Mrs. Hudson never speaks of you +without tears in her eyes, and I am sure she considers you a specially +patented agent of Providence. Verily, it 's a good thing for a woman to +be in love: Miss Garland has grown almost pretty. I met her the other +night at a tea-party; she had a white rose in her hair, and sang a +sentimental ballad in a fine contralto voice." + +Miss Garland's letter was so much shorter that we may give it entire:-- + +My dear Sir,--Mrs. Hudson, as I suppose you know, has been for some time +unable to use her eyes. She requests me, therefore, to answer your favor +of the 22d of June. She thanks you extremely for writing, and wishes me +to say that she considers herself in every way under great obligations +to you. Your account of her son's progress and the high estimation in +which he is held has made her very happy, and she earnestly prays that +all may continue well with him. He sent us, a short time ago, several +large photographs of his two statues, taken from different points of +view. We know little about such things, but they seem to us wonderfully +beautiful. We sent them to Boston to be handsomely framed, and the man, +on returning them, wrote us that he had exhibited them for a week in +his store, and that they had attracted great attention. The frames are +magnificent, and the pictures now hang in a row on the parlor wall. +Our only quarrel with them is that they make the old papering and the +engravings look dreadfully shabby. Mr. Striker stood and looked at them +the other day full five minutes, and said, at last, that if Roderick's +head was running on such things it was no wonder he could not learn to +draw up a deed. We lead here so quiet and monotonous a life that I +am afraid I can tell you nothing that will interest you. Mrs. Hudson +requests me to say that the little more or less that may happen to us is +of small account, as we live in our thoughts and our thoughts are fixed +on her dear son. She thanks Heaven he has so good a friend. Mrs. Hudson +says that this is too short a letter, but I can say nothing more. + +Yours most respectfully, + +Mary Garland. + +It is a question whether the reader will know why, but this letter +gave Rowland extraordinary pleasure. He liked its very brevity and +meagreness, and there seemed to him an exquisite modesty in its saying +nothing from the young girl herself. He delighted in the formal address +and conclusion; they pleased him as he had been pleased by an angular +gesture in some expressive girlish figure in an early painting. The +letter renewed that impression of strong feeling combined with an almost +rigid simplicity, which Roderick's betrothed had personally given +him. And its homely stiffness seemed a vivid reflection of a life +concentrated, as the young girl had borrowed warrant from her companion +to say, in a single devoted idea. The monotonous days of the two women +seemed to Rowland's fancy to follow each other like the tick-tick of a +great time-piece, marking off the hours which separated them from the +supreme felicity of clasping the far-away son and lover to lips sealed +with the excess of joy. He hoped that Roderick, now that he had shaken +off the oppression of his own importunate faith, was not losing a +tolerant temper for the silent prayers of the two women at Northampton. + +He was left to vain conjectures, however, as to Roderick's actual moods +and occupations. He knew he was no letter-writer, and that, in the young +sculptor's own phrase, he had at any time rather build a monument than +write a note. But when a month had passed without news of him, he began +to be half anxious and half angry, and wrote him three lines, in the +care of a Continental banker, begging him at least to give some sign of +whether he was alive or dead. A week afterwards came an answer--brief, +and dated Baden-Baden. "I know I have been a great brute," Roderick +wrote, "not to have sent you a word before; but really I don't know what +has got into me. I have lately learned terribly well how to be idle. I +am afraid to think how long it is since I wrote to my mother or to Mary. +Heaven help them--poor, patient, trustful creatures! I don't know how to +tell you what I am doing. It seems all amusing enough while I do it, but +it would make a poor show in a narrative intended for your formidable +eyes. I found Baxter in Switzerland, or rather he found me, and he +grabbed me by the arm and brought me here. I was walking twenty miles a +day in the Alps, drinking milk in lonely chalets, sleeping as you sleep, +and thinking it was all very good fun; but Baxter told me it would never +do, that the Alps were 'd----d rot,' that Baden-Baden was the place, and +that if I knew what was good for me I would come along with him. It is a +wonderful place, certainly, though, thank the Lord, Baxter departed last +week, blaspheming horribly at trente et quarante. But you know all about +it and what one does--what one is liable to do. I have succumbed, in a +measure, to the liabilities, and I wish I had some one here to give me a +thundering good blowing up. Not you, dear friend; you would draw it too +mild; you have too much of the milk of human kindness. I have fits of +horrible homesickness for my studio, and I shall be devoutly grateful +when the summer is over and I can go back and swing a chisel. I feel as +if nothing but the chisel would satisfy me; as if I could rush in a rage +at a block of unshaped marble. There are a lot of the Roman people here, +English and American; I live in the midst of them and talk nonsense from +morning till night. There is also some one else; and to her I don't talk +sense, nor, thank heaven, mean what I say. I confess, I need a month's +work to recover my self-respect." + +These lines brought Rowland no small perturbation; the more, that what +they seemed to point to surprised him. During the nine months of their +companionship Roderick had shown so little taste for dissipation that +Rowland had come to think of it as a canceled danger, and it greatly +perplexed him to learn that his friend had apparently proved so pliant +to opportunity. But Roderick's allusions were ambiguous, and it was +possible they might simply mean that he was out of patience with a +frivolous way of life and fretting wholesomely over his absent work. +It was a very good thing, certainly, that idleness should prove, on +experiment, to sit heavily on his conscience. Nevertheless, the letter +needed, to Rowland's mind, a key: the key arrived a week later. "In +common charity," Roderick wrote, "lend me a hundred pounds! I have +gambled away my last franc--I have made a mountain of debts. Send me the +money first; lecture me afterwards!" Rowland sent the money by return of +mail; then he proceeded, not to lecture, but to think. He hung his head; +he was acutely disappointed. He had no right to be, he assured himself; +but so it was. Roderick was young, impulsive, unpracticed in stoicism; +it was a hundred to one that he was to pay the usual vulgar tribute +to folly. But his friend had regarded it as securely gained to his own +belief in virtue that he was not as other foolish youths are, and that +he would have been capable of looking at folly in the face and passing +on his way. Rowland for a while felt a sore sense of wrath. What right +had a man who was engaged to that fine girl in Northampton to behave +as if his consciousness were a common blank, to be overlaid with coarse +sensations? Yes, distinctly, he was disappointed. He had accompanied his +missive with an urgent recommendation to leave Baden-Baden immediately, +and an offer to meet Roderick at any point he would name. The answer +came promptly; it ran as follows: "Send me another fifty pounds! I have +been back to the tables. I will leave as soon as the money comes, and +meet you at Geneva. There I will tell you everything." + +There is an ancient terrace at Geneva, planted with trees and studded +with benches, overlooked by gravely aristocratic old dwellings and +overlooking the distant Alps. A great many generations have made it a +lounging-place, a great many friends and lovers strolled there, a great +many confidential talks and momentous interviews gone forward. Here, one +morning, sitting on one of the battered green benches, Roderick, as he +had promised, told his friend everything. He had arrived late the +night before; he looked tired, and yet flushed and excited. He made no +professions of penitence, but he practiced an unmitigated frankness, +and his self-reprobation might be taken for granted. He implied in every +phrase that he had done with it all, and that he was counting the hours +till he could get back to work. We shall not rehearse his confession in +detail; its main outline will be sufficient. He had fallen in with some +very idle people, and had discovered that a little example and a little +practice were capable of producing on his own part a considerable relish +for their diversions. What could he do? He never read, and he had no +studio; in one way or another he had to pass the time. He passed it in +dangling about several very pretty women in wonderful Paris toilets, +and reflected that it was always something gained for a sculptor to sit +under a tree, looking at his leisure into a charming face and saying +things that made it smile and play its muscles and part its lips and +show its teeth. Attached to these ladies were certain gentlemen who +walked about in clouds of perfume, rose at midday, and supped at +midnight. Roderick had found himself in the mood for thinking them very +amusing fellows. He was surprised at his own taste, but he let it take +its course. It led him to the discovery that to live with ladies who +expect you to present them with expensive bouquets, to ride with them in +the Black Forest on well-looking horses, to come into their opera-boxes +on nights when Patti sang and prices were consequent, to propose little +light suppers at the Conversation House after the opera or drives by +moonlight to the Castle, to be always arrayed and anointed, trinketed +and gloved,--that to move in such society, we say, though it might be a +privilege, was a privilege with a penalty attached. But the tables made +such things easy; half the Baden world lived by the tables. Roderick +tried them and found that at first they smoothed his path delightfully. +This simplification of matters, however, was only momentary, for he soon +perceived that to seem to have money, and to have it in fact, exposed +a good-looking young man to peculiar liabilities. At this point of his +friend's narrative, Rowland was reminded of Madame de Cruchecassee in +The Newcomes, and though he had listened in tranquil silence to the rest +of it, he found it hard not to say that all this had been, under +the circumstances, a very bad business. Roderick admitted it with +bitterness, and then told how much--measured simply financially--it had +cost him. His luck had changed; the tables had ceased to back him, and +he had found himself up to his knees in debt. Every penny had gone +of the solid sum which had seemed a large equivalent of those shining +statues in Rome. He had been an ass, but it was not irreparable; he +could make another statue in a couple of months. + +Rowland frowned. "For heaven's sake," he said, "don't play such +dangerous games with your facility. If you have got facility, revere +it, respect it, adore it, treasure it--don't speculate on it." And he +wondered what his companion, up to his knees in debt, would have done +if there had been no good-natured Rowland Mallet to lend a helping hand. +But he did not formulate his curiosity audibly, and the contingency +seemed not to have presented itself to Roderick's imagination. The young +sculptor reverted to his late adventures again in the evening, and this +time talked of them more objectively, as the phrase is; more as if they +had been the adventures of another person. He related half a dozen droll +things that had happened to him, and, as if his responsibility had been +disengaged by all this free discussion, he laughed extravagantly at the +memory of them. Rowland sat perfectly grave, on principle. Then Roderick +began to talk of half a dozen statues that he had in his head, and +set forth his design, with his usual vividness. Suddenly, as it was +relevant, he declared that his Baden doings had not been altogether +fruitless, for that the lady who had reminded Rowland of Madame de +Cruchecassee was tremendously statuesque. Rowland at last said that it +all might pass if he felt that he was really the wiser for it. "By the +wiser," he added, "I mean the stronger in purpose, in will." + +"Oh, don't talk about will!" Roderick answered, throwing back his head +and looking at the stars. This conversation also took place in the open +air, on the little island in the shooting Rhone where Jean-Jacques has +a monument. "The will, I believe, is the mystery of mysteries. Who can +answer for his will? who can say beforehand that it 's strong? There are +all kinds of indefinable currents moving to and fro between one's +will and one's inclinations. People talk as if the two things were +essentially distinct; on different sides of one's organism, like the +heart and the liver. Mine, I know, are much nearer together. It all +depends upon circumstances. I believe there is a certain group of +circumstances possible for every man, in which his will is destined to +snap like a dry twig." + +"My dear boy," said Rowland, "don't talk about the will being +'destined.' The will is destiny itself. That 's the way to look at it." + +"Look at it, my dear Rowland," Roderick answered, "as you find +most comfortable. One conviction I have gathered from my summer's +experience," he went on--"it 's as well to look it frankly in the +face--is that I possess an almost unlimited susceptibility to the +influence of a beautiful woman." + +Rowland stared, then strolled away, softly whistling to himself. He +was unwilling to admit even to himself that this speech had really the +sinister meaning it seemed to have. In a few days the two young men made +their way back to Italy, and lingered a while in Florence before +going on to Rome. In Florence Roderick seemed to have won back his old +innocence and his preference for the pleasures of study over any others. +Rowland began to think of the Baden episode as a bad dream, or at +the worst as a mere sporadic piece of disorder, without roots in his +companion's character. They passed a fortnight looking at pictures +and exploring for out the way bits of fresco and carving, and Roderick +recovered all his earlier fervor of appreciation and comment. In Rome he +went eagerly to work again, and finished in a month two or three small +things he had left standing on his departure. He talked the most joyous +nonsense about finding himself back in his old quarters. On the first +Sunday afternoon following their return, on their going together to +Saint Peter's, he delivered himself of a lyrical greeting to the great +church and to the city in general, in a tone of voice so irrepressibly +elevated that it rang through the nave in rather a scandalous fashion, +and almost arrested a procession of canons who were marching across to +the choir. He began to model a new statue--a female figure, of which he +had said nothing to Rowland. It represented a woman, leaning lazily back +in her chair, with her head drooping as if she were listening, a vague +smile on her lips, and a pair of remarkably beautiful arms folded in her +lap. With rather less softness of contour, it would have resembled the +noble statue of Agrippina in the Capitol. Rowland looked at it and was +not sure he liked it. "Who is it? what does it mean?" he asked. + +"Anything you please!" said Roderick, with a certain petulance. "I call +it A Reminiscence." + +Rowland then remembered that one of the Baden ladies had been +"statuesque," and asked no more questions. This, after all, was a way of +profiting by experience. A few days later he took his first ride of +the season on the Campagna, and as, on his homeward way, he was passing +across the long shadow of a ruined tower, he perceived a small figure +at a short distance, bent over a sketch-book. As he drew near, he +recognized his friend Singleton. The honest little painter's face was +scorched to flame-color by the light of southern suns, and borrowed an +even deeper crimson from his gleeful greeting of his most appreciative +patron. He was making a careful and charming little sketch. On Rowland's +asking him how he had spent his summer, he gave an account of his +wanderings which made poor Mallet sigh with a sense of more contrasts +than one. He had not been out of Italy, but he had been delving deep +into the picturesque heart of the lovely land, and gathering a wonderful +store of subjects. He had rambled about among the unvisited villages of +the Apennines, pencil in hand and knapsack on back, sleeping on straw +and eating black bread and beans, but feasting on local color, rioting, +as it were, on chiaroscuro, and laying up a treasure of pictorial +observations. He took a devout satisfaction in his hard-earned wisdom +and his happy frugality. Rowland went the next day, by appointment, +to look at his sketches, and spent a whole morning turning them over. +Singleton talked more than he had ever done before, explained them all, +and told some quaintly humorous anecdote about the production of each. + +"Dear me, how I have chattered!" he said at last. "I am afraid you had +rather have looked at the things in peace and quiet. I did n't know I +could talk so much. But somehow, I feel very happy; I feel as if I had +improved." + +"That you have," said Rowland. "I doubt whether an artist ever passed a +more profitable three months. You must feel much more sure of yourself." + +Singleton looked for a long time with great intentness at a knot in the +floor. "Yes," he said at last, in a fluttered tone, "I feel much more +sure of myself. I have got more facility!" And he lowered his voice as +if he were communicating a secret which it took some courage to impart. +"I hardly like to say it, for fear I should after all be mistaken. But +since it strikes you, perhaps it 's true. It 's a great happiness; I +would not exchange it for a great deal of money." + +"Yes, I suppose it 's a great happiness," said Rowland. "I shall really +think of you as living here in a state of scandalous bliss. I don't +believe it 's good for an artist to be in such brutally high spirits." + +Singleton stared for a moment, as if he thought Rowland was in earnest; +then suddenly fathoming the kindly jest, he walked about the room, +scratching his head and laughing intensely to himself. "And Mr. Hudson?" +he said, as Rowland was going; "I hope he is well and happy." + +"He is very well," said Rowland. "He is back at work again." + +"Ah, there 's a man," cried Singleton, "who has taken his start once +for all, and does n't need to stop and ask himself in fear and trembling +every month or two whether he is advancing or not. When he stops, it 's +to rest! And where did he spend his summer?" + +"The greater part of it at Baden-Baden." + +"Ah, that 's in the Black Forest," cried Singleton, with profound +simplicity. "They say you can make capital studies of trees there." + +"No doubt," said Rowland, with a smile, laying an almost paternal +hand on the little painter's yellow head. "Unfortunately trees are not +Roderick's line. Nevertheless, he tells me that at Baden he made some +studies. Come when you can, by the way," he added after a moment, +"to his studio, and tell me what you think of something he has lately +begun." Singleton declared that he would come delightedly, and Rowland +left him to his work. + +He met a number of his last winter's friends again, and called upon +Madame Grandoni, upon Miss Blanchard, and upon Gloriani, shortly after +their return. The ladies gave an excellent account of themselves. +Madame Grandoni had been taking sea-baths at Rimini, and Miss Blanchard +painting wild flowers in the Tyrol. Her complexion was somewhat browned, +which was very becoming, and her flowers were uncommonly pretty. +Gloriani had been in Paris and had come away in high good-humor, finding +no one there, in the artist-world, cleverer than himself. He came in a +few days to Roderick's studio, one afternoon when Rowland was present. +He examined the new statue with great deference, said it was very +promising, and abstained, considerately, from irritating prophecies. But +Rowland fancied he observed certain signs of inward jubilation on the +clever sculptor's part, and walked away with him to learn his private +opinion. + +"Certainly; I liked it as well as I said," Gloriani declared in answer +to Rowland's anxious query; "or rather I liked it a great deal better. I +did n't say how much, for fear of making your friend angry. But one can +leave him alone now, for he 's coming round. I told you he could n't +keep up the transcendental style, and he has already broken down. Don't +you see it yourself, man?" + +"I don't particularly like this new statue," said Rowland. + +"That 's because you 're a purist. It 's deuced clever, it 's deuced +knowing, it 's deuced pretty, but it is n't the topping high art of +three months ago. He has taken his turn sooner than I supposed. What has +happened to him? Has he been disappointed in love? But that 's none of +my business. I congratulate him on having become a practical man." + +Roderick, however, was less to be congratulated than Gloriani had taken +it into his head to believe. He was discontented with his work, he +applied himself to it by fits and starts, he declared that he did n't +know what was coming over him; he was turning into a man of moods. "Is +this of necessity what a fellow must come to"--he asked of Rowland, with +a sort of peremptory flash in his eye, which seemed to imply that his +companion had undertaken to insure him against perplexities and was not +fulfilling his contract--"this damnable uncertainty when he goes to bed +at night as to whether he is going to wake up in a working humor or in a +swearing humor? Have we only a season, over before we know it, in which +we can call our faculties our own? Six months ago I could stand up to my +work like a man, day after day, and never dream of asking myself whether +I felt like it. But now, some mornings, it 's the very devil to get +going. My statue looks so bad when I come into the studio that I have +twenty minds to smash it on the spot, and I lose three or four hours in +sitting there, moping and getting used to it." + +Rowland said that he supposed that this sort of thing was the lot of +every artist and that the only remedy was plenty of courage and faith. +And he reminded him of Gloriani's having forewarned him against these +sterile moods the year before. + +"Gloriani 's an ass!" said Roderick, almost fiercely. He hired a horse +and began to ride with Rowland on the Campagna. This delicious amusement +restored him in a measure to cheerfulness, but seemed to Rowland on the +whole not to stimulate his industry. Their rides were always very +long, and Roderick insisted on making them longer by dismounting in +picturesque spots and stretching himself in the sun among a heap of +overtangled stones. He let the scorching Roman luminary beat down upon +him with an equanimity which Rowland found it hard to emulate. But in +this situation Roderick talked so much amusing nonsense that, for the +sake of his company, Rowland consented to be uncomfortable, and often +forgot that, though in these diversions the days passed quickly, they +brought forth neither high art nor low. And yet it was perhaps by their +help, after all, that Roderick secured several mornings of ardent work +on his new figure, and brought it to rapid completion. One afternoon, +when it was finished, Rowland went to look at it, and Roderick asked him +for his opinion. + +"What do you think yourself?" Rowland demanded, not from pusillanimity, +but from real uncertainty. + +"I think it is curiously bad," Roderick answered. "It was bad from the +first; it has fundamental vices. I have shuffled them in a measure out +of sight, but I have not corrected them. I can't--I can't--I can't!" he +cried passionately. "They stare me in the face--they are all I see!" + +Rowland offered several criticisms of detail, and suggested certain +practicable changes. But Roderick differed with him on each of these +points; the thing had faults enough, but they were not those faults. +Rowland, unruffled, concluded by saying that whatever its faults might +be, he had an idea people in general would like it. + +"I wish to heaven some person in particular would buy it, and take it +off my hands and out of my sight!" Roderick cried. "What am I to do +now?" he went on. "I have n't an idea. I think of subjects, but they +remain mere lifeless names. They are mere words--they are not images. +What am I to do?" + +Rowland was a trifle annoyed. "Be a man," he was on the point of saying, +"and don't, for heaven's sake, talk in that confoundedly querulous +voice." But before he had uttered the words, there rang through the +studio a loud, peremptory ring at the outer door. + +Roderick broke into a laugh. "Talk of the devil," he said, "and you see +his horns! If that 's not a customer, it ought to be." + +The door of the studio was promptly flung open, and a lady advanced to +the threshold--an imposing, voluminous person, who quite filled up the +doorway. Rowland immediately felt that he had seen her before, but he +recognized her only when she moved forward and disclosed an attendant in +the person of a little bright-eyed, elderly gentleman, with a bristling +white moustache. Then he remembered that just a year before he and his +companion had seen in the Ludovisi gardens a wonderfully beautiful girl, +strolling in the train of this conspicuous couple. He looked for her +now, and in a moment she appeared, following her companions with the +same nonchalant step as before, and leading her great snow-white poodle, +decorated with motley ribbons. The elder lady offered the two young +men a sufficiently gracious salute; the little old gentleman bowed and +smiled with extreme alertness. The young girl, without casting a glance +either at Roderick or at Rowland, looked about for a chair, and, on +perceiving one, sank into it listlessly, pulled her poodle towards her, +and began to rearrange his top-knot. Rowland saw that, even with her +eyes dropped, her beauty was still dazzling. + +"I trust we are at liberty to enter," said the elder lady, with majesty. +"We were told that Mr. Hudson had no fixed day, and that we might come +at any time. Let us not disturb you." + +Roderick, as one of the lesser lights of the Roman art-world, had not +hitherto been subject to incursions from inquisitive tourists, and, +having no regular reception day, was not versed in the usual formulas of +welcome. He said nothing, and Rowland, looking at him, saw that he was +looking amazedly at the young girl and was apparently unconscious of +everything else. "By Jove!" he cried precipitately, "it 's that goddess +of the Villa Ludovisi!" Rowland in some confusion, did the honors as he +could, but the little old gentleman begged him with the most obsequious +of smiles to give himself no trouble. "I have been in many a studio!" he +said, with his finger on his nose and a strong Italian accent. + +"We are going about everywhere," said his companion. "I am passionately +fond of art!" + +Rowland smiled sympathetically, and let them turn to Roderick's statue. +He glanced again at the young sculptor, to invite him to bestir himself, +but Roderick was still gazing wide-eyed at the beautiful young mistress +of the poodle, who by this time had looked up and was gazing straight at +him. There was nothing bold in her look; it expressed a kind of languid, +imperturbable indifference. Her beauty was extraordinary; it grew and +grew as the young man observed her. In such a face the maidenly custom +of averted eyes and ready blushes would have seemed an anomaly; nature +had produced it for man's delight and meant that it should surrender +itself freely and coldly to admiration. It was not immediately apparent, +however, that the young lady found an answering entertainment in the +physiognomy of her host; she turned her head after a moment and looked +idly round the room, and at last let her eyes rest on the statue of the +woman seated. It being left to Rowland to stimulate conversation, he +began by complimenting her on the beauty of her dog. + +"Yes, he 's very handsome," she murmured. "He 's a Florentine. The dogs +in Florence are handsomer than the people." And on Rowland's caressing +him: "His name is Stenterello," she added. "Stenterello, give your hand +to the gentleman." This order was given in Italian. "Say buon giorno a +lei." + +Stenterello thrust out his paw and gave four short, shrill barks; upon +which the elder lady turned round and raised her forefinger. + +"My dear, my dear, remember where you are! Excuse my foolish child," she +added, turning to Roderick with an agreeable smile. "She can think of +nothing but her poodle." + +"I am teaching him to talk for me," the young girl went on, without +heeding her mother; "to say little things in society. It will save me +a great deal of trouble. Stenterello, love, give a pretty smile and say +tanti complimenti!" The poodle wagged his white pate--it looked like +one of those little pads in swan's-down, for applying powder to the +face--and repeated the barking process. + +"He is a wonderful beast," said Rowland. + +"He is not a beast," said the young girl. "A beast is something black +and dirty--something you can't touch." + +"He is a very valuable dog," the elder lady explained. "He was presented +to my daughter by a Florentine nobleman." + +"It is not for that I care about him. It is for himself. He is better +than the prince." + +"My dear, my dear!" repeated the mother in deprecating accents, but with +a significant glance at Rowland which seemed to bespeak his attention to +the glory of possessing a daughter who could deal in that fashion with +the aristocracy. + +Rowland remembered that when their unknown visitors had passed before +them, a year previous, in the Villa Ludovisi, Roderick and he had +exchanged conjectures as to their nationality and social quality. +Roderick had declared that they were old-world people; but Rowland +now needed no telling to feel that he might claim the elder lady as a +fellow-countrywoman. She was a person of what is called a great deal +of presence, with the faded traces, artfully revived here and there, of +once brilliant beauty. Her daughter had come lawfully by her loveliness, +but Rowland mentally made the distinction that the mother was silly and +that the daughter was not. The mother had a very silly mouth--a mouth, +Rowland suspected, capable of expressing an inordinate degree of +unreason. The young girl, in spite of her childish satisfaction in her +poodle, was not a person of feeble understanding. Rowland received an +impression that, for reasons of her own, she was playing a part. What +was the part and what were her reasons? She was interesting; Rowland +wondered what were her domestic secrets. If her mother was a daughter +of the great Republic, it was to be supposed that the young girl was a +flower of the American soil; but her beauty had a robustness and tone +uncommon in the somewhat facile loveliness of our western maidenhood. +She spoke with a vague foreign accent, as if she had spent her life in +strange countries. The little Italian apparently divined Rowland's mute +imaginings, for he presently stepped forward, with a bow like a master +of ceremonies. "I have not done my duty," he said, "in not announcing +these ladies. Mrs. Light, Miss Light!" + +Rowland was not materially the wiser for this information, but Roderick +was aroused by it to the exercise of some slight hospitality. He altered +the light, pulled forward two or three figures, and made an apology +for not having more to show. "I don't pretend to have anything of an +exhibition--I am only a novice." + +"Indeed?--a novice! For a novice this is very well," Mrs. Light +declared. "Cavaliere, we have seen nothing better than this." + +The Cavaliere smiled rapturously. "It is stupendous!" he murmured. "And +we have been to all the studios." + +"Not to all--heaven forbid!" cried Mrs. Light. "But to a number that I +have had pointed out by artistic friends. I delight in studios: they are +the temples of the beautiful here below. And if you are a novice, Mr. +Hudson," she went on, "you have already great admirers. Half a dozen +people have told us that yours were among the things to see." This +gracious speech went unanswered; Roderick had already wandered across to +the other side of the studio and was revolving about Miss Light. "Ah, he +'s gone to look at my beautiful daughter; he is not the first that +has had his head turned," Mrs. Light resumed, lowering her voice to +a confidential undertone; a favor which, considering the shortness of +their acquaintance, Rowland was bound to appreciate. "The artists are +all crazy about her. When she goes into a studio she is fatal to the +pictures. And when she goes into a ball-room what do the other women +say? Eh, Cavaliere?" + +"She is very beautiful," Rowland said, gravely. + +Mrs. Light, who through her long, gold-cased glass was looking a little +at everything, and at nothing as if she saw it, interrupted her random +murmurs and exclamations, and surveyed Rowland from head to foot. She +looked at him all over; apparently he had not been mentioned to her as +a feature of Roderick's establishment. It was the gaze, Rowland felt, +which the vigilant and ambitious mamma of a beautiful daughter has +always at her command for well-dressed young men of candid physiognomy. +Her inspection in this case seemed satisfactory. "Are you also an +artist?" she inquired with an almost caressing inflection. It was clear +that what she meant was something of this kind: "Be so good as to assure +me without delay that you are really the young man of substance and +amiability that you appear." + +But Rowland answered simply the formal question--not the latent one. +"Dear me, no; I am only a friend of Mr. Hudson." + +Mrs. Light, with a sigh, returned to the statues, and after mistaking +the Adam for a gladiator, and the Eve for a Pocahontas, declared that +she could not judge of such things unless she saw them in the marble. +Rowland hesitated a moment, and then speaking in the interest of +Roderick's renown, said that he was the happy possessor of several of +his friend's works and that she was welcome to come and see them at his +rooms. She bade the Cavaliere make a note of his address. "Ah, you 're +a patron of the arts," she said. "That 's what I should like to be if +I had a little money. I delight in beauty in every form. But all these +people ask such monstrous prices. One must be a millionaire, to think +of such things, eh? Twenty years ago my husband had my portrait painted, +here in Rome, by Papucci, who was the great man in those days. I was in +a ball dress, with all my jewels, my neck and arms, and all that. The +man got six hundred francs, and thought he was very well treated. Those +were the days when a family could live like princes in Italy for five +thousand scudi a year. The Cavaliere once upon a time was a great +dandy--don't blush, Cavaliere; any one can see that, just as any one can +see that I was once a pretty woman! Get him to tell you what he made a +figure upon. The railroads have brought in the vulgarians. That 's what +I call it now--the invasion of the vulgarians! What are poor we to do?" + +Rowland had begun to murmur some remedial proposition, when he was +interrupted by the voice of Miss Light calling across the room, "Mamma!" + +"My own love?" + +"This gentleman wishes to model my bust. Please speak to him." + +The Cavaliere gave a little chuckle. "Already?" he cried. + +Rowland looked round, equally surprised at the promptitude of the +proposal. Roderick stood planted before the young girl with his arms +folded, looking at her as he would have done at the Medicean Venus. He +never paid compliments, and Rowland, though he had not heard him speak, +could imagine the startling distinctness with which he made his request. + +"He saw me a year ago," the young girl went on, "and he has been +thinking of me ever since." Her tone, in speaking, was peculiar; it had +a kind of studied inexpressiveness, which was yet not the vulgar device +of a drawl. + +"I must make your daughter's bust--that 's all, madame!" cried Roderick, +with warmth. + +"I had rather you made the poodle's," said the young girl. "Is it very +tiresome? I have spent half my life sitting for my photograph, in every +conceivable attitude and with every conceivable coiffure. I think I have +posed enough." + +"My dear child," said Mrs. Light, "it may be one's duty to pose. But as +to my daughter's sitting to you, sir--to a young sculptor whom we don't +know--it is a matter that needs reflection. It is not a favor that 's to +be had for the mere asking." + +"If I don't make her from life," said Roderick, with energy, "I will +make her from memory, and if the thing 's to be done, you had better +have it done as well as possible." + +"Mamma hesitates," said Miss Light, "because she does n't know whether +you mean she shall pay you for the bust. I can assure you that she will +not pay you a sou." + +"My darling, you forget yourself," said Mrs. Light, with an attempt at +majestic severity. "Of course," she added, in a moment, with a change of +note, "the bust would be my own property." + +"Of course!" cried Roderick, impatiently. + +"Dearest mother," interposed the young girl, "how can you carry a +marble bust about the world with you? Is it not enough to drag the poor +original?" + +"My dear, you 're nonsensical!" cried Mrs. Light, almost angrily. + +"You can always sell it," said the young girl, with the same artful +artlessness. + +Mrs. Light turned to Rowland, who pitied her, flushed and irritated. +"She is very wicked to-day!" + +The Cavaliere grinned in silence and walked away on tiptoe, with his hat +to his lips, as if to leave the field clear for action. Rowland, on the +contrary, wished to avert the coming storm. "You had better not refuse," +he said to Miss Light, "until you have seen Mr. Hudson's things in the +marble. Your mother is to come and look at some that I possess." + +"Thank you; I have no doubt you will see us. I dare say Mr. Hudson is +very clever; but I don't care for modern sculpture. I can't look at it!" + +"You shall care for my bust, I promise you!" cried Roderick, with a +laugh. + +"To satisfy Miss Light," said the Cavaliere, "one of the old Greeks +ought to come to life." + +"It would be worth his while," said Roderick, paying, to Rowland's +knowledge, his first compliment. + +"I might sit to Phidias, if he would promise to be very amusing and make +me laugh. What do you say, Stenterello? would you sit to Phidias?" + +"We must talk of this some other time," said Mrs. Light. "We are in +Rome for the winter. Many thanks. Cavaliere, call the carriage." The +Cavaliere led the way out, backing like a silver-stick, and Miss Light, +following her mother, nodded, without looking at them, to each of the +young men. + +"Immortal powers, what a head!" cried Roderick, when they had gone. +"There 's my fortune!" + +"She is certainly very beautiful," said Rowland. "But I 'm sorry you +have undertaken her bust." + +"And why, pray?" + +"I suspect it will bring trouble with it." + +"What kind of trouble?" + +"I hardly know. They are queer people. The mamma, I suspect, is the +least bit of an adventuress. Heaven knows what the daughter is." + +"She 's a goddess!" cried Roderick. + +"Just so. She is all the more dangerous." + +"Dangerous? What will she do to me? She does n't bite, I imagine." + +"It remains to be seen. There are two kinds of women--you ought to +know it by this time--the safe and the unsafe. Miss Light, if I am not +mistaken, is one of the unsafe. A word to the wise!" + +"Much obliged!" said Roderick, and he began to whistle a triumphant air, +in honor, apparently, of the advent of his beautiful model. + +In calling this young lady and her mamma "queer people," Rowland but +roughly expressed his sentiment. They were so marked a variation from +the monotonous troop of his fellow-country people that he felt much +curiosity as to the sources of the change, especially since he doubted +greatly whether, on the whole, it elevated the type. For a week he +saw the two ladies driving daily in a well-appointed landau, with the +Cavaliere and the poodle in the front seat. From Mrs. Light he received +a gracious salute, tempered by her native majesty; but the young girl, +looking straight before her, seemed profoundly indifferent to observers. +Her extraordinary beauty, however, had already made observers numerous +and given the habitues of the Pincian plenty to talk about. The echoes +of their commentary reached Rowland's ears; but he had little taste +for random gossip, and desired a distinctly veracious informant. He had +found one in the person of Madame Grandoni, for whom Mrs. Light and her +beautiful daughter were a pair of old friends. + +"I have known the mamma for twenty years," said this judicious critic, +"and if you ask any of the people who have been living here as long +as I, you will find they remember her well. I have held the beautiful +Christina on my knee when she was a little wizened baby with a very red +face and no promise of beauty but those magnificent eyes. Ten years ago +Mrs. Light disappeared, and has not since been seen in Rome, except for +a few days last winter, when she passed through on her way to Naples. +Then it was you met the trio in the Ludovisi gardens. When I first +knew her she was the unmarried but very marriageable daughter of an old +American painter of very bad landscapes, which people used to buy from +charity and use for fire-boards. His name was Savage; it used to make +every one laugh, he was such a mild, melancholy, pitiful old gentleman. +He had married a horrible wife, an Englishwoman who had been on the +stage. It was said she used to beat poor Savage with his mahl-stick and +when the domestic finances were low to lock him up in his studio and +tell him he should n't come out until he had painted half a dozen of +his daubs. She had a good deal of showy beauty. She would then go +forth, and, her beauty helping, she would make certain people take the +pictures. It helped her at last to make an English lord run away with +her. At the time I speak of she had quite disappeared. Mrs. Light +was then a very handsome girl, though by no means so handsome as +her daughter has now become. Mr. Light was an American consul, newly +appointed at one of the Adriatic ports. He was a mild, fair-whiskered +young man, with some little property, and my impression is that he had +got into bad company at home, and that his family procured him his place +to keep him out of harm's way. He came up to Rome on a holiday, fell +in love with Miss Savage, and married her on the spot. He had not been +married three years when he was drowned in the Adriatic, no one ever +knew how. The young widow came back to Rome, to her father, and here +shortly afterwards, in the shadow of Saint Peter's, her little girl was +born. It might have been supposed that Mrs. Light would marry again, +and I know she had opportunities. But she overreached herself. She +would take nothing less than a title and a fortune, and they were not +forthcoming. She was admired and very fond of admiration; very vain, +very worldly, very silly. She remained a pretty widow, with a surprising +variety of bonnets and a dozen men always in her train. Giacosa dates +from this period. He calls himself a Roman, but I have an impression he +came up from Ancona with her. He was l'ami de la maison. He used to hold +her bouquets, clean her gloves (I was told), run her errands, get her +opera-boxes, and fight her battles with the shopkeepers. For this he +needed courage, for she was smothered in debt. She at last left Rome +to escape her creditors. Many of them must remember her still, but she +seems now to have money to satisfy them. She left her poor old father +here alone--helpless, infirm and unable to work. A subscription was +shortly afterwards taken up among the foreigners, and he was sent +back to America, where, as I afterwards heard, he died in some sort of +asylum. From time to time, for several years, I heard vaguely of Mrs. +Light as a wandering beauty at French and German watering-places. Once +came a rumor that she was going to make a grand marriage in England; +then we heard that the gentleman had thought better of it and left +her to keep afloat as she could. She was a terribly scatter-brained +creature. She pretends to be a great lady, but I consider that +old Filomena, my washer-woman, is in essentials a greater one. But +certainly, after all, she has been fortunate. She embarked at last on +a lawsuit about some property, with her husband's family, and went to +America to attend to it. She came back triumphant, with a long purse. +She reappeared in Italy, and established herself for a while in Venice. +Then she came to Florence, where she spent a couple of years and where +I saw her. Last year she passed down to Naples, which I should have said +was just the place for her, and this winter she has laid siege to Rome. +She seems very prosperous. She has taken a floor in the Palazzo F----, +she keeps her carriage, and Christina and she, between them, must have +a pretty milliner's bill. Giacosa has turned up again, looking as if he +had been kept on ice at Ancona, for her return." + +"What sort of education," Rowland asked, "do you imagine the mother's +adventures to have been for the daughter?" + +"A strange school! But Mrs. Light told me, in Florence, that she had +given her child the education of a princess. In other words, I suppose, +she speaks three or four languages, and has read several hundred French +novels. Christina, I suspect, is very clever. When I saw her, I was +amazed at her beauty, and, certainly, if there is any truth in faces, +she ought to have the soul of an angel. Perhaps she has. I don't judge +her; she 's an extraordinary young person. She has been told twenty +times a day by her mother, since she was five years old, that she is a +beauty of beauties, that her face is her fortune, and that, if she plays +her cards, she may marry a duke. If she has not been fatally corrupted, +she is a very superior girl. My own impression is that she is a mixture +of good and bad, of ambition and indifference. Mrs. Light, having failed +to make her own fortune in matrimony, has transferred her hopes to her +daughter, and nursed them till they have become a kind of monomania. She +has a hobby, which she rides in secret; but some day she will let you +see it. I 'm sure that if you go in some evening unannounced, you will +find her scanning the tea-leaves in her cup, or telling her daughter's +fortune with a greasy pack of cards, preserved for the purpose. She +promises her a prince--a reigning prince. But if Mrs. Light is silly, +she is shrewd, too, and, lest considerations of state should deny +her prince the luxury of a love-match, she keeps on hand a few common +mortals. At the worst she would take a duke, an English lord, or even a +young American with a proper number of millions. The poor woman must be +rather uncomfortable. She is always building castles and knocking them +down again--always casting her nets and pulling them in. If her +daughter were less of a beauty, her transparent ambition would be very +ridiculous; but there is something in the girl, as one looks at her, +that seems to make it very possible she is marked out for one of those +wonderful romantic fortunes that history now and then relates. 'Who, +after all, was the Empress of the French?' Mrs. Light is forever saying. +'And beside Christina the Empress is a dowdy!'" + +"And what does Christina say?" + +"She makes no scruple, as you know, of saying that her mother is a fool. +What she thinks, heaven knows. I suspect that, practically, she does not +commit herself. She is excessively proud, and thinks herself good enough +to occupy the highest station in the world; but she knows that her +mother talks nonsense, and that even a beautiful girl may look awkward +in making unsuccessful advances. So she remains superbly indifferent, +and lets her mother take the risks. If the prince is secured, so much +the better; if he is not, she need never confess to herself that even a +prince has slighted her." + +"Your report is as solid," Rowland said to Madame Grandoni, thanking +her, "as if it had been prepared for the Academy of Sciences;" and he +congratulated himself on having listened to it when, a couple of days +later, Mrs. Light and her daughter, attended by the Cavaliere and the +poodle, came to his rooms to look at Roderick's statues. It was more +comfortable to know just with whom he was dealing. + +Mrs. Light was prodigiously gracious, and showered down compliments not +only on the statues, but on all his possessions. "Upon my word," she +said, "you men know how to make yourselves comfortable. If one of us +poor women had half as many easy-chairs and knick-knacks, we should be +famously abused. It 's really selfish to be living all alone in such a +place as this. Cavaliere, how should you like this suite of rooms and a +fortune to fill them with pictures and statues? Christina, love, look at +that mosaic table. Mr. Mallet, I could almost beg it from you. Yes, +that Eve is certainly very fine. We need n't be ashamed of such a +great-grandmother as that. If she was really such a beautiful woman, +it accounts for the good looks of some of us. Where is Mr. What +'s-his-name, the young sculptor? Why is n't he here to be complimented?" + +Christina had remained but for a moment in the chair which Rowland had +placed for her, had given but a cursory glance at the statues, and +then, leaving her place, had begun to wander round the room--looking at +herself in the mirror, touching the ornaments and curiosities, glancing +at the books and prints. Rowland's sitting-room was encumbered with +bric-a-brac, and she found plenty of occupation. Rowland presently +joined her, and pointed out some of the objects he most valued. + +"It 's an odd jumble," she said frankly. "Some things are very +pretty--some are very ugly. But I like ugly things, when they have a +certain look. Prettiness is terribly vulgar nowadays, and it is not +every one that knows just the sort of ugliness that has chic. But chic +is getting dreadfully common too. There 's a hint of it even in Madame +Baldi's bonnets. I like looking at people's things," she added in a +moment, turning to Rowland and resting her eyes on him. "It helps you to +find out their characters." + +"Am I to suppose," asked Rowland, smiling, "that you have arrived at any +conclusions as to mine?" + +"I am rather muddled; you have too many things; one seems to contradict +another. You are very artistic and yet you are very prosaic; you have +what is called a 'catholic' taste and yet you are full of obstinate +little prejudices and habits of thought, which, if I knew you, I should +find very tiresome. I don't think I like you." + +"You make a great mistake," laughed Rowland; "I assure you I am very +amiable." + +"Yes, I am probably wrong, and if I knew you, I should find out I was +wrong, and that would irritate me and make me dislike you more. So you +see we are necessary enemies." + +"No, I don't dislike you." + +"Worse and worse; for you certainly will not like me." + +"You are very discouraging." + +"I am fond of facing the truth, though some day you will deny that. +Where is that queer friend of yours?" + +"You mean Mr. Hudson. He is represented by these beautiful works." + +Miss Light looked for some moments at Roderick's statues. "Yes," she +said, "they are not so silly as most of the things we have seen. They +have no chic, and yet they are beautiful." + +"You describe them perfectly," said Rowland. "They are beautiful, and +yet they have no chic. That 's it!" + +"If he will promise to put none into my bust, I have a mind to let him +make it. A request made in those terms deserves to be granted." + +"In what terms?" + +"Did n't you hear him? 'Mademoiselle, you almost satisfy my conception +of the beautiful. I must model your bust.' That almost should be +rewarded. He is like me; he likes to face the truth. I think we should +get on together." + +The Cavaliere approached Rowland, to express the pleasure he had derived +from his beautiful "collection." His smile was exquisitely bland, his +accent appealing, caressing, insinuating. But he gave Rowland an odd +sense of looking at a little waxen image, adjusted to perform certain +gestures and emit certain sounds. It had once contained a soul, but the +soul had leaked out. Nevertheless, Rowland reflected, there are more +profitless things than mere sound and gesture, in a consummate Italian. +And the Cavaliere, too, had soul enough left to desire to speak a few +words on his own account, and call Rowland's attention to the fact that +he was not, after all, a hired cicerone, but an ancient Roman gentleman. +Rowland felt sorry for him; he hardly knew why. He assured him in a +friendly fashion that he must come again; that his house was always at +his service. The Cavaliere bowed down to the ground. "You do me too much +honor," he murmured. "If you will allow me--it is not impossible!" + +Mrs. Light, meanwhile, had prepared to depart. "If you are not afraid to +come and see two quiet little women, we shall be most happy!" she said. +"We have no statues nor pictures--we have nothing but each other. Eh, +darling?" + +"I beg your pardon," said Christina. + +"Oh, and the Cavaliere," added her mother. + +"The poodle, please!" cried the young girl. + +Rowland glanced at the Cavaliere; he was smiling more blandly than ever. + +A few days later Rowland presented himself, as civility demanded, at +Mrs. Light's door. He found her living in one of the stately houses of +the Via dell' Angelo Custode, and, rather to his surprise, was told she +was at home. He passed through half a dozen rooms and was ushered +into an immense saloon, at one end of which sat the mistress of the +establishment, with a piece of embroidery. She received him very +graciously, and then, pointing mysteriously to a large screen which was +unfolded across the embrasure of one of the deep windows, "I am keeping +guard!" she said. Rowland looked interrogative; whereupon she beckoned +him forward and motioned him to look behind the screen. He obeyed, and +for some moments stood gazing. Roderick, with his back turned, stood +before an extemporized pedestal, ardently shaping a formless mass +of clay. Before him sat Christina Light, in a white dress, with her +shoulders bare, her magnificent hair twisted into a classic coil, and +her head admirably poised. Meeting Rowland's gaze, she smiled a little, +only with her deep gray eyes, without moving. She looked divinely +beautiful. + + + + + + +CHAPTER V. Christina + +The brilliant Roman winter came round again, and Rowland enjoyed it, +in a certain way, more deeply than before. He grew at last to feel that +sense of equal possession, of intellectual nearness, which it belongs +to the peculiar magic of the ancient city to infuse into minds of a +cast that she never would have produced. He became passionately, +unreasoningly fond of all Roman sights and sensations, and to breathe +the Roman atmosphere began to seem a needful condition of being. He +could not have defined and explained the nature of his great love, nor +have made up the sum of it by the addition of his calculable pleasures. +It was a large, vague, idle, half-profitless emotion, of which perhaps +the most pertinent thing that may be said is that it enforced a sort of +oppressive reconciliation to the present, the actual, the sensuous--to +life on the terms that there offered themselves. It was perhaps for this +very reason that, in spite of the charm which Rome flings over +one's mood, there ran through Rowland's meditations an undertone of +melancholy, natural enough in a mind which finds its horizon insidiously +limited to the finite, even in very picturesque forms. Whether it is one +that tacitly concedes to the Roman Church the monopoly of a guarantee +of immortality, so that if one is indisposed to bargain with her for +the precious gift, one must do without it altogether; or whether in an +atmosphere so heavily weighted with echoes and memories one grows +to believe that there is nothing in one's consciousness that is not +foredoomed to moulder and crumble and become dust for the feet, and +possible malaria for the lungs, of future generations--the fact at least +remains that one parts half-willingly with one's hopes in Rome, and +misses them only under some very exceptional stress of circumstance. For +this reason one may perhaps say that there is no other place in which +one's daily temper has such a mellow serenity, and none, at the same +time, in which acute attacks of depression are more intolerable. Rowland +found, in fact, a perfect response to his prevision that to live in Rome +was an education to one's senses and one's imagination, but he sometimes +wondered whether this was not a questionable gain in case of one's not +being prepared to live wholly by one's imagination and one's senses. The +tranquil profundity of his daily satisfaction seemed sometimes to +turn, by a mysterious inward impulse, and face itself with questioning, +admonishing, threatening eyes. "But afterwards...?" it seemed to +ask, with a long reverberation; and he could give no answer but a shy +affirmation that there was no such thing as afterwards, and a hope, +divided against itself, that his actual way of life would last forever. +He often felt heavy-hearted; he was sombre without knowing why; there +were no visible clouds in his heaven, but there were cloud-shadows on +his mood. Shadows projected, they often were, without his knowing it, by +an undue apprehension that things after all might not go so ideally +well with Roderick. When he understood his anxiety it vexed him, and he +rebuked himself for taking things unmanfully hard. If Roderick chose +to follow a crooked path, it was no fault of his; he had given him, he +would continue to give him, all that he had offered him--friendship, +sympathy, advice. He had not undertaken to provide him with unflagging +strength of purpose, nor to stand bondsman for unqualified success. + +If Rowland felt his roots striking and spreading in the Roman soil, +Roderick also surrendered himself with renewed abandon to the local +influence. More than once he declared to his companion that he meant +to live and die within the shadow of Saint Peter's, and that he cared +little if he never again drew breath in American air. "For a man of my +temperament, Rome is the only possible place," he said; "it 's better to +recognize the fact early than late. So I shall never go home unless I am +absolutely forced." + +"What is your idea of 'force'?" asked Rowland, smiling. "It seems to me +you have an excellent reason for going home some day or other." + +"Ah, you mean my engagement?" Roderick answered with unaverted eyes. +"Yes, I am distinctly engaged, in Northampton, and impatiently waited +for!" And he gave a little sympathetic sigh. "To reconcile Northampton +and Rome is rather a problem. Mary had better come out here. Even at the +worst I have no intention of giving up Rome within six or eight years, +and an engagement of that duration would be rather absurd." + +"Miss Garland could hardly leave your mother," Rowland observed. + +"Oh, of course my mother should come. I think I will suggest it in my +next letter. It will take her a year or two to make up her mind to it, +but if she consents it will brighten her up. It 's too small a life, +over there, even for a timid old lady. It is hard to imagine," he added, +"any change in Mary being a change for the better; but I should like her +to take a look at the world and have her notions stretched a little. One +is never so good, I suppose, but that one can improve a little." + +"If you wish your mother and Miss Garland to come," Rowland suggested, +"you had better go home and bring them." + +"Oh, I can't think of leaving Europe, for many a day," Roderick +answered. "At present it would quite break the charm. I am just +beginning to profit, to get used to things and take them naturally. I am +sure the sight of Northampton Main Street would permanently upset me." + +It was reassuring to hear that Roderick, in his own view, was but +"just beginning" to spread his wings, and Rowland, if he had had +any forebodings, might have suffered them to be modified by this +declaration. This was the first time since their meeting at Geneva that +Roderick had mentioned Miss Garland's name, but the ice being broken, he +indulged for some time afterward in frequent allusions to his +betrothed, which always had an accent of scrupulous, of almost studied, +consideration. An uninitiated observer, hearing him, would have imagined +her to be a person of a certain age--possibly an affectionate maiden +aunt--who had once done him a kindness which he highly appreciated: +perhaps presented him with a check for a thousand dollars. Rowland noted +the difference between his present frankness and his reticence during +the first six months of his engagement, and sometimes wondered whether +it was not rather an anomaly that he should expatiate more largely as +the happy event receded. He had wondered over the whole matter, first +and last, in a great many different ways, and looked at it in all +possible lights. There was something terribly hard to explain in the +fact of his having fallen in love with his cousin. She was not, as +Rowland conceived her, the sort of girl he would have been likely to +fancy, and the operation of sentiment, in all cases so mysterious, was +particularly so in this one. Just why it was that Roderick should not +logically have fancied Miss Garland, his companion would have been at +loss to say, but I think the conviction had its roots in an unformulated +comparison between himself and the accepted suitor. Roderick and he were +as different as two men could be, and yet Roderick had taken it into his +head to fall in love with a woman for whom he himself had been keeping +in reserve, for years, a profoundly characteristic passion. That if he +chose to conceive a great notion of the merits of Roderick's mistress, +the irregularity here was hardly Roderick's, was a view of the case +to which poor Rowland did scanty justice. There were women, he said +to himself, whom it was every one's business to fall in love with a +little--women beautiful, brilliant, artful, easily fascinating. Miss +Light, for instance, was one of these; every man who spoke to her did +so, if not in the language, at least with something of the agitation, +the divine tremor, of a lover. There were other women--they might have +great beauty, they might have small; perhaps they were generally to +be classified as plain--whose triumphs in this line were rare, but +immutably permanent. Such a one preeminently, was Mary Garland. Upon +the doctrine of probabilities, it was unlikely that she had had an equal +charm for each of them, and was it not possible, therefore, that the +charm for Roderick had been simply the charm imagined, unquestioningly +accepted: the general charm of youth, sympathy, kindness--of the present +feminine, in short--enhanced indeed by several fine facial traits? +The charm in this case for Rowland was--the charm!--the mysterious, +individual, essential woman. There was an element in the charm, as his +companion saw it, which Rowland was obliged to recognize, but which +he forbore to ponder; the rather important attraction, namely, of +reciprocity. As to Miss Garland being in love with Roderick and becoming +charming thereby, this was a point with which his imagination ventured +to take no liberties; partly because it would have been indelicate, +and partly because it would have been vain. He contented himself with +feeling that the young girl was still as vivid an image in his memory as +she had been five days after he left her, and with drifting nearer and +nearer to the impression that at just that crisis any other girl would +have answered Roderick's sentimental needs as well. Any other girl +indeed would do so still! Roderick had confessed as much to him at +Geneva, in saying that he had been taking at Baden the measure of his +susceptibility to female beauty. + +His extraordinary success in modeling the bust of the beautiful Miss +Light was pertinent evidence of this amiable quality. She sat to him, +repeatedly, for a fortnight, and the work was rapidly finished. On one +of the last days Roderick asked Rowland to come and give his opinion as +to what was still wanting; for the sittings had continued to take place +in Mrs. Light's apartment, the studio being pronounced too damp for +the fair model. When Rowland presented himself, Christina, still in +her white dress, with her shoulders bare, was standing before a mirror, +readjusting her hair, the arrangement of which, on this occasion, had +apparently not met the young sculptor's approval. He stood beside her, +directing the operation with a peremptoriness of tone which seemed +to Rowland to denote a considerable advance in intimacy. As Rowland +entered, Christina was losing patience. "Do it yourself, then!" she +cried, and with a rapid movement unloosed the great coil of her tresses +and let them fall over her shoulders. + +They were magnificent, and with her perfect face dividing their rippling +flow she looked like some immaculate saint of legend being led to +martyrdom. Rowland's eyes presumably betrayed his admiration, but her +own manifested no consciousness of it. If Christina was a coquette, as +the remarkable timeliness of this incident might have suggested, she was +not a superficial one. + +"Hudson 's a sculptor," said Rowland, with warmth. "But if I were only a +painter!" + +"Thank Heaven you are not!" said Christina. "I am having quite enough of +this minute inspection of my charms." + +"My dear young man, hands off!" cried Mrs. Light, coming forward and +seizing her daughter's hair. "Christina, love, I am surprised." + +"Is it indelicate?" Christina asked. "I beg Mr. Mallet's pardon." Mrs. +Light gathered up the dusky locks and let them fall through her fingers, +glancing at her visitor with a significant smile. Rowland had never +been in the East, but if he had attempted to make a sketch of an old +slave-merchant, calling attention to the "points" of a Circassian +beauty, he would have depicted such a smile as Mrs. Light's. "Mamma 's +not really shocked," added Christina in a moment, as if she had guessed +her mother's by-play. "She is only afraid that Mr. Hudson might have +injured my hair, and that, per consequenza, I should sell for less." + +"You unnatural child!" cried mamma. "You deserve that I should make a +fright of you!" And with half a dozen skillful passes she twisted the +tresses into a single picturesque braid, placed high on the head, as a +kind of coronal. + +"What does your mother do when she wants to do you justice?" Rowland +asked, observing the admirable line of the young girl's neck. + +"I do her justice when I say she says very improper things. What is one +to do with such a thorn in the flesh?" Mrs. Light demanded. + +"Think of it at your leisure, Mr. Mallet," said Christina, "and when you +'ve discovered something, let us hear. But I must tell you that I shall +not willingly believe in any remedy of yours, for you have something in +your physiognomy that particularly provokes me to make the remarks that +my mother so sincerely deplores. I noticed it the first time I saw you. +I think it 's because your face is so broad. For some reason or other, +broad faces exasperate me; they fill me with a kind of rabbia. Last +summer, at Carlsbad, there was an Austrian count, with enormous estates +and some great office at court. He was very attentive--seriously so; he +was really very far gone. Cela ne tenait qu' a moi! But I could n't; he +was impossible! He must have measured, from ear to ear, at least a yard +and a half. And he was blond, too, which made it worse--as blond as +Stenterello; pure fleece! So I said to him frankly, 'Many thanks, Herr +Graf; your uniform is magnificent, but your face is too fat.'" + +"I am afraid that mine also," said Rowland, with a smile, "seems just +now to have assumed an unpardonable latitude." + +"Oh, I take it you know very well that we are looking for a husband, +and that none but tremendous swells need apply. Surely, before these +gentlemen, mamma, I may speak freely; they are disinterested. Mr. Mallet +won't do, because, though he 's rich, he 's not rich enough. Mamma made +that discovery the day after we went to see you, moved to it by the +promising look of your furniture. I hope she was right, eh? Unless you +have millions, you know, you have no chance." + +"I feel like a beggar," said Rowland. + +"Oh, some better girl than I will decide some day, after mature +reflection, that on the whole you have enough. Mr. Hudson, of course, is +nowhere; he has nothing but his genius and his beaux yeux." + +Roderick had stood looking at Christina intently while she delivered +herself, softly and slowly, of this surprising nonsense. When she had +finished, she turned and looked at him; their eyes met, and he blushed +a little. "Let me model you, and he who can may marry you!" he said, +abruptly. + +Mrs. Light, while her daughter talked, had been adding a few touches to +her coiffure. "She is not so silly as you might suppose," she said to +Rowland, with dignity. "If you will give me your arm, we will go and +look at the bust." + +"Does that represent a silly girl?" Christina demanded, when they stood +before it. + +Rowland transferred his glance several times from the portrait to the +original. "It represents a young lady," he said, "whom I should not +pretend to judge off-hand." + +"She may be a fool, but you are not sure. Many thanks! You have seen me +half a dozen times. You are either very slow or I am very deep." + +"I am certainly slow," said Rowland. "I don't expect to make up my mind +about you within six months." + +"I give you six months if you will promise then a perfectly frank +opinion. Mind, I shall not forget; I shall insist upon it." + +"Well, though I am slow, I am tolerably brave," said Rowland. "We shall +see." + +Christina looked at the bust with a sigh. "I am afraid, after all," she +said, "that there 's very little wisdom in it save what the artist has +put there. Mr. Hudson looked particularly wise while he was working; he +scowled and growled, but he never opened his mouth. It is very kind of +him not to have represented me gaping." + +"If I had talked a lot of stuff to you," said Roderick, roundly, "the +thing would not have been a tenth so good." + +"Is it good, after all? Mr. Mallet is a famous connoisseur; has he not +come here to pronounce?" + +The bust was in fact a very happy performance, and Roderick had risen to +the level of his subject. It was thoroughly a portrait, and not a vague +fantasy executed on a graceful theme, as the busts of pretty women, in +modern sculpture, are apt to be. The resemblance was deep and vivid; +there was extreme fidelity of detail and yet a noble simplicity. +One could say of the head that, without idealization, it was a +representation of ideal beauty. Rowland, however, as we know, was not +fond of exploding into superlatives, and, after examining the piece, +contented himself with suggesting two or three alterations of detail. + +"Nay, how can you be so cruel?" demanded Mrs. Light, with soft +reproachfulness. "It is surely a wonderful thing!" + +"Rowland knows it 's a wonderful thing," said Roderick, smiling. "I can +tell that by his face. The other day I finished something he thought +bad, and he looked very differently from this." + +"How did Mr. Mallet look?" asked Christina. + +"My dear Rowland," said Roderick, "I am speaking of my seated woman. You +looked as if you had on a pair of tight boots." + +"Ah, my child, you 'll not understand that!" cried Mrs. Light. "You +never yet had a pair that were small enough." + +"It 's a pity, Mr. Hudson," said Christina, gravely, "that you could +not have introduced my feet into the bust. But we can hang a pair of +slippers round the neck!" + +"I nevertheless like your statues, Roderick," Rowland rejoined, "better +than your jokes. This is admirable. Miss Light, you may be proud!" + +"Thank you, Mr. Mallet, for the permission," rejoined the young girl. + +"I am dying to see it in the marble, with a red velvet screen behind +it," said Mrs. Light. + +"Placed there under the Sassoferrato!" Christina went on. "I hope you +keep well in mind, Mr. Hudson, that you have not a grain of property in +your work, and that if mamma chooses, she may have it photographed and +the copies sold in the Piazza di Spagna, at five francs apiece, without +your having a sou of the profits." + +"Amen!" said Roderick. "It was so nominated in the bond. My profits are +here!" and he tapped his forehead. + +"It would be prettier if you said here!" And Christina touched her +heart. + +"My precious child, how you do run on!" murmured Mrs. Light. + +"It is Mr. Mallet," the young girl answered. "I can't talk a word of +sense so long as he is in the room. I don't say that to make you go," +she added, "I say it simply to justify myself." + +Rowland bowed in silence. Roderick declared that he must get at work and +requested Christina to take her usual position, and Mrs. Light proposed +to her visitor that they should adjourn to her boudoir. This was a +small room, hardly more spacious than an alcove, opening out of the +drawing-room and having no other issue. Here, as they entered, on a +divan near the door, Rowland perceived the Cavaliere Giacosa, with his +arms folded, his head dropped upon his breast, and his eyes closed. + +"Sleeping at his post!" said Rowland with a kindly laugh. + +"That 's a punishable offense," rejoined Mrs. Light, sharply. She was on +the point of calling him, in the same tone, when he suddenly opened his +eyes, stared a moment, and then rose with a smile and a bow. + +"Excuse me, dear lady," he said, "I was overcome by the--the great +heat." + +"Nonsense, Cavaliere!" cried the lady, "you know we are perishing here +with the cold! You had better go and cool yourself in one of the other +rooms." + +"I obey, dear lady," said the Cavaliere; and with another smile and bow +to Rowland he departed, walking very discreetly on his toes. Rowland +out-stayed him but a short time, for he was not fond of Mrs. Light, +and he found nothing very inspiring in her frank intimation that if he +chose, he might become a favorite. He was disgusted with himself for +pleasing her; he confounded his fatal urbanity. In the court-yard of the +palace he overtook the Cavaliere, who had stopped at the porter's lodge +to say a word to his little girl. She was a young lady of very tender +years and she wore a very dirty pinafore. He had taken her up in his +arms and was singing an infantine rhyme to her, and she was staring at +him with big, soft Roman eyes. On seeing Rowland he put her down with +a kiss, and stepped forward with a conscious grin, an unresentful +admission that he was sensitive both to chubbiness and ridicule. +Rowland began to pity him again; he had taken his dismissal from the +drawing-room so meekly. + +"You don't keep your promise," said Rowland, "to come and see me. Don't +forget it. I want you to tell me about Rome thirty years ago." + +"Thirty years ago? Ah, dear sir, Rome is Rome still; a place where +strange things happen! But happy things too, since I have your renewed +permission to call. You do me too much honor. Is it in the morning or in +the evening that I should least intrude?" + +"Take your own time, Cavaliere; only come, sometime. I depend upon you," +said Rowland. + +The Cavaliere thanked him with an humble obeisance. To the Cavaliere, +too, he felt that he was, in Roman phrase, sympathetic, but the idea of +pleasing this extremely reduced gentleman was not disagreeable to him. + +Miss Light's bust stood for a while on exhibition in Roderick's studio, +and half the foreign colony came to see it. With the completion of his +work, however, Roderick's visits at the Palazzo F---- by no means came +to an end. He spent half his time in Mrs. Light's drawing-room, and +began to be talked about as "attentive" to Christina. The success of the +bust restored his equanimity, and in the garrulity of his good-humor he +suffered Rowland to see that she was just now the object uppermost in +his thoughts. Rowland, when they talked of her, was rather listener +than speaker; partly because Roderick's own tone was so resonant and +exultant, and partly because, when his companion laughed at him for +having called her unsafe, he was too perplexed to defend himself. +The impression remained that she was unsafe; that she was a complex, +willful, passionate creature, who might easily engulf a too confiding +spirit in the eddies of her capricious temper. And yet he strongly felt +her charm; the eddies had a strange fascination! Roderick, in the glow +of that renewed admiration provoked by the fixed attention of portrayal, +was never weary of descanting on the extraordinary perfection of her +beauty. + +"I had no idea of it," he said, "till I began to look at her with an eye +to reproducing line for line and curve for curve. Her face is the most +exquisite piece of modeling that ever came from creative hands. Not +a line without meaning, not a hair's breadth that is not admirably +finished. And then her mouth! It 's as if a pair of lips had been shaped +to utter pure truth without doing it dishonor!" Later, after he had been +working for a week, he declared if Miss Light were inordinately plain, +she would still be the most fascinating of women. "I 've quite forgotten +her beauty," he said, "or rather I have ceased to perceive it as +something distinct and defined, something independent of the rest of +her. She is all one, and all consummately interesting!" + +"What does she do--what does she say, that is so remarkable?" Rowland +had asked. + +"Say? Sometimes nothing--sometimes everything. She is never the same. +Sometimes she walks in and takes her place without a word, without a +smile, gravely, stiffly, as if it were an awful bore. She hardly looks +at me, and she walks away without even glancing at my work. On other +days she laughs and chatters and asks endless questions, and pours out +the most irresistible nonsense. She is a creature of moods; you can't +count upon her; she keeps observation on the stretch. And then, bless +you, she has seen such a lot! Her talk is full of the oddest allusions!" + +"It is altogether a very singular type of young lady," said Rowland, +after the visit which I have related at length. "It may be a charm, but +it is certainly not the orthodox charm of marriageable maidenhood, the +charm of shrinking innocence and soft docility. Our American girls +are accused of being more knowing than any others, and Miss Light is +nominally an American. But it has taken twenty years of Europe to make +her what she is. The first time we saw her, I remember you called her a +product of the old world, and certainly you were not far wrong." + +"Ah, she has an atmosphere," said Roderick, in the tone of high +appreciation. + +"Young unmarried women," Rowland answered, "should be careful not to +have too much!" + +"Ah, you don't forgive her," cried his companion, "for hitting you so +hard! A man ought to be flattered at such a girl as that taking so much +notice of him." + +"A man is never flattered at a woman's not liking him." + +"Are you sure she does n't like you? That 's to the credit of your +humility. A fellow of more vanity might, on the evidence, persuade +himself that he was in favor." + +"He would have also," said Rowland, laughing, "to be a fellow of +remarkable ingenuity!" He asked himself privately how the deuce Roderick +reconciled it to his conscience to think so much more of the girl he +was not engaged to than of the girl he was. But it amounted almost to +arrogance, you may say, in poor Rowland to pretend to know how often +Roderick thought of Miss Garland. He wondered gloomily, at any rate, +whether for men of his companion's large, easy power, there was not +a larger moral law than for narrow mediocrities like himself, who, +yielding Nature a meagre interest on her investment (such as it was), +had no reason to expect from her this affectionate laxity as to their +accounts. Was it not a part of the eternal fitness of things that +Roderick, while rhapsodizing about Miss Light, should have it at his +command to look at you with eyes of the most guileless and unclouded +blue, and to shake off your musty imputations by a toss of his +picturesque brown locks? Or had he, in fact, no conscience to speak of? +Happy fellow, either way! + +Our friend Gloriani came, among others, to congratulate Roderick on +his model and what he had made of her. "Devilish pretty, through and +through!" he said as he looked at the bust. "Capital handling of the +neck and throat; lovely work on the nose. You 're a detestably lucky +fellow, my boy! But you ought not to have squandered such material on a +simple bust; you should have made a great imaginative figure. If I could +only have got hold of her, I would have put her into a statue in spite +of herself. What a pity she is not a ragged Trasteverine, whom we might +have for a franc an hour! I have been carrying about in my head for +years a delicious design for a fantastic figure, but it has always +stayed there for want of a tolerable model. I have seen intimations of +the type, but Miss Light is the perfection of it. As soon as I saw her I +said to myself, 'By Jove, there 's my statue in the flesh!'" + +"What is your subject?" asked Roderick. + +"Don't take it ill," said Gloriani. "You know I 'm the very deuce for +observation. She would make a magnificent Herodias!" + +If Roderick had taken it ill (which was unlikely, for we know he thought +Gloriani an ass, and expected little of his wisdom), he might have been +soothed by the candid incense of Sam Singleton, who came and sat for an +hour in a sort of mental prostration before both bust and artist. +But Roderick's attitude before his patient little devotee was one +of undisguised though friendly amusement; and, indeed, judged from a +strictly plastic point of view, the poor fellow's diminutive stature, +his enormous mouth, his pimples and his yellow hair were sufficiently +ridiculous. "Nay, don't envy our friend," Rowland said to Singleton +afterwards, on his expressing, with a little groan of depreciation of +his own paltry performances, his sense of the brilliancy of Roderick's +talent. "You sail nearer the shore, but you sail in smoother waters. Be +contented with what you are and paint me another picture." + +"Oh, I don't envy Hudson anything he possesses," Singleton said, +"because to take anything away would spoil his beautiful completeness. +'Complete,' that 's what he is; while we little clevernesses are like +half-ripened plums, only good eating on the side that has had a glimpse +of the sun. Nature has made him so, and fortune confesses to it! He is +the handsomest fellow in Rome, he has the most genius, and, as a matter +of course, the most beautiful girl in the world comes and offers to be +his model. If that is not completeness, where shall we find it?" + +One morning, going into Roderick's studio, Rowland found the young +sculptor entertaining Miss Blanchard--if this is not too flattering a +description of his gracefully passive tolerance of her presence. He had +never liked her and never climbed into her sky-studio to observe her +wonderful manipulation of petals. He had once quoted Tennyson against +her:-- + +"And is there any moral shut +Within the bosom of the rose?" + +"In all Miss Blanchard's roses you may be sure there is a moral," he had +said. "You can see it sticking out its head, and, if you go to smell the +flower, it scratches your nose." But on this occasion she had come +with a propitiatory gift--introducing her friend Mr. Leavenworth. Mr. +Leavenworth was a tall, expansive, bland gentleman, with a carefully +brushed whisker and a spacious, fair, well-favored face, which seemed, +somehow, to have more room in it than was occupied by a smile of +superior benevolence, so that (with his smooth, white forehead) it bore +a certain resemblance to a large parlor with a very florid carpet, but +no pictures on the walls. He held his head high, talked sonorously, and +told Roderick, within five minutes, that he was a widower, traveling +to distract his mind, and that he had lately retired from the +proprietorship of large mines of borax in Pennsylvania. Roderick +supposed at first that, in his character of depressed widower, he had +come to order a tombstone; but observing then the extreme blandness +of his address to Miss Blanchard, he credited him with a judicious +prevision that by the time the tombstone was completed, a monument +of his inconsolability might have become an anachronism. But Mr. +Leavenworth was disposed to order something. + +"You will find me eager to patronize our indigenous talent," he said. "I +am putting up a little shanty in my native town, and I propose to make +a rather nice thing of it. It has been the will of Heaven to plunge me +into mourning; but art has consolations! In a tasteful home, surrounded +by the memorials of my wanderings, I hope to take more cheerful views. +I ordered in Paris the complete appurtenances of a dining-room. Do you +think you could do something for my library? It is to be filled +with well-selected authors, and I think a pure white image in this +style,"--pointing to one of Roderick's statues,--"standing out against +the morocco and gilt, would have a noble effect. The subject I have +already fixed upon. I desire an allegorical representation of Culture. +Do you think, now," asked Mr. Leavenworth, encouragingly, "you could +rise to the conception?" + +"A most interesting subject for a truly serious mind," remarked Miss +Blanchard. + +Roderick looked at her a moment, and then--"The simplest thing I +could do," he said, "would be to make a full-length portrait of Miss +Blanchard. I could give her a scroll in her hand, and that would do for +the allegory." + +Miss Blanchard colored; the compliment might be ironical; and there +was ever afterwards a reflection of her uncertainty in her opinion of +Roderick's genius. Mr. Leavenworth responded that with all deference to +Miss Blanchard's beauty, he desired something colder, more monumental, +more impersonal. "If I were to be the happy possessor of a likeness of +Miss Blanchard," he added, "I should prefer to have it in no factitious +disguise!" + +Roderick consented to entertain the proposal, and while they were +discussing it, Rowland had a little talk with the fair artist. "Who is +your friend?" he asked. + +"A very worthy man. The architect of his own fortune--which is +magnificent. One of nature's gentlemen!" + +This was a trifle sententious, and Rowland turned to the bust of Miss +Light. Like every one else in Rome, by this time, Miss Blanchard had +an opinion on the young girl's beauty, and, in her own fashion, she +expressed it epigrammatically. "She looks half like a Madonna and half +like a ballerina," she said. + +Mr. Leavenworth and Roderick came to an understanding, and the young +sculptor good-naturedly promised to do his best to rise to his patron's +conception. "His conception be hanged!" Roderick exclaimed, after he had +departed. "His conception is sitting on a globe with a pen in her ear +and a photographic album in her hand. I shall have to conceive, myself. +For the money, I ought to be able to!" + +Mrs. Light, meanwhile, had fairly established herself in Roman society. +"Heaven knows how!" Madame Grandoni said to Rowland, who had mentioned +to her several evidences of the lady's prosperity. "In such a case +there is nothing like audacity. A month ago she knew no one but her +washerwoman, and now I am told that the cards of Roman princesses are to +be seen on her table. She is evidently determined to play a great +part, and she has the wit to perceive that, to make remunerative +acquaintances, you must seem yourself to be worth knowing. You must +have striking rooms and a confusing variety of dresses, and give good +dinners, and so forth. She is spending a lot of money, and you 'll see +that in two or three weeks she will take upon herself to open the season +by giving a magnificent ball. Of course it is Christina's beauty that +floats her. People go to see her because they are curious." + +"And they go again because they are charmed," said Rowland. "Miss +Christina is a very remarkable young lady." + +"Oh, I know it well; I had occasion to say so to myself the other day. +She came to see me, of her own free will, and for an hour she was deeply +interesting. I think she 's an actress, but she believes in her part +while she is playing it. She took it into her head the other day to +believe that she was very unhappy, and she sat there, where you are +sitting, and told me a tale of her miseries which brought tears into my +eyes. She cried, herself, profusely, and as naturally as possible. She +said she was weary of life and that she knew no one but me she could +speak frankly to. She must speak, or she would go mad. She sobbed as if +her heart would break. I assure you it 's well for you susceptible young +men that you don't see her when she sobs. She said, in so many words, +that her mother was an immoral woman. Heaven knows what she meant. She +meant, I suppose, that she makes debts that she knows she can't pay. She +said the life they led was horrible; that it was monstrous a poor girl +should be dragged about the world to be sold to the highest bidder. She +was meant for better things; she could be perfectly happy in poverty. It +was not money she wanted. I might not believe her, but she really cared +for serious things. Sometimes she thought of taking poison!" + +"What did you say to that?" + +"I recommended her," said Madame Grandoni, "to come and see me +instead. I would help her about as much, and I was, on the whole, less +unpleasant. Of course I could help her only by letting her talk herself +out and kissing her and patting her beautiful hands and telling her to +be patient and she would be happy yet. About once in two months I expect +her to reappear, on the same errand, and meanwhile to quite forget my +existence. I believe I melted down to the point of telling her that +I would find some good, quiet, affectionate husband for her; but she +declared, almost with fury, that she was sick unto death of husbands, +and begged I would never again mention the word. And, in fact, it was a +rash offer; for I am sure that there is not a man of the kind that might +really make a woman happy but would be afraid to marry mademoiselle. +Looked at in that way she is certainly very much to be pitied, and +indeed, altogether, though I don't think she either means all she says +or, by a great deal, says all that she means. I feel very sorry for +her." + +Rowland met the two ladies, about this time, at several entertainments, +and looked at Christina with a kind of distant attendrissement. He +imagined more than once that there had been a passionate scene between +them about coming out, and wondered what arguments Mrs. Light had found +effective. But Christina's face told no tales, and she moved about, +beautiful and silent, looking absently over people's heads, barely +heeding the men who pressed about her, and suggesting somehow that the +soul of a world-wearied mortal had found its way into the blooming body +of a goddess. "Where in the world has Miss Light been before she is +twenty," observers asked, "to have left all her illusions behind?" And +the general verdict was, that though she was incomparably beautiful, she +was intolerably proud. Young ladies to whom the former distinction was +not conceded were free to reflect that she was "not at all liked." + +It would have been difficult to guess, however, how they reconciled this +conviction with a variety of conflicting evidence, and, in especial, +with the spectacle of Roderick's inveterate devotion. All Rome might +behold that he, at least, "liked" Christina Light. Wherever she +appeared he was either awaiting her or immediately followed her. He was +perpetually at her side, trying, apparently, to preserve the thread of +a disconnected talk, the fate of which was, to judge by her face, +profoundly immaterial to the young lady. People in general smiled at the +radiant good faith of the handsome young sculptor, and asked each other +whether he really supposed that beauties of that quality were meant to +wed with poor artists. But although Christina's deportment, as I have +said, was one of superb inexpressiveness, Rowland had derived from +Roderick no suspicion that he suffered from snubbing, and he was +therefore surprised at an incident which befell one evening at a large +musical party. Roderick, as usual, was in the field, and, on the ladies +taking the chairs which had been arranged for them, he immediately +placed himself beside Christina. As most of the gentlemen were standing, +his position made him as conspicuous as Hamlet at Ophelia's feet, at the +play. Rowland was leaning, somewhat apart, against the chimney-piece. +There was a long, solemn pause before the music began, and in the midst +of it Christina rose, left her place, came the whole length of the +immense room, with every one looking at her, and stopped before him. She +was neither pale nor flushed; she had a soft smile. + +"Will you do me a favor?" she asked. + +"A thousand!" + +"Not now, but at your earliest convenience. Please remind Mr. Hudson +that he is not in a New England village--that it is not the custom in +Rome to address one's conversation exclusively, night after night, to +the same poor girl, and that".... + +The music broke out with a great blare and covered her voice. She made a +gesture of impatience, and Rowland offered her his arm and led her back +to her seat. + +The next day he repeated her words to Roderick, who burst into joyous +laughter. "She 's a delightfully strange girl!" he cried. "She must do +everything that comes into her head!" + +"Had she never asked you before not to talk to her so much?" + +"On the contrary, she has often said to me, 'Mind you now, I forbid you +to leave me. Here comes that tiresome So-and-so.' She cares as little +about the custom as I do. What could be a better proof than her walking +up to you, with five hundred people looking at her? Is that the custom +for young girls in Rome?" + +"Why, then, should she take such a step?" + +"Because, as she sat there, it came into her head. That 's reason enough +for her. I have imagined she wishes me well, as they say here--though +she has never distinguished me in such a way as that!" + +Madame Grandoni had foretold the truth; Mrs. Light, a couple of weeks +later, convoked all Roman society to a brilliant ball. Rowland went +late, and found the staircase so encumbered with flower-pots and +servants that he was a long time making his way into the presence of the +hostess. At last he approached her, as she stood making courtesies at +the door, with her daughter by her side. Some of Mrs. Light's courtesies +were very low, for she had the happiness of receiving a number of the +social potentates of the Roman world. She was rosy with triumph, to say +nothing of a less metaphysical cause, and was evidently vastly contented +with herself, with her company, and with the general promise of destiny. +Her daughter was less overtly jubilant, and distributed her greetings +with impartial frigidity. She had never been so beautiful. Dressed +simply in vaporous white, relieved with half a dozen white roses, the +perfection of her features and of her person and the mysterious depth of +her expression seemed to glow with the white light of a splendid pearl. +She recognized no one individually, and made her courtesy slowly, +gravely, with her eyes on the ground. Rowland fancied that, as he stood +before her, her obeisance was slightly exaggerated, as with an intention +of irony; but he smiled philosophically to himself, and reflected, as +he passed into the room, that, if she disliked him, he had nothing +to reproach himself with. He walked about, had a few words with Miss +Blanchard, who, with a fillet of cameos in her hair, was leaning on the +arm of Mr. Leavenworth, and at last came upon the Cavaliere Giacosa, +modestly stationed in a corner. The little gentleman's coat-lappet was +decorated with an enormous bouquet and his neck encased in a voluminous +white handkerchief of the fashion of thirty years ago. His arms were +folded, and he was surveying the scene with contracted eyelids, through +which you saw the glitter of his intensely dark, vivacious pupil. +He immediately embarked on an elaborate apology for not having yet +manifested, as he felt it, his sense of the honor Rowland had done him. + +"I am always on service with these ladies, you see," he explained, "and +that is a duty to which one would not willingly be faithless for an +instant." + +"Evidently," said Rowland, "you are a very devoted friend. Mrs. Light, +in her situation, is very happy in having you." + +"We are old friends," said the Cavaliere, gravely. "Old friends. I knew +the signora many years ago, when she was the prettiest woman in Rome--or +rather in Ancona, which is even better. The beautiful Christina, now, is +perhaps the most beautiful young girl in Europe!" + +"Very likely," said Rowland. + +"Very well, sir, I taught her to read; I guided her little hands to +touch the piano keys." And at these faded memories, the Cavaliere's eyes +glittered more brightly. Rowland half expected him to proceed, with a +little flash of long-repressed passion, "And now--and now, sir, they +treat me as you observed the other day!" But the Cavaliere only looked +out at him keenly from among his wrinkles, and seemed to say, with all +the vividness of the Italian glance, "Oh, I say nothing more. I am not +so shallow as to complain!" + +Evidently the Cavaliere was not shallow, and Rowland repeated +respectfully, "You are a devoted friend." + +"That 's very true. I am a devoted friend. A man may do himself justice, +after twenty years!" + +Rowland, after a pause, made some remark about the beauty of the ball. +It was very brilliant. + +"Stupendous!" said the Cavaliere, solemnly. "It is a great day. We have +four Roman princes, to say nothing of others." And he counted them over +on his fingers and held up his hand triumphantly. "And there she stands, +the girl to whom I--I, Giuseppe Giacosa--taught her alphabet and her +piano-scales; there she stands in her incomparable beauty, and Roman +princes come and bow to her. Here, in his corner, her old master permits +himself to be proud." + +"It is very friendly of him," said Rowland, smiling. + +The Cavaliere contracted his lids a little more and gave another keen +glance. "It is very natural, signore. The Christina is a good girl; she +remembers my little services. But here comes," he added in a moment, +"the young Prince of the Fine Arts. I am sure he has bowed lowest of +all." + +Rowland looked round and saw Roderick moving slowly across the room and +casting about him his usual luminous, unshrinking looks. He presently +joined them, nodded familiarly to the Cavaliere, and immediately +demanded of Rowland, "Have you seen her?" + +"I have seen Miss Light," said Rowland. "She 's magnificent." + +"I 'm half crazy!" cried Roderick; so loud that several persons turned +round. + +Rowland saw that he was flushed, and laid his hand on his arm. Roderick +was trembling. "If you will go away," Rowland said instantly, "I will go +with you." + +"Go away?" cried Roderick, almost angrily. "I intend to dance with her!" + +The Cavaliere had been watching him attentively; he gently laid his hand +on his other arm. "Softly, softly, dear young man," he said. "Let me +speak to you as a friend." + +"Oh, speak even as an enemy and I shall not mind it," Roderick answered, +frowning. + +"Be very reasonable, then, and go away." + +"Why the deuce should I go away?" + +"Because you are in love," said the Cavaliere. + +"I might as well be in love here as in the streets." + +"Carry your love as far as possible from Christina. She will not listen +to you--she can't." + +"She 'can't'?" demanded Roderick. "She is not a person of whom you may +say that. She can if she will; she does as she chooses." + +"Up to a certain point. It would take too long to explain; I only beg +you to believe that if you continue to love Miss Light you will be +very unhappy. Have you a princely title? have you a princely fortune? +Otherwise you can never have her." + +And the Cavaliere folded his arms again, like a man who has done his +duty. Roderick wiped his forehead and looked askance at Rowland; he +seemed to be guessing his thoughts and they made him blush a little. But +he smiled blandly, and addressing the Cavaliere, "I 'm much obliged to +you for the information," he said. "Now that I have obtained it, let +me tell you that I am no more in love with Miss Light than you are. Mr. +Mallet knows that. I admire her--yes, profoundly. But that 's no one's +business but my own, and though I have, as you say, neither a princely +title nor a princely fortune, I mean to suffer neither those advantages +nor those who possess them to diminish my right." + +"If you are not in love, my dear young man," said the Cavaliere, with +his hand on his heart and an apologetic smile, "so much the better. But +let me entreat you, as an affectionate friend, to keep a watch on your +emotions. You are young, you are handsome, you have a brilliant genius +and a generous heart, but--I may say it almost with authority--Christina +is not for you!" + +Whether Roderick was in love or not, he was nettled by what apparently +seemed to him an obtrusive negation of an inspiring possibility. "You +speak as if she had made her choice!" he cried. "Without pretending to +confidential information on the subject, I am sure she has not." + +"No, but she must make it soon," said the Cavaliere. And raising his +forefinger, he laid it against his under lip. "She must choose a name +and a fortune--and she will!" + +"She will do exactly as her inclination prompts! She will marry the man +who pleases her, if he has n't a dollar! I know her better than you." + +The Cavaliere turned a little paler than usual, and smiled more +urbanely. "No, no, my dear young man, you do not know her better than +I. You have not watched her, day by day, for twenty years. I too have +admired her. She is a good girl; she has never said an unkind word +to me; the blessed Virgin be thanked! But she must have a brilliant +destiny; it has been marked out for her, and she will submit. You had +better believe me; it may save you much suffering." + +"We shall see!" said Roderick, with an excited laugh. + +"Certainly we shall see. But I retire from the discussion," the +Cavaliere added. "I have no wish to provoke you to attempt to prove to +me that I am wrong. You are already excited." + +"No more than is natural to a man who in an hour or so is to dance the +cotillon with Miss Light." + +"The cotillon? has she promised?" + +Roderick patted the air with a grand confidence. "You 'll see!" His +gesture might almost have been taken to mean that the state of his +relations with Miss Light was such that they quite dispensed with vain +formalities. + +The Cavaliere gave an exaggerated shrug. "You make a great many +mourners!" + +"He has made one already!" Rowland murmured to himself. This was +evidently not the first time that reference had been made between +Roderick and the Cavaliere to the young man's possible passion, and +Roderick had failed to consider it the simplest and most natural course +to say in three words to the vigilant little gentleman that there was +no cause for alarm--his affections were preoccupied. Rowland hoped, +silently, with some dryness, that his motives were of a finer kind +than they seemed to be. He turned away; it was irritating to look at +Roderick's radiant, unscrupulous eagerness. The tide was setting toward +the supper-room and he drifted with it to the door. The crowd at this +point was dense, and he was obliged to wait for some minutes before he +could advance. At last he felt his neighbors dividing behind him, and +turning he saw Christina pressing her way forward alone. She was looking +at no one, and, save for the fact of her being alone, you would not have +supposed she was in her mother's house. As she recognized Rowland she +beckoned to him, took his arm, and motioned him to lead her into the +supper-room. She said nothing until he had forced a passage and they +stood somewhat isolated. + +"Take me into the most out-of-the-way corner you can find," she then +said, "and then go and get me a piece of bread." + +"Nothing more? There seems to be everything conceivable." + +"A simple roll. Nothing more, on your peril. Only bring something for +yourself." + +It seemed to Rowland that the embrasure of a window (embrasures in Roman +palaces are deep) was a retreat sufficiently obscure for Miss Light to +execute whatever design she might have contrived against his equanimity. +A roll, after he had found her a seat, was easily procured. As he +presented it, he remarked that, frankly speaking, he was at loss to +understand why she should have selected for the honor of a tete-a-tete +an individual for whom she had so little taste. + +"Ah yes, I dislike you," said Christina. "To tell the truth, I had +forgotten it. There are so many people here whom I dislike more, that +when I espied you just now, you seemed like an intimate friend. But I +have not come into this corner to talk nonsense," she went on. "You must +not think I always do, eh?" + +"I have never heard you do anything else," said Rowland, deliberately, +having decided that he owed her no compliments. + +"Very good. I like your frankness. It 's quite true. You see, I am a +strange girl. To begin with, I am frightfully egotistical. Don't flatter +yourself you have said anything very clever if you ever take it into +your head to tell me so. I know it much better than you. So it is, I +can't help it. I am tired to death of myself; I would give all I possess +to get out of myself; but somehow, at the end, I find myself so vastly +more interesting than nine tenths of the people I meet. If a person +wished to do me a favor I would say to him, 'I beg you, with tears in my +eyes, to interest me. Be strong, be positive, be imperious, if you +will; only be something,--something that, in looking at, I can forget my +detestable self!' Perhaps that is nonsense too. If it is, I can't help +it. I can only apologize for the nonsense I know to be such and that I +talk--oh, for more reasons than I can tell you! I wonder whether, if I +were to try, you would understand me." + +"I am afraid I should never understand," said Rowland, "why a person +should willingly talk nonsense." + +"That proves how little you know about women. But I like your frankness. +When I told you the other day that you displeased me, I had an idea +you were more formal,--how do you say it?--more guinde. I am very +capricious. To-night I like you better." + +"Oh, I am not guinde," said Rowland, gravely. + +"I beg your pardon, then, for thinking so. Now I have an idea that you +would make a useful friend--an intimate friend--a friend to whom one +could tell everything. For such a friend, what would n't I give!" + +Rowland looked at her in some perplexity. Was this touching sincerity, +or unfathomable coquetry? Her beautiful eyes looked divinely candid; but +then, if candor was beautiful, beauty was apt to be subtle. "I hesitate +to recommend myself out and out for the office," he said, "but I believe +that if you were to depend upon me for anything that a friend may do, I +should not be found wanting." + +"Very good. One of the first things one asks of a friend is to judge +one not by isolated acts, but by one's whole conduct. I care for your +opinion--I don't know why." + +"Nor do I, I confess," said Rowland with a laugh. + +"What do you think of this affair?" she continued, without heeding his +laugh. + +"Of your ball? Why, it 's a very grand affair." + +"It 's horrible--that 's what it is! It 's a mere rabble! There are +people here whom I never saw before, people who were never asked. Mamma +went about inviting every one, asking other people to invite any one +they knew, doing anything to have a crowd. I hope she is satisfied! It +is not my doing. I feel weary, I feel angry, I feel like crying. I have +twenty minds to escape into my room and lock the door and let mamma go +through with it as she can. By the way," she added in a moment, without +a visible reason for the transition, "can you tell me something to +read?" + +Rowland stared, at the disconnectedness of the question. + +"Can you recommend me some books?" she repeated. "I know you are a great +reader. I have no one else to ask. We can buy no books. We can make +debts for jewelry and bonnets and five-button gloves, but we can't spend +a sou for ideas. And yet, though you may not believe it, I like ideas +quite as well." + +"I shall be most happy to lend you some books," Rowland said. "I will +pick some out to-morrow and send them to you." + +"No novels, please! I am tired of novels. I can imagine better stories +for myself than any I read. Some good poetry, if there is such a thing +nowadays, and some memoirs and histories and books of facts." + +"You shall be served. Your taste agrees with my own." + +She was silent a moment, looking at him. Then suddenly--"Tell me +something about Mr. Hudson," she demanded. "You are great friends!" + +"Oh yes," said Rowland; "we are great friends." + +"Tell me about him. Come, begin!" + +"Where shall I begin? You know him for yourself." + +"No, I don't know him; I don't find him so easy to know. Since he has +finished my bust and begun to come here disinterestedly, he has become a +great talker. He says very fine things; but does he mean all he says?" + +"Few of us do that." + +"You do, I imagine. You ought to know, for he tells me you discovered +him." Rowland was silent, and Christina continued, "Do you consider him +very clever?" + +"Unquestionably." + +"His talent is really something out of the common way?" + +"So it seems to me." + +"In short, he 's a man of genius?" + +"Yes, call it genius." + +"And you found him vegetating in a little village and took him by the +hand and set him on his feet in Rome?" + +"Is that the popular legend?" asked Rowland. + +"Oh, you need n't be modest. There was no great merit in it; there +would have been none at least on my part in the same circumstances. +Real geniuses are not so common, and if I had discovered one in the +wilderness, I would have brought him out into the market-place to see +how he would behave. It would be excessively amusing. You must find it +so to watch Mr. Hudson, eh? Tell me this: do you think he is going to be +a great man--become famous, have his life written, and all that?" + +"I don't prophesy, but I have good hopes." + +Christina was silent. She stretched out her bare arm and looked at it a +moment absently, turning it so as to see--or almost to see--the dimple +in her elbow. This was apparently a frequent gesture with her; Rowland +had already observed it. It was as coolly and naturally done as if she +had been in her room alone. "So he 's a man of genius," she suddenly +resumed. "Don't you think I ought to be extremely flattered to have a +man of genius perpetually hanging about? He is the first I ever saw, +but I should have known he was not a common mortal. There is something +strange about him. To begin with, he has no manners. You may say that it +'s not for me to blame him, for I have none myself. That 's very true, +but the difference is that I can have them when I wish to (and very +charming ones too; I 'll show you some day); whereas Mr. Hudson will +never have them. And yet, somehow, one sees he 's a gentleman. He seems +to have something urging, driving, pushing him, making him restless and +defiant. You see it in his eyes. They are the finest, by the way, I ever +saw. When a person has such eyes as that you can forgive him his bad +manners. I suppose that is what they call the sacred fire." + +Rowland made no answer except to ask her in a moment if she would have +another roll. She merely shook her head and went on:-- + +"Tell me how you found him. Where was he--how was he?" + +"He was in a place called Northampton. Did you ever hear of it? He was +studying law--but not learning it." + +"It appears it was something horrible, eh?" + +"Something horrible?" + +"This little village. No society, no pleasures, no beauty, no life." + +"You have received a false impression. Northampton is not as gay as +Rome, but Roderick had some charming friends." + +"Tell me about them. Who were they?" + +"Well, there was my cousin, through whom I made his acquaintance: a +delightful woman." + +"Young--pretty?" + +"Yes, a good deal of both. And very clever." + +"Did he make love to her?" + +"Not in the least." + +"Well, who else?" + +"He lived with his mother. She is the best of women." + +"Ah yes, I know all that one's mother is. But she does not count as +society. And who else?" + +Rowland hesitated. He wondered whether Christina's insistence was +the result of a general interest in Roderick's antecedents or of a +particular suspicion. He looked at her; she was looking at him a little +askance, waiting for his answer. As Roderick had said nothing about his +engagement to the Cavaliere, it was probable that with this beautiful +girl he had not been more explicit. And yet the thing was announced, it +was public; that other girl was happy in it, proud of it. Rowland felt +a kind of dumb anger rising in his heart. He deliberated a moment +intently. + +"What are you frowning at?" Christina asked. + +"There was another person," he answered, "the most important of all: the +young girl to whom he is engaged." + +Christina stared a moment, raising her eyebrows. "Ah, Mr. Hudson is +engaged?" she said, very simply. "Is she pretty?" + +"She is not called a beauty," said Rowland. He meant to practice great +brevity, but in a moment he added, "I have seen beauties, however, who +pleased me less." + +"Ah, she pleases you, too? Why don't they marry?" + +"Roderick is waiting till he can afford to marry." + +Christina slowly put out her arm again and looked at the dimple in her +elbow. "Ah, he 's engaged?" she repeated in the same tone. "He never +told me." + +Rowland perceived at this moment that the people about them were +beginning to return to the dancing-room, and immediately afterwards +he saw Roderick making his way toward themselves. Roderick presented +himself before Miss Light. + +"I don't claim that you have promised me the cotillon," he said, "but I +consider that you have given me hopes which warrant the confidence that +you will dance with me." + +Christina looked at him a moment. "Certainly I have made no promises," +she said. "It seemed to me that, as the daughter of the house, I should +keep myself free and let it depend on circumstances." + +"I beseech you to dance with me!" said Roderick, with vehemence. + +Christina rose and began to laugh. "You say that very well, but the +Italians do it better." + +This assertion seemed likely to be put to the proof. Mrs. Light hastily +approached, leading, rather than led by, a tall, slim young man, of an +unmistakably Southern physiognomy. "My precious love," she cried, "what +a place to hide in! We have been looking for you for twenty minutes; I +have chosen a cavalier for you, and chosen well!" + +The young man disengaged himself, made a ceremonious bow, joined his two +hands, and murmured with an ecstatic smile, "May I venture to hope, dear +signorina, for the honor of your hand?" + +"Of course you may!" said Mrs. Light. "The honor is for us." + +Christina hesitated but for a moment, then swept the young man a +courtesy as profound as his own bow. "You are very kind, but you are too +late. I have just accepted!" + +"Ah, my own darling!" murmured--almost moaned--Mrs. Light. + +Christina and Roderick exchanged a single glance--a glance brilliant on +both sides. She passed her hand into his arm; he tossed his clustering +locks and led her away. + +A short time afterwards Rowland saw the young man whom she had +rejected leaning against a doorway. He was ugly, but what is called +distinguished-looking. He had a heavy black eye, a sallow complexion, a +long, thin neck; his hair was cropped en brosse. He looked very young, +yet extremely bored. He was staring at the ceiling and stroking an +imperceptible moustache. Rowland espied the Cavaliere Giacosa hard by, +and, having joined him, asked him the young man's name. + +"Oh," said the Cavaliere, "he 's a pezzo grosso! A Neapolitan. Prince +Casamassima." + + + + + + +CHAPTER VI. Frascati + +One day, on entering Roderick's lodging (not the modest rooms on the +Ripetta which he had first occupied, but a much more sumptuous apartment +on the Corso), Rowland found a letter on the table addressed to himself. +It was from Roderick, and consisted of but three lines: "I am gone to +Frascati--for meditation. If I am not at home on Friday, you had +better join me." On Friday he was still absent, and Rowland went out to +Frascati. Here he found his friend living at the inn and spending his +days, according to his own account, lying under the trees of the Villa +Mondragone, reading Ariosto. He was in a sombre mood; "meditation" +seemed not to have been fruitful. Nothing especially pertinent to our +narrative had passed between the two young men since Mrs. Light's ball, +save a few words bearing on an incident of that entertainment. Rowland +informed Roderick, the next day, that he had told Miss Light of his +engagement. "I don't know whether you 'll thank me," he had said, "but +it 's my duty to let you know it. Miss Light perhaps has already done +so." + +Roderick looked at him a moment, intently, with his color slowly +rising. "Why should n't I thank you?" he asked. "I am not ashamed of my +engagement." + +"As you had not spoken of it yourself, I thought you might have a reason +for not having it known." + +"A man does n't gossip about such a matter with strangers," Roderick +rejoined, with the ring of irritation in his voice. + +"With strangers--no!" said Rowland, smiling. + +Roderick continued his work; but after a moment, turning round with a +frown: "If you supposed I had a reason for being silent, pray why should +you have spoken?" + +"I did not speak idly, my dear Roderick. I weighed the matter before I +spoke, and promised myself to let you know immediately afterwards. It +seemed to me that Miss Light had better know that your affections are +pledged." + +"The Cavaliere has put it into your head, then, that I am making love to +her?" + +"No; in that case I would not have spoken to her first." + +"Do you mean, then, that she is making love to me?" + +"This is what I mean," said Rowland, after a pause. "That girl finds you +interesting, and is pleased, even though she may play indifference, +at your finding her so. I said to myself that it might save her some +sentimental disappointment to know without delay that you are not at +liberty to become indefinitely interested in other women." + +"You seem to have taken the measure of my liberty with extraordinary +minuteness!" cried Roderick. + +"You must do me justice. I am the cause of your separation from Miss +Garland, the cause of your being exposed to temptations which she hardly +even suspects. How could I ever face her," Rowland demanded, with much +warmth of tone, "if at the end of it all she should be unhappy?" + +"I had no idea that Miss Garland had made such an impression on you. +You are too zealous; I take it she did n't charge you to look after her +interests." + +"If anything happens to you, I am accountable. You must understand +that." + +"That 's a view of the situation I can't accept; in your own interest, +no less than in mine. It can only make us both very uncomfortable. I +know all I owe you; I feel it; you know that! But I am not a small boy +nor an outer barbarian any longer, and, whatever I do, I do with my eyes +open. When I do well, the merit 's mine; if I do ill, the fault 's mine! +The idea that I make you nervous is detestable. Dedicate your nerves +to some better cause, and believe that if Miss Garland and I have a +quarrel, we shall settle it between ourselves." + +Rowland had found himself wondering, shortly before, whether possibly +his brilliant young friend was without a conscience; now it dimly +occurred to him that he was without a heart. Rowland, as we have already +intimated, was a man with a moral passion, and no small part of it had +gone forth into his relations with Roderick. There had been, from the +first, no protestations of friendship on either side, but Rowland had +implicitly offered everything that belongs to friendship, and Roderick +had, apparently, as deliberately accepted it. Rowland, indeed, had taken +an exquisite satisfaction in his companion's deep, inexpressive assent +to his interest in him. "Here is an uncommonly fine thing," he said to +himself: "a nature unconsciously grateful, a man in whom friendship does +the thing that love alone generally has the credit of--knocks the bottom +out of pride!" His reflective judgment of Roderick, as time went on, had +indulged in a great many irrepressible vagaries; but his affection, +his sense of something in his companion's whole personality that +overmastered his heart and beguiled his imagination, had never for an +instant faltered. He listened to Roderick's last words, and then he +smiled as he rarely smiled--with bitterness. + +"I don't at all like your telling me I am too zealous," he said. "If I +had not been zealous, I should never have cared a fig for you." + +Roderick flushed deeply, and thrust his modeling tool up to the handle +into the clay. "Say it outright! You have been a great fool to believe +in me." + +"I desire to say nothing of the kind, and you don't honestly believe I +do!" said Rowland. "It seems to me I am really very good-natured even to +reply to such nonsense." + +Roderick sat down, crossed his arms, and fixed his eyes on the floor. +Rowland looked at him for some moments; it seemed to him that he +had never so clearly read his companion's strangely commingled +character--his strength and his weakness, his picturesque personal +attractiveness and his urgent egoism, his exalted ardor and his puerile +petulance. It would have made him almost sick, however, to think that, +on the whole, Roderick was not a generous fellow, and he was so far from +having ceased to believe in him that he felt just now, more than ever, +that all this was but the painful complexity of genius. Rowland, who +had not a grain of genius either to make one say he was an interested +reasoner, or to enable one to feel that he could afford a dangerous +theory or two, adhered to his conviction of the essential salubrity of +genius. Suddenly he felt an irresistible compassion for his companion; +it seemed to him that his beautiful faculty of production was a +double-edged instrument, susceptible of being dealt in back-handed blows +at its possessor. Genius was priceless, inspired, divine; but it was +also, at its hours, capricious, sinister, cruel; and men of genius, +accordingly, were alternately very enviable and very helpless. It was +not the first time he had had a sense of Roderick's standing helpless in +the grasp of his temperament. It had shaken him, as yet, but with a half +good-humored wantonness; but, henceforth, possibly, it meant to handle +him more roughly. These were not times, therefore, for a friend to have +a short patience. + +"When you err, you say, the fault 's your own," he said at last. "It is +because your faults are your own that I care about them." + +Rowland's voice, when he spoke with feeling, had an extraordinary +amenity. Roderick sat staring a moment longer at the floor, then he +sprang up and laid his hand affectionately on his friend's shoulder. +"You are the best man in the world," he said, "and I am a vile brute. +Only," he added in a moment, "you don't understand me!" And he looked +at him with eyes of such radiant lucidity that one might have said (and +Rowland did almost say so, himself) that it was the fault of one's own +grossness if one failed to read to the bottom of that beautiful soul. + +Rowland smiled sadly. "What is it now? Explain." + +"Oh, I can't explain!" cried Roderick impatiently, returning to his +work. "I have only one way of expressing my deepest feelings--it 's +this!" And he swung his tool. He stood looking at the half-wrought clay +for a moment, and then flung the instrument down. "And even this half +the time plays me false!" + +Rowland felt that his irritation had not subsided, and he himself had no +taste for saying disagreeable things. Nevertheless he saw no sufficient +reason to forbear uttering the words he had had on his conscience from +the beginning. "We must do what we can and be thankful," he said. "And +let me assure you of this--that it won't help you to become entangled +with Miss Light." + +Roderick pressed his hand to his forehead with vehemence and then shook +it in the air, despairingly; a gesture that had become frequent with him +since he had been in Italy. "No, no, it 's no use; you don't understand +me! But I don't blame you. You can't!" + +"You think it will help you, then?" said Rowland, wondering. + +"I think that when you expect a man to produce beautiful and wonderful +works of art, you ought to allow him a certain freedom of action, you +ought to give him a long rope, you ought to let him follow his fancy and +look for his material wherever he thinks he may find it! A mother can't +nurse her child unless she follows a certain diet; an artist can't bring +his visions to maturity unless he has a certain experience. You +demand of us to be imaginative, and you deny us that which feeds the +imagination. In labor we must be as passionate as the inspired sibyl; in +life we must be mere machines. It won't do. When you have got an artist +to deal with, you must take him as he is, good and bad together. I don't +say they are pleasant fellows to know or easy fellows to live with; I +don't say they satisfy themselves any better than other people. I only +say that if you want them to produce, you must let them conceive. If +you want a bird to sing, you must not cover up its cage. Shoot them, the +poor devils, drown them, exterminate them, if you will, in the interest +of public morality; it may be morality would gain--I dare say it would! +But if you suffer them to live, let them live on their own terms and +according to their own inexorable needs!" + +Rowland burst out laughing. "I have no wish whatever either to shoot you +or to drown you!" he said. "Why launch such a tirade against a warning +offered you altogether in the interest of your freest development? +Do you really mean that you have an inexorable need of embarking on a +flirtation with Miss Light?--a flirtation as to the felicity of which +there may be differences of opinion, but which cannot at best, under the +circumstances, be called innocent. Your last summer's adventures were +more so! As for the terms on which you are to live, I had an idea you +had arranged them otherwise!" + +"I have arranged nothing--thank God! I don't pretend to arrange. I +am young and ardent and inquisitive, and I admire Miss Light. That 's +enough. I shall go as far as admiration leads me. I am not afraid. Your +genuine artist may be sometimes half a madman, but he 's not a coward!" + +"Suppose that in your speculation you should come to grief, not only +sentimentally but artistically?" + +"Come what come will! If I 'm to fizzle out, the sooner I know it the +better. Sometimes I half suspect it. But let me at least go out and +reconnoitre for the enemy, and not sit here waiting for him, cudgeling +my brains for ideas that won't come!" + +Do what he would, Rowland could not think of Roderick's theory of +unlimited experimentation, especially as applied in the case under +discussion, as anything but a pernicious illusion. But he saw it was +vain to combat longer, for inclination was powerfully on Roderick's +side. He laid his hand on Roderick's shoulder, looked at him a moment +with troubled eyes, then shook his head mournfully and turned away. + +"I can't work any more," said Roderick. "You have upset me! I 'll go +and stroll on the Pincian." And he tossed aside his working-jacket and +prepared himself for the street. As he was arranging his cravat before +the glass, something occurred to him which made him thoughtful. He +stopped a few moments afterward, as they were going out, with his hand +on the door-knob. "You did, from your own point of view, an indiscreet +thing," he said, "to tell Miss Light of my engagement." + +Rowland looked at him with a glance which was partly an interrogation, +but partly, also, an admission. + +"If she 's the coquette you say," Roderick added, "you have given her a +reason the more." + +"And that 's the girl you propose to devote yourself to?" cried Rowland. + +"Oh, I don't say it, mind! I only say that she 's the most interesting +creature in the world! The next time you mean to render me a service, +pray give me notice beforehand!" + +It was perfectly characteristic of Roderick that, a fortnight later, he +should have let his friend know that he depended upon him for society +at Frascati, as freely as if no irritating topic had ever been discussed +between them. Rowland thought him generous, and he had at any rate a +liberal faculty of forgetting that he had given you any reason to be +displeased with him. It was equally characteristic of Rowland that he +complied with his friend's summons without a moment's hesitation. His +cousin Cecilia had once told him that he was the dupe of his intense +benevolence. She put the case with too little favor, or too much, as the +reader chooses; it is certain, at least, that he had a constitutional +tendency towards magnanimous interpretations. Nothing happened, however, +to suggest to him that he was deluded in thinking that Roderick's +secondary impulses were wiser than his primary ones, and that the +rounded total of his nature had a harmony perfectly attuned to the most +amiable of its brilliant parts. Roderick's humor, for the time, was +pitched in a minor key; he was lazy, listless, and melancholy, but he +had never been more friendly and kindly and appealingly submissive. +Winter had begun, by the calendar, but the weather was divinely mild, +and the two young men took long slow strolls on the hills and lounged +away the mornings in the villas. The villas at Frascati are delicious +places, and replete with romantic suggestiveness. Roderick, as he +had said, was meditating, and if a masterpiece was to come of his +meditations, Rowland was perfectly willing to bear him company and coax +along the process. But Roderick let him know from the first that he was +in a miserably sterile mood, and, cudgel his brains as he would, could +think of nothing that would serve for the statue he was to make for Mr. +Leavenworth. + +"It is worse out here than in Rome," he said, "for here I am face to +face with the dead blank of my mind! There I could n't think of anything +either, but there I found things to make me forget that I needed to." +This was as frank an allusion to Christina Light as could have been +expected under the circumstances; it seemed, indeed, to Rowland +surprisingly frank, and a pregnant example of his companion's often +strangely irresponsible way of looking at harmful facts. Roderick +was silent sometimes for hours, with a puzzled look on his face and +a constant fold between his even eyebrows; at other times he talked +unceasingly, with a slow, idle, half-nonsensical drawl. Rowland was half +a dozen times on the point of asking him what was the matter with him; +he was afraid he was going to be ill. Roderick had taken a great fancy +to the Villa Mondragone, and used to declaim fantastic compliments to it +as they strolled in the winter sunshine on the great terrace which looks +toward Tivoli and the iridescent Sabine mountains. He carried his volume +of Ariosto in his pocket, and took it out every now and then and spouted +half a dozen stanzas to his companion. He was, as a general thing, very +little of a reader; but at intervals he would take a fancy to one of the +classics and peruse it for a month in disjointed scraps. He had picked +up Italian without study, and had a wonderfully sympathetic accent, +though in reading aloud he ruined the sense of half the lines he +rolled off so sonorously. Rowland, who pronounced badly but understood +everything, once said to him that Ariosto was not the poet for a man of +his craft; a sculptor should make a companion of Dante. So he lent him +the Inferno, which he had brought with him, and advised him to look into +it. Roderick took it with some eagerness; perhaps it would brighten +his wits. He returned it the next day with disgust; he had found it +intolerably depressing. + +"A sculptor should model as Dante writes--you 're right there," he said. +"But when his genius is in eclipse, Dante is a dreadfully smoky lamp. +By what perversity of fate," he went on, "has it come about that I am a +sculptor at all? A sculptor is such a confoundedly special genius; there +are so few subjects he can treat, so few things in life that bear upon +his work, so few moods in which he himself is inclined to it." (It +may be noted that Rowland had heard him a dozen times affirm the flat +reverse of all this.) "If I had only been a painter--a little quiet, +docile, matter-of-fact painter, like our friend Singleton--I should +only have to open my Ariosto here to find a subject, to find color and +attitudes, stuffs and composition; I should only have to look up from +the page at that mouldy old fountain against the blue sky, at that +cypress alley wandering away like a procession of priests in couples, +at the crags and hollows of the Sabine hills, to find myself grasping +my brush. Best of all would be to be Ariosto himself, or one of his +brotherhood. Then everything in nature would give you a hint, and every +form of beauty be part of your stock. You would n't have to look at +things only to say,--with tears of rage half the time,--'Oh, yes, it +'s wonderfully pretty, but what the deuce can I do with it?' But a +sculptor, now! That 's a pretty trade for a fellow who has got his +living to make and yet is so damnably constituted that he can't work to +order, and considers that, aesthetically, clock ornaments don't pay! You +can't model the serge-coated cypresses, nor those mouldering old Tritons +and all the sunny sadness of that dried-up fountain; you can't put the +light into marble--the lovely, caressing, consenting Italian light that +you get so much of for nothing. Say that a dozen times in his life a man +has a complete sculpturesque vision--a vision in which the imagination +recognizes a subject and the subject kindles the imagination. It is a +remunerative rate of work, and the intervals are comfortable!" + +One morning, as the two young men were lounging on the sun-warmed +grass at the foot of one of the slanting pines of the Villa Mondragone, +Roderick delivered himself of a tissue of lugubrious speculations as to +the possible mischances of one's genius. "What if the watch should run +down," he asked, "and you should lose the key? What if you should wake +up some morning and find it stopped, inexorably, appallingly stopped? +Such things have been, and the poor devils to whom they happened have +had to grin and bear it. The whole matter of genius is a mystery. It +bloweth where it listeth and we know nothing of its mechanism. If it +gets out of order we can't mend it; if it breaks down altogether we +can't set it going again. We must let it choose its own pace, and hold +our breath lest it should lose its balance. It 's dealt out in different +doses, in big cups and little, and when you have consumed your portion +it 's as naif to ask for more as it was for Oliver Twist to ask for more +porridge. Lucky for you if you 've got one of the big cups; we drink +them down in the dark, and we can't tell their size until we tip them +up and hear the last gurgle. Those of some men last for life; those of +others for a couple of years. Nay, what are you smiling at so damnably?" +he went on. "Nothing is more common than for an artist who has set out +on his journey on a high-stepping horse to find himself all of a sudden +dismounted and invited to go his way on foot. You can number them by the +thousand--the people of two or three successes; the poor fellows whose +candle burnt out in a night. Some of them groped their way along without +it, some of them gave themselves up for blind and sat down by the +wayside to beg. Who shall say that I 'm not one of these? Who shall +assure me that my credit is for an unlimited sum? Nothing proves it, +and I never claimed it; or if I did, I did so in the mere boyish joy of +shaking off the dust of Northampton. If you believed so, my dear fellow, +you did so at your own risk! What am I, what are the best of us, but +an experiment? Do I succeed--do I fail? It does n't depend on me. I 'm +prepared for failure. It won't be a disappointment, simply because I +shan't survive it. The end of my work shall be the end of my life. When +I have played my last card, I shall cease to care for the game. I 'm not +making vulgar threats of suicide; for destiny, I trust, won't add +insult to injury by putting me to that abominable trouble. But I have a +conviction that if the hour strikes here," and he tapped his forehead, +"I shall disappear, dissolve, be carried off in a cloud! For the past +ten days I have had the vision of some such fate perpetually swimming +before my eyes. My mind is like a dead calm in the tropics, and my +imagination as motionless as the phantom ship in the Ancient Mariner!" + +Rowland listened to this outbreak, as he often had occasion to listen to +Roderick's heated monologues, with a number of mental restrictions. Both +in gravity and in gayety he said more than he meant, and you did him +simple justice if you privately concluded that neither the glow of +purpose nor the chill of despair was of so intense a character as his +florid diction implied. The moods of an artist, his exaltations +and depressions, Rowland had often said to himself, were like the +pen-flourishes a writing-master makes in the air when he begins to set +his copy. He may bespatter you with ink, he may hit you in the eye, but +he writes a magnificent hand. It was nevertheless true that at present +poor Roderick gave unprecedented tokens of moral stagnation, and as for +genius being held by the precarious tenure he had sketched, Rowland was +at a loss to see whence he could borrow the authority to contradict him. +He sighed to himself, and wished that his companion had a trifle more +of little Sam Singleton's evenness of impulse. But then, was Singleton +a man of genius? He answered that such reflections seemed to him +unprofitable, not to say morbid; that the proof of the pudding was +in the eating; that he did n't know about bringing a genius that had +palpably spent its last breath back to life again, but that he was +satisfied that vigorous effort was a cure for a great many ills that +seemed far gone. "Don't heed your mood," he said, "and don't believe +there is any calm so dead that your own lungs can't ruffle it with a +breeze. If you have work to do, don't wait to feel like it; set to work +and you will feel like it." + +"Set to work and produce abortions!" cried Roderick with ire. "Preach +that to others. Production with me must be either pleasure or nothing. +As I said just now, I must either stay in the saddle or not go at all. +I won't do second-rate work; I can't if I would. I have no cleverness, +apart from inspiration. I am not a Gloriani! You are right," he added +after a while; "this is unprofitable talk, and it makes my head ache. I +shall take a nap and see if I can dream of a bright idea or two." + +He turned his face upward to the parasol of the great pine, closed his +eyes, and in a short time forgot his sombre fancies. January though it +was, the mild stillness seemed to vibrate with faint midsummer sounds. +Rowland sat listening to them and wishing that, for the sake of his own +felicity, Roderick's temper were graced with a certain absent ductility. +He was brilliant, but was he, like many brilliant things, brittle? +Suddenly, to his musing sense, the soft atmospheric hum was overscored +with distincter sounds. He heard voices beyond a mass of shrubbery, at +the turn of a neighboring path. In a moment one of them began to seem +familiar, and an instant later a large white poodle emerged into view. +He was slowly followed by his mistress. Miss Light paused a moment on +seeing Rowland and his companion; but, though the former perceived that +he was recognized, she made no bow. Presently she walked directly toward +him. He rose and was on the point of waking Roderick, but she laid +her finger on her lips and motioned him to forbear. She stood a moment +looking at Roderick's handsome slumber. + +"What delicious oblivion!" she said. "Happy man! Stenterello"--and she +pointed to his face--"wake him up!" + +The poodle extended a long pink tongue and began to lick Roderick's +cheek. + +"Why," asked Rowland, "if he is happy?" + +"Oh, I want companions in misery! Besides, I want to show off my dog." +Roderick roused himself, sat up, and stared. By this time Mrs. Light had +approached, walking with a gentleman on each side of her. One of these +was the Cavaliere Giacosa; the other was Prince Casamassima. "I should +have liked to lie down on the grass and go to sleep," Christina added. +"But it would have been unheard of." + +"Oh, not quite," said the Prince, in English, with a tone of great +precision. "There was already a Sleeping Beauty in the Wood!" + +"Charming!" cried Mrs. Light. "Do you hear that, my dear?" + +"When the prince says a brilliant thing, it would be a pity to lose it," +said the young girl. "Your servant, sir!" And she smiled at him with a +grace that might have reassured him, if he had thought her compliment +ambiguous. + +Roderick meanwhile had risen to his feet, and Mrs. Light began to +exclaim on the oddity of their meeting and to explain that the day was +so lovely that she had been charmed with the idea of spending it in the +country. And who would ever have thought of finding Mr. Mallet and Mr. +Hudson sleeping under a tree! + +"Oh, I beg your pardon; I was not sleeping," said Rowland. + +"Don't you know that Mr. Mallet is Mr. Hudson's sheep-dog?" asked +Christina. "He was mounting guard to keep away the wolves." + +"To indifferent purpose, madame!" said Rowland, indicating the young +girl. + +"Is that the way you spend your time?" Christina demanded of Roderick. +"I never yet happened to learn what men were doing when they supposed +women were not watching them but it was something vastly below their +reputation." + +"When, pray," said Roderick, smoothing his ruffled locks, "are women not +watching them?" + +"We shall give you something better to do, at any rate. How long have +you been here? It 's an age since I have seen you. We consider you +domiciled here, and expect you to play host and entertain us." + +Roderick said that he could offer them nothing but to show them the +great terrace, with its view; and ten minutes later the group was +assembled there. Mrs. Light was extravagant in her satisfaction; +Christina looked away at the Sabine mountains, in silence. The prince +stood by, frowning at the rapture of the elder lady. + +"This is nothing," he said at last. "My word of honor. Have you seen the +terrace at San Gaetano?" + +"Ah, that terrace," murmured Mrs. Light, amorously. "I suppose it is +magnificent!" + +"It is four hundred feet long, and paved with marble. And the view is +a thousand times more beautiful than this. You see, far away, the blue, +blue sea and the little smoke of Vesuvio!" + +"Christina, love," cried Mrs. Light forthwith, "the prince has a terrace +four hundred feet long, all paved with marble!" + +The Cavaliere gave a little cough and began to wipe his eye-glass. + +"Stupendous!" said Christina. "To go from one end to the other, the +prince must have out his golden carriage." This was apparently an +allusion to one of the other items of the young man's grandeur. + +"You always laugh at me," said the prince. "I know no more what to say!" + +She looked at him with a sad smile and shook her head. "No, no, dear +prince, I don't laugh at you. Heaven forbid! You are much too serious an +affair. I assure you I feel your importance. What did you inform us was +the value of the hereditary diamonds of the Princess Casamassima?" + +"Ah, you are laughing at me yet!" said the poor young man, standing +rigid and pale. + +"It does n't matter," Christina went on. "We have a note of it; mamma +writes all those things down in a little book!" + +"If you are laughed at, dear prince, at least it 's in company," said +Mrs. Light, caressingly; and she took his arm, as if to resist his +possible displacement under the shock of her daughter's sarcasm. But the +prince looked heavy-eyed toward Rowland and Roderick, to whom the +young girl was turning, as if he had much rather his lot were cast with +theirs. + +"Is the villa inhabited?" Christina asked, pointing to the vast +melancholy structure which rises above the terrace. + +"Not privately," said Roderick. "It is occupied by a Jesuits' college, +for little boys." + +"Can women go in?" + +"I am afraid not." And Roderick began to laugh. "Fancy the poor little +devils looking up from their Latin declensions and seeing Miss Light +standing there!" + +"I should like to see the poor little devils, with their rosy cheeks and +their long black gowns, and when they were pretty, I should n't scruple +to kiss them. But if I can't have that amusement I must have some other. +We must not stand planted on this enchanting terrace as if we were +stakes driven into the earth. We must dance, we must feast, we must do +something picturesque. Mamma has arranged, I believe, that we are to go +back to Frascati to lunch at the inn. I decree that we lunch here and +send the Cavaliere to the inn to get the provisions! He can take the +carriage, which is waiting below." + +Miss Light carried out this undertaking with unfaltering ardor. The +Cavaliere was summoned, and he stook to receive her commands hat in +hand, with his eyes cast down, as if she had been a princess addressing +her major-domo. She, however, laid her hand with friendly grace upon his +button-hole, and called him a dear, good old Cavaliere, for being always +so willing. Her spirits had risen with the occasion, and she talked +irresistible nonsense. "Bring the best they have," she said, "no matter +if it ruins us! And if the best is very bad, it will be all the +more amusing. I shall enjoy seeing Mr. Mallet try to swallow it for +propriety's sake! Mr. Hudson will say out like a man that it 's horrible +stuff, and that he 'll be choked first! Be sure you bring a dish of +maccaroni; the prince must have the diet of the Neapolitan nobility. But +I leave all that to you, my poor, dear Cavaliere; you know what 's good! +Only be sure, above all, you bring a guitar. Mr. Mallet will play us +a tune, I 'll dance with Mr. Hudson, and mamma will pair off with the +prince, of whom she is so fond!" + +And as she concluded her recommendations, she patted her bland old +servitor caressingly on the shoulder. He looked askance at Rowland; his +little black eye glittered; it seemed to say, "Did n't I tell you she +was a good girl!" + +The Cavaliere returned with zealous speed, accompanied by one of the +servants of the inn, laden with a basket containing the materials of a +rustic luncheon. The porter of the villa was easily induced to furnish +a table and half a dozen chairs, and the repast, when set forth, was +pronounced a perfect success; not so good as to fail of the proper +picturesqueness, nor yet so bad as to defeat the proper function of +repasts. Christina continued to display the most charming animation, +and compelled Rowland to reflect privately that, think what one might +of her, the harmonious gayety of a beautiful girl was the most beautiful +sight in nature. Her good-humor was contagious. Roderick, who an hour +before had been descanting on madness and suicide, commingled his +laughter with hers in ardent devotion; Prince Casamassima stroked +his young moustache and found a fine, cool smile for everything; his +neighbor, Mrs. Light, who had Rowland on the other side, made the +friendliest confidences to each of the young men, and the Cavaliere +contributed to the general hilarity by the solemnity of his attention +to his plate. As for Rowland, the spirit of kindly mirth prompted him to +propose the health of this useful old gentleman, as the effective author +of their pleasure. A moment later he wished he had held his tongue, for +although the toast was drunk with demonstrative good-will, the Cavaliere +received it with various small signs of eager self-effacement which +suggested to Rowland that his diminished gentility but half relished +honors which had a flavor of patronage. To perform punctiliously his +mysterious duties toward the two ladies, and to elude or to baffle +observation on his own merits--this seemed the Cavaliere's modest +programme. Rowland perceived that Mrs. Light, who was not always +remarkable for tact, seemed to have divined his humor on this point. +She touched her glass to her lips, but offered him no compliment and +immediately gave another direction to the conversation. He had brought +no guitar, so that when the feast was over there was nothing to hold the +little group together. Christina wandered away with Roderick to another +part of the terrace; the prince, whose smile had vanished, sat gnawing +the head of his cane, near Mrs. Light, and Rowland strolled apart +with the Cavaliere, to whom he wished to address a friendly word in +compensation for the discomfort he had inflicted on his modesty. The +Cavaliere was a mine of information upon all Roman places and people; +he told Rowland a number of curious anecdotes about the old Villa +Mondragone. "If history could always be taught in this fashion!" thought +Rowland. "It 's the ideal--strolling up and down on the very spot +commemorated, hearing sympathetic anecdotes from deeply indigenous +lips." At last, as they passed, Rowland observed the mournful +physiognomy of Prince Casamassima, and, glancing toward the other end of +the terrace, saw that Roderick and Christina had disappeared from view. +The young man was sitting upright, in an attitude, apparently habitual, +of ceremonious rigidity; but his lower jaw had fallen and was propped +up with his cane, and his dull dark eye was fixed upon the angle of the +villa which had just eclipsed Miss Light and her companion. His features +were grotesque and his expression vacuous; but there was a lurking +delicacy in his face which seemed to tell you that nature had been +making Casamassimas for a great many centuries, and, though she adapted +her mould to circumstances, had learned to mix her material to an +extraordinary fineness and to perform the whole operation with extreme +smoothness. The prince was stupid, Rowland suspected, but he imagined +he was amiable, and he saw that at any rate he had the great quality +of regarding himself in a thoroughly serious light. Rowland touched his +companion's arm and pointed to the melancholy nobleman. + +"Why in the world does he not go after her and insist on being noticed!" +he asked. + +"Oh, he 's very proud!" said the Cavaliere. + +"That 's all very well, but a gentleman who cultivates a passion for +that young lady must be prepared to make sacrifices." + +"He thinks he has already made a great many. He comes of a very great +family--a race of princes who for six hundred years have married none +but the daughters of princes. But he is seriously in love, and he would +marry her to-morrow." + +"And she will not have him?" + +"Ah, she is very proud, too!" The Cavaliere was silent a moment, as if +he were measuring the propriety of frankness. He seemed to have formed +a high opinion of Rowland's discretion, for he presently continued: +"It would be a great match, for she brings him neither a name nor a +fortune--nothing but her beauty. But the signorina will receive no +favors; I know her well! She would rather have her beauty blasted than +seem to care about the marriage, and if she ever accepts the prince it +will be only after he has implored her on his knees!" + +"But she does care about it," said Rowland, "and to bring him to his +knees she is working upon his jealousy by pretending to be interested in +my friend Hudson. If you said more, you would say that, eh?" + +The Cavaliere's shrewdness exchanged a glance with Rowland's. "By no +means. Miss Light is a singular girl; she has many romantic ideas. +She would be quite capable of interesting herself seriously in an +interesting young man, like your friend, and doing her utmost to +discourage a splendid suitor, like the prince. She would act sincerely +and she would go very far. But it would be unfortunate for the young +man," he added, after a pause, "for at the last she would retreat!" + +"A singular girl, indeed!" + +"She would accept the more brilliant parti. I can answer for it." + +"And what would be her motive?" + +"She would be forced. There would be circumstances.... I can't tell you +more." + +"But this implies that the rejected suitor would also come back. He +might grow tired of waiting." + +"Oh, this one is good! Look at him now." Rowland looked, and saw that +the prince had left his place by Mrs. Light and was marching restlessly +to and fro between the villa and the parapet of the terrace. Every now +and then he looked at his watch. "In this country, you know," said the +Cavaliere, "a young lady never goes walking alone with a handsome young +man. It seems to him very strange." + +"It must seem to him monstrous, and if he overlooks it he must be very +much in love." + +"Oh, he will overlook it. He is far gone." + +"Who is this exemplary lover, then; what is he?" + +"A Neapolitan; one of the oldest houses in Italy. He is a prince in your +English sense of the word, for he has a princely fortune. He is very +young; he is only just of age; he saw the signorina last winter +in Naples. He fell in love with her from the first, but his family +interfered, and an old uncle, an ecclesiastic, Monsignor B----, hurried +up to Naples, seized him, and locked him up. Meantime he has passed his +majority, and he can dispose of himself. His relations are moving heaven +and earth to prevent his marrying Miss Light, and they have sent us +word that he forfeits his property if he takes his wife out of a certain +line. I have investigated the question minutely, and I find this is but +a fiction to frighten us. He is perfectly free; but the estates are +such that it is no wonder they wish to keep them in their own hands. For +Italy, it is an extraordinary case of unincumbered property. The prince +has been an orphan from his third year; he has therefore had a long +minority and made no inroads upon his fortune. Besides, he is very +prudent and orderly; I am only afraid that some day he will pull the +purse-strings too tight. All these years his affairs have been in the +hands of Monsignor B----, who has managed them to perfection--paid off +mortagages, planted forests, opened up mines. It is now a magnificent +fortune; such a fortune as, with his name, would justify the young man +in pretending to any alliance whatsoever. And he lays it all at the feet +of that young girl who is wandering in yonder boschetto with a penniless +artist." + +"He is certainly a phoenix of princes! The signora must be in a state of +bliss." + +The Cavaliere looked imperturbably grave. "The signora has a high esteem +for his character." + +"His character, by the way," rejoined Rowland, with a smile; "what sort +of a character is it?" + +"Eh, Prince Casamassima is a veritable prince! He is a very good young +man. He is not brilliant, nor witty, but he 'll not let himself be made +a fool of. He 's very grave and very devout--though he does propose to +marry a Protestant. He will handle that point after marriage. He 's as +you see him there: a young man without many ideas, but with a very firm +grasp of a single one--the conviction that Prince Casamassima is a very +great person, that he greatly honors any young lady by asking for her +hand, and that things are going very strangely when the young lady +turns her back upon him. The poor young man, I am sure, is profoundly +perplexed. But I whisper to him every day, 'Pazienza, Signor Principe!'" + +"So you firmly believe," said Rowland, in conclusion, "that Miss Light +will accept him just in time not to lose him!" + +"I count upon it. She would make too perfect a princess to miss her +destiny." + +"And you hold that nevertheless, in the mean while, in listening to, +say, my friend Hudson, she will have been acting in good faith?" + +The Cavaliere lifted his shoulders a trifle, and gave an inscrutable +smile. "Eh, dear signore, the Christina is very romantic!" + +"So much so, you intimate, that she will eventually retract, in +consequence not of a change of sentiment, but of a mysterious outward +pressure?" + +"If everything else fails, there is that resource. But it is mysterious, +as you say, and you need n't try to guess it. You will never know." + +"The poor signorina, then, will suffer!" + +"Not too much, I hope." + +"And the poor young man! You maintain that there is nothing but +disappointment in store for the infatuated youth who loses his heart to +her!" + +The Cavaliere hesitated. "He had better," he said in a moment, "go and +pursue his studies in Florence. There are very fine antiques in the +Uffizi!" + +Rowland presently joined Mrs. Light, to whom her restless protege had +not yet returned. "That 's right," she said; "sit down here; I have +something serious to say to you. I am going to talk to you as a friend. +I want your assistance. In fact, I demand it; it 's your duty to render +it. Look at that unhappy young man." + +"Yes," said Rowland, "he seems unhappy." + +"He is just come of age, he bears one of the greatest names in Italy and +owns one of the greatest properties, and he is pining away with love for +my daughter." + +"So the Cavaliere tells me." + +"The Cavaliere should n't gossip," said Mrs. Light dryly. "Such +information should come from me. The prince is pining, as I say; he 's +consumed, he 's devoured. It 's a real Italian passion; I know what that +means!" And the lady gave a speaking glance, which seemed to coquet +for a moment with retrospect. "Meanwhile, if you please, my daughter is +hiding in the woods with your dear friend Mr. Hudson. I could cry with +rage." + +"If things are so bad as that," said Rowland, "it seems to me that you +ought to find nothing easier than to dispatch the Cavaliere to bring the +guilty couple back." + +"Never in the world! My hands are tied. Do you know what Christina +would do? She would tell the Cavaliere to go about his business--Heaven +forgive her!--and send me word that, if she had a mind to, she would +walk in the woods till midnight. Fancy the Cavaliere coming back and +delivering such a message as that before the prince! Think of a girl +wantonly making light of such a chance as hers! He would marry her +to-morrow, at six o'clock in the morning!" + +"It is certainly very sad," said Rowland. + +"That costs you little to say. If you had left your precious young +meddler to vegetate in his native village you would have saved me a +world of distress!" + +"Nay, you marched into the jaws of danger," said Rowland. "You came and +disinterred poor Hudson in his own secluded studio." + +"In an evil hour! I wish to Heaven you would talk with him." + +"I have done my best." + +"I wish, then, you would take him away. You have plenty of money. Do me +a favor. Take him to travel. Go to the East--go to Timbuctoo. Then, when +Christina is Princess Casamassima," Mrs. Light added in a moment, "he +may come back if he chooses." + +"Does she really care for him?" Rowland asked, abruptly. + +"She thinks she does, possibly. She is a living riddle. She must needs +follow out every idea that comes into her head. Fortunately, most of +them don't last long; but this one may last long enough to give the +prince a chill. If that were to happen, I don't know what I should do! I +should be the most miserable of women. It would be too cruel, after +all I 've suffered to make her what she is, to see the labor of years +blighted by a caprice. For I can assure you, sir," Mrs. Light went on, +"that if my daughter is the greatest beauty in the world, some of the +credit is mine." + +Rowland promptly remarked that this was obvious. He saw that the lady's +irritated nerves demanded comfort from flattering reminiscence, and +he assumed designedly the attitude of a zealous auditor. She began +to retail her efforts, her hopes, her dreams, her presentiments, her +disappointments, in the cause of her daughter's matrimonial fortunes. It +was a long story, and while it was being unfolded, the prince continued +to pass to and fro, stiffly and solemnly, like a pendulum marking +the time allowed for the young lady to come to her senses. Mrs. Light +evidently, at an early period, had gathered her maternal hopes into +a sacred sheaf, which she said her prayers and burnt incense to, and +treated like a sort of fetish. They had been her religion; she had none +other, and she performed her devotions bravely and cheerily, in the +light of day. The poor old fetish had been so caressed and manipulated, +so thrust in and out of its niche, so passed from hand to hand, so +dressed and undressed, so mumbled and fumbled over, that it had lost by +this time much of its early freshness, and seemed a rather battered +and disfeatured divinity. But it was still brought forth in moments of +trouble to have its tinseled petticoat twisted about and be set up +on its altar. Rowland observed that Mrs. Light had a genuine maternal +conscience; she considered that she had been performing a sacred duty in +bringing up Christina to set her cap for a prince, and when the future +looked dark, she found consolation in thinking that destiny could never +have the heart to deal a blow at so deserving a person. This conscience +upside down presented to Rowland's fancy a real physical image; he was +on the point, half a dozen times, of bursting out laughing. + +"I don't know whether you believe in presentiments," said Mrs. Light, +"and I don't care! I have had one for the last fifteen years. People +have laughed at it, but they have n't laughed me out of it. It has been +everything to me. I could n't have lived without it. One must believe in +something! It came to me in a flash, when Christina was five years old. +I remember the day and the place, as if it were yesterday. She was a +very ugly baby; for the first two years I could hardly bear to look at +her, and I used to spoil my own looks with crying about her. She had an +Italian nurse who was very fond of her and insisted that she would grow +up pretty. I could n't believe her; I used to contradict her, and we +were forever squabbling. I was just a little silly in those days--surely +I may say it now--and I was very fond of being amused. If my daughter +was ugly, it was not that she resembled her mamma; I had no lack of +amusement. People accused me, I believe, of neglecting my little girl; +if it was so, I 've made up for it since. One day I went to drive on the +Pincio in very low spirits. A trusted friend had greatly disappointed +me. While I was there he passed me in a carriage, driving with a +horrible woman who had made trouble between us. I got out of my carriage +to walk about, and at last sat down on a bench. I can show you the spot +at this hour. While I sat there a child came wandering along the path--a +little girl of four or five, very fantastically dressed in crimson and +orange. She stopped in front of me and stared at me, and I stared at her +queer little dress, which was a cheap imitation of the costume of one +of these contadine. At last I looked up at her face, and said to myself, +'Bless me, what a beautiful child! what a splendid pair of eyes, what a +magnificent head of hair! If my poor Christina were only like that!' The +child turned away slowly, but looking back with its eyes fixed on me. +All of a sudden I gave a cry, pounced on it, pressed it in my arms, +and covered it with kisses. It was Christina, my own precious child, so +disguised by the ridiculous dress which the nurse had amused herself in +making for her, that her own mother had not recognized her. She knew me, +but she said afterwards that she had not spoken to me because I looked +so angry. Of course my face was sad. I rushed with my child to the +carriage, drove home post-haste, pulled off her rags, and, as I may say, +wrapped her in cotton. I had been blind, I had been insane; she was +a creature in ten millions, she was to be a beauty of beauties, a +priceless treasure! Every day, after that, the certainty grew. From that +time I lived only for my daughter. I watched her, I caressed her from +morning till night, I worshipped her. I went to see doctors about her, +I took every sort of advice. I was determined she should be perfection. +The things that have been done for that girl, sir--you would n't believe +them; they would make you smile! Nothing was spared; if I had been told +that she must have a bath every morning of molten pearls, I would have +found means to give it to her. She never raised a finger for herself, +she breathed nothing but perfumes, she walked upon velvet. She never +was out of my sight, and from that day to this I have never said a sharp +word to her. By the time she was ten years old she was beautiful as an +angel, and so noticed wherever we went that I had to make her wear a +veil, like a woman of twenty. Her hair reached down to her feet; her +hands were the hands of a princess. Then I saw that she was as clever +as she was beautiful, and that she had only to play her cards. She had +masters, professors, every educational advantage. They told me she was +a little prodigy. She speaks French, Italian, German, better than +most natives. She has a wonderful genius for music, and might make her +fortune as a pianist, if it was not made for her otherwise! I traveled +all over Europe; every one told me she was a marvel. The director of the +opera in Paris saw her dance at a child's party at Spa, and offered +me an enormous sum if I would give her up to him and let him have her +educated for the ballet. I said, 'No, I thank you, sir; she is meant +to be something finer than a princesse de theatre.' I had a passionate +belief that she might marry absolutely whom she chose, that she might be +a princess out and out. It has never left me till this hour, and I can +assure you that it has sustained me in many embarrassments. Financial, +some of them; I don't mind confessing it! I have raised money on that +girl's face! I 've taken her to the Jews and bade her put up her veil, +and asked if the mother of that young lady was not safe! She, of course, +was too young to understand me. And yet, as a child, you would have said +she knew what was in store for her; before she could read, she had the +manners, the tastes, the instincts of a little princess. She would have +nothing to do with shabby things or shabby people; if she stained one of +her frocks, she was seized with a kind of frenzy and tore it to pieces. +At Nice, at Baden, at Brighton, wherever we stayed, she used to be sent +for by all the great people to play with their children. She has played +at kissing-games with people who now stand on the steps of thrones! I +have gone so far as to think at times that those childish kisses were a +sign--a symbol--a portent. You may laugh at me if you like, but have n't +such things happened again and again without half as good a cause, and +does n't history notoriously repeat itself? There was a little Spanish +girl at a second-rate English boarding-school thirty years ago!... The +Empress certainly is a pretty woman; but what is my Christina, pray? I +'ve dreamt of it, sometimes every night for a month. I won't tell you +I have been to consult those old women who advertise in the newspapers; +you 'll call me an old imbecile. Imbecile if you please! I have refused +magnificent offers because I believed that somehow or other--if wars and +revolutions were needed to bring it about--we should have nothing less +than that. There might be another coup d'etat somewhere, and another +brilliant young sovereign looking out for a wife! At last, however," +Mrs. Light proceeded with incomparable gravity, "since the overturning +of the poor king of Naples and that charming queen, and the expulsion +of all those dear little old-fashioned Italian grand-dukes, and the +dreadful radical talk that is going on all over the world, it has come +to seem to me that with Christina in such a position I should be really +very nervous. Even in such a position she would hold her head very high, +and if anything should happen to her, she would make no concessions +to the popular fury. The best thing, if one is prudent, seems to be a +nobleman of the highest possible rank, short of belonging to a reigning +stock. There you see one striding up and down, looking at his watch, and +counting the minutes till my daughter reappears!" + +Rowland listened to all this with a huge compassion for the heroine of +the tale. What an education, what a history, what a school of character +and of morals! He looked at the prince and wondered whether he too had +heard Mrs. Light's story. If he had he was a brave man. "I certainly +hope you 'll keep him," he said to Mrs. Light. "You have played a +dangerous game with your daughter; it would be a pity not to win. But +there is hope for you yet; here she comes at last!" + +Christina reappeared as he spoke these words, strolling beside her +companion with the same indifferent tread with which she had departed. +Rowland imagined that there was a faint pink flush in her cheek which +she had not carried away with her, and there was certainly a light in +Roderick's eyes which he had not seen there for a week. + +"Bless my soul, how they are all looking at us!" she cried, as they +advanced. "One would think we were prisoners of the Inquisition!" And +she paused and glanced from the prince to her mother, and from +Rowland to the Cavaliere, and then threw back her head and burst into +far-ringing laughter. "What is it, pray? Have I been very improper? Am I +ruined forever? Dear prince, you are looking at me as if I had committed +the unpardonable sin!" + +"I myself," said the prince, "would never have ventured to ask you to +walk with me alone in the country for an hour!" + +"The more fool you, dear prince, as the vulgar say! Our walk has been +charming. I hope you, on your side, have enjoyed each other's society." + +"My dear daughter," said Mrs. Light, taking the arm of her predestined +son-in-law, "I shall have something serious to say to you when we reach +home. We will go back to the carriage." + +"Something serious! Decidedly, it is the Inquisition. Mr. Hudson, +stand firm, and let us agree to make no confessions without conferring +previously with each other! They may put us on the rack first. Mr. +Mallet, I see also," Christina added, "has something serious to say to +me!" + +Rowland had been looking at her with the shadow of his lately-stirred +pity in his eyes. "Possibly," he said. "But it must be for some other +time." + +"I am at your service. I see our good-humor is gone. And I only wanted +to be amiable! It is very discouraging. Cavaliere, you, only, look as if +you had a little of the milk of human kindness left; from your venerable +visage, at least; there is no telling what you think. Give me your arm +and take me away!" + +The party took its course back to the carriage, which was waiting in +the grounds of the villa, and Rowland and Roderick bade their friends +farewell. Christina threw herself back in her seat and closed her eyes; +a manoeuvre for which Rowland imagined the prince was grateful, as it +enabled him to look at her without seeming to depart from his attitude +of distinguished disapproval. Rowland found himself aroused from sleep +early the next morning, to see Roderick standing before him, dressed for +departure, with his bag in his hand. "I am off," he said. "I am back to +work. I have an idea. I must strike while the iron 's hot! Farewell!" +And he departed by the first train. Rowland went alone by the next. + + + + + + +CHAPTER VII. Saint Cecilia's + +Rowland went often to the Coliseum; he never wearied of it. One morning, +about a month after his return from Frascati, as he was strolling across +the vast arena, he observed a young woman seated on one of the fragments +of stone which are ranged along the line of the ancient parapet. It +seemed to him that he had seen her before, but he was unable to localize +her face. Passing her again, he perceived that one of the little +red-legged French soldiers at that time on guard there had approached +her and was gallantly making himself agreeable. She smiled brilliantly, +and Rowland recognized the smile (it had always pleased him) of a +certain comely Assunta, who sometimes opened the door for Mrs. Light's +visitors. He wondered what she was doing alone in the Coliseum, and +conjectured that Assunta had admirers as well as her young mistress, but +that, being without the same domiciliary conveniencies, she was using +this massive heritage of her Latin ancestors as a boudoir. In other +words, she had an appointment with her lover, who had better, from +present appearances, be punctual. It was a long time since Rowland had +ascended to the ruinous upper tiers of the great circus, and, as the day +was radiant and the distant views promised to be particularly clear, +he determined to give himself the pleasure. The custodian unlocked the +great wooden wicket, and he climbed through the winding shafts, where +the eager Roman crowds had billowed and trampled, not pausing till he +reached the highest accessible point of the ruin. The views were as fine +as he had supposed; the lights on the Sabine Mountains had never been +more lovely. He gazed to his satisfaction and retraced his steps. In +a moment he paused again on an abutment somewhat lower, from which +the glance dropped dizzily into the interior. There are chance +anfractuosities of ruin in the upper portions of the Coliseum which +offer a very fair imitation of the rugged face of an Alpine cliff. In +those days a multitude of delicate flowers and sprays of wild herbage +had found a friendly soil in the hoary crevices, and they bloomed and +nodded amid the antique masonry as freely as they would have done in the +virgin rock. Rowland was turning away, when he heard a sound of voices +rising up from below. He had but to step slightly forward to find +himself overlooking two persons who had seated themselves on a narrow +ledge, in a sunny corner. They had apparently had an eye to extreme +privacy, but they had not observed that their position was commanded by +Rowland's stand-point. One of these airy adventurers was a lady, thickly +veiled, so that, even if he had not been standing directly above her, +Rowland could not have seen her face. The other was a young man, whose +face was also invisible, but who, as Rowland stood there, gave a toss +of his clustering locks which was equivalent to the signature--Roderick +Hudson. A moment's reflection, hereupon, satisfied him of the identity +of the lady. He had been unjust to poor Assunta, sitting patient in the +gloomy arena; she had not come on her own errand. Rowland's discoveries +made him hesitate. Should he retire as noiselessly as possible, or +should he call out a friendly good morning? While he was debating the +question, he found himself distinctly hearing his friends' words. They +were of such a nature as to make him unwilling to retreat, and yet +to make it awkward to be discovered in a position where it would be +apparent that he had heard them. + +"If what you say is true," said Christina, with her usual soft +deliberateness--it made her words rise with peculiar distinctness to +Rowland's ear--"you are simply weak. I am sorry! I hoped--I really +believed--you were not." + +"No, I am not weak," answered Roderick, with vehemence; "I maintain that +I am not weak! I am incomplete, perhaps; but I can't help that. Weakness +is a man's own fault!" + +"Incomplete, then!" said Christina, with a laugh. "It 's the same thing, +so long as it keeps you from splendid achievement. Is it written, then, +that I shall really never know what I have so often dreamed of?" + +"What have you dreamed of?" + +"A man whom I can perfectly respect!" cried the young girl, with a +sudden flame. "A man, at least, whom I can unrestrictedly admire. I meet +one, as I have met more than one before, whom I fondly believe to be +cast in a larger mould than most of the vile human breed, to be large +in character, great in talent, strong in will! In such a man as that, +I say, one's weary imagination at last may rest; or it may wander if it +will, yet never need to wander far from the deeps where one's heart is +anchored. When I first knew you, I gave no sign, but you had struck +me. I observed you, as women observe, and I fancied you had the sacred +fire." + +"Before heaven, I believe I have!" cried Roderick. + +"Ah, but so little! It flickers and trembles and sputters; it goes out, +you tell me, for whole weeks together. From your own account, it 's ten +to one that in the long run you 're a failure." + +"I say those things sometimes myself, but when I hear you say them they +make me feel as if I could work twenty years at a sitting, on purpose to +refute you!" + +"Ah, the man who is strong with what I call strength," Christina +replied, "would neither rise nor fall by anything I could say! I am a +poor, weak woman; I have no strength myself, and I can give no strength. +I am a miserable medley of vanity and folly. I am silly, I am ignorant, +I am affected, I am false. I am the fruit of a horrible education, sown +on a worthless soil. I am all that, and yet I believe I have one merit! +I should know a great character when I saw it, and I should delight in +it with a generosity which would do something toward the remission of +my sins. For a man who should really give me a certain feeling--which +I have never had, but which I should know when it came--I would send +Prince Casamassima and his millions to perdition. I don't know what you +think of me for saying all this; I suppose we have not climbed up here +under the skies to play propriety. Why have you been at such pains to +assure me, after all, that you are a little man and not a great one, a +weak one and not a strong? I innocently imagined that your eyes declared +you were strong. But your voice condemns you; I always wondered at it; +it 's not the voice of a conqueror!" + +"Give me something to conquer," cried Roderick, "and when I say that I +thank you from my soul, my voice, whatever you think of it, shall speak +the truth!" + +Christina for a moment said nothing. Rowland was too interested to think +of moving. "You pretend to such devotion," she went on, "and yet I +am sure you have never really chosen between me and that person in +America." + +"Do me the favor not to speak of her," said Roderick, imploringly. + +"Why not? I say no ill of her, and I think all kinds of good. I am +certain she is a far better girl than I, and far more likely to make you +happy." + +"This is happiness, this present, palpable moment," said Roderick; +"though you have such a genius for saying the things that torture me!" + +"It 's greater happiness than you deserve, then! You have never chosen, +I say; you have been afraid to choose. You have never really faced the +fact that you are false, that you have broken your faith. You have never +looked at it and seen that it was hideous, and yet said, 'No matter, I +'ll brave the penalty, I 'll bear the shame!' You have closed your eyes; +you have tried to stifle remembrance, to persuade yourself that you were +not behaving as badly as you seemed to be, and there would be some +way, after all, of compassing bliss and yet escaping trouble. You have +faltered and drifted, you have gone on from accident to accident, and I +am sure that at this present moment you can't tell what it is you really +desire!" + +Roderick was sitting with his knees drawn up and bent, and his hands +clapsed around his legs. He bent his head and rested his forehead on his +knees. + +Christina went on with a sort of infernal calmness: "I believe that, +really, you don't greatly care for your friend in America any more than +you do for me. You are one of the men who care only for themselves and +for what they can make of themselves. That 's very well when they +can make something great, and I could interest myself in a man of +extraordinary power who should wish to turn all his passions to account. +But if the power should turn out to be, after all, rather ordinary? +Fancy feeling one's self ground in the mill of a third-rate talent! If +you have doubts about yourself, I can't reassure you; I have too many +doubts myself, about everything in this weary world. You have gone up +like a rocket, in your profession, they tell me; are you going to come +down like the stick? I don't pretend to know; I repeat frankly what I +have said before--that all modern sculpture seems to me weak, and that +the only things I care for are some of the most battered of the antiques +of the Vatican. No, no, I can't reassure you; and when you tell +me--with a confidence in my discretion of which, certainly, I am duly +sensible--that at times you feel terribly small, why, I can only answer, +'Ah, then, my poor friend, I am afraid you are small.' The language I +should like to hear, from a certain person, would be the language of +absolute decision." + +Roderick raised his head, but he said nothing; he seemed to be +exchanging a long glance with his companion. The result of it was +to make him fling himself back with an inarticulate murmur. Rowland, +admonished by the silence, was on the point of turning away, but he was +arrested by a gesture of the young girl. She pointed for a moment into +the blue air. Roderick followed the direction of her gesture. + +"Is that little flower we see outlined against that dark niche," she +asked, "as intensely blue as it looks through my veil?" She spoke +apparently with the amiable design of directing the conversation into a +less painful channel. + +Rowland, from where he stood, could see the flower she meant--a delicate +plant of radiant hue, which sprouted from the top of an immense fragment +of wall some twenty feet from Christina's place. + +Roderick turned his head and looked at it without answering. At last, +glancing round, "Put up your veil!" he said. Christina complied. "Does +it look as blue now?" he asked. + +"Ah, what a lovely color!" she murmured, leaning her head on one side. + +"Would you like to have it?" + +She stared a moment and then broke into a light laugh. + +"Would you like to have it?" he repeated in a ringing voice. + +"Don't look as if you would eat me up," she answered. "It 's harmless if +I say yes!" + +Roderick rose to his feet and stood looking at the little flower. It +was separated from the ledge on which he stood by a rugged surface of +vertical wall, which dropped straight into the dusky vaults behind the +arena. Suddenly he took off his hat and flung it behind him. Christina +then sprang to her feet. + +"I will bring it you," he said. + +She seized his arm. "Are you crazy? Do you mean to kill yourself?" + +"I shall not kill myself. Sit down!" + +"Excuse me. Not till you do!" And she grasped his arm with both hands. + +Roderick shook her off and pointed with a violent gesture to her former +place. "Go there!" he cried fiercely. + +"You can never, never!" she murmured beseechingly, clasping her hands. +"I implore you!" + +Roderick turned and looked at her, and then in a voice which Rowland had +never heard him use, a voice almost thunderous, a voice which awakened +the echoes of the mighty ruin, he repeated, "Sit down!" She hesitated +a moment and then she dropped on the ground and buried her face in her +hands. + +Rowland had seen all this, and he saw more. He saw Roderick clasp in +his left arm the jagged corner of the vertical partition along which he +proposed to pursue his crazy journey, stretch out his leg, and feel for +a resting-place for his foot. Rowland had measured with a glance the +possibility of his sustaining himself, and pronounced it absolutely nil. +The wall was garnished with a series of narrow projections, the remains +apparently of a brick cornice supporting the arch of a vault which had +long since collapsed. It was by lodging his toes on these loose brackets +and grasping with his hands at certain mouldering protuberances on a +level with his head, that Roderick intended to proceed. The relics of +the cornice were utterly worthless as a support. Rowland had observed +this, and yet, for a moment, he had hesitated. If the thing were +possible, he felt a sudden admiring glee at the thought of Roderick's +doing it. It would be finely done, it would be gallant, it would have +a sort of masculine eloquence as an answer to Christina's sinister +persiflage. But it was not possible! Rowland left his place with a +bound, and scrambled down some neighboring steps, and the next moment +a stronger pair of hands than Christina's were laid upon Roderick's +shoulder. + +He turned, staring, pale and angry. Christina rose, pale and staring, +too, but beautiful in her wonder and alarm. "My dear Roderick," said +Rowland, "I am only preventing you from doing a very foolish thing. That +'s an exploit for spiders, not for young sculptors of promise." + +Roderick wiped his forehead, looked back at the wall, and then closed +his eyes, as if with a spasm, of retarded dizziness. "I won't resist +you," he said. "But I have made you obey," he added, turning to +Christina. "Am I weak now?" + +She had recovered her composure; she looked straight past him and +addressed Rowland: "Be so good as to show me the way out of this +horrible place!" + +He helped her back into the corridor; Roderick followed after a short +interval. Of course, as they were descending the steps, came questions +for Rowland to answer, and more or less surprise. Where had he come +from? how happened he to have appeared at just that moment? Rowland +answered that he had been rambling overhead, and that, looking out of an +aperture, he had seen a gentleman preparing to undertake a preposterous +gymnastic feat, and a lady swooning away in consequence. Interference +seemed justifiable, and he had made it as prompt as possible. Roderick +was far from hanging his head, like a man who has been caught in the +perpetration of an extravagant folly; but if he held it more erect than +usual Rowland believed that this was much less because he had made +a show of personal daring than because he had triumphantly proved to +Christina that, like a certain person she had dreamed of, he too could +speak the language of decision. Christina descended to the arena in +silence, apparently occupied with her own thoughts. She betrayed +no sense of the privacy of her interview with Roderick needing an +explanation. Rowland had seen stranger things in New York! The only +evidence of her recent agitation was that, on being joined by her maid, +she declared that she was unable to walk home; she must have a carriage. +A fiacre was found resting in the shadow of the Arch of Constantine, +and Rowland suspected that after she had got into it she disburdened +herself, under her veil, of a few natural tears. + +Rowland had played eavesdropper to so good a purpose that he might +justly have omitted the ceremony of denouncing himself to Roderick. He +preferred, however, to let him know that he had overheard a portion of +his talk with Christina. + +"Of course it seems to you," Roderick said, "a proof that I am utterly +infatuated." + +"Miss Light seemed to me to know very well how far she could go," +Rowland answered. "She was twisting you round her finger. I don't think +she exactly meant to defy you; but your crazy pursuit of that flower +was a proof that she could go all lengths in the way of making a fool of +you." + +"Yes," said Roderick, meditatively; "she is making a fool of me." + +"And what do you expect to come of it?" + +"Nothing good!" And Roderick put his hands into his pockets and looked +as if he had announced the most colorless fact in the world. + +"And in the light of your late interview, what do you make of your young +lady?" + +"If I could tell you that, it would be plain sailing. But she 'll not +tell me again I am weak!" + +"Are you very sure you are not weak?" + +"I may be, but she shall never know it." + +Rowland said no more until they reached the Corso, when he asked his +companion whether he was going to his studio. + +Roderick started out of a reverie and passed his hands over his eyes. +"Oh no, I can't settle down to work after such a scene as that. I was +not afraid of breaking my neck then, but I feel all in a tremor now. I +will go--I will go and sit in the sun on the Pincio!" + +"Promise me this, first," said Rowland, very solemnly: "that the next +time you meet Miss Light, it shall be on the earth and not in the air." + +Since his return from Frascati, Roderick had been working doggedly at +the statue ordered by Mr. Leavenworth. To Rowland's eye he had made a +very fair beginning, but he had himself insisted, from the first, that +he liked neither his subject nor his patron, and that it was impossible +to feel any warmth of interest in a work which was to be incorporated +into the ponderous personality of Mr. Leavenworth. It was all against +the grain; he wrought without love. Nevertheless after a fashion he +wrought, and the figure grew beneath his hands. Miss Blanchard's friend +was ordering works of art on every side, and his purveyors were in many +cases persons whom Roderick declared it was infamy to be paired with. +There had been grand tailors, he said, who declined to make you a coat +unless you got the hat you were to wear with it from an artist of their +own choosing. It seemed to him that he had an equal right to exact that +his statue should not form part of the same system of ornament as the +"Pearl of Perugia," a picture by an American confrere who had, in Mr. +Leavenworth's opinion, a prodigious eye for color. As a customer, Mr. +Leavenworth used to drop into Roderick's studio, to see how things +were getting on, and give a friendly hint or so. He would seat himself +squarely, plant his gold-topped cane between his legs, which he held +very much apart, rest his large white hands on the head, and enunciate +the principles of spiritual art, as he hoisted them one by one, as you +might say, out of the depths of his moral consciousness. His benignant +and imperturbable pomposity gave Roderick the sense of suffocating +beneath a large fluffy bolster, and the worst of the matter was that +the good gentleman's placid vanity had an integument whose toughness no +sarcastic shaft could pierce. Roderick admitted that in thinking +over the tribulations of struggling genius, the danger of dying of +over-patronage had never occurred to him. + +The deterring effect of the episode of the Coliseum was apparently of +long continuance; if Roderick's nerves had been shaken his hand needed +time to recover its steadiness. He cultivated composure upon principles +of his own; by frequenting entertainments from which he returned at four +o'clock in the morning, and lapsing into habits which might fairly be +called irregular. He had hitherto made few friends among the artistic +fraternity; chiefly because he had taken no trouble about it, and +there was in his demeanor an elastic independence of the favor of his +fellow-mortals which made social advances on his own part peculiarly +necessary. Rowland had told him more than once that he ought to +fraternize a trifle more with the other artists, and he had always +answered that he had not the smallest objection to fraternizing: +let them come! But they came on rare occasions, and Roderick was not +punctilious about returning their visits. He declared there was not one +of them whose works gave him the smallest desire to make acquaintance +with the insides of their heads. For Gloriani he professed a superb +contempt, and, having been once to look at his wares, never crossed +his threshold again. The only one of the fraternity for whom by his own +admission he cared a straw was little Singleton; but he expressed his +regard only in a kind of sublime hilarity whenever he encountered this +humble genius, and quite forgot his existence in the intervals. He had +never been to see him, but Singleton edged his way, from time to time, +timidly, into Roderick's studio, and agreed with characteristic modesty +that brilliant fellows like the sculptor might consent to receive +homage, but could hardly be expected to render it. Roderick never +exactly accepted homage, and apparently did not quite observe whether +poor Singleton spoke in admiration or in blame. Roderick's taste as to +companions was singularly capricious. There were very good fellows, who +were disposed to cultivate him, who bored him to death; and there were +others, in whom even Rowland's good-nature was unable to discover a +pretext for tolerance, in whom he appeared to find the highest social +qualities. He used to give the most fantastic reasons for his likes and +dislikes. He would declare he could n't speak a civil word to a man +who brushed his hair in a certain fashion, and he would explain his +unaccountable fancy for an individual of imperceptible merit by telling +you that he had an ancestor who in the thirteenth century had walled up +his wife alive. "I like to talk to a man whose ancestor has walled up +his wife alive," he would say. "You may not see the fun of it, and think +poor P---- is a very dull fellow. It 's very possible; I don't ask you +to admire him. But, for reasons of my own, I like to have him about. The +old fellow left her for three days with her face uncovered, and placed +a long mirror opposite to her, so that she could see, as he said, if her +gown was a fit!" + +His relish for an odd flavor in his friends had led him to make the +acquaintance of a number of people outside of Rowland's well-ordered +circle, and he made no secret of their being very queer fish. He formed +an intimacy, among others, with a crazy fellow who had come to Rome +as an emissary of one of the Central American republics, to drive some +ecclesiastical bargain with the papal government. The Pope had given him +the cold shoulder, but since he had not prospered as a diplomatist, he +had sought compensation as a man of the world, and his great flamboyant +curricle and negro lackeys were for several weeks one of the striking +ornaments of the Pincian. He spoke a queer jargon of Italian, Spanish, +French, and English, humorously relieved with scraps of ecclesiastical +Latin, and to those who inquired of Roderick what he found to interest +him in such a fantastic jackanapes, the latter would reply, looking +at his interlocutor with his lucid blue eyes, that it was worth any +sacrifice to hear him talk nonsense! The two had gone together one night +to a ball given by a lady of some renown in the Spanish colony, and very +late, on his way home, Roderick came up to Rowland's rooms, in whose +windows he had seen a light. Rowland was going to bed, but Roderick +flung himself into an armchair and chattered for an hour. The friends of +the Costa Rican envoy were as amusing as himself, and in very much the +same line. The mistress of the house had worn a yellow satin dress, and +gold heels to her slippers, and at the close of the entertainment had +sent for a pair of castanets, tucked up her petticoats, and danced a +fandango, while the gentlemen sat cross-legged on the floor. "It was +awfully low," Roderick said; "all of a sudden I perceived it, and +bolted. Nothing of that kind ever amuses me to the end: before it 's +half over it bores me to death; it makes me sick. Hang it, why can't a +poor fellow enjoy things in peace? My illusions are all broken-winded; +they won't carry me twenty paces! I can't laugh and forget; my +laugh dies away before it begins. Your friend Stendhal writes on his +book-covers (I never got farther) that he has seen too early in life la +beaute parfaite. I don't know how early he saw it; I saw it before I was +born--in another state of being! I can't describe it positively; I can +only say I don't find it anywhere now. Not at the bottom of champagne +glasses; not, strange as it may seem, in that extra half-yard or so of +shoulder that some women have their ball-dresses cut to expose. I +don't find it at merry supper-tables, where half a dozen ugly men with +pomatumed heads are rapidly growing uglier still with heat and wine; not +when I come away and walk through these squalid black streets, and go +out into the Forum and see a few old battered stone posts standing there +like gnawed bones stuck into the earth. Everything is mean and dusky +and shabby, and the men and women who make up this so-called brilliant +society are the meanest and shabbiest of all. They have no real +spontaneity; they are all cowards and popinjays. They have no more +dignity than so many grasshoppers. Nothing is good but one!" And he +jumped up and stood looking at one of his statues, which shone vaguely +across the room in the dim lamplight. + +"Yes, do tell us," said Rowland, "what to hold on by!" + +"Those things of mine were tolerably good," he answered. "But my idea +was better--and that 's what I mean!" + +Rowland said nothing. He was willing to wait for Roderick to complete +the circle of his metamorphoses, but he had no desire to officiate as +chorus to the play. If Roderick chose to fish in troubled waters, he +must land his prizes himself. + +"You think I 'm an impudent humbug," the latter said at last, "coming +up to moralize at this hour of the night. You think I want to throw +dust into your eyes, to put you off the scent. That 's your eminently +rational view of the case." + +"Excuse me from taking any view at all," said Rowland. + +"You have given me up, then?" + +"No, I have merely suspended judgment. I am waiting." + +"You have ceased then positively to believe in me?" + +Rowland made an angry gesture. "Oh, cruel boy! When you have hit your +mark and made people care for you, you should n't twist your weapon +about at that rate in their vitals. Allow me to say I am sleepy. Good +night!" + +Some days afterward it happened that Rowland, on a long afternoon +ramble, took his way through one of the quiet corners of the Trastevere. +He was particularly fond of this part of Rome, though he could hardly +have expressed the charm he found in it. As you pass away from the +dusky, swarming purlieus of the Ghetto, you emerge into a region of +empty, soundless, grass-grown lanes and alleys, where the shabby houses +seem mouldering away in disuse, and yet your footstep brings figures of +startling Roman type to the doorways. There are few monuments here, but +no part of Rome seemed more historic, in the sense of being weighted +with a crushing past, blighted with the melancholy of things that had +had their day. When the yellow afternoon sunshine slept on the sallow, +battered walls, and lengthened the shadows in the grassy courtyards of +small closed churches, the place acquired a strange fascination. The +church of Saint Cecilia has one of these sunny, waste-looking courts; +the edifice seems abandoned to silence and the charity of chance +devotion. Rowland never passed it without going in, and he was generally +the only visitor. He entered it now, but found that two persons had +preceded him. Both were women. One was at her prayers at one of the side +altars; the other was seated against a column at the upper end of the +nave. Rowland walked to the altar, and paid, in a momentary glance at +the clever statue of the saint in death, in the niche beneath it, the +usual tribute to the charm of polished ingenuity. As he turned away he +looked at the person seated and recognized Christina Light. Seeing that +she perceived him, he advanced to speak to her. + +She was sitting in a listless attitude, with her hands in her lap; +she seemed to be tired. She was dressed simply, as if for walking and +escaping observation. When he had greeted her he glanced back at her +companion, and recognized the faithful Assunta. + +Christina smiled. "Are you looking for Mr. Hudson? He is not here, I am +happy to say." + +"But you?" he asked. "This is a strange place to find you." + +"Not at all! People call me a strange girl, and I might as well have the +comfort of it. I came to take a walk; that, by the way, is part of +my strangeness. I can't loll all the morning on a sofa, and all the +afternoon in a carriage. I get horribly restless. I must move; I must +do something and see something. Mamma suggests a cup of tea. Meanwhile I +put on an old dress and half a dozen veils, I take Assunta under my arm, +and we start on a pedestrian tour. It 's a bore that I can't take the +poodle, but he attracts attention. We trudge about everywhere; there +is nothing I like so much. I hope you will congratulate me on the +simplicity of my tastes." + +"I congratulate you on your wisdom. To live in Rome and not to walk +would, I think, be poor pleasure. But you are terribly far from home, +and I am afraid you are tired." + +"A little--enough to sit here a while." + +"Might I offer you my company while you rest?" + +"If you will promise to amuse me. I am in dismal spirits." + +Rowland said he would do what he could, and brought a chair and placed +it near her. He was not in love with her; he disapproved of her; he +mistrusted her; and yet he felt it a kind of privilege to watch her, and +he found a peculiar excitement in talking to her. The background of her +nature, as he would have called it, was large and mysterious, and it +emitted strange, fantastic gleams and flashes. Watching for these rather +quickened one's pulses. Moreover, it was not a disadvantage to talk to +a girl who made one keep guard on one's composure; it diminished one's +chronic liability to utter something less than revised wisdom. + +Assunta had risen from her prayers, and, as he took his place, was +coming back to her mistress. But Christina motioned her away. "No, no; +while you are about it, say a few dozen more!" she said. "Pray for me," +she added in English. "Pray, I say nothing silly. She has been at it +half an hour; I envy her capacity!" + +"Have you never felt in any degree," Rowland asked, "the fascination of +Catholicism?" + +"Yes, I have been through that, too! There was a time when I wanted +immensely to be a nun; it was not a laughing matter. It was when I was +about sixteen years old. I read the Imitation and the Life of Saint +Catherine. I fully believed in the miracles of the saints, and I was +dying to have one of my own. The least little accident that could have +been twisted into a miracle would have carried me straight into the +bosom of the church. I had the real religious passion. It has passed +away, and, as I sat here just now, I was wondering what had become of +it!" + +Rowland had already been sensible of something in this young lady's tone +which he would have called a want of veracity, and this epitome of her +religious experience failed to strike him as an absolute statement of +fact. But the trait was not disagreeable, for she herself was evidently +the foremost dupe of her inventions. She had a fictitious history +in which she believed much more fondly than in her real one, and an +infinite capacity for extemporized reminiscence adapted to the mood +of the hour. She liked to idealize herself, to take interesting and +picturesque attitudes to her own imagination; and the vivacity and +spontaneity of her character gave her, really, a starting-point in +experience; so that the many-colored flowers of fiction which blossomed +in her talk were not so much perversions, as sympathetic exaggerations, +of fact. And Rowland felt that whatever she said of herself might have +been, under the imagined circumstances; impulse was there, audacity, the +restless, questioning temperament. "I am afraid I am sadly prosaic," +he said, "for in these many months now that I have been in Rome, I +have never ceased for a moment to look at Catholicism simply from the +outside. I don't see an opening as big as your finger-nail where I could +creep into it!" + +"What do you believe?" asked Christina, looking at him. "Are you +religious?" + +"I believe in God." + +Christina let her beautiful eyes wander a while, and then gave a little +sigh. "You are much to be envied!" + +"You, I imagine, in that line have nothing to envy me." + +"Yes, I have. Rest!" + +"You are too young to say that." + +"I am not young; I have never been young! My mother took care of that. I +was a little wrinkled old woman at ten." + +"I am afraid," said Rowland, in a moment, "that you are fond of painting +yourself in dark colors." + +She looked at him a while in silence. "Do you wish," she demanded at +last, "to win my eternal gratitude? Prove to me that I am better than I +suppose." + +"I should have first to know what you really suppose." + +She shook her head. "It would n't do. You would be horrified to learn +even the things I imagine about myself, and shocked at the knowledge of +evil displayed in my very mistakes." + +"Well, then," said Rowland, "I will ask no questions. But, at a venture, +I promise you to catch you some day in the act of doing something very +good." + +"Can it be, can it be," she asked, "that you too are trying to flatter +me? I thought you and I had fallen, from the first, into rather a +truth-speaking vein." + +"Oh, I have not abandoned it!" said Rowland; and he determined, since he +had the credit of homely directness, to push his advantage farther. The +opportunity seemed excellent. But while he was hesitating as to just how +to begin, the young girl said, bending forward and clasping her hands in +her lap, "Please tell me about your religion." + +"Tell you about it? I can't!" said Rowland, with a good deal of +emphasis. + +She flushed a little. "Is it such a mighty mystery it cannot be put into +words, nor communicated to my base ears?" + +"It is simply a sentiment that makes part of my life, and I can't detach +myself from it sufficiently to talk about it." + +"Religion, it seems to me, should be eloquent and aggressive. It should +wish to make converts, to persuade and illumine, to sway all hearts!" + +"One's religion takes the color of one's general disposition. I am not +aggressive, and certainly I am not eloquent." + +"Beware, then, of finding yourself confronted with doubt and despair! I +am sure that doubt, at times, and the bitterness that comes of it, can +be terribly eloquent. To tell the truth, my lonely musings, before +you came in, were eloquent enough, in their way. What do you know of +anything but this strange, terrible world that surrounds you? How do you +know that your faith is not a mere crazy castle in the air; one of those +castles that we are called fools for building when we lodge them in this +life?" + +"I don't know it, any more than any one knows the contrary. But one's +religion is extremely ingenious in doing without knowledge." + +"In such a world as this it certainly needs to be!" + +Rowland smiled. "What is your particular quarrel with this world?" + +"It 's a general quarrel. Nothing is true, or fixed, or permanent. We +all seem to be playing with shadows more or less grotesque. It all comes +over me here so dismally! The very atmosphere of this cold, deserted +church seems to mock at one's longing to believe in something. Who cares +for it now? who comes to it? who takes it seriously? Poor stupid Assunta +there gives in her adhesion in a jargon she does n't understand, and +you and I, proper, passionless tourists, come lounging in to rest from +a walk. And yet the Catholic church was once the proudest institution +in the world, and had quite its own way with men's souls. When such a +mighty structure as that turns out to have a flaw, what faith is one to +put in one's poor little views and philosophies? What is right and what +is wrong? What is one really to care for? What is the proper rule of +life? I am tired of trying to discover, and I suspect it 's not worth +the trouble. Live as most amuses you!" + +"Your perplexities are so terribly comprehensive," said Rowland, +smiling, "that one hardly knows where to meet them first." + +"I don't care much for anything you can say, because it 's sure to be +half-hearted. You are not in the least contented, yourself." + +"How do you know that?" + +"Oh, I am an observer!" + +"No one is absolutely contented, I suppose, but I assure you I complain +of nothing." + +"So much the worse for your honesty. To begin with, you are in love." + +"You would not have me complain of that!" + +"And it does n't go well. There are grievous obstacles. So much I know! +You need n't protest; I ask no questions. You will tell no one--me least +of all. Why does one never see you?" + +"Why, if I came to see you," said Rowland, deliberating, "it would n't +be, it could n't be, for a trivial reason--because I had not been in a +month, because I was passing, because I admire you. It would be because +I should have something very particular to say. I have not come, because +I have been slow in making up my mind to say it." + +"You are simply cruel. Something particular, in this ocean of inanities? +In common charity, speak!" + +"I doubt whether you will like it." + +"Oh, I hope to heaven it 's not a compliment!" + +"It may be called a compliment to your reasonableness. You perhaps +remember that I gave you a hint of it the other day at Frascati." + +"Has it been hanging fire all this time? Explode! I promise not to stop +my ears." + +"It relates to my friend Hudson." And Rowland paused. She was looking at +him expectantly; her face gave no sign. "I am rather disturbed in mind +about him. He seems to me at times to be in an unpromising way." He +paused again, but Christina said nothing. "The case is simply this," +he went on. "It was by my advice he renounced his career at home and +embraced his present one. I made him burn his ships. I brought him to +Rome, I launched him in the world, and I stand surety, in a measure, +to--to his mother, for his prosperity. It is not such smooth sailing as +it might be, and I am inclined to put up prayers for fair winds. If he +is to succeed, he must work--quietly, devotedly. It is not news to you, +I imagine, that Hudson is a great admirer of yours." + +Christina remained silent; she turned away her eyes with an air, not +of confusion, but of deep deliberation. Surprising frankness had, as a +general thing, struck Rowland as the key-note of her character, but she +had more than once given him a suggestion of an unfathomable power +of calculation, and her silence now had something which it is hardly +extravagant to call portentous. He had of course asked himself how far +it was questionable taste to inform an unprotected girl, for the needs +of a cause, that another man admired her; the thing, superficially, had +an uncomfortable analogy with the shrewdness that uses a cat's paw and +lets it risk being singed. But he decided that even rigid discretion +is not bound to take a young lady at more than her own valuation, +and Christina presently reassured him as to the limits of her +susceptibility. "Mr. Hudson is in love with me!" she said. + +Rowland flinched a trifle. Then--"Am I," he asked, "from this point of +view of mine, to be glad or sorry?" + +"I don't understand you." + +"Why, is Hudson to be happy, or unhappy?" + +She hesitated a moment. "You wish him to be great in his profession? And +for that you consider that he must be happy in his life?" + +"Decidedly. I don't say it 's a general rule, but I think it is a rule +for him." + +"So that if he were very happy, he would become very great?" + +"He would at least do himself justice." + +"And by that you mean a great deal?" + +"A great deal." + +Christina sank back in her chair and rested her eyes on the cracked +and polished slabs of the pavement. At last, looking up, "You have not +forgotten, I suppose, that you told me he was engaged?" + +"By no means." + +"He is still engaged, then?" + +"To the best of my belief." + +"And yet you desire that, as you say, he should be made happy by +something I can do for him?" + +"What I desire is this. That your great influence with him should +be exerted for his good, that it should help him and not retard him. +Understand me. You probably know that your lovers have rather a restless +time of it. I can answer for two of them. You don't know your own mind +very well, I imagine, and you like being admired, rather at the expense +of the admirer. Since we are really being frank, I wonder whether I +might not say the great word." + +"You need n't; I know it. I am a horrible coquette." + +"No, not a horrible one, since I am making an appeal to your generosity. +I am pretty sure you cannot imagine yourself marrying my friend." + +"There 's nothing I cannot imagine! That is my trouble." + +Rowland's brow contracted impatiently. "I cannot imagine it, then!" he +affirmed. + +Christina flushed faintly; then, very gently, "I am not so bad as you +think," she said. + +"It is not a question of badness; it is a question of whether +circumstances don't make the thing an extreme improbability." + +"Worse and worse. I can be bullied, then, or bribed!" + +"You are not so candid," said Rowland, "as you pretend to be. My feeling +is this. Hudson, as I understand him, does not need, as an artist, the +stimulus of strong emotion, of passion. He's better without it; he's +emotional and passionate enough when he 's left to himself. The sooner +passion is at rest, therefore, the sooner he will settle down to work, +and the fewer emotions he has that are mere emotions and nothing more, +the better for him. If you cared for him enough to marry him, I should +have nothing to say; I would never venture to interfere. But I strongly +suspect you don't, and therefore I would suggest, most respectfully, +that you should let him alone." + +"And if I let him alone, as you say, all will be well with him for ever +more?" + +"Not immediately and not absolutely, but things will be easier. He will +be better able to concentrate himself." + +"What is he doing now? Wherein does he dissatisfy you?" + +"I can hardly say. He 's like a watch that 's running down. He is moody, +desultory, idle, irregular, fantastic." + +"Heavens, what a list! And it 's all poor me?" + +"No, not all. But you are a part of it, and I turn to you because you +are a more tangible, sensible, responsible cause than the others." + +Christina raised her hand to her eyes, and bent her head thoughtfully. +Rowland was puzzled to measure the effect of his venture; she rather +surprised him by her gentleness. At last, without moving, "If I were to +marry him," she asked, "what would have become of his fiancee?" + +"I am bound to suppose that she would be extremely unhappy." + +Christina said nothing more, and Rowland, to let her make her +reflections, left his place and strolled away. Poor Assunta, sitting +patiently on a stone bench, and unprovided, on this occasion, with +military consolation, gave him a bright, frank smile, which might have +been construed as an expression of regret for herself, and of sympathy +for her mistress. Rowland presently seated himself again near Christina. + +"What do you think," she asked, looking at him, "of your friend's +infidelity?" + +"I don't like it." + +"Was he very much in love with her?" + +"He asked her to marry him. You may judge." + +"Is she rich?" + +"No, she is poor." + +"Is she very much in love with him?" + +"I know her too little to say." + +She paused again, and then resumed: "You have settled in your mind, +then, that I will never seriously listen to him?" + +"I think it unlikely, until the contrary is proved." + +"How shall it be proved? How do you know what passes between us?" + +"I can judge, of course, but from appearance; but, like you, I am an +observer. Hudson has not at all the air of a prosperous suitor." + +"If he is depressed, there is a reason. He has a bad conscience. One +must hope so, at least. On the other hand, simply as a friend," she +continued gently, "you think I can do him no good?" + +The humility of her tone, combined with her beauty, as she made this +remark, was inexpressibly touching, and Rowland had an uncomfortable +sense of being put at a disadvantage. "There are doubtless many good +things you might do, if you had proper opportunity," he said. "But you +seem to be sailing with a current which leaves you little leisure for +quiet benevolence. You live in the whirl and hurry of a world into which +a poor artist can hardly find it to his advantage to follow you." + +"In plain English, I am hopelessly frivolous. You put it very +generously." + +"I won't hesitate to say all my thought," said Rowland. "For better or +worse, you seem to me to belong, both by character and by circumstance, +to what is called the world, the great world. You are made to ornament +it magnificently. You are not made to be an artist's wife." + +"I see. But even from your point of view, that would depend upon the +artist. Extraordinary talent might make him a member of the great +world!" + +Rowland smiled. "That is very true." + +"If, as it is," Christina continued in a moment, "you take a low view of +me--no, you need n't protest--I wonder what you would think if you knew +certain things." + +"What things do you mean?" + +"Well, for example, how I was brought up. I have had a horrible +education. There must be some good in me, since I have perceived it, +since I have turned and judged my circumstances." + +"My dear Miss Light!" Rowland murmured. + +She gave a little, quick laugh. "You don't want to hear? you don't want +to have to think about that?" + +"Have I a right to? You need n't justify yourself." + +She turned upon him a moment the quickened light of her beautiful eyes, +then fell to musing again. "Is there not some novel or some play," she +asked at last, "in which some beautiful, wicked woman who has ensnared a +young man sees his father come to her and beg her to let him go?" + +"Very likely," said Rowland. "I hope she consents." + +"I forget. But tell me," she continued, "shall you consider--admitting +your proposition--that in ceasing to flirt with Mr. Hudson, so that +he may go about his business, I do something magnanimous, heroic, +sublime--something with a fine name like that?" + +Rowland, elated with the prospect of gaining his point, was about +to reply that she would deserve the finest name in the world; but he +instantly suspected that this tone would not please her, and, besides, +it would not express his meaning. + +"You do something I shall greatly respect," he contented himself with +saying. + +She made no answer, and in a moment she beckoned to her maid. "What have +I to do to-day?" she asked. + +Assunta meditated. "Eh, it 's a very busy day! Fortunately I have a +better memory than the signorina," she said, turning to Rowland. She +began to count on her fingers. "We have to go to the Pie di Marmo to see +about those laces that were sent to be washed. You said also that you +wished to say three sharp words to the Buonvicini about your pink dress. +You want some moss-rosebuds for to-night, and you won't get them for +nothing! You dine at the Austrian Embassy, and that Frenchman is to +powder your hair. You 're to come home in time to receive, for the +signora gives a dance. And so away, away till morning!" + +"Ah, yes, the moss-roses!" Christina murmured, caressingly. "I must have +a quantity--at least a hundred. Nothing but buds, eh? You must sew them +in a kind of immense apron, down the front of my dress. Packed tight +together, eh? It will be delightfully barbarous. And then twenty more or +so for my hair. They go very well with powder; don't you think so?" And +she turned to Rowland. "I am going en Pompadour." + +"Going where?" + +"To the Spanish Embassy, or whatever it is." + +"All down the front, signorina? Dio buono! You must give me time!" +Assunta cried. + +"Yes, we'll go!" And she left her place. She walked slowly to the door +of the church, looking at the pavement, and Rowland could not guess +whether she was thinking of her apron of moss-rosebuds or of her +opportunity for moral sublimity. Before reaching the door she turned +away and stood gazing at an old picture, indistinguishable with +blackness, over an altar. At last they passed out into the court. +Glancing at her in the open air, Rowland was startled; he imagined he +saw the traces of hastily suppressed tears. They had lost time, she +said, and they must hurry; she sent Assunta to look for a fiacre. She +remained silent a while, scratching the ground with the point of her +parasol, and then at last, looking up, she thanked Rowland for his +confidence in her "reasonableness." "It 's really very comfortable to be +asked, to be expected, to do something good, after all the horrid things +one has been used to doing--instructed, commanded, forced to do! I 'll +think over what you have said to me." In that deserted quarter fiacres +are rare, and there was some delay in Assunta's procuring one. Christina +talked of the church, of the picturesque old court, of that strange, +decaying corner of Rome. Rowland was perplexed; he was ill at ease. +At last the fiacre arrived, but she waited a moment longer. "So, +decidedly," she suddenly asked, "I can only harm him?" + +"You make me feel very brutal," said Rowland. + +"And he is such a fine fellow that it would be really a great pity, eh?" + +"I shall praise him no more," Rowland said. + +She turned away quickly, but she lingered still. "Do you remember +promising me, soon after we first met, that at the end of six months you +would tell me definitely what you thought of me?" + +"It was a foolish promise." + +"You gave it. Bear it in mind. I will think of what you have said to me. +Farewell." She stepped into the carriage, and it rolled away. Rowland +stood for some minutes, looking after it, and then went his way with +a sigh. If this expressed general mistrust, he ought, three days +afterward, to have been reassured. He received by the post a note +containing these words:-- + +"I have done it. Begin and respect me! + +"--C. L." + +To be perfectly satisfactory, indeed, the note required a commentary. +He called that evening upon Roderick, and found one in the information +offered him at the door, by the old serving-woman--the startling +information that the signorino had gone to Naples. + + + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. Provocation + +About a month later, Rowland addressed to his cousin Cecilia a letter of +which the following is a portion:-- + +... "So much for myself; yet I tell you but a tithe of my own story +unless I let you know how matters stand with poor Hudson, for he gives +me more to think about just now than anything else in the world. I need +a good deal of courage to begin this chapter. You warned me, you know, +and I made rather light of your warning. I have had all kinds of hopes +and fears, but hitherto, in writing to you, I have resolutely put the +hopes foremost. Now, however, my pride has forsaken me, and I should +like hugely to give expression to a little comfortable despair. I should +like to say, 'My dear wise woman, you were right and I was wrong; you +were a shrewd observer and I was a meddlesome donkey!' When I think of +a little talk we had about the 'salubrity of genius,' I feel my ears +tingle. If this is salubrity, give me raging disease! I 'm pestered to +death; I go about with a chronic heartache; there are moments when I +could shed salt tears. There 's a pretty portrait of the most placid +of men! I wish I could make you understand; or rather, I wish you could +make me! I don't understand a jot; it 's a hideous, mocking mystery; I +give it up! I don't in the least give it up, you know; I 'm incapable +of giving it up. I sit holding my head by the hour, racking my brain, +wondering what under heaven is to be done. You told me at Northampton +that I took the thing too easily; you would tell me now, perhaps, that +I take it too hard. I do, altogether; but it can't be helped. Without +flattering myself, I may say I 'm sympathetic. Many another man before +this would have cast his perplexities to the winds and declared that Mr. +Hudson must lie on his bed as he had made it. Some men, perhaps, would +even say that I am making a mighty ado about nothing; that I have only +to give him rope, and he will tire himself out. But he tugs at his rope +altogether too hard for me to hold it comfortably. I certainly never +pretended the thing was anything else than an experiment; I promised +nothing, I answered for nothing; I only said the case was hopeful, and +that it would be a shame to neglect it. I have done my best, and if +the machine is running down I have a right to stand aside and let it +scuttle. Amen, amen! No, I can write that, but I can't feel it. I can't +be just; I can only be generous. I love the poor fellow and I can't give +him up. As for understanding him, that 's another matter; nowadays I +don't believe even you would. One's wits are sadly pestered over here, +I assure you, and I 'm in the way of seeing more than one puzzling +specimen of human nature. Roderick and Miss Light, between them!... +Have n't I already told you about Miss Light? Last winter everything was +perfection. Roderick struck out bravely, did really great things, and +proved himself, as I supposed, thoroughly solid. He was strong, he was +first-rate; I felt perfectly secure and sang private paeans of joy. We +had passed at a bound into the open sea, and left danger behind. But +in the summer I began to be puzzled, though I succeeded in not being +alarmed. When we came back to Rome, however, I saw that the tide had +turned and that we were close upon the rocks. It is, in fact, another +case of Ulysses alongside of the Sirens; only Roderick refuses to be +tied to the mast. He is the most extraordinary being, the strangest +mixture of qualities. I don't understand so much force going with so +much weakness--such a brilliant gift being subject to such lapses. The +poor fellow is incomplete, and it is really not his own fault; Nature +has given him the faculty out of hand and bidden him be hanged with it. +I never knew a man harder to advise or assist, if he is not in the mood +for listening. I suppose there is some key or other to his character, +but I try in vain to find it; and yet I can't believe that Providence +is so cruel as to have turned the lock and thrown the key away. He +perplexes me, as I say, to death, and though he tires out my patience, +he still fascinates me. Sometimes I think he has n't a grain of +conscience, and sometimes I think that, in a way, he has an excess. He +takes things at once too easily and too hard; he is both too lax and too +tense, too reckless and too ambitious, too cold and too passionate. He +has developed faster even than you prophesied, and for good and evil +alike he takes up a formidable space. There 's too much of him for me, +at any rate. Yes, he is hard; there is no mistake about that. He 's +inflexible, he 's brittle; and though he has plenty of spirit, plenty of +soul, he has n't what I call a heart. He has something that Miss Garland +took for one, and I 'm pretty sure she 's a judge. But she judged on +scanty evidence. He has something that Christina Light, here, makes +believe at times that she takes for one, but she is no judge at all! I +think it is established that, in the long run, egotism makes a failure +in conduct: is it also true that it makes a failure in the arts?... +Roderick's standard is immensely high; I must do him that justice. He +will do nothing beneath it, and while he is waiting for inspiration, his +imagination, his nerves, his senses must have something to amuse them. +This is a highly philosophical way of saying that he has taken to +dissipation, and that he has just been spending a month at Naples--a +city where 'pleasure' is actively cultivated--in very bad company. +Are they all like that, all the men of genius? There are a great many +artists here who hammer away at their trade with exemplary industry; in +fact I am surprised at their success in reducing the matter to a steady, +daily grind: but I really don't think that one of them has his exquisite +quality of talent. It is in the matter of quantity that he has broken +down. The bottle won't pour; he turns it upside down; it 's no use! +Sometimes he declares it 's empty--that he has done all he was made to +do. This I consider great nonsense; but I would nevertheless take him on +his own terms if it was only I that was concerned. But I keep thinking +of those two praying, trusting neighbors of yours, and I feel wretchedly +like a swindler. If his working mood came but once in five years I would +willingly wait for it and maintain him in leisure, if need be, in the +intervals; but that would be a sorry account to present to them. Five +years of this sort of thing, moreover, would effectually settle the +question. I wish he were less of a genius and more of a charlatan! He 's +too confoundedly all of one piece; he won't throw overboard a grain +of the cargo to save the rest. Fancy him thus with all his brilliant +personal charm, his handsome head, his careless step, his look as of a +nervous nineteenth-century Apollo, and you will understand that there +is mighty little comfort in seeing him in a bad way. He was tolerably +foolish last summer at Baden Baden, but he got on his feet, and for a +while he was steady. Then he began to waver again, and at last toppled +over. Now, literally, he 's lying prone. He came into my room last +night, miserably tipsy. I assure you, it did n't amuse me..... About +Miss Light it 's a long story. She is one of the great beauties of all +time, and worth coming barefoot to Rome, like the pilgrims of old, to +see. Her complexion, her glance, her step, her dusky tresses, may have +been seen before in a goddess, but never in a woman. And you may take +this for truth, because I 'm not in love with her. On the contrary! Her +education has been simply infernal. She is corrupt, perverse, as proud +as the queen of Sheba, and an appalling coquette; but she is generous, +and with patience and skill you may enlist her imagination in a good +cause as well as in a bad one. The other day I tried to manipulate it a +little. Chance offered me an interview to which it was possible to give +a serious turn, and I boldly broke ground and begged her to suffer +my poor friend to go in peace. After a good deal of finessing she +consented, and the next day, with a single word, packed him off to +Naples to drown his sorrow in debauchery. I have come to the conclusion +that she is more dangerous in her virtuous moods than in her vicious +ones, and that she probably has a way of turning her back which is the +most provoking thing in the world. She 's an actress, she could n't +forego doing the thing dramatically, and it was the dramatic touch that +made it fatal. I wished her, of course, to let him down easily; but +she desired to have the curtain drop on an attitude, and her attitudes +deprive inflammable young artists of their reason..... Roderick made an +admirable bust of her at the beginning of the winter, and a dozen women +came rushing to him to be done, mutatis mutandis, in the same style. +They were all great ladies and ready to take him by the hand, but he +told them all their faces did n't interest him, and sent them away +vowing his destruction." + +At this point of his long effusion, Rowland had paused and put by his +letter. He kept it three days and then read it over. He was disposed at +first to destroy it, but he decided finally to keep it, in the hope that +it might strike a spark of useful suggestion from the flint of Cecilia's +good sense. We know he had a talent for taking advice. And then it might +be, he reflected, that his cousin's answer would throw some light on +Mary Garland's present vision of things. In his altered mood he added +these few lines:-- + +"I unburdened myself the other day of this monstrous load of perplexity; +I think it did me good, and I let it stand. I was in a melancholy +muddle, and I was trying to work myself free. You know I like +discussion, in a quiet way, and there is no one with whom I can have it +as quietly as with you, most sagacious of cousins! There is an excellent +old lady with whom I often chat, and who talks very much to the point. +But Madame Grandoni has disliked Roderick from the first, and if I were +to take her advice I would wash my hands of him. You will laugh at me +for my long face, but you would do that in any circumstances. I am half +ashamed of my letter, for I have a faith in my friend that is deeper +than my doubts. He was here last evening, talking about the Naples +Museum, the Aristides, the bronzes, the Pompeian frescoes, with such +a beautiful intelligence that doubt of the ultimate future seemed +blasphemy. I walked back to his lodging with him, and he was as mild +as midsummer moonlight. He has the ineffable something that charms and +convinces; my last word about him shall not be a harsh one." + +Shortly after sending his letter, going one day into his friend's +studio, he found Roderick suffering from the grave infliction of a visit +from Mr. Leavenworth. Roderick submitted with extreme ill grace to being +bored, and he was now evidently in a state of high exasperation. He had +lately begun a representation of a lazzarone lounging in the sun; an +image of serene, irresponsible, sensuous life. The real lazzarone, he +had admitted, was a vile fellow; but the ideal lazzarone--and his own +had been subtly idealized--was a precursor of the millennium. + +Mr. Leavenworth had apparently just transferred his unhurrying gaze to +the figure. + +"Something in the style of the Dying Gladiator?" he sympathetically +observed. + +"Oh no," said Roderick seriously, "he 's not dying, he 's only drunk!" + +"Ah, but intoxication, you know," Mr. Leavenworth rejoined, "is not a +proper subject for sculpture. Sculpture should not deal with transitory +attitudes." + +"Lying dead drunk is not a transitory attitude! Nothing is more +permanent, more sculpturesque, more monumental!" + +"An entertaining paradox," said Mr. Leavenworth, "if we had time to +exercise our wits upon it. I remember at Florence an intoxicated figure +by Michael Angelo which seemed to me a deplorable aberration of a +great mind. I myself touch liquor in no shape whatever. I have traveled +through Europe on cold water. The most varied and attractive lists of +wines are offered me, but I brush them aside. No cork has ever been +drawn at my command!" + +"The movement of drawing a cork calls into play a very pretty set +of muscles," said Roderick. "I think I will make a figure in that +position." + +"A Bacchus, realistically treated! My dear young friend, never trifle +with your lofty mission. Spotless marble should represent virtue, not +vice!" And Mr. Leavenworth placidly waved his hand, as if to exorcise +the spirit of levity, while his glance journeyed with leisurely +benignity to another object--a marble replica of the bust of Miss Light. +"An ideal head, I presume," he went on; "a fanciful representation of +one of the pagan goddesses--a Diana, a Flora, a naiad or dryad? I often +regret that our American artists should not boldly cast off that extinct +nomenclature." + +"She is neither a naiad nor a dryad," said Roderick, "and her name is as +good as yours or mine." + +"You call her"--Mr. Leavenworth blandly inquired. + +"Miss Light," Rowland interposed, in charity. + +"Ah, our great American beauty! Not a pagan goddess--an American, +Christian lady! Yes, I have had the pleasure of conversing with Miss +Light. Her conversational powers are not remarkable, but her beauty +is of a high order. I observed her the other evening at a large party, +where some of the proudest members of the European aristocracy were +present--duchesses, princesses, countesses, and others distinguished by +similar titles. But for beauty, grace, and elegance my fair countrywoman +left them all nowhere. What women can compare with a truly refined +American lady? The duchesses the other night had no attractions for my +eyes; they looked coarse and sensual! It seemed to me that the tyranny +of class distinctions must indeed be terrible when such countenances +could inspire admiration. You see more beautiful girls in an hour on +Broadway than in the whole tour of Europe. Miss Light, now, on Broadway, +would excite no particular remark." + +"She has never been there!" cried Roderick, triumphantly. + +"I 'm afraid she never will be there. I suppose you have heard the news +about her." + +"What news?" Roderick had stood with his back turned, fiercely poking +at his lazzarone; but at Mr. Leavenworth's last words he faced quickly +about. + +"It 's the news of the hour, I believe. Miss Light is admired by the +highest people here. They tacitly recognize her superiority. She has had +offers of marriage from various great lords. I was extremely happy +to learn this circumstance, and to know that they all had been left +sighing. She has not been dazzled by their titles and their gilded +coronets. She has judged them simply as men, and found them wanting. One +of them, however, a young Neapolitan prince, I believe, has after a long +probation succeeded in making himself acceptable. Miss Light has at last +said yes, and the engagement has just been announced. I am not generally +a retailer of gossip of this description, but the fact was alluded to +an hour ago by a lady with whom I was conversing, and here, in Europe, +these conversational trifles usurp the lion's share of one's attention. +I therefore retained the circumstance. Yes, I regret that Miss Light +should marry one of these used-up foreigners. Americans should stand by +each other. If she wanted a brilliant match we could have fixed it for +her. If she wanted a fine fellow--a fine, sharp, enterprising modern +man--I would have undertaken to find him for her without going out of +the city of New York. And if she wanted a big fortune, I would have +found her twenty that she would have had hard work to spend: money +down--not tied up in fever-stricken lands and worm-eaten villas! What is +the name of the young man? Prince Castaway, or some such thing!" + +It was well for Mr. Leavenworth that he was a voluminous and +imperturbable talker; for the current of his eloquence floated him +past the short, sharp, startled cry with which Roderick greeted his +"conversational trifle." The young man stood looking at him with parted +lips and an excited eye. + +"The position of woman," Mr. Leavenworth placidly resumed, "is certainly +a very degraded one in these countries. I doubt whether a European +princess can command the respect which in our country is exhibited +toward the obscurest females. The civilization of a country should +be measured by the deference shown to the weaker sex. Judged by that +standard, where are they, over here?" + +Though Mr. Leavenworth had not observed Roderick's emotion, it was not +lost upon Rowland, who was making certain uncomfortable reflections upon +it. He saw that it had instantly become one with the acute irritation +produced by the poor gentleman's oppressive personality, and that +an explosion of some sort was imminent. Mr. Leavenworth, with calm +unconsciousness, proceeded to fire the mine. + +"And now for our Culture!" he said in the same sonorous tones, demanding +with a gesture the unveiling of the figure, which stood somewhat apart, +muffled in a great sheet. + +Roderick stood looking at him for a moment with concentrated rancor, and +then strode to the statue and twitched off the cover. Mr. Leavenworth +settled himself into his chair with an air of flattered proprietorship, +and scanned the unfinished image. "I can conscientiously express myself +as gratified with the general conception," he said. "The figure has +considerable majesty, and the countenance wears a fine, open expression. +The forehead, however, strikes me as not sufficiently intellectual. In +a statue of Culture, you know, that should be the great point. The eye +should instinctively seek the forehead. Could n't you heighten it up a +little?" + +Roderick, for all answer, tossed the sheet back over the statue. "Oblige +me, sir," he said, "oblige me! Never mention that thing again." + +"Never mention it? Why my dear sir"-- + +"Never mention it. It 's an abomination!" + +"An abomination! My Culture!" + +"Yours indeed!" cried Roderick. "It 's none of mine. I disown it." + +"Disown it, if you please," said Mr. Leavenworth sternly, "but finish it +first!" + +"I 'd rather smash it!" cried Roderick. + +"This is folly, sir. You must keep your engagements." + +"I made no engagement. A sculptor is n't a tailor. Did you ever hear of +inspiration? Mine is dead! And it 's no laughing matter. You yourself +killed it." + +"I--I--killed your inspiration?" cried Mr. Leavenworth, with the accent +of righteous wrath. "You 're a very ungrateful boy! If ever I encouraged +and cheered and sustained any one, I 'm sure I have done so to you." + +"I appreciate your good intentions, and I don't wish to be uncivil. But +your encouragement is--superfluous. I can't work for you!" + +"I call this ill-humor, young man!" said Mr. Leavenworth, as if he had +found the damning word. + +"Oh, I 'm in an infernal humor!" Roderick answered. + +"Pray, sir, is it my infelicitous allusion to Miss Light's marriage?" + +"It 's your infelicitous everything! I don't say that to offend you; +I beg your pardon if it does. I say it by way of making our rupture +complete, irretrievable!" + +Rowland had stood by in silence, but he now interfered. "Listen to me," +he said, laying his hand on Roderick's arm. "You are standing on the +edge of a gulf. If you suffer anything that has passed to interrupt +your work on that figure, you take your plunge. It 's no matter that +you don't like it; you will do the wisest thing you ever did if you make +that effort of will necessary for finishing it. Destroy the statue then, +if you like, but make the effort. I speak the truth!" + +Roderick looked at him with eyes that still inexorableness made almost +tender. "You too!" he simply said. + +Rowland felt that he might as well attempt to squeeze water from a +polished crystal as hope to move him. He turned away and walked into the +adjoining room with a sense of sickening helplessness. In a few moments +he came back and found that Mr. Leavenworth had departed--presumably in +a manner somewhat portentous. Roderick was sitting with his elbows on +his knees and his head in his hands. + +Rowland made one more attempt. "You decline to think of what I urge?" + +"Absolutely." + +"There's one more point--that you shouldn't, for a month, go to Mrs. +Light's." + +"I go there this evening." + +"That too is an utter folly." + +"There are such things as necessary follies." + +"You are not reflecting; you are speaking in passion." + +"Why then do you make me speak?" + +Rowland meditated a moment. "Is it also necessary that you should lose +the best friend you have?" + +Roderick looked up. "That 's for you to settle!" + +His best friend clapped on his hat and strode away; in a moment the door +closed behind him. Rowland walked hard for nearly a couple of hours. +He passed up the Corso, out of the Porta del Popolo and into the Villa +Borghese, of which he made a complete circuit. The keenness of his +irritation subsided, but it left him with an intolerable weight upon his +heart. When dusk had fallen, he found himself near the lodging of his +friend Madame Grandoni. He frequently paid her a visit during the hour +which preceded dinner, and he now ascended her unillumined staircase and +rang at her relaxed bell-rope with an especial desire for diversion. He +was told that, for the moment, she was occupied, but that if he would +come in and wait, she would presently be with him. He had not sat +musing in the firelight for ten minutes when he heard the jingle of the +door-bell and then a rustling and murmuring in the hall. The door of the +little saloon opened, but before the visitor appeared he had recognized +her voice. Christina Light swept forward, preceded by her poodle, and +almost filling the narrow parlor with the train of her dress. She was +colored here and there by the flicking firelight. + +"They told me you were here," she said simply, as she took a seat. + +"And yet you came in? It is very brave," said Rowland. + +"You are the brave one, when one thinks of it! Where is the padrona?" + +"Occupied for the moment. But she is coming." + +"How soon?" + +"I have already waited ten minutes; I expect her from moment to moment." + +"Meanwhile we are alone?" And she glanced into the dusky corners of the +room. + +"Unless Stenterello counts," said Rowland. + +"Oh, he knows my secrets--unfortunate brute!" She sat silent awhile, +looking into the firelight. Then at last, glancing at Rowland, "Come! +say something pleasant!" she exclaimed. + +"I have been very happy to hear of your engagement." + +"No, I don't mean that. I have heard that so often, only since +breakfast, that it has lost all sense. I mean some of those unexpected, +charming things that you said to me a month ago at Saint Cecilia's." + +"I offended you, then," said Rowland. "I was afraid I had." + +"Ah, it occurred to you? Why have n't I seen you since?" + +"Really, I don't know." And he began to hesitate for an explanation. "I +have called, but you have never been at home." + +"You were careful to choose the wrong times. You have a way with a +poor girl! You sit down and inform her that she is a person with whom +a respectable young man cannot associate without contamination; your +friend is a very nice fellow, you are very careful of his morals, you +wish him to know none but nice people, and you beg me therefore to +desist. You request me to take these suggestions to heart and to act +upon them as promptly as possible. They are not particularly flattering +to my vanity. Vanity, however, is a sin, and I listen submissively, +with an immense desire to be just. If I have many faults I know it, in +a general way, and I try on the whole to do my best. 'Voyons,' I say +to myself, 'it is n't particularly charming to hear one's self made out +such a low person, but it is worth thinking over; there 's probably a +good deal of truth in it, and at any rate we must be as good a girl as +we can. That 's the great point! And then here 's a magnificent chance +for humility. If there 's doubt in the matter, let the doubt count +against one's self. That is what Saint Catherine did, and Saint Theresa, +and all the others, and they are said to have had in consequence the +most ineffable joys. Let us go in for a little ineffable joy!' I tried +it; I swallowed my rising sobs, I made you my courtesy, I determined I +would not be spiteful, nor passionate, nor vengeful, nor anything that +is supposed to be particularly feminine. I was a better girl than +you made out--better at least than you thought; but I would let the +difference go and do magnificently right, lest I should not do right +enough. I thought of it a deal for six hours when I know I did n't seem +to be, and then at last I did it! Santo Dio!" + +"My dear Miss Light, my dear Miss Light!" said Rowland, pleadingly. + +"Since then," the young girl went on, "I have been waiting for the +ineffable joys. They have n't yet turned up!" + +"Pray listen to me!" Rowland urged. + +"Nothing, nothing, nothing has come of it. I have passed the dreariest +month of my life!" + +"My dear Miss Light, you are a very terrible young lady!" cried Rowland. + +"What do you mean by that?" + +"A good many things. We 'll talk them over. But first, forgive me if I +have offended you!" + +She looked at him a moment, hesitating, and then thrust her hands into +her muff. "That means nothing. Forgiveness is between equals, and you +don't regard me as your equal." + +"Really, I don't understand!" + +Christina rose and moved for a moment about the room. Then turning +suddenly, "You don't believe in me!" she cried; "not a grain! I don't +know what I would not give to force you to believe in me!" + +Rowland sprang up, protesting, but before he had time to go far one of +the scanty portieres was raised, and Madame Grandoni came in, pulling +her wig straight. "But you shall believe in me yet," murmured Christina, +as she passed toward her hostess. + +Madame Grandoni turned tenderly to Christina. "I must give you a very +solemn kiss, my dear; you are the heroine of the hour. You have really +accepted him, eh?" + +"So they say!" + +"But you ought to know best." + +"I don't know--I don't care!" She stood with her hand in Madame +Grandoni's, but looking askance at Rowland. + +"That 's a pretty state of mind," said the old lady, "for a young person +who is going to become a princess." + +Christina shrugged her shoulders. "Every one expects me to go into +ecstacies over that! Could anything be more vulgar? They may chuckle by +themselves! Will you let me stay to dinner?" + +"If you can dine on a risotto. But I imagine you are expected at home." + +"You are right. Prince Casamassima dines there, en famille. But I 'm not +in his family, yet!" + +"Do you know you are very wicked? I have half a mind not to keep you." + +Christina dropped her eyes, reflectively. "I beg you will let me stay," +she said. "If you wish to cure me of my wickedness you must be very +patient and kind with me. It will be worth the trouble. You must +show confidence in me." And she gave another glance at Rowland. Then +suddenly, in a different tone, "I don't know what I 'm saying!" she +cried. "I am weary, I am more lonely than ever, I wish I were dead!" The +tears rose to her eyes, she struggled with them an instant, and buried +her face in her muff; but at last she burst into uncontrollable sobs +and flung her arms upon Madame Grandoni's neck. This shrewd woman gave +Rowland a significant nod, and a little shrug, over the young girl's +beautiful bowed head, and then led Christina tenderly away into the +adjoining room. Rowland, left alone, stood there for an instant, +intolerably puzzled, face to face with Miss Light's poodle, who had set +up a sharp, unearthly cry of sympathy with his mistress. Rowland +vented his confusion in dealing a rap with his stick at the animal's +unmelodious muzzle, and then rapidly left the house. He saw Mrs. Light's +carriage waiting at the door, and heard afterwards that Christina went +home to dinner. + +A couple of days later he went, for a fortnight, to Florence. He had +twenty minds to leave Italy altogether; and at Florence he could at +least more freely decide upon his future movements. He felt profoundly, +incurably disgusted. Reflective benevolence stood prudently aside, and +for the time touched the source of his irritation with no softening +side-lights. + +It was the middle of March, and by the middle of March in Florence the +spring is already warm and deep. He had an infinite relish for the place +and the season, but as he strolled by the Arno and paused here and there +in the great galleries, they failed to soothe his irritation. He was +sore at heart, and as the days went by the soreness deepened rather than +healed. He felt as if he had a complaint against fortune; good-natured +as he was, his good-nature this time quite declined to let it pass. He +had tried to be wise, he had tried to be kind, he had embarked upon an +estimable enterprise; but his wisdom, his kindness, his energy, had been +thrown back in his face. He was disappointed, and his disappointment +had an angry spark in it. The sense of wasted time, of wasted hope and +faith, kept him constant company. There were times when the beautiful +things about him only exasperated his discontent. He went to the Pitti +Palace, and Raphael's Madonna of the Chair seemed, in its soft serenity, +to mock him with the suggestion of unattainable repose. He lingered on +the bridges at sunset, and knew that the light was enchanting and the +mountains divine, but there seemed to be something horribly invidious +and unwelcome in the fact. He felt, in a word, like a man who has been +cruelly defrauded and who wishes to have his revenge. Life owed him, he +thought, a compensation, and he would be restless and resentful until he +found it. He knew--or he seemed to know--where he should find it; but he +hardly told himself, and thought of the thing under mental protest, as a +man in want of money may think of certain funds that he holds in trust. +In his melancholy meditations the idea of something better than all +this, something that might softly, richly interpose, something that +might reconcile him to the future, something that might make one's +tenure of life deep and zealous instead of harsh and uneven--the idea of +concrete compensation, in a word--shaped itself sooner or later into the +image of Mary Garland. + +Very odd, you may say, that at this time of day Rowland should still +be brooding over a plain girl of whom he had had but the lightest of +glimpses two years before; very odd that so deep an impression should +have been made by so lightly-pressed an instrument. We must admit the +oddity and offer simply in explanation that his sentiment apparently +belonged to that species of emotion of which, by the testimony of the +poets, the very name and essence is oddity. One night he slept but +half an hour; he found his thoughts taking a turn which excited him +portentously. He walked up and down his room half the night. It looked +out on the Arno; the noise of the river came in at the open window; he +felt like dressing and going down into the streets. Toward morning +he flung himself into a chair; though he was wide awake he was less +excited. It seemed to him that he saw his idea from the outside, that he +judged it and condemned it; yet it stood there before him, distinct, +and in a certain way imperious. During the day he tried to banish it +and forget it; but it fascinated, haunted, at moments frightened him. He +tried to amuse himself, paid visits, resorted to several rather violent +devices for diverting his thoughts. If on the morrow he had committed a +crime, the persons whom he had seen that day would have testified +that he had talked strangely and had not seemed like himself. He felt +certainly very unlike himself; long afterwards, in retrospect, he used +to reflect that during those days he had for a while been literally +beside himself. His idea persisted; it clung to him like a sturdy +beggar. The sense of the matter, roughly expressed, was this: If +Roderick was really going, as he himself had phrased it, to "fizzle +out," one might help him on the way--one might smooth the descensus +Averno. For forty-eight hours there swam before Rowland's eyes a vision +of Roderick, graceful and beautiful as he passed, plunging, like a +diver, from an eminence into a misty gulf. The gulf was destruction, +annihilation, death; but if death was decreed, why should not the agony +be brief? Beyond this vision there faintly glimmered another, as in the +children's game of the "magic lantern" a picture is superposed on the +white wall before the last one has quite faded. It represented Mary +Garland standing there with eyes in which the horror seemed slowly, +slowly to expire, and hanging, motionless hands which at last made no +resistance when his own offered to take them. When, of old, a man was +burnt at the stake it was cruel to have to be present; but if one was +present it was kind to lend a hand to pile up the fuel and make the +flames do their work quickly and the smoke muffle up the victim. With +all deference to your kindness, this was perhaps an obligation you would +especially feel if you had a reversionary interest in something the +victim was to leave behind him. + +One morning, in the midst of all this, Rowland walked heedlessly out of +one of the city gates and found himself on the road to Fiesole. It was a +completely lovely day; the March sun felt like May, as the English poet +of Florence says; the thick-blossomed shrubs and vines that hung over +the walls of villa and podere flung their odorous promise into the warm, +still air. Rowland followed the winding, climbing lanes; lingered, as he +got higher, beneath the rusty cypresses, beside the low parapets, where +you look down on the charming city and sweep the vale of the Arno; +reached the little square before the cathedral, and rested awhile in the +massive, dusky church; then climbed higher, to the Franciscan convent +which is poised on the very apex of the mountain. He rang at the little +gateway; a shabby, senile, red-faced brother admitted him with almost +maudlin friendliness. There was a dreary chill in the chapel and the +corridors, and he passed rapidly through them into the delightfully +steep and tangled old garden which runs wild over the forehead of the +great hill. He had been in it before, and he was very fond of it. The +garden hangs in the air, and you ramble from terrace to terrace and +wonder how it keeps from slipping down, in full consummation of its +bereaved forlornness, into the nakedly romantic gorge beneath. It was +just noon when Rowland went in, and after roaming about awhile he flung +himself in the sun on a mossy stone bench and pulled his hat over his +eyes. The short shadows of the brown-coated cypresses above him had +grown very long, and yet he had not passed back through the convent. One +of the monks, in his faded snuff-colored robe, came wandering out into +the garden, reading his greasy little breviary. Suddenly he came toward +the bench on which Rowland had stretched himself, and paused a moment, +attentively. Rowland was lingering there still; he was sitting with his +head in his hands and his elbows on his knees. He seemed not to have +heard the sandaled tread of the good brother, but as the monk remained +watching him, he at last looked up. It was not the ignoble old man who +had admitted him, but a pale, gaunt personage, of a graver and more +ascetic, and yet of a benignant, aspect. Rowland's face bore the traces +of extreme trouble. The frate kept his finger in his little book, +and folded his arms picturesquely across his breast. It can hardly be +determined whether his attitude, as he bent his sympathetic Italian +eye upon Rowland, was a happy accident or the result of an exquisite +spiritual discernment. To Rowland, at any rate, under the emotion of +that moment, it seemed blessedly opportune. He rose and approached the +monk, and laid his hand on his arm. + +"My brother," he said, "did you ever see the Devil?" + +The frate gazed, gravely, and crossed himself. "Heaven forbid!" + +"He was here," Rowland went on, "here in this lovely garden, as he was +once in Paradise, half an hour ago. But have no fear; I drove him out." +And Rowland stooped and picked up his hat, which had rolled away into a +bed of cyclamen, in vague symbolism of an actual physical tussle. + +"You have been tempted, my brother?" asked the friar, tenderly. + +"Hideously!" + +"And you have resisted--and conquered!" + +"I believe I have conquered." + +"The blessed Saint Francis be praised! It is well done. If you like, we +will offer a mass for you." + +"I am not a Catholic," said Rowland. + +The frate smiled with dignity. "That is a reason the more." + +"But it 's for you, then, to choose. Shake hands with me," Rowland +added; "that will do as well; and suffer me, as I go out, to stop a +moment in your chapel." + +They shook hands and separated. The frate crossed himself, opened his +book, and wandered away, in relief against the western sky. Rowland +passed back into the convent, and paused long enough in the chapel to +look for the alms-box. He had had what is vulgarly termed a great scare; +he believed, very poignantly for the time, in the Devil, and he felt an +irresistible need to subscribe to any institution which engaged to keep +him at a distance. + +The next day he returned to Rome, and the day afterwards he went in +search of Roderick. He found him on the Pincian with his back turned to +the crowd, looking at the sunset. "I went to Florence," Rowland said, +"and I thought of going farther; but I came back on purpose to give you +another piece of advice. Once more, you refuse to leave Rome?" + +"Never!" said Roderick. + +"The only chance that I see, then, of your reviving your sense of +responsibility to--to those various sacred things you have forgotten, is +in sending for your mother to join you here." + +Roderick stared. "For my mother?" + +"For your mother--and for Miss Garland." + +Roderick still stared; and then, slowly and faintly, his face flushed. +"For Mary Garland--for my mother?" he repeated. "Send for them?" + +"Tell me this; I have often wondered, but till now I have forborne to +ask. You are still engaged to Miss Garland?" + +Roderick frowned darkly, but assented. + +"It would give you pleasure, then, to see her?" + +Roderick turned away and for some moments answered nothing. "Pleasure!" +he said at last, huskily. "Call it pain." + +"I regard you as a sick man," Rowland continued. "In such a case Miss +Garland would say that her place was at your side." + +Roderick looked at him some time askance, mistrustfully. "Is this a +deep-laid snare?" he asked slowly. + +Rowland had come back with all his patience rekindled, but these words +gave it an almost fatal chill. "Heaven forgive you!" he cried bitterly. +"My idea has been simply this. Try, in decency, to understand it. I have +tried to befriend you, to help you, to inspire you with confidence, +and I have failed. I took you from the hands of your mother and your +betrothed, and it seemed to me my duty to restore you to their hands. +That 's all I have to say." + +He was going, but Roderick forcibly detained him. It would have been +but a rough way of expressing it to say that one could never know how +Roderick would take a thing. It had happened more than once that when +hit hard, deservedly, he had received the blow with touching gentleness. +On the other hand, he had often resented the softest taps. The secondary +effect of Rowland's present admonition seemed reassuring. "I beg you to +wait," he said, "to forgive that shabby speech, and to let me reflect." +And he walked up and down awhile, reflecting. At last he stopped, with +a look in his face that Rowland had not seen all winter. It was a +strikingly beautiful look. + +"How strange it is," he said, "that the simplest devices are the last +that occur to one!" And he broke into a light laugh. "To see Mary +Garland is just what I want. And my mother--my mother can't hurt me +now." + +"You will write, then?" + +"I will telegraph. They must come, at whatever cost. Striker can arrange +it all for them." + +In a couple of days he told Rowland that he had received a telegraphic +answer to his message, informing him that the two ladies were to sail +immediately for Leghorn, in one of the small steamers which ply between +that port and New York. They would arrive, therefore, in less than a +month. Rowland passed this month of expectation in no very serene frame +of mind. His suggestion had had its source in the deepest places of his +agitated conscience; but there was something intolerable in the thought +of the suffering to which the event was probably subjecting those +undefended women. They had scraped together their scanty funds and +embarked, at twenty-four hours' notice, upon the dreadful sea, to +journey tremulously to shores darkened by the shadow of deeper alarms. +He could only promise himself to be their devoted friend and servant. +Preoccupied as he was, he was able to observe that expectation, +with Roderick, took a form which seemed singular even among his +characteristic singularities. If redemption--Roderick seemed to +reason--was to arrive with his mother and his affianced bride, these +last moments of error should be doubly erratic. He did nothing; but +inaction, with him, took on an unwonted air of gentle gayety. He laughed +and whistled and went often to Mrs. Light's; though Rowland knew not +in what fashion present circumstances had modified his relations with +Christina. The month ebbed away and Rowland daily expected to hear from +Roderick that he had gone to Leghorn to meet the ship. He heard nothing, +and late one evening, not having seen his friend in three or four days, +he stopped at Roderick's lodging to assure himself that he had gone at +last. A cab was standing in the street, but as it was a couple of doors +off he hardly heeded it. The hall at the foot of the staircase was dark, +like most Roman halls, and he paused in the street-doorway on hearing +the advancing footstep of a person with whom he wished to avoid coming +into collision. While he did so he heard another footstep behind him, +and turning round found that Roderick in person had just overtaken him. +At the same moment a woman's figure advanced from within, into the light +of the street-lamp, and a face, half-startled, glanced at him out of +the darkness. He gave a cry--it was the face of Mary Garland. Her glance +flew past him to Roderick, and in a second a startled exclamation broke +from her own lips. It made Rowland turn again. Roderick stood there, +pale, apparently trying to speak, but saying nothing. His lips were +parted and he was wavering slightly with a strange movement--the +movement of a man who has drunk too much. Then Rowland's eyes met Miss +Garland's again, and her own, which had rested a moment on Roderick's, +were formidable! + + + + + + +CHAPTER IX. Mary Garland + +How it befell that Roderick had failed to be in Leghorn on his mother's +arrival never clearly transpired; for he undertook to give no elaborate +explanation of his fault. He never indulged in professions (touching +personal conduct) as to the future, or in remorse as to the past, and +as he would have asked no praise if he had traveled night and day to +embrace his mother as she set foot on shore, he made (in Rowland's +presence, at least) no apology for having left her to come in search of +him. It was to be said that, thanks to an unprecedentedly fine season, +the voyage of the two ladies had been surprisingly rapid, and that, +according to common probabilities, if Roderick had left Rome on the +morrow (as he declared that he had intended), he would have had a day or +two of waiting at Leghorn. Rowland's silent inference was that +Christina Light had beguiled him into letting the time slip, and it was +accompanied with a silent inquiry whether she had done so unconsciously +or maliciously. He had told her, presumably, that his mother and his +cousin were about to arrive; and it was pertinent to remember hereupon +that she was a young lady of mysterious impulses. Rowland heard in due +time the story of the adventures of the two ladies from Northampton. +Miss Garland's wish, at Leghorn, on finding they were left at the mercy +of circumstances, had been to telegraph to Roderick and await an +answer; for she knew that their arrival was a trifle premature. But Mrs. +Hudson's maternal heart had taken the alarm. Roderick's sending for them +was, to her imagination, a confession of illness, and his not being +at Leghorn, a proof of it; an hour's delay was therefore cruel both to +herself and to him. She insisted on immediate departure; and, unskilled +as they were in the mysteries of foreign (or even of domestic) travel, +they had hurried in trembling eagerness to Rome. They had arrived late +in the evening, and, knowing nothing of inns, had got into a cab +and proceeded to Roderick's lodging. At the door, poor Mrs. Hudson's +frightened anxiety had overcome her, and she had sat quaking and crying +in the vehicle, too weak to move. Miss Garland had bravely gone in, +groped her way up the dusky staircase, reached Roderick's door, and, +with the assistance of such acquaintance with the Italian tongue as she +had culled from a phrase-book during the calmer hours of the voyage, +had learned from the old woman who had her cousin's household economy in +charge that he was in the best of health and spirits, and had gone forth +a few hours before with his hat on his ear, per divertirsi. + +These things Rowland learned during a visit he paid the two ladies the +evening after their arrival. Mrs. Hudson spoke of them at great length +and with an air of clinging confidence in Rowland which told him how +faithfully time had served him, in her imagination. But her fright was +over, though she was still catching her breath a little, like a person +dragged ashore out of waters uncomfortably deep. She was excessively +bewildered and confused, and seemed more than ever to demand a tender +handling from her friends. Before Miss Garland, Rowland was distinctly +conscious that he trembled. He wondered extremely what was going on in +her mind; what was her silent commentary on the incidents of the night +before. He wondered all the more, because he immediately perceived that +she was greatly changed since their parting, and that the change was by +no means for the worse. She was older, easier, more free, more like +a young woman who went sometimes into company. She had more beauty +as well, inasmuch as her beauty before had been the depth of her +expression, and the sources from which this beauty was fed had in +these two years evidently not wasted themselves. Rowland felt almost +instantly--he could hardly have said why: it was in her voice, in her +tone, in the air--that a total change had passed over her attitude +towards himself. She trusted him now, absolutely; whether or no she +liked him, she believed he was solid. He felt that during the coming +weeks he would need to be solid. Mrs. Hudson was at one of the smaller +hotels, and her sitting-room was frugally lighted by a couple of +candles. Rowland made the most of this dim illumination to try to detect +the afterglow of that frightened flash from Miss Garland's eyes +the night before. It had been but a flash, for what provoked it had +instantly vanished. Rowland had murmured a rapturous blessing on +Roderick's head, as he perceived him instantly apprehend the situation. +If he had been drinking, its gravity sobered him on the spot; in a +single moment he collected his wits. The next moment, with a ringing, +jovial cry, he was folding the young girl in his arms, and the next +he was beside his mother's carriage, half smothered in her sobs and +caresses. Rowland had recommended a hotel close at hand, and had then +discreetly withdrawn. Roderick was at this time doing his part superbly, +and Miss Garland's brow was serene. It was serene now, twenty-four hours +later; but nevertheless, her alarm had lasted an appreciable moment. +What had become of it? It had dropped down deep into her memory, and +it was lying there for the present in the shade. But with another +week, Rowland said to himself, it would leap erect again; the lightest +friction would strike a spark from it. Rowland thought he had schooled +himself to face the issue of Mary Garland's advent, casting it even in +a tragical phase; but in her personal presence--in which he found a +poignant mixture of the familiar and the strange--he seemed to face +it and all that it might bring with it for the first time. In vulgar +parlance, he stood uneasy in his shoes. He felt like walking on tiptoe, +not to arouse the sleeping shadows. He felt, indeed, almost like saying +that they might have their own way later, if they would only allow +to these first few days the clear light of ardent contemplation. For +Rowland at last was ardent, and all the bells within his soul were +ringing bravely in jubilee. Roderick, he learned, had been the whole +day with his mother, and had evidently responded to her purest trust. +He appeared to her appealing eyes still unspotted by the world. That +is what it is, thought Rowland, to be "gifted," to escape not only the +superficial, but the intrinsic penalties of misconduct. The two ladies +had spent the day within doors, resting from the fatigues of travel. +Miss Garland, Rowland suspected, was not so fatigued as she suffered +it to be assumed. She had remained with Mrs. Hudson, to attend to her +personal wants, which the latter seemed to think, now that she was in +a foreign land, with a southern climate and a Catholic religion, would +forthwith become very complex and formidable, though as yet they had +simply resolved themselves into a desire for a great deal of tea and for +a certain extremely familiar old black and white shawl across her feet, +as she lay on the sofa. But the sense of novelty was evidently strong +upon Miss Garland, and the light of expectation was in her eye. She was +restless and excited; she moved about the room and went often to the +window; she was observing keenly; she watched the Italian servants +intently, as they came and went; she had already had a long colloquy +with the French chambermaid, who had expounded her views on the Roman +question; she noted the small differences in the furniture, in the food, +in the sounds that came in from the street. Rowland felt, in all this, +that her intelligence, here, would have a great unfolding. He wished +immensely he might have a share in it; he wished he might show her Rome. +That, of course, would be Roderick's office. But he promised himself at +least to take advantage of off-hours. + +"It behooves you to appreciate your good fortune," he said to her. "To +be young and elastic, and yet old enough and wise enough to discriminate +and reflect, and to come to Italy for the first time--that is one of the +greatest pleasures that life offers us. It is but right to remind you of +it, so that you make the most of opportunity and do not accuse yourself, +later, of having wasted the precious season." + +Miss Garland looked at him, smiling intently, and went to the window +again. "I expect to enjoy it," she said. "Don't be afraid; I am not +wasteful." + +"I am afraid we are not qualified, you know," said Mrs. Hudson. "We are +told that you must know so much, that you must have read so many books. +Our taste has not been cultivated. When I was a young lady at school, I +remember I had a medal, with a pink ribbon, for 'proficiency in Ancient +History'--the seven kings, or is it the seven hills? and Quintus Curtius +and Julius Caesar and--and that period, you know. I believe I have my +medal somewhere in a drawer, now, but I have forgotten all about the +kings. But after Roderick came to Italy we tried to learn something +about it. Last winter Mary used to read 'Corinne' to me in the evenings, +and in the mornings she used to read another book, to herself. What was +it, Mary, that book that was so long, you know,--in fifteen volumes?" + +"It was Sismondi's Italian Republics," said Mary, simply. + +Rowland could not help laughing; whereupon Mary blushed. "Did you finish +it?" he asked. + +"Yes, and began another--a shorter one--Roscoe's Leo the Tenth." + +"Did you find them interesting?" + +"Oh yes." + +"Do you like history?" + +"Some of it." + +"That 's a woman's answer! And do you like art?" + +She paused a moment. "I have never seen it!" + +"You have great advantages, now, my dear, with Roderick and Mr. Mallet," +said Mrs. Hudson. "I am sure no young lady ever had such advantages. You +come straight to the highest authorities. Roderick, I suppose, will show +you the practice of art, and Mr. Mallet, perhaps, if he will be so +good, will show you the theory. As an artist's wife, you ought to know +something about it." + +"One learns a good deal about it, here, by simply living," said Rowland; +"by going and coming about one's daily avocations." + +"Dear, dear, how wonderful that we should be here in the midst of it!" +murmured Mrs. Hudson. "To think of art being out there in the streets! +We did n't see much of it last evening, as we drove from the depot. But +the streets were so dark and we were so frightened! But we are very easy +now; are n't we, Mary?" + +"I am very happy," said Mary, gravely, and wandered back to the window +again. + +Roderick came in at this moment and kissed his mother, and then +went over and joined Miss Garland. Rowland sat with Mrs. Hudson, who +evidently had a word which she deemed of some value for his private ear. +She followed Roderick with intensely earnest eyes. + +"I wish to tell you, sir," she said, "how very grateful--how very +thankful--what a happy mother I am! I feel as if I owed it all to you, +sir. To find my poor boy so handsome, so prosperous, so elegant, so +famous--and ever to have doubted of you! What must you think of me? You +'re our guardian angel, sir. I often say so to Mary." + +Rowland wore, in response to this speech, a rather haggard brow. He +could only murmur that he was glad she found Roderick looking well. +He had of course promptly asked himself whether the best discretion +dictated that he should give her a word of warning--just turn the handle +of the door through which, later, disappointment might enter. He had +determined to say nothing, but simply to wait in silence for Roderick to +find effective inspiration in those confidently expectant eyes. It was +to be supposed that he was seeking for it now; he remained sometime at +the window with his cousin. But at last he turned away and came over to +the fireside with a contraction of the eyebrows which seemed to +intimate that Miss Garland's influence was for the moment, at least, +not soothing. She presently followed him, and for an instant Rowland +observed her watching him as if she thought him strange. "Strange +enough," thought Rowland, "he may seem to her, if he will!" Roderick +directed his glance to his friend with a certain peremptory air, +which--roughly interpreted--was equivalent to a request to share the +intellectual expense of entertaining the ladies. "Good heavens!" Rowland +cried within himself; "is he already tired of them?" + +"To-morrow, of course, we must begin to put you through the mill," +Roderick said to his mother. "And be it hereby known to Mallet that we +count upon him to turn the wheel." + +"I will do as you please, my son," said Mrs. Hudson. "So long as I have +you with me I don't care where I go. We must not take up too much of Mr. +Mallet's time." + +"His time is inexhaustible; he has nothing under the sun to do. Have +you, Rowland? If you had seen the big hole I have been making in it! +Where will you go first? You have your choice--from the Scala Santa to +the Cloaca Maxima." + +"Let us take things in order," said Rowland. "We will go first to Saint +Peter's. Miss Garland, I hope you are impatient to see Saint Peter's." + +"I would like to go first to Roderick's studio," said Miss Garland. + +"It 's a very nasty place," said Roderick. "At your pleasure!" + +"Yes, we must see your beautiful things before we can look contentedly +at anything else," said Mrs. Hudson. + +"I have no beautiful things," said Roderick. "You may see what there is! +What makes you look so odd?" + +This inquiry was abruptly addressed to his mother, who, in response, +glanced appealingly at Mary and raised a startled hand to her smooth +hair. + +"No, it 's your face," said Roderick. "What has happened to it these two +years? It has changed its expression." + +"Your mother has prayed a great deal," said Miss Garland, simply. + +"I did n't suppose, of course, it was from doing anything bad! It makes +you a very good face--very interesting, very solemn. It has very fine +lines in it; something might be done with it." And Rowland held one of +the candles near the poor lady's head. + +She was covered with confusion. "My son, my son," she said with dignity, +"I don't understand you." + +In a flash all his old alacrity had come to him. "I suppose a man may +admire his own mother!" he cried. "If you please, madame, you 'll sit to +me for that head. I see it, I see it! I will make something that a queen +can't get done for her." + +Rowland respectfully urged her to assent; he saw Roderick was in the +vein and would probably do something eminently original. She gave +her promise, at last, after many soft, inarticulate protests and a +frightened petition that she might be allowed to keep her knitting. + +Rowland returned the next day, with plenty of zeal for the part Roderick +had assigned to him. It had been arranged that they should go to Saint +Peter's. Roderick was in high good-humor, and, in the carriage, was +watching his mother with a fine mixture of filial and professional +tenderness. Mrs. Hudson looked up mistrustfully at the tall, shabby +houses, and grasped the side of the barouche in her hand, as if she +were in a sail-boat, in dangerous waters. Rowland sat opposite to Miss +Garland. She was totally oblivious of her companions; from the moment +the carriage left the hotel, she sat gazing, wide-eyed and absorbed, at +the objects about them. If Rowland had felt disposed he might have made +a joke of her intense seriousness. From time to time he told her the +name of a place or a building, and she nodded, without looking at him. +When they emerged into the great square between Bernini's colonnades, +she laid her hand on Mrs. Hudson's arm and sank back in the carriage, +staring up at the vast yellow facade of the church. Inside the +church, Roderick gave his arm to his mother, and Rowland constituted +himself the especial guide of Miss Garland. He walked with her slowly +everywhere, and made the entire circuit, telling her all he knew of +the history of the building. This was a great deal, but she listened +attentively, keeping her eyes fixed on the dome. To Rowland himself +it had never seemed so radiantly sublime as at these moments; he felt +almost as if he had contrived it himself and had a right to be proud of +it. He left Miss Garland a while on the steps of the choir, where she +had seated herself to rest, and went to join their companions. Mrs. +Hudson was watching a great circle of tattered contadini, who were +kneeling before the image of Saint Peter. The fashion of their tatters +fascinated her; she stood gazing at them in a sort of terrified pity, +and could not be induced to look at anything else. Rowland went back to +Miss Garland and sat down beside her. + +"Well, what do you think of Europe?" he asked, smiling. + +"I think it 's horrible!" she said abruptly. + +"Horrible?" + +"I feel so strangely--I could almost cry." + +"How is it that you feel?" + +"So sorry for the poor past, that seems to have died here, in my heart, +in an hour!" + +"But, surely, you 're pleased--you 're interested." + +"I am overwhelmed. Here in a single hour, everything is changed. It is +as if a wall in my mind had been knocked down at a stroke. Before me +lies an immense new world, and it makes the old one, the poor little +narrow, familiar one I have always known, seem pitiful." + +"But you did n't come to Rome to keep your eyes fastened on that narrow +little world. Forget it, turn your back on it, and enjoy all this." + +"I want to enjoy it; but as I sat here just now, looking up at that +golden mist in the dome, I seemed to see in it the vague shapes of +certain people and things at home. To enjoy, as you say, as these things +demand of one to enjoy them, is to break with one's past. And breaking +is a pain!" + +"Don't mind the pain, and it will cease to trouble you. Enjoy, enjoy; it +is your duty. Yours especially!" + +"Why mine especially?" + +"Because I am very sure that you have a mind capable of doing the +most liberal justice to everything interesting and beautiful. You are +extremely intelligent." + +"You don't know," said Miss Garland, simply. + +"In that matter one feels. I really think that I know better than you. +I don't want to seem patronizing, but I suspect that your mind is +susceptible of a great development. Give it the best company, trust it, +let it go!" + +She looked away from him for some moments, down the gorgeous vista of +the great church. "But what you say," she said at last, "means change!" + +"Change for the better!" cried Rowland. + +"How can one tell? As one stands, one knows the worst. It seems to me +very frightful to develop," she added, with her complete smile. + +"One is in for it in one way or another, and one might as well do it +with a good grace as with a bad! Since one can't escape life, it is +better to take it by the hand." + +"Is this what you call life?" she asked. + +"What do you mean by 'this'?" + +"Saint Peter's--all this splendor, all Rome--pictures, ruins, statues, +beggars, monks." + +"It is not all of it, but it is a large part of it. All these things +are impregnated with life; they are the fruits of an old and complex +civilization." + +"An old and complex civilization: I am afraid I don't like that." + +"Don't conclude on that point just yet. Wait till you have tested +it. While you wait, you will see an immense number of very beautiful +things--things that you are made to understand. They won't leave you as +they found you; then you can judge. Don't tell me I know nothing about +your understanding. I have a right to assume it." + +Miss Garland gazed awhile aloft in the dome. "I am not sure I understand +that," she said. + +"I hope, at least, that at a cursory glance it pleases you," said +Rowland. "You need n't be afraid to tell the truth. What strikes some +people is that it is so remarkably small." + +"Oh, it's large enough; it's very wonderful. There are things in Rome, +then," she added in a moment, turning and looking at him, "that are +very, very beautiful?" + +"Lots of them." + +"Some of the most beautiful things in the world?" + +"Unquestionably." + +"What are they? which things have most beauty?" + +"That is according to taste. I should say the statues." + +"How long will it take to see them all? to know, at least, something +about them?" + +"You can see them all, as far as mere seeing goes, in a fortnight. But +to know them is a thing for one's leisure. The more time you spend among +them, the more you care for them." After a moment's hesitation he went +on: "Why should you grudge time? It 's all in your way, since you are to +be an artist's wife." + +"I have thought of that," she said. "It may be that I shall always live +here, among the most beautiful things in the world!" + +"Very possibly! I should like to see you ten years hence." + +"I dare say I shall seem greatly altered. But I am sure of one thing." + +"Of what?" + +"That for the most part I shall be quite the same. I ask nothing better +than to believe the fine things you say about my understanding, but even +if they are true, it won't matter. I shall be what I was made, what I am +now--a young woman from the country! The fruit of a civilization not old +and complex, but new and simple." + +"I am delighted to hear it: that 's an excellent foundation." + +"Perhaps, if you show me anything more, you will not always think so +kindly of it. Therefore I warn you." + +"I am not frightened. I should like vastly to say something to you: Be +what you are, be what you choose; but do, sometimes, as I tell you." + +If Rowland was not frightened, neither, perhaps, was Miss Garland; but +she seemed at least slightly disturbed. She proposed that they should +join their companions. + +Mrs. Hudson spoke under her breath; she could not be accused of the want +of reverence sometimes attributed to Protestants in the great Catholic +temples. "Mary, dear," she whispered, "suppose we had to kiss that +dreadful brass toe. If I could only have kept our door-knocker, at +Northampton, as bright as that! I think it's so heathenish; but Roderick +says he thinks it 's sublime." + +Roderick had evidently grown a trifle perverse. "It 's sublimer than +anything that your religion asks you to do!" he exclaimed. + +"Surely our religion sometimes gives us very difficult duties," said +Miss Garland. + +"The duty of sitting in a whitewashed meeting-house and listening to a +nasal Puritan! I admit that 's difficult. But it 's not sublime. I am +speaking of ceremonies, of forms. It is in my line, you know, to make +much of forms. I think this is a very beautiful one. Could n't you do +it?" he demanded, looking at his cousin. + +She looked back at him intently and then shook her head. "I think not!" + +"Why not?" + +"I don't know; I could n't!" + +During this little discussion our four friends were standing near the +venerable image of Saint Peter, and a squalid, savage-looking peasant, +a tattered ruffian of the most orthodox Italian aspect, had been +performing his devotions before it. He turned away, crossing himself, +and Mrs. Hudson gave a little shudder of horror. + +"After that," she murmured, "I suppose he thinks he is as good as any +one! And here is another. Oh, what a beautiful person!" + +A young lady had approached the sacred effigy, after having wandered +away from a group of companions. She kissed the brazen toe, touched it +with her forehead, and turned round, facing our friends. Rowland then +recognized Christina Light. He was stupefied: had she suddenly embraced +the Catholic faith? It was but a few weeks before that she had treated +him to a passionate profession of indifference. Had she entered the +church to put herself en regle with what was expected of a Princess +Casamassima? While Rowland was mentally asking these questions she was +approaching him and his friends, on her way to the great altar. At first +she did not perceive them. + +Mary Garland had been gazing at her. "You told me," she said gently, to +Rowland, "that Rome contained some of the most beautiful things in the +world. This surely is one of them!" + +At this moment Christina's eye met Rowland's and before giving him +any sign of recognition she glanced rapidly at his companions. She saw +Roderick, but she gave him no bow; she looked at Mrs. Hudson, she looked +at Mary Garland. At Mary Garland she looked fixedly, piercingly, from +head to foot, as the slow pace at which she was advancing made possible. +Then suddenly, as if she had perceived Roderick for the first time, +she gave him a charming nod, a radiant smile. In a moment he was at her +side. She stopped, and he stood talking to her; she continued to look at +Miss Garland. + +"Why, Roderick knows her!" cried Mrs. Hudson, in an awe-struck whisper. +"I supposed she was some great princess." + +"She is--almost!" said Rowland. "She is the most beautiful girl in +Europe, and Roderick has made her bust." + +"Her bust? Dear, dear!" murmured Mrs. Hudson, vaguely shocked. "What a +strange bonnet!" + +"She has very strange eyes," said Mary, and turned away. + +The two ladies, with Rowland, began to descend toward the door of the +church. On their way they passed Mrs. Light, the Cavaliere, and the +poodle, and Rowland informed his companions of the relation in which +these personages stood to Roderick's young lady. + +"Think of it, Mary!" said Mrs. Hudson. "What splendid people he must +know! No wonder he found Northampton dull!" + +"I like the poor little old gentleman," said Mary. + +"Why do you call him poor?" Rowland asked, struck with the observation. + +"He seems so!" she answered simply. + +As they were reaching the door they were overtaken by Roderick, whose +interview with Miss Light had perceptibly brightened his eye. "So you +are acquainted with princesses!" said his mother softly, as they passed +into the portico. + +"Miss Light is not a princess!" said Roderick, curtly. + +"But Mr. Mallet says so," urged Mrs. Hudson, rather disappointed. + +"I meant that she was going to be!" said Rowland. + +"It 's by no means certain that she is even going to be!" Roderick +answered. + +"Ah," said Rowland, "I give it up!" + +Roderick almost immediately demanded that his mother should sit to him, +at his studio, for her portrait, and Rowland ventured to add another +word of urgency. If Roderick's idea really held him, it was an immense +pity that his inspiration should be wasted; inspiration, in these days, +had become too precious a commodity. It was arranged therefore that, for +the present, during the mornings, Mrs. Hudson should place herself at +her son's service. This involved but little sacrifice, for the good +lady's appetite for antiquities was diminutive and bird-like, the +usual round of galleries and churches fatigued her, and she was glad +to purchase immunity from sight-seeing by a regular afternoon drive. It +became natural in this way that, Miss Garland having her mornings +free, Rowland should propose to be the younger lady's guide in whatever +explorations she might be disposed to make. She said she knew nothing +about it, but she had a great curiosity, and would be glad to see +anything that he would show her. Rowland could not find it in his heart +to accuse Roderick of neglect of the young girl; for it was natural that +the inspirations of a capricious man of genius, when they came, should +be imperious; but of course he wondered how Miss Garland felt, as the +young man's promised wife, on being thus expeditiously handed over to +another man to be entertained. However she felt, he was certain he would +know little about it. There had been, between them, none but indirect +allusions to her engagement, and Rowland had no desire to discuss it +more largely; for he had no quarrel with matters as they stood. They +wore the same delightful aspect through the lovely month of May, and the +ineffable charm of Rome at that period seemed but the radiant sympathy +of nature with his happy opportunity. The weather was divine; each +particular morning, as he walked from his lodging to Mrs. Hudson's +modest inn, seemed to have a blessing upon it. The elder lady had +usually gone off to the studio, and he found Miss Garland sitting alone +at the open window, turning the leaves of some book of artistic or +antiquarian reference that he had given her. She always had a smile, she +was always eager, alert, responsive. She might be grave by nature, she +might be sad by circumstance, she might have secret doubts and pangs, +but she was essentially young and strong and fresh and able to enjoy. +Her enjoyment was not especially demonstrative, but it was curiously +diligent. Rowland felt that it was not amusement and sensation that she +coveted, but knowledge--facts that she might noiselessly lay away, piece +by piece, in the perfumed darkness of her serious mind, so that, under +this head at least, she should not be a perfectly portionless bride. She +never merely pretended to understand; she let things go, in her modest +fashion, at the moment, but she watched them on their way, over the +crest of the hill, and when her fancy seemed not likely to be missed it +went hurrying after them and ran breathless at their side, as it were, +and begged them for the secret. Rowland took an immense satisfaction in +observing that she never mistook the second-best for the best, and +that when she was in the presence of a masterpiece, she recognized the +occasion as a mighty one. She said many things which he thought very +profound--that is, if they really had the fine intention he suspected. +This point he usually tried to ascertain; but he was obliged to proceed +cautiously, for in her mistrustful shyness it seemed to her that +cross-examination must necessarily be ironical. She wished to know just +where she was going--what she would gain or lose. This was partly on +account of a native intellectual purity, a temper of mind that had +not lived with its door ajar, as one might say, upon the high-road of +thought, for passing ideas to drop in and out at their pleasure; but had +made much of a few long visits from guests cherished and honored--guests +whose presence was a solemnity. But it was even more because she was +conscious of a sort of growing self-respect, a sense of devoting her +life not to her own ends, but to those of another, whose life would be +large and brilliant. She had been brought up to think a great deal of +"nature" and nature's innocent laws; but now Rowland had spoken to her +ardently of culture; her strenuous fancy had responded, and she was +pursuing culture into retreats where the need for some intellectual +effort gave a noble severity to her purpose. She wished to be very sure, +to take only the best, knowing it to be the best. There was something +exquisite in this labor of pious self-adornment, and Rowland helped it, +though its fruits were not for him. In spite of her lurking rigidity +and angularity, it was very evident that a nervous, impulsive sense +of beauty was constantly at play in her soul, and that her actual +experience of beautiful things moved her in some very deep places. For +all that she was not demonstrative, that her manner was simple, and her +small-talk of no very ample flow; for all that, as she had said, she was +a young woman from the country, and the country was West Nazareth, and +West Nazareth was in its way a stubborn little fact, she was feeling +the direct influence of the great amenities of the world, and they were +shaping her with a divinely intelligent touch. "Oh exquisite virtue of +circumstance!" cried Rowland to himself, "that takes us by the hand +and leads us forth out of corners where, perforce, our attitudes are a +trifle contracted, and beguiles us into testing mistrusted faculties!" +When he said to Mary Garland that he wished he might see her ten years +hence, he was paying mentally an equal compliment to circumstance and +to the girl herself. Capacity was there, it could be freely trusted; +observation would have but to sow its generous seed. "A superior +woman"--the idea had harsh associations, but he watched it imaging +itself in the vagueness of the future with a kind of hopeless +confidence. + +They went a great deal to Saint Peter's, for which Rowland had an +exceeding affection, a large measure of which he succeeded in infusing +into his companion. She confessed very speedily that to climb the long, +low, yellow steps, beneath the huge florid facade, and then to push +the ponderous leathern apron of the door, to find one's self confronted +with that builded, luminous sublimity, was a sensation of which the +keenness renewed itself with surprising generosity. In those days the +hospitality of the Vatican had not been curtailed, and it was an easy +and delightful matter to pass from the gorgeous church to the solemn +company of the antique marbles. Here Rowland had with his companion a +great deal of talk, and found himself expounding aesthetics a perte de +vue. He discovered that she made notes of her likes and dislikes in a +new-looking little memorandum book, and he wondered to what extent she +reported his own discourse. These were charming hours. The galleries had +been so cold all winter that Rowland had been an exile from them; but +now that the sun was already scorching in the great square between the +colonnades, where the twin fountains flashed almost fiercely, the marble +coolness of the long, image-bordered vistas made them a delightful +refuge. The great herd of tourists had almost departed, and our two +friends often found themselves, for half an hour at a time, in sole and +tranquil possession of the beautiful Braccio Nuovo. Here and there was +an open window, where they lingered and leaned, looking out into the +warm, dead air, over the towers of the city, at the soft-hued, historic +hills, at the stately shabby gardens of the palace, or at some sunny, +empty, grass-grown court, lost in the heart of the labyrinthine pile. +They went sometimes into the chambers painted by Raphael, and of course +paid their respects to the Sistine Chapel; but Mary's evident preference +was to linger among the statues. Once, when they were standing before +that noblest of sculptured portraits, the so-called Demosthenes, in the +Braccio Nuovo, she made the only spontaneous allusion to her projected +marriage, direct or indirect, that had yet fallen from her lips. "I am +so glad," she said, "that Roderick is a sculptor and not a painter." + +The allusion resided chiefly in the extreme earnestness with which the +words were uttered. Rowland immediately asked her the reason of her +gladness. + +"It 's not that painting is not fine," she said, "but that sculpture is +finer. It is more manly." + +Rowland tried at times to make her talk about herself, but in this she +had little skill. She seemed to him so much older, so much more pliant +to social uses than when he had seen her at home, that he had a +desire to draw from her some categorical account of her occupation and +thoughts. He told her his desire and what suggested it. "It appears, +then," she said, "that, after all, one can grow at home!" + +"Unquestionably, if one has a motive. Your growth, then, was +unconscious? You did not watch yourself and water your roots?" + +She paid no heed to his question. "I am willing to grant," she said, +"that Europe is more delightful than I supposed; and I don't think that, +mentally, I had been stingy. But you must admit that America is better +than you have supposed." + +"I have not a fault to find with the country which produced you!" +Rowland thought he might risk this, smiling. + +"And yet you want me to change--to assimilate Europe, I suppose you +would call it." + +"I have felt that desire only on general principles. Shall I tell you +what I feel now? America has made you thus far; let America finish you! +I should like to ship you back without delay and see what becomes +of you. That sounds unkind, and I admit there is a cold intellectual +curiosity in it." + +She shook her head. "The charm is broken; the thread is snapped! I +prefer to remain here." + +Invariably, when he was inclined to make of something they were talking +of a direct application to herself, she wholly failed to assist him; she +made no response. Whereupon, once, with a spark of ardent irritation, he +told her she was very "secretive." At this she colored a little, and +he said that in default of any larger confidence it would at least be +a satisfaction to make her confess to that charge. But even this +satisfaction she denied him, and his only revenge was in making, two +or three times afterward, a softly ironical allusion to her slyness. He +told her that she was what is called in French a sournoise. "Very good," +she answered, almost indifferently, "and now please tell me again--I +have forgotten it--what you said an 'architrave' was." + +It was on the occasion of her asking him a question of this kind that +he charged her, with a humorous emphasis in which, also, if she had +been curious in the matter, she might have detected a spark of restless +ardor, with having an insatiable avidity for facts. "You are always +snatching at information," he said; "you will never consent to have any +disinterested conversation." + +She frowned a little, as she always did when he arrested their talk upon +something personal. But this time she assented, and said that she knew +she was eager for facts. "One must make hay while the sun shines," she +added. "I must lay up a store of learning against dark days. Somehow, +my imagination refuses to compass the idea that I may be in Rome +indefinitely." + +He knew he had divined her real motives; but he felt that if he might +have said to her--what it seemed impossible to say--that fortune +possibly had in store for her a bitter disappointment, she would have +been capable of answering, immediately after the first sense of pain, +"Say then that I am laying up resources for solitude!" + +But all the accusations were not his. He had been watching, once, during +some brief argument, to see whether she would take her forefinger out +of her Murray, into which she had inserted it to keep a certain page. +It would have been hard to say why this point interested him, for he had +not the slightest real apprehension that she was dry or pedantic. The +simple human truth was, the poor fellow was jealous of science. +In preaching science to her, he had over-estimated his powers of +self-effacement. Suddenly, sinking science for the moment, she looked at +him very frankly and began to frown. At the same time she let the Murray +slide down to the ground, and he was so charmed with this circumstance +that he made no movement to pick it up. + +"You are singularly inconsistent, Mr. Mallet," she said. + +"How?" + +"That first day that we were in Saint Peter's you said things that +inspired me. You bade me plunge into all this. I was all ready; I only +wanted a little push; yours was a great one; here I am in mid-ocean! And +now, as a reward for my bravery, you have repeatedly snubbed me." + +"Distinctly, then," said Rowland, "I strike you as inconsistent?" + +"That is the word." + +"Then I have played my part very ill." + +"Your part? What is your part supposed to have been?" + +He hesitated a moment. "That of usefulness, pure and simple." + +"I don't understand you!" she said; and picking up her Murray, she +fairly buried herself in it. + +That evening he said something to her which necessarily increased her +perplexity, though it was not uttered with such an intention. "Do you +remember," he asked, "my begging you, the other day, to do occasionally +as I told you? It seemed to me you tacitly consented." + +"Very tacitly." + +"I have never yet really presumed on your consent. But now I would +like you to do this: whenever you catch me in the act of what you call +inconsistency, ask me the meaning of some architectural term. I will +know what you mean; a word to the wise!" + +One morning they spent among the ruins of the Palatine, that sunny +desolation of crumbling, over-tangled fragments, half excavated and half +identified, known as the Palace of the Caesars. Nothing in Rome is more +interesting, and no locality has such a confusion of picturesque charms. +It is a vast, rambling garden, where you stumble at every step on the +disinterred bones of the past; where damp, frescoed corridors, relics, +possibly, of Nero's Golden House, serve as gigantic bowers, and where, +in the springtime, you may sit on a Latin inscription, in the shade of +a flowering almond-tree, and admire the composition of the Campagna. +The day left a deep impression on Rowland's mind, partly owing to its +intrinsic sweetness, and partly because his companion, on this occasion, +let her Murray lie unopened for an hour, and asked several questions +irrelevant to the Consuls and the Caesars. She had begun by saying +that it was coming over her, after all, that Rome was a ponderously sad +place. The sirocco was gently blowing, the air was heavy, she was tired, +she looked a little pale. + +"Everything," she said, "seems to say that all things are vanity. If one +is doing something, I suppose one feels a certain strength within one to +contradict it. But if one is idle, surely it is depressing to live, year +after year, among the ashes of things that once were mighty. If I were +to remain here I should either become permanently 'low,' as they say, or +I would take refuge in some dogged daily work." + +"What work?" + +"I would open a school for those beautiful little beggars; though I am +sadly afraid I should never bring myself to scold them." + +"I am idle," said Rowland, "and yet I have kept up a certain spirit." + +"I don't call you idle," she answered with emphasis. + +"It is very good of you. Do you remember our talking about that in +Northampton?" + +"During that picnic? Perfectly. Has your coming abroad succeeded, for +yourself, as well as you hoped?" + +"I think I may say that it has turned out as well as I expected." + +"Are you happy?" + +"Don't I look so?" + +"So it seems to me. But"--and she hesitated a moment--"I imagine you +look happy whether you are so or not." + +"I 'm like that ancient comic mask that we saw just now in yonder +excavated fresco: I am made to grin." + +"Shall you come back here next winter?" + +"Very probably." + +"Are you settled here forever?" + +"'Forever' is a long time. I live only from year to year." + +"Shall you never marry?" + +Rowland gave a laugh. "'Forever'--'never!' You handle large ideas. I +have not taken a vow of celibacy." + +"Would n't you like to marry?" + +"I should like it immensely." + +To this she made no rejoinder: but presently she asked, "Why don't you +write a book?" + +Rowland laughed, this time more freely. "A book! What book should I +write?" + +"A history; something about art or antiquities." + +"I have neither the learning nor the talent." + +She made no attempt to contradict him; she simply said she had supposed +otherwise. "You ought, at any rate," she continued in a moment, "to do +something for yourself." + +"For myself? I should have supposed that if ever a man seemed to live +for himself"-- + +"I don't know how it seems," she interrupted, "to careless observers. +But we know--we know that you have lived--a great deal--for us." + +Her voice trembled slightly, and she brought out the last words with a +little jerk. + +"She has had that speech on her conscience," thought Rowland; "she has +been thinking she owed it to me, and it seemed to her that now was her +time to make it and have done with it." + +She went on in a way which confirmed these reflections, speaking with +due solemnity. "You ought to be made to know very well what we all feel. +Mrs. Hudson tells me that she has told you what she feels. Of course +Roderick has expressed himself. I have been wanting to thank you too; I +do, from my heart." + +Rowland made no answer; his face at this moment resembled the tragic +mask much more than the comic. But Miss Garland was not looking at him; +she had taken up her Murray again. + +In the afternoon she usually drove with Mrs. Hudson, but Rowland +frequently saw her again in the evening. He was apt to spend half an +hour in the little sitting-room at the hotel-pension on the slope of the +Pincian, and Roderick, who dined regularly with his mother, was present +on these occasions. Rowland saw him little at other times, and for +three weeks no observations passed between them on the subject of Mrs. +Hudson's advent. To Rowland's vision, as the weeks elapsed, the benefits +to proceed from the presence of the two ladies remained shrouded in +mystery. Roderick was peculiarly inscrutable. He was preoccupied with +his work on his mother's portrait, which was taking a very happy turn; +and often, when he sat silent, with his hands in his pockets, his legs +outstretched, his head thrown back, and his eyes on vacancy, it was to +be supposed that his fancy was hovering about the half-shaped image in +his studio, exquisite even in its immaturity. He said little, but his +silence did not of necessity imply disaffection, for he evidently found +it a deep personal luxury to lounge away the hours in an atmosphere so +charged with feminine tenderness. He was not alert, he suggested nothing +in the way of excursions (Rowland was the prime mover in such as were +attempted), but he conformed passively at least to the tranquil temper +of the two women, and made no harsh comments nor sombre allusions. +Rowland wondered whether he had, after all, done his friend injustice in +denying him the sentiment of duty. He refused invitations, to Rowland's +knowledge, in order to dine at the jejune little table-d'hote; wherever +his spirit might be, he was present in the flesh with religious +constancy. Mrs. Hudson's felicity betrayed itself in a remarkable +tendency to finish her sentences and wear her best black silk gown. Her +tremors had trembled away; she was like a child who discovers that +the shaggy monster it has so long been afraid to touch is an inanimate +terror, compounded of straw and saw-dust, and that it is even a safe +audacity to tickle its nose. As to whether the love-knot of which Mary +Garland had the keeping still held firm, who should pronounce? The young +girl, as we know, did not wear it on her sleeve. She always sat at +the table, near the candles, with a piece of needle-work. This was the +attitude in which Rowland had first seen her, and he thought, now that +he had seen her in several others, it was not the least becoming. + + + + + + +CHAPTER X. The Cavaliere + +There befell at last a couple of days during which Rowland was unable +to go to the hotel. Late in the evening of the second one Roderick came +into his room. In a few moments he announced that he had finished the +bust of his mother. + +"And it 's magnificent!" he declared. "It 's one of the best things I +have done." + +"I believe it," said Rowland. "Never again talk to me about your +inspiration being dead." + +"Why not? This may be its last kick! I feel very tired. But it 's a +masterpiece, though I do say it. They tell us we owe so much to our +parents. Well, I 've paid the filial debt handsomely!" He walked up and +down the room a few moments, with the purpose of his visit evidently +still undischarged. "There 's one thing more I want to say," he +presently resumed. "I feel as if I ought to tell you!" He stopped before +Rowland with his head high and his brilliant glance unclouded. "Your +invention is a failure!" + +"My invention?" Rowland repeated. + +"Bringing out my mother and Mary." + +"A failure?" + +"It 's no use! They don't help me." + +Rowland had fancied that Roderick had no more surprises for him; but he +was now staring at him, wide-eyed. + +"They bore me!" Roderick went on. + +"Oh, oh!" cried Rowland. + +"Listen, listen!" said Roderick with perfect gentleness. "I am not +complaining of them; I am simply stating a fact. I am very sorry for +them; I am greatly disappointed." + +"Have you given them a fair trial?" + +"Should n't you say so? It seems to me I have behaved beautifully." + +"You have done very well; I have been building great hopes on it." + +"I have done too well, then. After the first forty-eight hours my own +hopes collapsed. But I determined to fight it out; to stand within the +temple; to let the spirit of the Lord descend! Do you want to know the +result? Another week of it, and I shall begin to hate them. I shall want +to poison them." + +"Miserable boy!" cried Rowland. "They are the loveliest of women!" + +"Very likely! But they mean no more to me than a Bible text to an +atheist!" + +"I utterly fail," said Rowland, in a moment, "to understand your +relation to Miss Garland." + +Roderick shrugged his shoulders and let his hands drop at his sides. +"She adores me! That 's my relation." And he smiled strangely. + +"Have you broken your engagement?" + +"Broken it? You can't break a ray of moonshine." + +"Have you absolutely no affection for her?" + +Roderick placed his hand on his heart and held it there a moment. +"Dead--dead--dead!" he said at last. + +"I wonder," Rowland asked presently, "if you begin to comprehend the +beauty of Miss Garland's character. She is a person of the highest +merit." + +"Evidently--or I would not have cared for her!" + +"Has that no charm for you now?" + +"Oh, don't force a fellow to say rude things!" + +"Well, I can only say that you don't know what you are giving up." + +Roderick gave a quickened glance. "Do you know, so well?" + +"I admire her immeasurably." + +Roderick smiled, we may almost say sympathetically. "You have not wasted +time." + +Rowland's thoughts were crowding upon him fast. If Roderick was +resolute, why oppose him? If Mary was to be sacrificed, why, in that +way, try to save her? There was another way; it only needed a little +presumption to make it possible. Rowland tried, mentally, to summon +presumption to his aid; but whether it came or not, it found conscience +there before it. Conscience had only three words, but they were cogent. +"For her sake--for her sake," it dumbly murmured, and Rowland resumed +his argument. "I don't know what I would n't do," he said, "rather than +that Miss Garland should suffer." + +"There is one thing to be said," Roderick answered reflectively. "She is +very strong." + +"Well, then, if she 's strong, believe that with a longer chance, a +better chance, she will still regain your affection." + +"Do you know what you ask?" cried Roderick. "Make love to a girl I +hate?" + +"You hate?" + +"As her lover, I should hate her!" + +"Listen to me!" said Rowland with vehemence. + +"No, listen you to me! Do you really urge my marrying a woman who would +bore me to death? I would let her know it in very good season, and then +where would she be?" + +Rowland walked the length of the room a couple of times and then stopped +suddenly. "Go your way, then! Say all this to her, not to me!" + +"To her? I am afraid of her; I want you to help me." + +"My dear Roderick," said Rowland with an eloquent smile, "I can help you +no more!" + +Roderick frowned, hesitated a moment, and then took his hat. "Oh, well," +he said, "I am not so afraid of her as all that!" And he turned, as if +to depart. + +"Stop!" cried Rowland, as he laid his hand on the door. + +Roderick paused and stood waiting, with his irritated brow. + +"Come back; sit down there and listen to me. Of anything you were to say +in your present state of mind you would live most bitterly to repent. +You don't know what you really think; you don't know what you really +feel. You don't know your own mind; you don't do justice to Miss +Garland. All this is impossible here, under these circumstances. You 're +blind, you 're deaf, you 're under a spell. To break it, you must leave +Rome." + +"Leave Rome! Rome was never so dear to me." + +"That 's not of the smallest consequence. Leave it instantly." + +"And where shall I go?" + +"Go to some place where you may be alone with your mother and Miss +Garland." + +"Alone? You will not come?" + +"Oh, if you desire it, I will come." + +Roderick inclining his head a little, looked at his friend askance. "I +don't understand you," he said; "I wish you liked Miss Garland either a +little less, or a little more." + +Rowland felt himself coloring, but he paid no heed to Roderick's speech. +"You ask me to help you," he went on. "On these present conditions I can +do nothing. But if you will postpone all decision as to the continuance +of your engagement a couple of months longer, and meanwhile leave Rome, +leave Italy, I will do what I can to 'help you,' as you say, in the +event of your still wishing to break it." + +"I must do without your help then! Your conditions are impossible. I +will leave Rome at the time I have always intended--at the end of June. +My rooms and my mother's are taken till then; all my arrangements are +made accordingly. Then, I will depart; not before." + +"You are not frank," said Rowland. "Your real reason for staying has +nothing to do with your rooms." + +Roderick's face betrayed neither embarrassment nor resentment. "If I 'm +not frank, it 's for the first time in my life. Since you know so much +about my real reason, let me hear it! No, stop!" he suddenly added, "I +won't trouble you. You are right, I have a motive. On the twenty-fourth +of June Miss Light is to be married. I take an immense interest in all +that concerns her, and I wish to be present at her wedding." + +"But you said the other day at Saint Peter's that it was by no means +certain her marriage would take place." + +"Apparently I was wrong: the invitations, I am told, are going out." + +Rowland felt that it would be utterly vain to remonstrate, and that the +only thing for him was to make the best terms possible. "If I offer no +further opposition to your waiting for Miss Light's marriage," he said, +"will you promise, meanwhile and afterwards, for a certain period, to +defer to my judgment--to say nothing that may be a cause of suffering to +Miss Garland?" + +"For a certain period? What period?" Roderick demanded. + +"Ah, don't drive so close a bargain! Don't you understand that I have +taken you away from her, that I suffer in every nerve in consequence, +and that I must do what I can to restore you?" + +"Do what you can, then," said Roderick gravely, putting out his hand. +"Do what you can!" His tone and his hand-shake seemed to constitute a +promise, and upon this they parted. + +Roderick's bust of his mother, whether or no it was a discharge of what +he called the filial debt, was at least a most admirable production. +Rowland, at the time it was finished, met Gloriani one evening, and this +unscrupulous genius immediately began to ask questions about it. "I am +told our high-flying friend has come down," he said. "He has been doing +a queer little old woman." + +"A queer little old woman!" Rowland exclaimed. "My dear sir, she is +Hudson's mother." + +"All the more reason for her being queer! It is a bust for terra-cotta, +eh?" + +"By no means; it is for marble." + +"That 's a pity. It was described to me as a charming piece of +quaintness: a little demure, thin-lipped old lady, with her head on +one side, and the prettiest wrinkles in the world--a sort of fairy +godmother." + +"Go and see it, and judge for yourself," said Rowland. + +"No, I see I shall be disappointed. It 's quite the other thing, the +sort of thing they put into the campo-santos. I wish that boy would +listen to me an hour!" + +But a day or two later Rowland met him again in the street, and, as +they were near, proposed they should adjourn to Roderick's studio. +He consented, and on entering they found the young master. Roderick's +demeanor to Gloriani was never conciliatory, and on this occasion +supreme indifference was apparently all he had to offer. But Gloriani, +like a genuine connoisseur, cared nothing for his manners; he cared only +for his skill. In the bust of Mrs. Hudson there was something almost +touching; it was an exquisite example of a ruling sense of beauty. The +poor lady's small, neat, timorous face had certainly no great character, +but Roderick had reproduced its sweetness, its mildness, its minuteness, +its still maternal passion, with the most unerring art. It was perfectly +unflattered, and yet admirably tender; it was the poetry of fidelity. +Gloriani stood looking at it a long time most intently. Roderick +wandered away into the neighboring room. + +"I give it up!" said the sculptor at last. "I don't understand it." + +"But you like it?" said Rowland. + +"Like it? It 's a pearl of pearls. Tell me this," he added: "is he very +fond of his mother; is he a very good son?" And he gave Rowland a sharp +look. + +"Why, she adores him," said Rowland, smiling. + +"That 's not an answer! But it 's none of my business. Only if I, in his +place, being suspected of having--what shall I call it?--a cold heart, +managed to do that piece of work, oh, oh! I should be called a pretty +lot of names. Charlatan, poseur, arrangeur! But he can do as he chooses! +My dear young man, I know you don't like me," he went on, as Roderick +came back. "It 's a pity; you are strong enough not to care about me at +all. You are very strong." + +"Not at all," said Roderick curtly. "I am very weak!" + +"I told you last year that you would n't keep it up. I was a great ass. +You will!" + +"I beg your pardon--I won't!" retorted Roderick. + +"Though I 'm a great ass, all the same, eh? Well, call me what you will, +so long as you turn out this sort of thing! I don't suppose it makes any +particular difference, but I should like to say now I believe in you." + +Roderick stood looking at him for a moment with a strange hardness in +his face. It flushed slowly, and two glittering, angry tears filled his +eyes. It was the first time Rowland had ever seen them there; he saw +them but once again. Poor Gloriani, he was sure, had never in his life +spoken with less of irony; but to Roderick there was evidently a sense +of mockery in his profession of faith. He turned away with a muttered, +passionate imprecation. Gloriani was accustomed to deal with complex +problems, but this time he was hopelessly puzzled. "What 's the matter +with him?" he asked, simply. + +Rowland gave a sad smile, and touched his forehead. "Genius, I suppose." + +Gloriani sent another parting, lingering look at the bust of Mrs. +Hudson. "Well, it 's deuced perfect, it 's deuced simple; I do believe +in him!" he said. "But I 'm glad I 'm not a genius. It makes," he added +with a laugh, as he looked for Roderick to wave him good-by, and saw his +back still turned, "it makes a more sociable studio." + +Rowland had purchased, as he supposed, temporary tranquillity for Mary +Garland; but his own humor in these days was not especially peaceful. He +was attempting, in a certain sense, to lead the ideal life, and he found +it, at the least, not easy. The days passed, but brought with them no +official invitation to Miss Light's wedding. He occasionally met her, +and he occasionally met Prince Casamassima; but always separately, +never together. They were apparently taking their happiness in the +inexpressive manner proper to people of social eminence. Rowland +continued to see Madame Grandoni, for whom he felt a confirmed +affection. He had always talked to her with frankness, but now he made +her a confidant of all his hidden dejection. Roderick and Roderick's +concerns had been a common theme with him, and it was in the natural +course to talk of Mrs. Hudson's arrival and Miss Garland's fine smile. +Madame Grandoni was an intelligent listener, and she lost no time in +putting his case for him in a nutshell. "At one moment you tell me the +girl is plain," she said; "the next you tell me she 's pretty. I will +invite them, and I shall see for myself. But one thing is very clear: +you are in love with her." + +Rowland, for all answer, glanced round to see that no one heard her. + +"More than that," she added, "you have been in love with her these two +years. There was that certain something about you!... I knew you were a +mild, sweet fellow, but you had a touch of it more than was natural. +Why did n't you tell me at once? You would have saved me a great deal of +trouble. And poor Augusta Blanchard too!" And herewith Madame Grandoni +communicated a pertinent fact: Augusta Blanchard and Mr. Leavenworth +were going to make a match. The young lady had been staying for a month +at Albano, and Mr. Leavenworth had been dancing attendance. The event +was a matter of course. Rowland, who had been lately reproaching himself +with a failure of attention to Miss Blanchard's doings, made some such +observation. + +"But you did not find it so!" cried his hostess. "It was a matter of +course, perhaps, that Mr. Leavenworth, who seems to be going about +Europe with the sole view of picking up furniture for his 'home,' as he +calls it, should think Miss Blanchard a very handsome piece; but it was +not a matter of course--or it need n't have been--that she should be +willing to become a sort of superior table-ornament. She would have +accepted you if you had tried." + +"You are supposing the insupposable," said Rowland. "She never gave me a +particle of encouragement." + +"What would you have had her do? The poor girl did her best, and I am +sure that when she accepted Mr. Leavenworth she thought of you." + +"She thought of the pleasure her marriage would give me." + +"Ay, pleasure indeed! She is a thoroughly good girl, but she has her +little grain of feminine spite, like the rest. Well, he 's richer than +you, and she will have what she wants; but before I forgive you I must +wait and see this new arrival--what do you call her?--Miss Garland. If +I like her, I will forgive you; if I don't, I shall always bear you a +grudge." + +Rowland answered that he was sorry to forfeit any advantage she might +offer him, but that his exculpatory passion for Miss Garland was a +figment of her fancy. Miss Garland was engaged to another man, and he +himself had no claims. + +"Well, then," said Madame Grandoni, "if I like her, we 'll have it that +you ought to be in love with her. If you fail in this, it will be a +double misdemeanor. The man she 's engaged to does n't care a straw for +her. Leave me alone and I 'll tell her what I think of you." + +As to Christina Light's marriage, Madame Grandoni could make no definite +statement. The young girl, of late, had made her several flying +visits, in the intervals of the usual pre-matrimonial shopping and +dress-fitting; she had spoken of the event with a toss of her head, as a +matter which, with a wise old friend who viewed things in their +essence, she need not pretend to treat as a solemnity. It was for Prince +Casamassima to do that. "It is what they call a marriage of reason," she +once said. "That means, you know, a marriage of madness!" + +"What have you said in the way of advice?" Rowland asked. + +"Very little, but that little has favored the prince. I know nothing of +the mysteries of the young lady's heart. It may be a gold-mine, but at +any rate it 's a mine, and it 's a long journey down into it. But the +marriage in itself is an excellent marriage. It 's not only brilliant, +but it 's safe. I think Christina is quite capable of making it a +means of misery; but there is no position that would be sacred to her. +Casamassima is an irreproachable young man; there is nothing against +him but that he is a prince. It is not often, I fancy, that a prince has +been put through his paces at this rate. No one knows the wedding-day; +the cards of invitation have been printed half a dozen times over, with +a different date; each time Christina has destroyed them. There are +people in Rome who are furious at the delay; they want to get away; they +are in a dreadful fright about the fever, but they are dying to see the +wedding, and if the day were fixed, they would make their arrangements +to wait for it. I think it very possible that after having kept them a +month and produced a dozen cases of malaria, Christina will be married +at midnight by an old friar, with simply the legal witnesses." + +"It is true, then, that she has become a Catholic?" + +"So she tells me. One day she got up in the depths of despair; at her +wit's end, I suppose, in other words, for a new sensation. Suddenly it +occurred to her that the Catholic church might after all hold the key, +might give her what she wanted! She sent for a priest; he happened to be +a clever man, and he contrived to interest her. She put on a black dress +and a black lace veil, and looking handsomer than ever she rustled into +the Catholic church. The prince, who is very devout, and who had her +heresy sorely on his conscience, was thrown into an ecstasy. May she +never have a caprice that pleases him less!" + +Rowland had already asked Madame Grandoni what, to her perception, was +the present state of matters between Christina and Roderick; and he now +repeated his question with some earnestness of apprehension. "The girl +is so deucedly dramatic," he said, "that I don't know what coup de +theatre she may have in store for us. Such a stroke was her turning +Catholic; such a stroke would be her some day making her courtesy to a +disappointed world as Princess Casamassima, married at midnight, in her +bonnet. She might do--she may do--something that would make even more +starers! I 'm prepared for anything." + +"You mean that she might elope with your sculptor, eh?" + +"I 'm prepared for anything!" + +"Do you mean that he 's ready?" + +"Do you think that she is?" + +"They 're a precious pair! I think this. You by no means exhaust the +subject when you say that Christina is dramatic. It 's my belief that in +the course of her life she will do a certain number of things from pure +disinterested passion. She 's immeasurably proud, and if that is often +a fault in a virtuous person, it may be a merit in a vicious one. She +needs to think well of herself; she knows a fine character, easily, +when she meets one; she hates to suffer by comparison, even though the +comparison is made by herself alone; and when the estimate she may +have made of herself grows vague, she needs to do something to give +it definite, impressive form. What she will do in such a case will be +better or worse, according to her opportunity; but I imagine it will +generally be something that will drive her mother to despair; something +of the sort usually termed 'unworldly.'" + +Rowland, as he was taking his leave, after some further exchange of +opinions, rendered Miss Light the tribute of a deeply meditative sigh. +"She has bothered me half to death," he said, "but somehow I can't +manage, as I ought, to hate her. I admire her, half the time, and a good +part of the rest I pity her." + +"I think I most pity her!" said Madame Grandoni. + +This enlightened woman came the next day to call upon the two ladies +from Northampton. She carried their shy affections by storm, and made +them promise to drink tea with her on the evening of the morrow. Her +visit was an era in the life of poor Mrs. Hudson, who did nothing but +make sudden desultory allusions to her, for the next thirty-six hours. +"To think of her being a foreigner!" she would exclaim, after much +intent reflection, over her knitting; "she speaks so beautifully!" +Then in a little while, "She was n't so much dressed as you might have +expected. Did you notice how easy it was in the waist? I wonder if that +'s the fashion?" Or, "She 's very old to wear a hat; I should never dare +to wear a hat!" Or, "Did you notice her hands?--very pretty hands for +such a stout person. A great many rings, but nothing very handsome. I +suppose they are hereditary." Or, "She 's certainly not handsome, but +she 's very sweet-looking. I wonder why she does n't have something +done to her teeth." Rowland also received a summons to Madame Grandoni's +tea-drinking, and went betimes, as he had been requested. He was eagerly +desirous to lend his mute applause to Mary Garland's debut in the Roman +social world. The two ladies had arrived, with Roderick, silent and +careless, in attendance. Miss Blanchard was also present, escorted by +Mr. Leavenworth, and the party was completed by a dozen artists of both +sexes and various nationalities. It was a friendly and easy assembly, +like all Madame Grandoni's parties, and in the course of the evening +there was some excellent music. People played and sang for Madame +Grandoni, on easy terms, who, elsewhere, were not to be heard for the +asking. She was herself a superior musician, and singers found it a +privilege to perform to her accompaniment. Rowland talked to various +persons, but for the first time in his life his attention visibly +wandered; he could not keep his eyes off Mary Garland. Madame Grandoni +had said that he sometimes spoke of her as pretty and sometimes as +plain; to-night, if he had had occasion to describe her appearance, he +would have called her beautiful. She was dressed more than he had ever +seen her; it was becoming, and gave her a deeper color and an ampler +presence. Two or three persons were introduced to her who were +apparently witty people, for she sat listening to them with her +brilliant natural smile. Rowland, from an opposite corner, reflected +that he had never varied in his appreciation of Miss Blanchard's classic +contour, but that somehow, to-night, it impressed him hardly more +than an effigy stamped upon a coin of low value. Roderick could not be +accused of rancor, for he had approached Mr. Leavenworth with unstudied +familiarity, and, lounging against the wall, with hands in pockets, was +discoursing to him with candid serenity. Now that he had done him an +impertinence, he evidently found him less intolerable. Mr. Leavenworth +stood stirring his tea and silently opening and shutting his mouth, +without looking at the young sculptor, like a large, drowsy dog snapping +at flies. Rowland had found it disagreeable to be told Miss Blanchard +would have married him for the asking, and he would have felt some +embarrassment in going to speak to her if his modesty had not found +incredulity so easy. The facile side of a union with Miss Blanchard had +never been present to his mind; it had struck him as a thing, in all +ways, to be compassed with a great effort. He had half an hour's talk +with her; a farewell talk, as it seemed to him--a farewell not to a real +illusion, but to the idea that for him, in that matter, there could ever +be an acceptable pis-aller. He congratulated Miss Blanchard upon her +engagement, and she received his compliment with a touch of primness. +But she was always a trifle prim, even when she was quoting Mrs. +Browning and George Sand, and this harmless defect did not prevent her +responding on this occasion that Mr. Leavenworth had a "glorious heart." +Rowland wished to manifest an extreme regard, but toward the end of the +talk his zeal relaxed, and he fell a-thinking that a certain natural +ease in a woman was the most delightful thing in the world. There was +Christina Light, who had too much, and here was Miss Blanchard, who had +too little, and there was Mary Garland (in whom the quality was wholly +uncultivated), who had just the right amount. + +He went to Madame Grandoni in an adjoining room, where she was pouring +out tea. + +"I will make you an excellent cup," she said, "because I have forgiven +you." + +He looked at her, answering nothing; but he swallowed his tea with great +gusto, and a slight deepening of his color; by all of which one would +have known that he was gratified. In a moment he intimated that, in so +far as he had sinned, he had forgiven himself. + +"She is a lovely girl," said Madame Grandoni. "There is a great deal +there. I have taken a great fancy to her, and she must let me make a +friend of her." + +"She is very plain," said Rowland, slowly, "very simple, very ignorant." + +"Which, being interpreted, means, 'She is very handsome, very subtle, +and has read hundreds of volumes on winter evenings in the country.'" + +"You are a veritable sorceress," cried Rowland; "you frighten me away!" +As he was turning to leave her, there rose above the hum of voices in +the drawing-room the sharp, grotesque note of a barking dog. Their eyes +met in a glance of intelligence. + +"There is the sorceress!" said Madame Grandoni. "The sorceress and her +necromantic poodle!" And she hastened back to the post of hospitality. + +Rowland followed her, and found Christina Light standing in the middle +of the drawing-room, and looking about in perplexity. Her poodle, +sitting on his haunches and gazing at the company, had apparently been +expressing a sympathetic displeasure at the absence of a welcome. But +in a moment Madame Grandoni had come to the young girl's relief, and +Christina had tenderly kissed her. + +"I had no idea," said Christina, surveying the assembly, "that you had +such a lot of grand people, or I would not have come in. The servant +said nothing; he took me for an invitee. I came to spend a neighborly +half-hour; you know I have n't many left! It was too dismally dreary at +home. I hoped I should find you alone, and I brought Stenterello to play +with the cat. I don't know that if I had known about all this I would +have dared to come in; but since I 've stumbled into the midst of it, I +beg you 'll let me stay. I am not dressed, but am I very hideous? I will +sit in a corner and no one will notice me. My dear, sweet lady, do let +me stay. Pray, why did n't you ask me? I never have been to a little +party like this. They must be very charming. No dancing--tea and +conversation? No tea, thank you; but if you could spare a biscuit for +Stenterello; a sweet biscuit, please. Really, why did n't you ask me? +Do you have these things often? Madame Grandoni, it 's very unkind!" And +the young girl, who had delivered herself of the foregoing succession of +sentences in her usual low, cool, penetrating voice, uttered these last +words with a certain tremor of feeling. "I see," she went on, "I do very +well for balls and great banquets, but when people wish to have a +cosy, friendly, comfortable evening, they leave me out, with the big +flower-pots and the gilt candlesticks." + +"I 'm sure you 're welcome to stay, my dear," said Madame Grandoni, "and +at the risk of displeasing you I must confess that if I did n't invite +you, it was because you 're too grand. Your dress will do very well, +with its fifty flounces, and there is no need of your going into a +corner. Indeed, since you 're here, I propose to have the glory of it. +You must remain where my people can see you." + +"They are evidently determined to do that by the way they stare. Do they +think I intend to dance a tarantella? Who are they all; do I know them?" +And lingering in the middle of the room, with her arm passed into Madame +Grandoni's, she let her eyes wander slowly from group to group. +They were of course observing her. Standing in the little circle +of lamplight, with the hood of an Eastern burnous, shot with silver +threads, falling back from her beautiful head, one hand gathering +together its voluminous, shimmering folds, and the other playing with +the silken top-knot on the uplifted head of her poodle, she was a figure +of radiant picturesqueness. She seemed to be a sort of extemporized +tableau vivant. Rowland's position made it becoming for him to speak +to her without delay. As she looked at him he saw that, judging by the +light of her beautiful eyes, she was in a humor of which she had not yet +treated him to a specimen. In a simpler person he would have called it +exquisite kindness; but in this young lady's deportment the flower was +one thing and the perfume another. "Tell me about these people," she +said to him. "I had no idea there were so many people in Rome I had not +seen. What are they all talking about? It 's all beyond me, I suppose. +There is Miss Blanchard, sitting as usual in profile against a dark +object. She is like a head on a postage-stamp. And there is that nice +little old lady in black, Mrs. Hudson. What a dear little woman for a +mother! Comme elle est proprette! And the other, the fiancee, of course +she 's here. Ah, I see!" She paused; she was looking intently at Miss +Garland. Rowland measured the intentness of her glance, and suddenly +acquired a firm conviction. "I should like so much to know her!" she +said, turning to Madame Grandoni. "She has a charming face; I am sure +she 's an angel. I wish very much you would introduce me. No, on second +thoughts, I had rather you did n't. I will speak to her bravely myself, +as a friend of her cousin." Madame Grandoni and Rowland exchanged +glances of baffled conjecture, and Christina flung off her burnous, +crumpled it together, and, with uplifted finger, tossing it into a +corner, gave it in charge to her poodle. He stationed himself upon it, +on his haunches, with upright vigilance. Christina crossed the room with +the step and smile of a ministering angel, and introduced herself to +Mary Garland. She had once told Rowland that she would show him, some +day, how gracious her manners could be; she was now redeeming her +promise. Rowland, watching her, saw Mary Garland rise slowly, in +response to her greeting, and look at her with serious deep-gazing eyes. +The almost dramatic opposition of these two keenly interesting girls +touched Rowland with a nameless apprehension, and after a moment he +preferred to turn away. In doing so he noticed Roderick. The young +sculptor was standing planted on the train of a lady's dress, gazing +across at Christina's movements with undisguised earnestness. There were +several more pieces of music; Rowland sat in a corner and listened to +them. When they were over, several people began to take their leave, +Mrs. Hudson among the number. Rowland saw her come up to Madame +Grandoni, clinging shyly to Mary Garland's arm. Miss Garland had a +brilliant eye and a deep color in her cheek. The two ladies looked +about for Roderick, but Roderick had his back turned. He had approached +Christina, who, with an absent air, was sitting alone, where she had +taken her place near Miss Garland, looking at the guests pass out of the +room. Christina's eye, like Miss Garland's, was bright, but her cheek +was pale. Hearing Roderick's voice, she looked up at him sharply; then +silently, with a single quick gesture, motioned him away. He obeyed her, +and came and joined his mother in bidding good night to Madame Grandoni. +Christina, in a moment, met Rowland's glance, and immediately beckoned +him to come to her. He was familiar with her spontaneity of movement, +and was scarcely surprised. She made a place for him on the sofa beside +her; he wondered what was coming now. He was not sure it was not a mere +fancy, but it seemed to him that he had never seen her look just as +she was looking then. It was a humble, touching, appealing look, and it +threw into wonderful relief the nobleness of her beauty. "How many more +metamorphoses," he asked himself, "am I to be treated to before we have +done?" + +"I want to tell you," said Christina. "I have taken an immense fancy to +Miss Garland. Are n't you glad?" + +"Delighted!" exclaimed poor Rowland. + +"Ah, you don't believe it," she said with soft dignity. + +"Is it so hard to believe?" + +"Not that people in general should admire her, but that I should. But I +want to tell you; I want to tell some one, and I can't tell Miss Garland +herself. She thinks me already a horrid false creature, and if I were to +express to her frankly what I think of her, I should simply disgust her. +She would be quite right; she has repose, and from that point of view I +and my doings must seem monstrous. Unfortunately, I have n't repose. I +am trembling now; if I could ask you to feel my arm, you would see! +But I want to tell you that I admire Miss Garland more than any of the +people who call themselves her friends--except of course you. Oh, I know +that! To begin with, she is extremely handsome, and she does n't know +it." + +"She is not generally thought handsome," said Rowland. + +"Evidently! That 's the vulgarity of the human mind. Her head has great +character, great natural style. If a woman is not to be a supreme beauty +in the regular way, she will choose, if she 's wise, to look like that. +She 'll not be thought pretty by people in general, and desecrated, as +she passes, by the stare of every vile wretch who chooses to thrust his +nose under her bonnet; but a certain number of superior people will find +it one of the delightful things of life to look at her. That lot is as +good as another! Then she has a beautiful character!" + +"You found that out soon!" said Rowland, smiling. + +"How long did it take you? I found it out before I ever spoke to her. +I met her the other day in Saint Peter's; I knew it then. I knew it--do +you want to know how long I have known it?" + +"Really," said Rowland, "I did n't mean to cross-examine you." + +"Do you remember mamma's ball in December? We had some talk and you +then mentioned her--not by name. You said but three words, but I saw +you admired her, and I knew that if you admired her she must have a +beautiful character. That 's what you require!" + +"Upon my word," cried Rowland, "you make three words go very far!" + +"Oh, Mr. Hudson has also spoken of her." + +"Ah, that 's better!" said Rowland. + +"I don't know; he does n't like her." + +"Did he tell you so?" The question left Rowland's lips before he could +stay it, which he would have done on a moment's reflection. + +Christina looked at him intently. "No!" she said at last. "That would +have been dishonorable, would n't it? But I know it from my knowledge of +him. He does n't like perfection; he is not bent upon being safe, in +his likings; he 's willing to risk something! Poor fellow, he risks too +much!" + +Rowland was silent; he did not care for the thrust; but he was +profoundly mystified. Christina beckoned to her poodle, and the +dog marched stiffly across to her. She gave a loving twist to his +rose-colored top-knot, and bade him go and fetch her burnous. He obeyed, +gathered it up in his teeth, and returned with great solemnity, dragging +it along the floor. + +"I do her justice. I do her full justice," she went on, with soft +earnestness. "I like to say that, I like to be able to say it. She 's +full of intelligence and courage and devotion. She does n't do me a +grain of justice; but that is no harm. There is something so fine in the +aversions of a good woman!" + +"If you would give Miss Garland a chance," said Rowland, "I am sure she +would be glad to be your friend." + +"What do you mean by a chance? She has only to take it. I told her +I liked her immensely, and she frowned as if I had said something +disgusting. She looks very handsome when she frowns." Christina rose, +with these words, and began to gather her mantle about her. "I don't +often like women," she went on. "In fact I generally detest them. But +I should like to know Miss Garland well. I should like to have a +friendship with her; I have never had one; they must be very delightful. +But I shan't have one now, either--not if she can help it! Ask her what +she thinks of me; see what she will say. I don't want to know; keep it +to yourself. It 's too sad. So we go through life. It 's fatality--that +'s what they call it, is n't it? We please the people we don't care for, +we displease those we do! But I appreciate her, I do her justice; that +'s the more important thing. It 's because I have imagination. She has +none. Never mind; it 's her only fault. I do her justice; I understand +very well." She kept softly murmuring and looking about for Madame +Grandoni. She saw the good lady near the door, and put out her hand to +Rowland for good night. She held his hand an instant, fixing him with +her eyes, the living splendor of which, at this moment, was something +transcendent. "Yes, I do her justice," she repeated. "And you do her +more; you would lay down your life for her." With this she turned away, +and before he could answer, she left him. She went to Madame Grandoni, +grasped her two hands, and held out her forehead to be kissed. The next +moment she was gone. + +"That was a happy accident!" said Madame Grandoni. "She never looked so +beautiful, and she made my little party brilliant." + +"Beautiful, verily!" Rowland answered. "But it was no accident." + +"What was it, then?" + +"It was a plan. She wished to see Miss Garland. She knew she was to be +here." + +"How so?" + +"By Roderick, evidently." + +"And why did she wish to see Miss Garland?" + +"Heaven knows! I give it up!" + +"Ah, the wicked girl!" murmured Madame Grandoni. + +"No," said Rowland; "don't say that now. She 's too beautiful." + +"Oh, you men! The best of you!" + +"Well, then," cried Rowland, "she 's too good!" + +The opportunity presenting itself the next day, he failed not, as you +may imagine, to ask Mary Garland what she thought of Miss Light. It was +a Saturday afternoon, the time at which the beautiful marbles of the +Villa Borghese are thrown open to the public. Mary had told him that +Roderick had promised to take her to see them, with his mother, and he +joined the party in the splendid Casino. The warm weather had left so +few strangers in Rome that they had the place almost to themselves. Mrs. +Hudson had confessed to an invincible fear of treading, even with the +help of her son's arm, the polished marble floors, and was sitting +patiently on a stool, with folded hands, looking shyly, here and there, +at the undraped paganism around her. Roderick had sauntered off alone, +with an irritated brow, which seemed to betray the conflict between +the instinct of observation and the perplexities of circumstance. +Miss Garland was wandering in another direction, and though she was +consulting her catalogue, Rowland fancied it was from habit; she too +was preoccupied. He joined her, and she presently sat down on a divan, +rather wearily, and closed her Murray. Then he asked her abruptly how +Christina had pleased her. + +She started the least bit at the question, and he felt that she had been +thinking of Christina. + +"I don't like her!" she said with decision. + +"What do you think of her?" + +"I think she 's false." This was said without petulance or bitterness, +but with a very positive air. + +"But she wished to please you; she tried," Rowland rejoined, in a +moment. + +"I think not. She wished to please herself!" + +Rowland felt himself at liberty to say no more. No allusion to Christina +had passed between them since the day they met her at Saint Peter's, +but he knew that she knew, by that infallible sixth sense of a woman who +loves, that this strange, beautiful girl had the power to injure her. +To what extent she had the will, Mary was uncertain; but last night's +interview, apparently, had not reassured her. It was, under these +circumstances, equally unbecoming for Rowland either to depreciate or +to defend Christina, and he had to content himself with simply having +verified the girl's own assurance that she had made a bad impression. +He tried to talk of indifferent matters--about the statues and the +frescoes; but to-day, plainly, aesthetic curiosity, with Miss Garland, +had folded its wings. Curiosity of another sort had taken its place. +Mary was longing, he was sure, to question him about Christina; but she +found a dozen reasons for hesitating. Her questions would imply that +Roderick had not treated her with confidence, for information on this +point should properly have come from him. They would imply that she was +jealous, and to betray her jealousy was intolerable to her pride. For +some minutes, as she sat scratching the brilliant pavement with the +point of her umbrella, it was to be supposed that her pride and her +anxiety held an earnest debate. At last anxiety won. + +"A propos of Miss Light," she asked, "do you know her well?" + +"I can hardly say that. But I have seen her repeatedly." + +"Do you like her?" + +"Yes and no. I think I am sorry for her." + +Mary had spoken with her eyes on the pavement. At this she looked up. +"Sorry for her? Why?" + +"Well--she is unhappy." + +"What are her misfortunes?" + +"Well--she has a horrible mother, and she has had a most injurious +education." + +For a moment Miss Garland was silent. Then, "Is n't she very beautiful?" +she asked. + +"Don't you think so?" + +"That 's measured by what men think! She is extremely clever, too." + +"Oh, incontestably." + +"She has beautiful dresses." + +"Yes, any number of them." + +"And beautiful manners." + +"Yes--sometimes." + +"And plenty of money." + +"Money enough, apparently." + +"And she receives great admiration." + +"Very true." + +"And she is to marry a prince." + +"So they say." + +Miss Garland rose and turned to rejoin her companions, commenting these +admissions with a pregnant silence. "Poor Miss Light!" she said at +last, simply. And in this it seemed to Rowland there was a touch of +bitterness. + +Very late on the following evening his servant brought him the card of a +visitor. He was surprised at a visit at such an hour, but it may be +said that when he read the inscription--Cavaliere Giuseppe Giacosa--his +surprise declined. He had had an unformulated conviction that there was +to be a sequel to the apparition at Madame Grandoni's; the Cavaliere had +come to usher it in. + +He had come, evidently, on a portentous errand. He was as pale as ashes +and prodigiously serious; his little cold black eye had grown ardent, +and he had left his caressing smile at home. He saluted Rowland, +however, with his usual obsequious bow. + +"You have more than once done me the honor to invite me to call upon +you," he said. "I am ashamed of my long delay, and I can only say to +you, frankly, that my time this winter has not been my own." Rowland +assented, ungrudgingly fumbled for the Italian correlative of the adage +"Better late than never," begged him to be seated, and offered him a +cigar. The Cavaliere sniffed imperceptibly the fragrant weed, and then +declared that, if his kind host would allow him, he would reserve it for +consumption at another time. He apparently desired to intimate that +the solemnity of his errand left him no breath for idle smoke-puffings. +Rowland stayed himself, just in time, from an enthusiastic offer of a +dozen more cigars, and, as he watched the Cavaliere stow his treasure +tenderly away in his pocket-book, reflected that only an Italian could +go through such a performance with uncompromised dignity. "I must +confess," the little old man resumed, "that even now I come on business +not of my own--or my own, at least, only in a secondary sense. I have +been dispatched as an ambassador, an envoy extraordinary, I may say, by +my dear friend Mrs. Light." + +"If I can in any way be of service to Mrs. Light, I shall be happy," +Rowland said. + +"Well then, dear sir, Casa Light is in commotion. The signora is in +trouble--in terrible trouble." For a moment Rowland expected to hear +that the signora's trouble was of a nature that a loan of five thousand +francs would assuage. But the Cavaliere continued: "Miss Light has +committed a great crime; she has plunged a dagger into the heart of her +mother." + +"A dagger!" cried Rowland. + +The Cavaliere patted the air an instant with his finger-tips. "I speak +figuratively. She has broken off her marriage." + +"Broken it off?" + +"Short! She has turned the prince from the door." And the Cavaliere, +when he had made this announcement, folded his arms and bent upon +Rowland his intense, inscrutable gaze. It seemed to Rowland that he +detected in the polished depths of it a sort of fantastic gleam of +irony or of triumph; but superficially, at least, Giacosa did nothing +to discredit his character as a presumably sympathetic representative of +Mrs. Light's affliction. + +Rowland heard his news with a kind of fierce disgust; it seemed the +sinister counterpart of Christina's preternatural mildness at Madame +Grandoni's tea-party. She had been too plausible to be honest. Without +being able to trace the connection, he yet instinctively associated her +present rebellion with her meeting with Mary Garland. If she had not +seen Mary, she would have let things stand. It was monstrous to suppose +that she could have sacrificed so brilliant a fortune to a mere movement +of jealousy, to a refined instinct of feminine deviltry, to a desire to +frighten poor Mary from her security by again appearing in the field. +Yet Rowland remembered his first impression of her; she was "dangerous," +and she had measured in each direction the perturbing effect of her +rupture. She was smiling her sweetest smile at it! For half an hour +Rowland simply detested her, and longed to denounce her to her face. Of +course all he could say to Giacosa was that he was extremely sorry. "But +I am not surprised," he added. + +"You are not surprised?" + +"With Miss Light everything is possible. Is n't that true?" + +Another ripple seemed to play for an instant in the current of the old +man's irony, but he waived response. "It was a magnificent marriage," +he said, solemnly. "I do not respect many people, but I respect Prince +Casamassima." + +"I should judge him indeed to be a very honorable young man," said +Rowland. + +"Eh, young as he is, he 's made of the old stuff. And now, perhaps he +'s blowing his brains out. He is the last of his house; it 's a great +house. But Miss Light will have put an end to it!" + +"Is that the view she takes of it?" Rowland ventured to ask. + +This time, unmistakably, the Cavaliere smiled, but still in that very +out-of-the-way place. "You have observed Miss Light with attention," he +said, "and this brings me to my errand. Mrs. Light has a high opinion +of your wisdom, of your kindness, and she has reason to believe you have +influence with her daughter." + +"I--with her daughter? Not a grain!" + +"That is possibly your modesty. Mrs. Light believes that something may +yet be done, and that Christina will listen to you. She begs you to come +and see her before it is too late." + +"But all this, my dear Cavaliere, is none of my business," Rowland +objected. "I can't possibly, in such a matter, take the responsibility +of advising Miss Light." + +The Cavaliere fixed his eyes for a moment on the floor, in brief but +intense reflection. Then looking up, "Unfortunately," he said, "she has +no man near her whom she respects; she has no father!" + +"And a fatally foolish mother!" Rowland gave himself the satisfaction of +exclaiming. + +The Cavaliere was so pale that he could not easily have turned paler; +yet it seemed for a moment that his dead complexion blanched. "Eh, +signore, such as she is, the mother appeals to you. A very handsome +woman--disheveled, in tears, in despair, in dishabille!" + +Rowland reflected a moment, not on the attractions of Mrs. Light +under the circumstances thus indicated by the Cavaliere, but on the +satisfaction he would take in accusing Christina to her face of having +struck a cruel blow. + +"I must add," said the Cavaliere, "that Mrs. Light desires also to speak +to you on the subject of Mr. Hudson." + +"She considers Mr. Hudson, then, connected with this step of her +daughter's?" + +"Intimately. He must be got out of Rome." + +"Mrs. Light, then, must get an order from the Pope to remove him. It 's +not in my power." + +The Cavaliere assented, deferentially. "Mrs. Light is equally helpless. +She would leave Rome to-morrow, but Christina will not budge. An order +from the Pope would do nothing. A bull in council would do nothing." + +"She 's a remarkable young lady," said Rowland, with bitterness. + +But the Cavaliere rose and responded coldly, "She has a great spirit." +And it seemed to Rowland that her great spirit, for mysterious reasons, +gave him more pleasure than the distressing use she made of it gave him +pain. He was on the point of charging him with his inconsistency, when +Giacosa resumed: "But if the marriage can be saved, it must be saved. It +'s a beautiful marriage. It will be saved." + +"Notwithstanding Miss Light's great spirit to the contrary?" + +"Miss Light, notwithstanding her great spirit, will call Prince +Casamassima back." + +"Heaven grant it!" said Rowland. + +"I don't know," said the Cavaliere, solemnly, "that heaven will have +much to do with it." + +Rowland gave him a questioning look, but he laid his finger on his lips. +And with Rowland's promise to present himself on the morrow at Casa +Light, he shortly afterwards departed. He left Rowland revolving many +things: Christina's magnanimity, Christina's perversity, Roderick's +contingent fortune, Mary Garland's certain trouble, and the Cavaliere's +own fine ambiguities. + +Rowland's promise to the Cavaliere obliged him to withdraw from an +excursion which he had arranged with the two ladies from Northampton. +Before going to Casa Light he repaired in person to Mrs. Hudson's hotel, +to make his excuses. + +He found Roderick's mother sitting with tearful eyes, staring at an open +note that lay in her lap. At the window sat Miss Garland, who turned her +intense regard upon him as he came in. Mrs. Hudson quickly rose and came +to him, holding out the note. + +"In pity's name," she cried, "what is the matter with my boy? If he is +ill, I entreat you to take me to him!" + +"He is not ill, to my knowledge," said Rowland. "What have you there?" + +"A note--a dreadful note. He tells us we are not to see him for a week. +If I could only go to his room! But I am afraid, I am afraid!" + +"I imagine there is no need of going to his room. What is the occasion, +may I ask, of his note?" + +"He was to have gone with us on this drive to--what is the place?--to +Cervara. You know it was arranged yesterday morning. In the evening he +was to have dined with us. But he never came, and this morning arrives +this awful thing. Oh dear, I 'm so excited! Would you mind reading it?" + +Rowland took the note and glanced at its half-dozen lines. "I cannot go +to Cervara," they ran; "I have something else to do. This will occupy me +perhaps for a week, and you 'll not see me. Don't miss me--learn not to +miss me. R. H." + +"Why, it means," Rowland commented, "that he has taken up a piece +of work, and that it is all-absorbing. That 's very good news." This +explanation was not sincere; but he had not the courage not to offer it +as a stop-gap. But he found he needed all his courage to maintain it, +for Miss Garland had left her place and approached him, formidably +unsatisfied. + +"He does not work in the evening," said Mrs. Hudson. "Can't he come +for five minutes? Why does he write such a cruel, cold note to his poor +mother--to poor Mary? What have we done that he acts so strangely? It +'s this wicked, infectious, heathenish place!" And the poor lady's +suppressed mistrust of the Eternal City broke out passionately. "Oh, +dear Mr. Mallet," she went on, "I am sure he has the fever and he 's +already delirious!" + +"I am very sure it 's not that," said Miss Garland, with a certain +dryness. + +She was still looking at Rowland; his eyes met hers, and his own glance +fell. This made him angry, and to carry off his confusion he pretended +to be looking at the floor, in meditation. After all, what had he to be +ashamed of? For a moment he was on the point of making a clean breast of +it, of crying out, "Dearest friends, I abdicate: I can't help you!" But +he checked himself; he felt so impatient to have his three words with +Christina. He grasped his hat. + +"I will see what it is!" he cried. And then he was glad he had not +abdicated, for as he turned away he glanced again at Mary and saw that, +though her eyes were full of trouble, they were not hard and accusing, +but charged with appealing friendship. + +He went straight to Roderick's apartment, deeming this, at an early +hour, the safest place to seek him. He found him in his sitting-room, +which had been closely darkened to keep out the heat. The carpets and +rugs had been removed, the floor of speckled concrete was bare and +lightly sprinkled with water. Here and there, over it, certain strongly +perfumed flowers had been scattered. Roderick was lying on his divan in +a white dressing-gown, staring up at the frescoed ceiling. The room +was deliciously cool, and filled with the moist, sweet odor of the +circumjacent roses and violets. All this seemed highly fantastic, and +yet Rowland hardly felt surprised. + +"Your mother was greatly alarmed at your note," he said, "and I came +to satisfy myself that, as I believed, you are not ill." Roderick lay +motionless, except that he slightly turned his head toward his friend. +He was smelling a large white rose, and he continued to present it to +his nose. In the darkness of the room he looked exceedingly pale, but +his handsome eyes had an extraordinary brilliancy. He let them rest for +some time on Rowland, lying there like a Buddhist in an intellectual +swoon, whose perception should be slowly ebbing back to temporal +matters. "Oh, I 'm not ill," he said at last. "I have never been +better." + +"Your note, nevertheless, and your absence," Rowland said, "have very +naturally alarmed your mother. I advise you to go to her directly and +reassure her." + +"Go to her? Going to her would be worse than staying away. Staying away +at present is a kindness." And he inhaled deeply his huge rose, looking +up over it at Rowland. "My presence, in fact, would be indecent." + +"Indecent? Pray explain." + +"Why, you see, as regards Mary Garland. I am divinely happy! Does n't +it strike you? You ought to agree with me. You wish me to spare her +feelings; I spare them by staying away. Last night I heard something"-- + +"I heard it, too," said Rowland with brevity. "And it 's in honor of +this piece of news that you have taken to your bed in this fashion?" + +"Extremes meet! I can't get up for joy." + +"May I inquire how you heard your joyous news?--from Miss Light +herself?" + +"By no means. It was brought me by her maid, who is in my service as +well." + +"Casamassima's loss, then, is to a certainty your gain?" + +"I don't talk about certainties. I don't want to be arrogant, I don't +want to offend the immortal gods. I 'm keeping very quiet, but I can't +help being happy. I shall wait a while; I shall bide my time." + +"And then?" + +"And then that transcendent girl will confess to me that when she threw +overboard her prince she remembered that I adored her!" + +"I feel bound to tell you," was in the course of a moment Rowland's +response to this speech, "that I am now on my way to Mrs. Light's." + +"I congratulate you, I envy you!" Roderick murmured, imperturbably. + +"Mrs. Light has sent for me to remonstrate with her daughter, with whom +she has taken it into her head that I have influence. I don't know to +what extent I shall remonstrate, but I give you notice I shall not speak +in your interest." + +Roderick looked at him a moment with a lazy radiance in his eyes. "Pray +don't!" he simply answered. + +"You deserve I should tell her you are a very shabby fellow." + +"My dear Rowland, the comfort with you is that I can trust you. You 're +incapable of doing anything disloyal." + +"You mean to lie here, then, smelling your roses and nursing your +visions, and leaving your mother and Miss Garland to fall ill with +anxiety?" + +"Can I go and flaunt my felicity in their faces? Wait till I get used +to it a trifle. I have done them a palpable wrong, but I can at least +forbear to add insult to injury. I may be an arrant fool, but, for +the moment, I have taken it into my head to be prodigiously pleased. I +should n't be able to conceal it; my pleasure would offend them; so I +lock myself up as a dangerous character." + +"Well, I can only say, 'May your pleasure never grow less, or your +danger greater!'" + +Roderick closed his eyes again, and sniffed at his rose. "God's will be +done!" + +On this Rowland left him and repaired directly to Mrs. Light's. This +afflicted lady hurried forward to meet him. Since the Cavaliere's report +of her condition she had somewhat smoothed and trimmed the exuberance +of her distress, but she was evidently in extreme tribulation, and she +clutched Rowland by his two hands, as if, in the shipwreck of her hopes, +he were her single floating spar. Rowland greatly pitied her, for there +is something respectable in passionate grief, even in a very bad cause; +and as pity is akin to love, he endured her rather better than he had +done hitherto. + +"Speak to her, plead with her, command her!" she cried, pressing and +shaking his hands. "She 'll not heed us, no more than if we were a pair +of clocks a-ticking. Perhaps she will listen to you; she always liked +you." + +"She always disliked me," said Rowland. "But that does n't matter now. +I have come here simply because you sent for me, not because I can help +you. I cannot advise your daughter." + +"Oh, cruel, deadly man! You must advise her; you shan't leave this house +till you have advised her!" the poor woman passionately retorted. "Look +at me in my misery and refuse to help me! Oh, you need n't be afraid, I +know I 'm a fright, I have n't an idea what I have on. If this goes +on, we may both as well turn scarecrows. If ever a woman was desperate, +frantic, heart-broken, I am that woman. I can't begin to tell you. To +have nourished a serpent, sir, all these years! to have lavished one's +self upon a viper that turns and stings her own poor mother! To have +toiled and prayed, to have pushed and struggled, to have eaten the bread +of bitterness, and all the rest of it, sir--and at the end of all things +to find myself at this pass. It can't be, it 's too cruel, such things +don't happen, the Lord don't allow it. I 'm a religious woman, sir, +and the Lord knows all about me. With his own hand he had given me his +reward! I would have lain down in the dust and let her walk over me; I +would have given her the eyes out of my head, if she had taken a fancy +to them. No, she 's a cruel, wicked, heartless, unnatural girl! I speak +to you, Mr. Mallet, in my dire distress, as to my only friend. There is +n't a creature here that I can look to--not one of them all that I have +faith in. But I always admired you. I said to Christina the first time I +saw you that there at last was a real gentleman. Come, don't disappoint +me now! I feel so terribly alone, you see; I feel what a nasty, hard, +heartless world it is that has come and devoured my dinners and danced +to my fiddles, and yet that has n't a word to throw to me in my agony! +Oh, the money, alone, that I have put into this thing, would melt the +heart of a Turk!" + +During this frenzied outbreak Rowland had had time to look round the +room, and to see the Cavaliere sitting in a corner, like a major-domo on +the divan of an antechamber, pale, rigid, and inscrutable. + +"I have it at heart to tell you," Rowland said, "that if you consider my +friend Hudson"-- + +Mrs. Light gave a toss of her head and hands. "Oh, it 's not that. She +told me last night to bother her no longer with Hudson, Hudson! She did +n't care a button for Hudson. I almost wish she did; then perhaps one +might understand it. But she does n't care for anything in the wide +world, except to do her own hard, wicked will, and to crush me and shame +me with her cruelty." + +"Ah, then," said Rowland, "I am as much at sea as you, and my presence +here is an impertinence. I should like to say three words to Miss Light +on my own account. But I must absolutely and inexorably decline to urge +the cause of Prince Casamassima. This is simply impossible." + +Mrs. Light burst into angry tears. "Because the poor boy is a prince, +eh? because he 's of a great family, and has an income of millions, eh? +That 's why you grudge him and hate him. I knew there were vulgar people +of that way of feeling, but I did n't expect it of you. Make an effort, +Mr. Mallet; rise to the occasion; forgive the poor fellow his splendor. +Be just, be reasonable! It 's not his fault, and it 's not mine. He 's +the best, the kindest young man in the world, and the most correct and +moral and virtuous! If he were standing here in rags, I would say it all +the same. The man first--the money afterwards: that was always my motto, +and always will be. What do you take me for? Do you suppose I would +give Christina to a vicious person? do you suppose I would sacrifice my +precious child, little comfort as I have in her, to a man against whose +character one word could be breathed? Casamassima is only too good, he +'s a saint of saints, he 's stupidly good! There is n't such another +in the length and breadth of Europe. What he has been through in this +house, not a common peasant would endure. Christina has treated him as +you would n't treat a dog. He has been insulted, outraged, persecuted! +He has been driven hither and thither till he did n't know where he +was. He has stood there where you stand--there, with his name and his +millions and his devotion--as white as your handkerchief, with hot tears +in his eyes, and me ready to go down on my knees to him and say, 'My own +sweet prince, I could kiss the ground you tread on, but it is n't decent +that I should allow you to enter my house and expose yourself to these +horrors again.' And he would come back, and he would come back, and go +through it all again, and take all that was given him, and only want the +girl the more! I was his confidant; I know everything. He used to beg +my forgiveness for Christina. What do you say to that? I seized him once +and kissed him, I did! To find that and to find all the rest with it, +and to believe it was a gift straight from the pitying angels of heaven, +and then to see it dashed away before your eyes and to stand here +helpless--oh, it 's a fate I hope you may ever be spared!" + +"It would seem, then, that in the interest of Prince Casamassima himself +I ought to refuse to interfere," said Rowland. + +Mrs. Light looked at him hard, slowly drying her eyes. The intensity +of her grief and anger gave her a kind of majesty, and Rowland, for +the moment, felt ashamed of the ironical ring of his observation. "Very +good, sir," she said. "I 'm sorry your heart is not so tender as your +conscience. My compliments to your conscience! It must give you great +happiness. Heaven help me! Since you fail us, we are indeed driven to +the wall. But I have fought my own battles before, and I have never lost +courage, and I don't see why I should break down now. Cavaliere, come +here!" + +Giacosa rose at her summons and advanced with his usual deferential +alacrity. He shook hands with Rowland in silence. + +"Mr. Mallet refuses to say a word," Mrs. Light went on. "Time presses, +every moment is precious. Heaven knows what that poor boy may be doing. +If at this moment a clever woman should get hold of him she might be as +ugly as she pleased! It 's horrible to think of it." + +The Cavaliere fixed his eyes on Rowland, and his look, which the night +before had been singular, was now most extraordinary. There was a +nameless force of anguish in it which seemed to grapple with the young +man's reluctance, to plead, to entreat, and at the same time to be +glazed over with a reflection of strange things. + +Suddenly, though most vaguely, Rowland felt the presence of a new +element in the drama that was going on before him. He looked from the +Cavaliere to Mrs. Light, whose eyes were now quite dry, and were fixed +in stony hardness on the floor. + +"If you could bring yourself," the Cavaliere said, in a low, soft, +caressing voice, "to address a few words of solemn remonstrance to Miss +Light, you would, perhaps, do more for us than you know. You would +save several persons a great pain. The dear signora, first, and then +Christina herself. Christina in particular. Me too, I might take the +liberty to add!" + +There was, to Rowland, something acutely touching in this humble +petition. He had always felt a sort of imaginative tenderness for poor +little unexplained Giacosa, and these words seemed a supreme contortion +of the mysterious obliquity of his life. All of a sudden, as he watched +the Cavaliere, something occurred to him; it was something very odd, and +it stayed his glance suddenly from again turning to Mrs. Light. His idea +embarrassed him, and to carry off his embarrassment, he repeated that +it was folly to suppose that his words would have any weight with +Christina. + +The Cavaliere stepped forward and laid two fingers on Rowland's breast. +"Do you wish to know the truth? You are the only man whose words she +remembers." + +Rowland was going from surprise to surprise. "I will say what I can!" +he said. By this time he had ventured to glance at Mrs. Light. She was +looking at him askance, as if, upon this, she was suddenly mistrusting +his motives. + +"If you fail," she said sharply, "we have something else! But please to +lose no time." + +She had hardly spoken when the sound of a short, sharp growl caused the +company to turn. Christina's fleecy poodle stood in the middle of the +vast saloon, with his muzzle lowered, in pompous defiance of the three +conspirators against the comfort of his mistress. This young lady's +claims for him seemed justified; he was an animal of amazingly delicate +instincts. He had preceded Christina as a sort of van-guard of defense, +and she now slowly advanced from a neighboring room. + +"You will be so good as to listen to Mr. Mallet," her mother said, in a +terrible voice, "and to reflect carefully upon what he says. I suppose +you will admit that he is disinterested. In half an hour you shall hear +from me again!" And passing her hand through the Cavaliere's arm, she +swept rapidly out of the room. + +Christina looked hard at Rowland, but offered him no greeting. She was +very pale, and, strangely enough, it at first seemed to Rowland that +her beauty was in eclipse. But he very soon perceived that it had only +changed its character, and that if it was a trifle less brilliant than +usual, it was admirably touching and noble. The clouded light of her +eyes, the magnificent gravity of her features, the conscious erectness +of her head, might have belonged to a deposed sovereign or a condemned +martyr. "Why have you come here at this time?" she asked. + +"Your mother sent for me in pressing terms, and I was very glad to have +an opportunity to speak to you." + +"Have you come to help me, or to persecute me?" + +"I have as little power to do one as I have desire to do the other. +I came in great part to ask you a question. First, your decision is +irrevocable?" + +Christina's two hands had been hanging clasped in front of her; she +separated them and flung them apart by an admirable gesture. + +"Would you have done this if you had not seen Miss Garland?" + +She looked at him with quickened attention; then suddenly, "This is +interesting!" she cried. "Let us have it out." And she flung herself +into a chair and pointed to another. + +"You don't answer my question," Rowland said. + +"You have no right, that I know of, to ask it. But it 's a very clever +one; so clever that it deserves an answer. Very likely I would not." + +"Last night, when I said that to myself, I was extremely angry," Rowland +rejoined. + +"Oh, dear, and you are not angry now?" + +"I am less angry." + +"How very stupid! But you can say something at least." + +"If I were to say what is uppermost in my mind, I would say that, face +to face with you, it is never possible to condemn you." + +"Perche?" + +"You know, yourself! But I can at least say now what I felt last night. +It seemed to me that you had consciously, cruelly dealt a blow at that +poor girl. Do you understand?" + +"Wait a moment!" And with her eyes fixed on him, she inclined her head +on one side, meditatively. Then a cold, brilliant smile covered +her face, and she made a gesture of negation. "I see your train of +reasoning, but it 's quite wrong. I meant no harm to Miss Garland; I +should be extremely sorry to make her suffer. Tell me you believe that." + +This was said with ineffable candor. Rowland heard himself answering, "I +believe it!" + +"And yet, in a sense, your supposition was true," Christina continued. +"I conceived, as I told you, a great admiration for Miss Garland, and I +frankly confess I was jealous of her. What I envied her was simply +her character! I said to myself, 'She, in my place, would n't marry +Casamassima.' I could not help saying it, and I said it so often that I +found a kind of inspiration in it. I hated the idea of being worse than +she--of doing something that she would n't do. I might be bad by nature, +but I need n't be by volition. The end of it all was that I found it +impossible not to tell the prince that I was his very humble servant, +but that I could not marry him." + +"Are you sure it was only of Miss Garland's character that you were +jealous, not of--not of"-- + +"Speak out, I beg you. We are talking philosophy!" + +"Not of her affection for her cousin?" + +"Sure is a good deal to ask. Still, I think I may say it! There are two +reasons; one, at least, I can tell you: her affection has not a shadow's +weight with Mr. Hudson! Why then should one fear it?" + +"And what is the other reason?" + +"Excuse me; that is my own affair." + +Rowland was puzzled, baffled, charmed, inspired, almost, all at once. "I +have promised your mother," he presently resumed, "to say something in +favor of Prince Casamassima." + +She shook her head sadly. "Prince Casamassima needs nothing that you can +say for him. He is a magnificent parti. I know it perfectly." + +"You know also of the extreme affliction of your mother?" + +"Her affliction is demonstrative. She has been abusing me for the last +twenty-four hours as if I were the vilest of the vile." To see Christina +sit there in the purity of her beauty and say this, might have made one +bow one's head with a kind of awe. "I have failed of respect to her +at other times, but I have not done so now. Since we are talking +philosophy," she pursued with a gentle smile, "I may say it 's a simple +matter! I don't love him. Or rather, perhaps, since we are talking +philosophy, I may say it 's not a simple matter. I spoke just now of +inspiration. The inspiration has been great, but--I frankly confess +it--the choice has been hard. Shall I tell you?" she demanded, with +sudden ardor; "will you understand me? It was on the one side the world, +the splendid, beautiful, powerful, interesting world. I know what that +is; I have tasted of the cup, I know its sweetness. Ah, if I chose, if I +let myself go, if I flung everything to the winds, the world and I would +be famous friends! I know its merits, and I think, without vanity, it +would see mine. You would see some fine things! I should like to be a +princess, and I think I should be a very good one; I would play my part +well. I am fond of luxury, I am fond of a great society, I am fond of +being looked at. I am corrupt, corruptible, corruption! Ah, what a pity +that could n't be, too! Mercy of Heaven!" There was a passionate tremor +in her voice; she covered her face with her hands and sat motionless. +Rowland saw that an intense agitation, hitherto successfully repressed, +underlay her calmness, and he could easily believe that her battle had +been fierce. She rose quickly and turned away, walked a few paces, and +stopped. In a moment she was facing him again, with tears in her eyes +and a flush in her cheeks. "But you need n't think I 'm afraid!" she +said. "I have chosen, and I shall hold to it. I have something here, +here, here!" and she patted her heart. "It 's my own. I shan't part +with it. Is it what you call an ideal? I don't know; I don't care! It is +brighter than the Casamassima diamonds!" + +"You say that certain things are your own affair," Rowland presently +rejoined; "but I must nevertheless make an attempt to learn what all +this means--what it promises for my friend Hudson. Is there any hope for +him?" + +"This is a point I can't discuss with you minutely. I like him very +much." + +"Would you marry him if he were to ask you?" + +"He has asked me." + +"And if he asks again?" + +"I shall marry no one just now." + +"Roderick," said Rowland, "has great hopes." + +"Does he know of my rupture with the prince?" + +"He is making a great holiday of it." + +Christina pulled her poodle towards her and began to smooth his silky +fleece. "I like him very much," she repeated; "much more than I used to. +Since you told me all that about him at Saint Cecilia's, I have felt a +great friendship for him. There 's something very fine about him; he 's +not afraid of anything. He is not afraid of failure; he is not afraid of +ruin or death." + +"Poor fellow!" said Rowland, bitterly; "he is fatally picturesque." + +"Picturesque, yes; that 's what he is. I am very sorry for him." + +"Your mother told me just now that you had said that you did n't care a +straw for him." + +"Very likely! I meant as a lover. One does n't want a lover one pities, +and one does n't want--of all things in the world--a picturesque +husband! I should like Mr. Hudson as something else. I wish he were my +brother, so that he could never talk to me of marriage. Then I could +adore him. I would nurse him, I would wait on him and save him all +disagreeable rubs and shocks. I am much stronger than he, and I would +stand between him and the world. Indeed, with Mr. Hudson for my brother, +I should be willing to live and die an old maid!" + +"Have you ever told him all this?" + +"I suppose so; I 've told him five hundred things! If it would please +you, I will tell him again." + +"Oh, Heaven forbid!" cried poor Rowland, with a groan. + +He was lingering there, weighing his sympathy against his irritation, +and feeling it sink in the scale, when the curtain of a distant doorway +was lifted and Mrs. Light passed across the room. She stopped half-way, +and gave the young persons a flushed and menacing look. It found +apparently little to reassure her, and she moved away with a passionate +toss of her drapery. Rowland thought with horror of the sinister +compulsion to which the young girl was to be subjected. In this ethereal +flight of hers there was a certain painful effort and tension of wing; +but it was none the less piteous to imagine her being rudely jerked down +to the base earth she was doing her adventurous utmost to spurn. She +would need all her magnanimity for her own trial, and it seemed gross to +make further demands upon it on Roderick's behalf. + +Rowland took up his hat. "You asked a while ago if I had come to help +you," he said. "If I knew how I might help you, I should be particularly +glad." + +She stood silent a moment, reflecting. Then at last, looking up, "You +remember," she said, "your promising me six months ago to tell me what +you finally thought of me? I should like you to tell me now." + +He could hardly help smiling. Madame Grandoni had insisted on the fact +that Christina was an actress, though a sincere one; and this little +speech seemed a glimpse of the cloven foot. She had played her great +scene, she had made her point, and now she had her eye at the hole +in the curtain and she was watching the house! But she blushed as she +perceived his smile, and her blush, which was beautiful, made her fault +venial. + +"You are an excellent girl!" he said, in a particular tone, and gave her +his hand in farewell. + +There was a great chain of rooms in Mrs. Light's apartment, the pride +and joy of the hostess on festal evenings, through which the departing +visitor passed before reaching the door. In one of the first of these +Rowland found himself waylaid and arrested by the distracted lady +herself. + +"Well, well?" she cried, seizing his arm. "Has she listened to you--have +you moved her?" + +"In Heaven's name, dear madame," Rowland begged, "leave the poor girl +alone! She is behaving very well!" + +"Behaving very well? Is that all you have to tell me? I don't believe +you said a proper word to her. You are conspiring together to kill me!" + +Rowland tried to soothe her, to remonstrate, to persuade her that it was +equally cruel and unwise to try to force matters. But she answered him +only with harsh lamentations and imprecations, and ended by telling him +that her daughter was her property, not his, and that his interference +was most insolent and most scandalous. Her disappointment seemed really +to have crazed her, and his only possible rejoinder was to take a +summary departure. + +A moment later he came upon the Cavaliere, who was sitting with his +elbows on his knees and his head in his hands, so buried in thought that +Rowland had to call him before he roused himself. Giacosa looked at him +a moment keenly, and then gave a shake of the head, interrogatively. + +Rowland gave a shake negative, to which the Cavaliere responded by a +long, melancholy sigh. "But her mother is determined to force matters," +said Rowland. + +"It seems that it must be!" + +"Do you consider that it must be?" + +"I don't differ with Mrs. Light!" + +"It will be a great cruelty!" + +The Cavaliere gave a tragic shrug. "Eh! it is n't an easy world." + +"You should do nothing to make it harder, then." + +"What will you have? It 's a magnificent marriage." + +"You disappoint me, Cavaliere," said Rowland, solemnly. "I imagined you +appreciated the great elevation of Miss Light's attitude. She does n't +love the prince; she has let the matter stand or fall by that." + +The old man grasped him by the hand and stood a moment with averted +eyes. At last, looking at him, he held up two fingers. + +"I have two hearts," he said, "one for myself, one for the world. This +one opposes Miss Light, the other adores her! One suffers horribly at +what the other does." + +"I don't understand double people, Cavaliere," Rowland said, "and I +don't pretend to understand you. But I have guessed that you are going +to play some secret card." + +"The card is Mrs. Light's, not mine," said the Cavaliere. + +"It 's a menace, at any rate?" + +"The sword of Damocles! It hangs by a hair. Christina is to be given ten +minutes to recant, under penalty of having it fall. On the blade there +is something written in strange characters. Don't scratch your head; you +will not make it out." + +"I think I have guessed it," Rowland said, after a pregnant silence. The +Cavaliere looked at him blankly but intently, and Rowland added, "Though +there are some signs, indeed, I don't understand." + +"Puzzle them out at your leisure," said the Cavaliere, shaking his hand. +"I hear Mrs. Light; I must go to my post. I wish you were a Catholic; I +would beg you to step into the first church you come to, and pray for us +the next half-hour." + +"For 'us'? For whom?" + +"For all of us. At any rate remember this: I worship the Christina!" + +Rowland heard the rustle of Mrs. Light's dress; he turned away, and the +Cavaliere went, as he said, to his post. Rowland for the next couple of +days pondered his riddle. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XI. Mrs. Hudson + +Of Roderick, meanwhile, Rowland saw nothing; but he immediately went to +Mrs. Hudson and assured her that her son was in even exceptionally good +health and spirits. After this he called again on the two ladies from +Northampton, but, as Roderick's absence continued, he was able neither +to furnish nor to obtain much comfort. Miss Garland's apprehensive +face seemed to him an image of his own state of mind. He was profoundly +depressed; he felt that there was a storm in the air, and he wished +it would come, without more delay, and perform its ravages. On the +afternoon of the third day he went into Saint Peter's, his frequent +resort whenever the outer world was disagreeable. From a heart-ache to +a Roman rain there were few importunate pains the great church did not +help him to forget. He had wandered there for half an hour, when he came +upon a short figure, lurking in the shadow of one of the great piers. He +saw it was that of an artist, hastily transferring to his sketch-book a +memento of some fleeting variation in the scenery of the basilica; and +in a moment he perceived that the artist was little Sam Singleton. + +Singleton pocketed his sketch-book with a guilty air, as if it cost his +modesty a pang to be detected in this greedy culture of opportunity. +Rowland always enjoyed meeting him; talking with him, in these days, +was as good as a wayside gush of clear, cold water, on a long, hot walk. +There was, perhaps, no drinking-vessel, and you had to apply your lips +to some simple natural conduit; but the result was always a sense of +extreme moral refreshment. On this occasion he mentally blessed the +ingenuous little artist, and heard presently with keen regret that he +was to leave Rome on the morrow. Singleton had come to bid farewell +to Saint Peter's, and he was gathering a few supreme memories. He had +earned a purse-full of money, and he was meaning to take a summer's +holiday; going to Switzerland, to Germany, to Paris. In the autumn he +was to return home; his family--composed, as Rowland knew, of a father +who was cashier in a bank and five unmarried sisters, one of whom gave +lyceum-lectures on woman's rights, the whole resident at Buffalo, New +York--had been writing him peremptory letters and appealing to him as +a son, brother, and fellow-citizen. He would have been grateful for +another year in Rome, but what must be must be, and he had laid up +treasure which, in Buffalo, would seem infinite. They talked some time; +Rowland hoped they might meet in Switzerland, and take a walk or two +together. Singleton seemed to feel that Buffalo had marked him for her +own; he was afraid he should not see Rome again for many a year. + +"So you expect to live at Buffalo?" Rowland asked sympathetically. + +"Well, it will depend upon the views--upon the attitude--of my family," +Singleton replied. "Oh, I think I shall get on; I think it can be done. +If I find it can be done, I shall really be quite proud of it; as an +artist of course I mean, you know. Do you know I have some nine hundred +sketches? I shall live in my portfolio. And so long as one is not in +Rome, pray what does it matter where one is? But how I shall envy all +you Romans--you and Mr. Gloriani, and Mr. Hudson, especially!" + +"Don't envy Hudson; he has nothing to envy." + +Singleton grinned at what he considered a harmless jest. "Yes, he 's +going to be the great man of our time! And I say, Mr. Mallet, is n't it +a mighty comfort that it 's we who have turned him out?" + +"Between ourselves," said Rowland, "he has disappointed me." + +Singleton stared, open-mouthed. "Dear me, what did you expect?" + +"Truly," said Rowland to himself, "what did I expect?" + +"I confess," cried Singleton, "I can't judge him rationally. He +fascinates me; he 's the sort of man one makes one's hero of." + +"Strictly speaking, he is not a hero," said Rowland. + +Singleton looked intensely grave, and, with almost tearful eyes, "Is +there anything amiss--anything out of the way, about him?" he timidly +asked. Then, as Rowland hesitated to reply, he quickly added, "Please, +if there is, don't tell me! I want to know no evil of him, and I think +I should hardly believe it. In my memories of this Roman artist-life, +he will be the central figure. He will stand there in radiant relief, as +beautiful and unspotted as one of his own statues!" + +"Amen!" said Rowland, gravely. He remembered afresh that the sea is +inhabited by big fishes and little, and that the latter often find their +way down the throats of the former. Singleton was going to spend the +afternoon in taking last looks at certain other places, and Rowland +offered to join him on his sentimental circuit. But as they were +preparing to leave the church, he heard himself suddenly addressed from +behind. Turning, he beheld a young woman whom he immediately recognized +as Madame Grandoni's maid. Her mistress was present, she said, and +begged to confer with him before he departed. + +This summons obliged Rowland to separate from Singleton, to whom he bade +farewell. He followed the messenger, and presently found Madame Grandoni +occupying a liberal area on the steps of the tribune, behind the great +altar, where, spreading a shawl on the polished red marble, she had +comfortably seated herself. He expected that she had something especial +to impart, and she lost no time in bringing forth her treasure. + +"Don't shout very loud," she said, "remember that we are in church; +there 's a limit to the noise one may make even in Saint Peter's. +Christina Light was married this morning to Prince Casamassima." + +Rowland did not shout at all; he gave a deep, short murmur: +"Married--this morning?" + +"Married this morning, at seven o'clock, le plus tranquillement du +monde, before three or four persons. The young couple left Rome an hour +afterwards." + +For some moments this seemed to him really terrible; the dark little +drama of which he had caught a glimpse had played itself out. He had +believed that Christina would resist; that she had succumbed was a proof +that the pressure had been cruel. Rowland's imagination followed her +forth with an irresistible tremor into the world toward which she was +rolling away, with her detested husband and her stifled ideal; but it +must be confessed that if the first impulse of his compassion was +for Christina, the second was for Prince Casamassima. Madame Grandoni +acknowledged an extreme curiosity as to the secret springs of these +strange doings: Casamassima's sudden dismissal, his still more sudden +recall, the hurried private marriage. "Listen," said Rowland, hereupon, +"and I will tell you something." And he related, in detail, his last +visit to Mrs. Light and his talk with this lady, with Christina, and +with the Cavaliere. + +"Good," she said; "it 's all very curious. But it 's a riddle, and I +only half guess it." + +"Well," said Rowland, "I desire to harm no one; but certain suppositions +have taken shape in my mind which serve as a solvent to several +ambiguities." + +"It is very true," Madame Grandoni answered, "that the Cavaliere, as he +stands, has always needed to be explained." + +"He is explained by the hypothesis that, three-and-twenty years ago, at +Ancona, Mrs. Light had a lover." + +"I see. Ancona was dull, Mrs. Light was lively, and--three-and-twenty +years ago--perhaps, the Cavaliere was fascinating. Doubtless it would be +fairer to say that he was fascinated. Poor Giacosa!" + +"He has had his compensation," Rowland said. "He has been passionately +fond of Christina." + +"Naturally. But has Christina never wondered why?" + +"If she had been near guessing, her mother's shabby treatment of him +would have put her off the scent. Mrs. Light's conscience has apparently +told her that she could expiate an hour's too great kindness by twenty +years' contempt. So she kept her secret. But what is the profit of +having a secret unless you can make some use of it? The day at last came +when she could turn hers to account; she could let the skeleton out of +the closet and create a panic." + +"I don't understand." + +"Neither do I morally," said Rowland. "I only conceive that there was a +horrible, fabulous scene. The poor Cavaliere stood outside, at the +door, white as a corpse and as dumb. The mother and daughter had it out +together. Mrs. Light burnt her ships. When she came out she had three +lines of writing in her daughter's hand, which the Cavaliere was +dispatched with to the prince. They overtook the young man in time, and, +when he reappeared, he was delighted to dispense with further waiting. I +don't know what he thought of the look in his bride's face; but that is +how I roughly reconstruct history." + +"Christina was forced to decide, then, that she could not afford not to +be a princess?" + +"She was reduced by humiliation. She was assured that it was not for her +to make conditions, but to thank her stars that there were none made for +her. If she persisted, she might find it coming to pass that there would +be conditions, and the formal rupture--the rupture that the world would +hear of and pry into--would then proceed from the prince and not from +her." + +"That 's all nonsense!" said Madame Grandoni, energetically. + +"To us, yes; but not to the proudest girl in the world, deeply wounded +in her pride, and not stopping to calculate probabilities, but muffling +her shame, with an almost sensuous relief, in a splendor that stood +within her grasp and asked no questions. Is it not possible that the +late Mr. Light had made an outbreak before witnesses who are still +living?" + +"Certainly her marriage now," said Madame Grandoni, less analytically, +"has the advantage that it takes her away from her--parents!" + +This lady's farther comments upon the event are not immediately +pertinent to our history; there were some other comments of which +Rowland had a deeply oppressive foreboding. He called, on the evening +of the morrow upon Mrs. Hudson, and found Roderick with the two +ladies. Their companion had apparently but lately entered, and Rowland +afterwards learned that it was his first appearance since the writing of +the note which had so distressed his mother. He had flung himself upon +a sofa, where he sat with his chin upon his breast, staring before him +with a sinister spark in his eye. He fixed his gaze on Rowland, but gave +him no greeting. He had evidently been saying something to startle the +women; Mrs. Hudson had gone and seated herself, timidly and imploringly, +on the edge of the sofa, trying to take his hand. Miss Garland was +applying herself to some needlework with conscious intentness. + +Mrs. Hudson gave Rowland, on his entrance, a touching look of gratitude. +"Oh, we have such blessed news!" she said. "Roderick is ready to leave +Rome." + +"It 's not blessed news; it 's most damnable news!" cried Roderick. + +"Oh, but we are very glad, my son, and I am sure you will be when you +get away. You 're looking most dreadfully thin; is n't he, Mr. Mallet? +It 's plain enough you need a change. I 'm sure we will go wherever you +like. Where would you like to go?" + +Roderick turned his head slowly and looked at her. He had let her take +his hand, which she pressed tenderly between her own. He gazed at +her for some time in silence. "Poor mother!" he said at last, in a +portentous tone. + +"My own dear son!" murmured Mrs. Hudson in all the innocence of her +trust. + +"I don't care a straw where you go! I don't care a straw for anything!" + +"Oh, my dear boy, you must not say that before all of us here--before +Mary, before Mr. Mallet!" + +"Mary--Mr. Mallet?" Roderick repeated, almost savagely. He released +himself from the clasp of his mother's hand and turned away, leaning +his elbows on his knees and holding his head in his hands. There was a +silence; Rowland said nothing because he was watching Miss Garland. "Why +should I stand on ceremony with Mary and Mr. Mallet?" Roderick presently +added. "Mary pretends to believe I 'm a fine fellow, and if she believes +it as she ought to, nothing I can say will alter her opinion. Mallet +knows I 'm a hopeless humbug; so I need n't mince my words with him." + +"Ah, my dear, don't use such dreadful language!" said Mrs. Hudson. "Are +n't we all devoted to you, and proud of you, and waiting only to hear +what you want, so that we may do it?" + +Roderick got up, and began to walk about the room; he was evidently in a +restless, reckless, profoundly demoralized condition. Rowland felt that +it was literally true that he did not care a straw for anything, but +he observed with anxiety that Mrs. Hudson, who did not know on what +delicate ground she was treading, was disposed to chide him caressingly, +as a mere expression of tenderness. He foresaw that she would bring down +the hovering thunderbolt on her head. + +"In God's name," Roderick cried, "don't remind me of my obligations! It +'s intolerable to me, and I don't believe it 's pleasant to Mallet. +I know they 're tremendous--I know I shall never repay them. I 'm +bankrupt! Do you know what that means?" + +The poor lady sat staring, dismayed, and Rowland angrily interfered. +"Don't talk such stuff to your mother!" he cried. "Don't you see you 're +frightening her?" + +"Frightening her? she may as well be frightened first as last. Do I +frighten you, mother?" Roderick demanded. + +"Oh, Roderick, what do you mean?" whimpered the poor lady. "Mr. Mallet, +what does he mean?" + +"I mean that I 'm an angry, savage, disappointed, miserable man!" +Roderick went on. "I mean that I can't do a stroke of work nor think +a profitable thought! I mean that I 'm in a state of helpless rage and +grief and shame! Helpless, helpless--that 's what it is. You can't help +me, poor mother--not with kisses, nor tears, nor prayers! Mary can't +help me--not for all the honor she does me, nor all the big books on art +that she pores over. Mallet can't help me--not with all his money, nor +all his good example, nor all his friendship, which I 'm so profoundly +well aware of: not with it all multiplied a thousand times and repeated +to all eternity! I thought you would help me, you and Mary; that 's why +I sent for you. But you can't, don't think it! The sooner you give up +the idea the better for you. Give up being proud of me, too; there +'s nothing left of me to be proud of! A year ago I was a mighty fine +fellow; but do you know what has become of me now? I have gone to the +devil!" + +There was something in the ring of Roderick's voice, as he uttered these +words, which sent them home with convincing force. He was not talking +for effect, or the mere sensuous pleasure of extravagant and paradoxical +utterance, as had often enough been the case ere this; he was not +even talking viciously or ill-humoredly. He was talking passionately, +desperately, and from an irresistible need to throw off the oppressive +burden of his mother's confidence. His cruel eloquence brought the poor +lady to her feet, and she stood there with clasped hands, petrified +and voiceless. Mary Garland quickly left her place, came straight to +Roderick, and laid her hand on his arm, looking at him with all her +tormented heart in her eyes. He made no movement to disengage himself; +he simply shook his head several times, in dogged negation of her +healing powers. Rowland had been living for the past month in such +intolerable expectancy of disaster that now that the ice was broken, and +the fatal plunge taken, his foremost feeling was almost elation; but +in a moment his orderly instincts and his natural love of superficial +smoothness overtook it. + +"I really don't see, Roderick," he said, "the profit of your talking in +just this way at just this time. Don't you see how you are making your +mother suffer?" + +"Do I enjoy it myself?" cried Roderick. "Is the suffering all on your +side and theirs? Do I look as if I were happy, and were stirring you +up with a stick for my amusement? Here we all are in the same boat; we +might as well understand each other! These women must know that I 'm not +to be counted on. That sounds remarkably cool, no doubt, and I certainly +don't deny your right to be utterly disgusted with me." + +"Will you keep what you have got to say till another time," said Mary, +"and let me hear it alone?" + +"Oh, I 'll let you hear it as often as you please; but what 's the use +of keeping it? I 'm in the humor; it won't keep! It 's a very simple +matter. I 'm a failure, that 's all; I 'm not a first-rate man. I 'm +second-rate, tenth-rate, anything you please. After that, it 's all +one!" + +Mary Garland turned away and buried her face in her hands; but Roderick, +struck, apparently, in some unwonted fashion with her gesture, drew +her towards him again, and went on in a somewhat different tone. "It 's +hardly worth while we should have any private talk about this, Mary," he +said. "The thing would be comfortable for neither of us. It 's better, +after all, that it be said once for all and dismissed. There are +things I can't talk to you about. Can I, at least? You are such a queer +creature!" + +"I can imagine nothing you should n't talk to me about," said Mary. + +"You are not afraid?" he demanded, sharply, looking at her. + +She turned away abruptly, with lowered eyes, hesitating a moment. +"Anything you think I should hear, I will hear," she said. And then she +returned to her place at the window and took up her work. + +"I have had a great blow," said Roderick. "I was a great ass, but it +does n't make the blow any easier to bear." + +"Mr. Mallet, tell me what Roderick means!" said Mrs. Hudson, who had +found her voice, in a tone more peremptory than Rowland had ever heard +her use. + +"He ought to have told you before," said Roderick. "Really, Rowland, +if you will allow me to say so, you ought! You could have given a much +better account of all this than I myself; better, especially, in that +it would have been more lenient to me. You ought to have let them down +gently; it would have saved them a great deal of pain. But you always +want to keep things so smooth! Allow me to say that it 's very weak of +you." + +"I hereby renounce such weakness!" said Rowland. + +"Oh, what is it, sir; what is it?" groaned Mrs. Hudson, insistently. + +"It 's what Roderick says: he 's a failure!" + +Mary Garland, on hearing this declaration, gave Rowland a single glance +and then rose, laid down her work, and walked rapidly out of the room. +Mrs. Hudson tossed her head and timidly bristled. "This from you, Mr. +Mallet!" she said with an injured air which Rowland found harrowing. + +But Roderick, most characteristically, did not in the least resent his +friend's assertion; he sent him, on the contrary, one of those large, +clear looks of his, which seemed to express a stoical pleasure in +Rowland's frankness, and which set his companion, then and there, +wondering again, as he had so often done before, at the extraordinary +contradictions of his temperament. "My dear mother," Roderick said, "if +you had had eyes that were not blinded by this sad maternal vanity, you +would have seen all this for yourself; you would have seen that I 'm +anything but prosperous." + +"Is it anything about money?" cried Mrs. Hudson. "Oh, do write to Mr. +Striker!" + +"Money?" said Roderick. "I have n't a cent of money; I 'm bankrupt!" + +"Oh, Mr. Mallet, how could you let him?" asked Mrs. Hudson, terribly. + +"Everything I have is at his service," said Rowland, feeling ill. + +"Of course Mr. Mallet will help you, my son!" cried the poor lady, +eagerly. + +"Oh, leave Mr. Mallet alone!" said Roderick. "I have squeezed him dry; +it 's not my fault, at least, if I have n't!" + +"Roderick, what have you done with all your money?" his mother demanded. + +"Thrown it away! It was no such great amount. I have done nothing this +winter." + +"You have done nothing?" + +"I have done no work! Why in the world did n't you guess it and spare me +all this? Could n't you see I was idle, distracted, dissipated?" + +"Dissipated, my dear son?" Mrs. Hudson repeated. + +"That 's over for the present! But could n't you see--could n't Mary +see--that I was in a damnably bad way?" + +"I have no doubt Miss Garland saw," said Rowland. + +"Mary has said nothing!" cried Mrs. Hudson. + +"Oh, she 's a fine girl!" Rowland said. + +"Have you done anything that will hurt poor Mary?" Mrs. Hudson asked. + +"I have only been thinking night and day of another woman!" + +Mrs. Hudson dropped helplessly into her seat again. "Oh dear, dear, had +n't we better go home?" + +"Not to get out of her way!" Roderick said. "She has started on a career +of her own, and she does n't care a straw for me. My head was filled +with her; I could think of nothing else; I would have sacrificed +everything to her--you, Mary, Mallet, my work, my fortune, my future, my +honor! I was in a fine state, eh? I don't pretend to be giving you good +news; but I 'm telling the simple, literal truth, so that you may know +why I have gone to the dogs. She pretended to care greatly for all this, +and to be willing to make any sacrifice in return; she had a magnificent +chance, for she was being forced into a mercenary marriage with a man +she detested. She led me to believe that she would give this up, and +break short off, and keep herself free and sacred and pure for me. This +was a great honor, and you may believe that I valued it. It turned +my head, and I lived only to see my happiness come to pass. She did +everything to encourage me to hope it would; everything that her +infernal coquetry and falsity could suggest." + +"Oh, I say, this is too much!" Rowland broke out. + +"Do you defend her?" Roderick cried, with a renewal of his passion. "Do +you pretend to say that she gave me no hopes?" He had been speaking +with growing bitterness, quite losing sight of his mother's pain and +bewilderment in the passionate joy of publishing his wrongs. Since he +was hurt, he must cry out; since he was in pain, he must scatter his +pain abroad. Of his never thinking of others, save as they spoke and +moved from his cue, as it were, this extraordinary insensibility to the +injurious effects of his eloquence was a capital example; the more so +as the motive of his eloquence was never an appeal for sympathy or +compassion, things to which he seemed perfectly indifferent and of which +he could make no use. The great and characteristic point with him was +the perfect absoluteness of his own emotions and experience. He never +saw himself as part of a whole; only as the clear-cut, sharp-edged, +isolated individual, rejoicing or raging, as the case might be, but +needing in any case absolutely to affirm himself. All this, to Rowland, +was ancient history, but his perception of it stirred within him afresh, +at the sight of Roderick's sense of having been betrayed. That he, +under the circumstances, should not in fairness be the first to lodge a +complaint of betrayal was a point to which, at his leisure, Rowland was +of course capable of rendering impartial justice; but Roderick's +present desperation was so peremptory that it imposed itself on one's +sympathies. "Do you pretend to say," he went on, "that she did n't lead +me along to the very edge of fulfillment and stupefy me with all that +she suffered me to believe, all that she sacredly promised? It amused +her to do it, and she knew perfectly well what she really meant. She +never meant to be sincere; she never dreamed she could be. She 's a +ravenous flirt, and why a flirt is a flirt is more than I can tell you. +I can't understand playing with those matters; for me they 're serious, +whether I take them up or lay them down. I don't see what 's in your +head, Rowland, to attempt to defend Miss Light; you were the first to +cry out against her! You told me she was dangerous, and I pooh-poohed +you. You were right; you 're always right. She 's as cold and false and +heartless as she 's beautiful, and she has sold her heartless beauty to +the highest bidder. I hope he knows what he gets!" + +"Oh, my son," cried Mrs. Hudson, plaintively, "how could you ever care +for such a dreadful creature?" + +"It would take long to tell you, dear mother!" + +Rowland's lately-deepened sympathy and compassion for Christina was +still throbbing in his mind, and he felt that, in loyalty to it, he +must say a word for her. "You believed in her too much at first," he +declared, "and you believe in her too little now." + +Roderick looked at him with eyes almost lurid, beneath lowering brows. +"She is an angel, then, after all?--that 's what you want to prove!" +he cried. "That 's consoling for me, who have lost her! You 're always +right, I say; but, dear friend, in mercy, be wrong for once!" + +"Oh yes, Mr. Mallet, be merciful!" said Mrs. Hudson, in a tone which, +for all its gentleness, made Rowland stare. The poor fellow's stare +covered a great deal of concentrated wonder and apprehension--a +presentiment of what a small, sweet, feeble, elderly lady might be +capable of, in the way of suddenly generated animosity. There was no +space in Mrs. Hudson's tiny maternal mind for complications of feeling, +and one emotion existed only by turning another over flat and perching +on top of it. She was evidently not following Roderick at all in his +dusky aberrations. Sitting without, in dismay, she only saw that all was +darkness and trouble, and as Roderick's glory had now quite outstripped +her powers of imagination and urged him beyond her jurisdiction, so that +he had become a thing too precious and sacred for blame, she found it +infinitely comfortable to lay the burden of their common affliction upon +Rowland's broad shoulders. Had he not promised to make them all rich and +happy? And this was the end of it! Rowland felt as if his trials were, +in a sense, only beginning. "Had n't you better forget all this, my +dear?" Mrs. Hudson said. "Had n't you better just quietly attend to your +work?" + +"Work, madame?" cried Roderick. "My work 's over. I can't work--I have +n't worked all winter. If I were fit for anything, this sentimental +collapse would have been just the thing to cure me of my apathy and +break the spell of my idleness. But there 's a perfect vacuum here!" And +he tapped his forehead. "It 's bigger than ever; it grows bigger every +hour!" + +"I 'm sure you have made a beautiful likeness of your poor little +mother," said Mrs. Hudson, coaxingly. + +"I had done nothing before, and I have done nothing since! I quarreled +with an excellent man, the other day, from mere exasperation of my +nerves, and threw away five thousand dollars!" + +"Threw away--five thousand dollars!" Roderick had been wandering among +formidable abstractions and allusions too dark to penetrate. But here +was a concrete fact, lucidly stated, and poor Mrs. Hudson, for a moment, +looked it in the face. She repeated her son's words a third time with a +gasping murmur, and then, suddenly, she burst into tears. Roderick +went to her, sat down beside her, put his arm round her, fixed his eyes +coldly on the floor, and waited for her to weep herself out. She leaned +her head on his shoulder and sobbed broken-heartedly. She said not a +word, she made no attempt to scold; but the desolation of her tears was +overwhelming. It lasted some time--too long for Rowland's courage. He +had stood silent, wishing simply to appear very respectful; but the +elation that was mentioned a while since had utterly ebbed, and he found +his situation intolerable. He walked away--not, perhaps, on tiptoe, but +with a total absence of bravado in his tread. + +The next day, while he was at home, the servant brought him the card of +a visitor. He read with surprise the name of Mrs. Hudson, and hurried +forward to meet her. He found her in his sitting-room, leaning on the +arm of her son and looking very pale, her eyes red with weeping, and her +lips tightly compressed. Her advent puzzled him, and it was not for +some time that he began to understand the motive of it. Roderick's +countenance threw no light upon it; but Roderick's countenance, full of +light as it was, in a way, itself, had never thrown light upon anything. +He had not been in Rowland's rooms for several weeks, and he immediately +began to look at those of his own works that adorned them. He lost +himself in silent contemplation. Mrs. Hudson had evidently armed herself +with dignity, and, so far as she might, she meant to be impressive. +Her success may be measured by the fact that Rowland's whole attention +centred in the fear of seeing her begin to weep. She told him that she +had come to him for practical advice; she begged to remind him that she +was a stranger in the land. Where were they to go, please? what were +they to do? Rowland glanced at Roderick, but Roderick had his back +turned and was gazing at his Adam with the intensity with which he might +have examined Michael Angelo's Moses. + +"Roderick says he does n't know, he does n't care," Mrs. Hudson said; +"he leaves it entirely to you." + +Many another man, in Rowland's place, would have greeted this +information with an irate and sarcastic laugh, and told his visitors +that he thanked them infinitely for their confidence, but that, really, +as things stood now, they must settle these matters between themselves; +many another man might have so demeaned himself, even if, like Rowland, +he had been in love with Mary Garland and pressingly conscious that +her destiny was also part of the question. But Rowland swallowed all +hilarity and all sarcasm, and let himself seriously consider Mrs. +Hudson's petition. His wits, however, were but indifferently at his +command; they were dulled by his sense of the inexpressible change in +Mrs. Hudson's attitude. Her visit was evidently intended as a formal +reminder of the responsiblities Rowland had worn so lightly. Mrs. Hudson +was doubtless too sincerely humble a person to suppose that if he had +been recreant to his vows of vigilance and tenderness, her still, small +presence would operate as a chastisement. But by some diminutive logical +process of her own she had convinced herself that she had been weakly +trustful, and that she had suffered Rowland to think too meanly, not +only of her understanding, but of her social consequence. A visit in +her best gown would have an admonitory effect as regards both of these +attributes; it would cancel some favors received, and show him that she +was no such fool! These were the reflections of a very shy woman, +who, determining for once in her life to hold up her head, was perhaps +carrying it a trifle extravagantly. + +"You know we have very little money to spend," she said, as Rowland +remained silent. "Roderick tells me that he has debts and nothing at all +to pay them with. He says I must write to Mr. Striker to sell my house +for what it will bring, and send me out the money. When the money comes +I must give it to him. I 'm sure I don't know; I never heard of anything +so dreadful! My house is all I have. But that is all Roderick will say. +We must be very economical." + +Before this speech was finished Mrs. Hudson's voice had begun to quaver +softly, and her face, which had no capacity for the expression of +superior wisdom, to look as humbly appealing as before. Rowland turned +to Roderick and spoke like a school-master. "Come away from those +statues, and sit down here and listen to me!" + +Roderick started, but obeyed with the most graceful docility. + +"What do you propose to your mother to do?" Rowland asked. + +"Propose?" said Roderick, absently. "Oh, I propose nothing." + +The tone, the glance, the gesture with which this was said were horribly +irritating (though obviously without the slightest intention of being +so), and for an instant an imprecation rose to Rowland's lips. But he +checked it, and he was afterwards glad he had done so. "You must do +something," he said. "Choose, select, decide!" + +"My dear Rowland, how you talk!" Roderick cried. "The very point of the +matter is that I can't do anything. I will do as I 'm told, but I don't +call that doing. We must leave Rome, I suppose, though I don't see why. +We have got no money, and you have to pay money on the railroads." + +Mrs. Hudson surreptitiously wrung her hands. "Listen to him, please!" +she cried. "Not leave Rome, when we have staid here later than any +Christians ever did before! It 's this dreadful place that has made us +so unhappy." + +"That 's very true," said Roderick, serenely. "If I had not come to +Rome, I would n't have risen, and if I had not risen, I should n't have +fallen." + +"Fallen--fallen!" murmured Mrs. Hudson. "Just hear him!" + +"I will do anything you say, Rowland," Roderick added. "I will do +anything you want. I have not been unkind to my mother--have I, mother? +I was unkind yesterday, without meaning it; for after all, all that had +to be said. Murder will out, and my low spirits can't be hidden. But we +talked it over and made it up, did n't we? It seemed to me we did. +Let Rowland decide it, mother; whatever he suggests will be the right +thing." And Roderick, who had hardly removed his eyes from the statues, +got up again and went back to look at them. + +Mrs. Hudson fixed her eyes upon the floor in silence. There was not +a trace in Roderick's face, or in his voice, of the bitterness of his +emotion of the day before, and not a hint of his having the lightest +weight upon his conscience. He looked at Rowland with his frank, +luminous eye as if there had never been a difference of opinion between +them; as if each had ever been for both, unalterably, and both for each. + +Rowland had received a few days before a letter from a lady of his +acquaintance, a worthy Scotswoman domiciled in a villa upon one of the +olive-covered hills near Florence. She held her apartment in the villa +upon a long lease, and she enjoyed for a sum not worth mentioning the +possession of an extraordinary number of noble, stone-floored rooms, +with ceilings vaulted and frescoed, and barred windows commanding the +loveliest view in the world. She was a needy and thrifty spinster, who +never hesitated to declare that the lovely view was all very well, but +that for her own part she lived in the villa for cheapness, and that +if she had a clear three hundred pounds a year she would go and really +enjoy life near her sister, a baronet's lady, at Glasgow. She was now +proposing to make a visit to that exhilarating city, and she desired to +turn an honest penny by sub-letting for a few weeks her historic Italian +chambers. The terms on which she occupied them enabled her to ask a rent +almost jocosely small, and she begged Rowland to do what she called a +little genteel advertising for her. Would he say a good word for her +rooms to his numerous friends, as they left Rome? He said a good word +for them now to Mrs. Hudson, and told her in dollars and cents how cheap +a summer's lodging she might secure. He dwelt upon the fact that she +would strike a truce with tables-d'hote and have a cook of her own, +amenable possibly to instruction in the Northampton mysteries. He +had touched a tender chord; Mrs. Hudson became almost cheerful. Her +sentiments upon the table-d'hote system and upon foreign household +habits generally were remarkable, and, if we had space for it, would +repay analysis; and the idea of reclaiming a lost soul to the Puritanic +canons of cookery quite lightened the burden of her depression. While +Rowland set forth his case Roderick was slowly walking round the +magnificent Adam, with his hands in his pockets. Rowland waited for him +to manifest an interest in their discussion, but the statue seemed to +fascinate him and he remained calmly heedless. Rowland was a practical +man; he possessed conspicuously what is called the sense of detail. He +entered into Mrs. Hudson's position minutely, and told her exactly why +it seemed good that she should remove immediately to the Florentine +villa. She received his advice with great frigidity, looking hard at the +floor and sighing, like a person well on her guard against an insidious +optimism. But she had nothing better to propose, and Rowland received +her permission to write to his friend that he had let the rooms. + +Roderick assented to this decision without either sighs or smiles. "A +Florentine villa is a good thing!" he said. "I am at your service." + +"I 'm sure I hope you 'll get better there," moaned his mother, +gathering her shawl together. + +Roderick laid one hand on her arm and with the other pointed to +Rowland's statues. "Better or worse, remember this: I did those things!" +he said. + +Mrs. Hudson gazed at them vaguely, and Rowland said, "Remember it +yourself!" + +"They are horribly good!" said Roderick. + +Rowland solemnly shrugged his shoulders; it seemed to him that he +had nothing more to say. But as the others were going, a last light +pulsation of the sense of undischarged duty led him to address to +Roderick a few words of parting advice. "You 'll find the Villa +Pandolfini very delightful, very comfortable," he said. "You ought to +be very contented there. Whether you work or whether you loaf, it 's a +place for an artist to be happy in. I hope you will work." + +"I hope I may!" said Roderick with a magnificent smile. + +"When we meet again, have something to show me." + +"When we meet again? Where the deuce are you going?" Roderick demanded. + +"Oh, I hardly know; over the Alps." + +"Over the Alps! You 're going to leave me?" Roderick cried. + +Rowland had most distinctly meant to leave him, but his resolution +immediately wavered. He glanced at Mrs. Hudson and saw that her eyebrows +were lifted and her lips parted in soft irony. She seemed to accuse him +of a craven shirking of trouble, to demand of him to repair his +cruel havoc in her life by a solemn renewal of zeal. But Roderick's +expectations were the oddest! Such as they were, Rowland asked himself +why he should n't make a bargain with them. "You desire me to go with +you?" he asked. + +"If you don't go, I won't--that 's all! How in the world shall I get +through the summer without you?" + +"How will you get through it with me? That 's the question." + +"I don't pretend to say; the future is a dead blank. But without you it +'s not a blank--it 's certain damnation!" + +"Mercy, mercy!" murmured Mrs. Hudson. + +Rowland made an effort to stand firm, and for a moment succeeded. "If I +go with you, will you try to work?" + +Roderick, up to this moment, had been looking as unperturbed as if the +deep agitation of the day before were a thing of the remote past. But at +these words his face changed formidably; he flushed and scowled, and all +his passion returned. "Try to work!" he cried. "Try--try! work--work! In +God's name don't talk that way, or you 'll drive me mad! Do you suppose +I 'm trying not to work? Do you suppose I stand rotting here for the fun +of it? Don't you suppose I would try to work for myself before I tried +for you?" + +"Mr. Mallet," cried Mrs. Hudson, piteously, "will you leave me alone +with this?" + +Rowland turned to her and informed her, gently, that he would go with +her to Florence. After he had so pledged himself he thought not at all +of the pain of his position as mediator between the mother's resentful +grief and the son's incurable weakness; he drank deep, only, of the +satisfaction of not separating from Mary Garland. If the future was a +blank to Roderick, it was hardly less so to himself. He had at moments +a lively foreboding of impending calamity. He paid it no especial +deference, but it made him feel indisposed to take the future into his +account. When, on his going to take leave of Madame Grandoni, this lady +asked at what time he would come back to Rome, he answered that he was +coming back either never or forever. When she asked him what he meant, +he said he really could n't tell her, and parted from her with much +genuine emotion; the more so, doubtless, that she blessed him in a quite +loving, maternal fashion, and told him she honestly believed him to be +the best fellow in the world. + +The Villa Pandolfini stood directly upon a small grass-grown piazza, +on the top of a hill which sloped straight from one of the gates of +Florence. It offered to the outer world a long, rather low facade, +colored a dull, dark yellow, and pierced with windows of various sizes, +no one of which, save those on the ground floor, was on the same level +with any other. Within, it had a great, cool, gray cortile, with high, +light arches around it, heavily-corniced doors, of majestic altitude, +opening out of it, and a beautiful mediaeval well on one side of it. +Mrs. Hudson's rooms opened into a small garden supported on immense +substructions, which were planted on the farther side of the hill, as +it sloped steeply away. This garden was a charming place. Its south wall +was curtained with a dense orange vine, a dozen fig-trees offered you +their large-leaved shade, and over the low parapet the soft, grave +Tuscan landscape kept you company. The rooms themselves were as high as +chapels and as cool as royal sepulchres. Silence, peace, and security +seemed to abide in the ancient house and make it an ideal refuge for +aching hearts. Mrs. Hudson had a stunted, brown-faced Maddalena, who +wore a crimson handkerchief passed over her coarse, black locks and tied +under her sharp, pertinacious chin, and a smile which was as brilliant +as a prolonged flash of lightning. She smiled at everything in life, +especially the things she did n't like and which kept her talent for +mendacity in healthy exercise. A glance, a word, a motion was sufficient +to make her show her teeth at you like a cheerful she-wolf. This +inexpugnable smile constituted her whole vocabulary in her dealings with +her melancholy mistress, to whom she had been bequeathed by the late +occupant of the apartment, and who, to Rowland's satisfaction, +promised to be diverted from her maternal sorrows by the still +deeper perplexities of Maddalena's theory of roasting, sweeping, and +bed-making. + +Rowland took rooms at a villa a trifle nearer Florence, whence in +the summer mornings he had five minutes' walk in the sharp, black, +shadow-strip projected by winding, flower-topped walls, to join his +friends. The life at the Villa Pandolfini, when it had fairly defined +itself, was tranquil and monotonous, but it might have borrowed from +exquisite circumstance an absorbing charm. If a sensible shadow rested +upon it, this was because it had an inherent vice; it was feigning a +repose which it very scantily felt. Roderick had lost no time in giving +the full measure of his uncompromising chagrin, and as he was the +central figure of the little group, as he held its heart-strings all in +his own hand, it reflected faithfully the eclipse of his own genius. No +one had ventured upon the cheerful commonplace of saying that the change +of air and of scene would restore his spirits; this would have had, +under the circumstances, altogether too silly a sound. The change in +question had done nothing of the sort, and his companions had, at least, +the comfort of their perspicacity. An essential spring had dried up +within him, and there was no visible spiritual law for making it flow +again. He was rarely violent, he expressed little of the irritation and +ennui that he must have constantly felt; it was as if he believed that +a spiritual miracle for his redemption was just barely possible, and was +therefore worth waiting for. The most that one could do, however, was +to wait grimly and doggedly, suppressing an imprecation as, from time to +time, one looked at one's watch. An attitude of positive urbanity toward +life was not to be expected; it was doing one's duty to hold one's +tongue and keep one's hands off one's own windpipe, and other people's. +Roderick had long silences, fits of profound lethargy, almost of +stupefaction. He used to sit in the garden by the hour, with his head +thrown back, his legs outstretched, his hands in his pockets, and his +eyes fastened upon the blinding summer sky. He would gather a dozen +books about him, tumble them out on the ground, take one into his lap, +and leave it with the pages unturned. These moods would alternate with +hours of extreme restlessness, during which he mysteriously absented +himself. He bore the heat of the Italian summer like a salamander, and +used to start off at high noon for long walks over the hills. He often +went down into Florence, rambled through her close, dim streets, and +lounged away mornings in the churches and galleries. On many of these +occasions Rowland bore him company, for they were the times when he +was most like his former self. Before Michael Angelo's statues and the +pictures of the early Tuscans, he quite forgot his own infelicities, and +picked up the thread of his old aesthetic loquacity. He had a particular +fondness for Andrea del Sarto, and affirmed that if he had been a +painter he would have taken the author of the Madonna del Sacco for his +model. He found in Florence some of his Roman friends, and went down on +certain evenings to meet them. More than once he asked Mary Garland to +go with him into town, and showed her the things he most cared for. He +had some modeling clay brought up to the villa and deposited in a room +suitable for his work; but when this had been done he turned the key in +the door and the clay never was touched. His eye was heavy and his hand +cold, and his mother put up a secret prayer that he might be induced +to see a doctor. But on a certain occasion, when her prayer became +articulate, he had a great outburst of anger and begged her to know, +once for all, that his health was better than it had ever been. On +the whole, and most of the time, he was a sad spectacle; he looked so +hopelessly idle. If he was not querulous and bitter, it was because he +had taken an extraordinary vow not to be; a vow heroic, for him, a vow +which those who knew him well had the tenderness to appreciate. Talking +with him was like skating on thin ice, and his companions had a constant +mental vision of spots designated "dangerous." + +This was a difficult time for Rowland; he said to himself that he would +endure it to the end, but that it must be his last adventure of the +kind. Mrs. Hudson divided her time between looking askance at her son, +with her hands tightly clasped about her pocket-handkerchief, as if she +were wringing it dry of the last hour's tears, and turning her eyes +much more directly upon Rowland, in the mutest, the feeblest, the most +intolerable reproachfulness. She never phrased her accusations, but he +felt that in the unillumined void of the poor lady's mind they loomed +up like vaguely-outlined monsters. Her demeanor caused him the acutest +suffering, and if, at the outset of his enterprise, he had seen, how +dimly soever, one of those plaintive eye-beams in the opposite scale, +the brilliancy of Roderick's promises would have counted for little. +They made their way to the softest spot in his conscience and kept it +chronically aching. If Mrs. Hudson had been loquacious and vulgar, he +would have borne even a less valid persecution with greater fortitude. +But somehow, neat and noiseless and dismally lady-like, as she sat +there, keeping her grievance green with her soft-dropping tears, her +displeasure conveyed an overwhelming imputation of brutality. He felt +like a reckless trustee who has speculated with the widow's mite, and is +haunted with the reflection of ruin that he sees in her tearful eyes. He +did everything conceivable to be polite to Mrs. Hudson, and to treat her +with distinguished deference. Perhaps his exasperated nerves made him +overshoot the mark, and rendered his civilities a trifle peremptory. She +seemed capable of believing that he was trying to make a fool of her; +she would have thought him cruelly recreant if he had suddenly +departed in desperation, and yet she gave him no visible credit for his +constancy. Women are said by some authorities to be cruel; I don't know +how true this is, but it may at least be pertinent to remark that Mrs. +Hudson was very much of a woman. It often seemed to Rowland that he +had too decidedly forfeited his freedom, and that there was something +positively grotesque in a man of his age and circumstances living in +such a moral bondage. + +But Mary Garland had helped him before, and she helped him now--helped +him not less than he had assured himself she would when he found himself +drifting to Florence. Yet her help was rendered in the same unconscious, +unacknowledged fashion as before; there was no explicit change in their +relations. After that distressing scene in Rome which had immediately +preceded their departure, it was of course impossible that there should +not be on Miss Garland's part some frankness of allusion to Roderick's +sad condition. She had been present, the reader will remember, during +only half of his unsparing confession, and Rowland had not seen her +confronted with any absolute proof of Roderick's passion for Christina +Light. But he knew that she knew far too much for her happiness; +Roderick had told him, shortly after their settlement at the Villa +Pandolfini, that he had had a "tremendous talk" with his cousin. Rowland +asked no questions about it; he preferred not to know what had passed +between them. If their interview had been purely painful, he wished +to ignore it for Miss Garland's sake; and if it had sown the seeds of +reconciliation, he wished to close his eyes to it for his own--for the +sake of that unshaped idea, forever dismissed and yet forever present, +which hovered in the background of his consciousness, with a hanging +head, as it were, and yet an unshamed glance, and whose lightest motions +were an effectual bribe to patience. Was the engagement broken? Rowland +wondered, yet without asking. But it hardly mattered, for if, as was +more than probable, Miss Garland had peremptorily released her cousin, +her own heart had by no means recovered its liberty. It was very certain +to Rowland's mind that if she had given him up she had by no means +ceased to care for him passionately, and that, to exhaust her charity +for his weaknesses, Roderick would have, as the phrase is, a long row to +hoe. She spoke of Roderick as she might have done of a person suffering +from a serious malady which demanded much tenderness; but if Rowland +had found it possible to accuse her of dishonesty he would have said now +that she believed appreciably less than she pretended to in her victim's +being an involuntary patient. There are women whose love is care-taking +and patronizing, and who rather prefer a weak man because he gives them +a comfortable sense of strength. It did not in the least please Rowland +to believe that Mary Garland was one of these; for he held that such +women were only males in petticoats, and he was convinced that Miss +Garland's heart was constructed after the most perfect feminine model. +That she was a very different woman from Christina Light did not at all +prove that she was less a woman, and if the Princess Casamassima had +gone up into a high place to publish her disrelish of a man who lacked +the virile will, it was very certain that Mary Garland was not a person +to put up, at any point, with what might be called the princess's +leavings. It was Christina's constant practice to remind you of the +complexity of her character, of the subtlety of her mind, of her +troublous faculty of seeing everything in a dozen different lights. Mary +Garland had never pretended not to be simple; but Rowland had a theory +that she had really a more multitudinous sense of human things, a more +delicate imagination, and a finer instinct of character. She did you the +honors of her mind with a grace far less regal, but was not that faculty +of quite as remarkable an adjustment? If in poor Christina's strangely +commingled nature there was circle within circle, and depth beneath +depth, it was to be believed that Mary Garland, though she did not amuse +herself with dropping stones into her soul, and waiting to hear them +fall, laid quite as many sources of spiritual life under contribution. +She had believed Roderick was a fine fellow when she bade him farewell +beneath the Northampton elms, and this belief, to her young, strenuous, +concentrated imagination, had meant many things. If it was to grow cold, +it would be because disenchantment had become total and won the battle +at each successive point. + +Miss Garland had even in her face and carriage something of the +preoccupied and wearied look of a person who is watching at a sick-bed; +Roderick's broken fortunes, his dead ambitions, were a cruel burden to +the heart of a girl who had believed that he possessed "genius," and +supposed that genius was to one's spiritual economy what full pockets +were to one's domestic. And yet, with her, Rowland never felt, as +with Mrs. Hudson, that undercurrent of reproach and bitterness toward +himself, that impertinent implication that he had defrauded her of +happiness. Was this justice, in Miss Garland, or was it mercy? The +answer would have been difficult, for she had almost let Rowland feel +before leaving Rome that she liked him well enough to forgive him an +injury. It was partly, Rowland fancied, that there were occasional +lapses, deep and sweet, in her sense of injury. When, on arriving +at Florence, she saw the place Rowland had brought them to in their +trouble, she had given him a look and said a few words to him that +had seemed not only a remission of guilt but a positive reward. +This happened in the court of the villa--the large gray quadrangle, +overstretched, from edge to edge of the red-tiled roof, by the soft +Italian sky. Mary had felt on the spot the sovereign charm of the +place; it was reflected in her deeply intelligent glance, and Rowland +immediately accused himself of not having done the villa justice. Miss +Garland took a mighty fancy to Florence, and used to look down wistfully +at the towered city from the windows and garden. Roderick having now no +pretext for not being her cicerone, Rowland was no longer at liberty, as +he had been in Rome, to propose frequent excursions to her. Roderick's +own invitations, however, were not frequent, and Rowland more than once +ventured to introduce her to a gallery or a church. These expeditions +were not so blissful, to his sense, as the rambles they had taken +together in Rome, for his companion only half surrendered herself to her +enjoyment, and seemed to have but a divided attention at her command. +Often, when she had begun with looking intently at a picture, her +silence, after an interval, made him turn and glance at her. He usually +found that if she was looking at the picture still, she was not seeing +it. Her eyes were fixed, but her thoughts were wandering, and an image +more vivid than any that Raphael or Titian had drawn had superposed +itself upon the canvas. She asked fewer questions than before, and +seemed to have lost heart for consulting guide-books and encyclopaedias. +From time to time, however, she uttered a deep, full murmur of +gratification. Florence in midsummer was perfectly void of travelers, +and the dense little city gave forth its aesthetic aroma with a larger +frankness, as the nightingale sings when the listeners have departed. +The churches were deliciously cool, but the gray streets were stifling, +and the great, dove-tailed polygons of pavement as hot to the tread as +molten lava. Rowland, who suffered from intense heat, would have found +all this uncomfortable in solitude; but Florence had never charmed him +so completely as during these midsummer strolls with his preoccupied +companion. One evening they had arranged to go on the morrow to the +Academy. Miss Garland kept her appointment, but as soon as she appeared, +Rowland saw that something painful had befallen her. She was doing her +best to look at her ease, but her face bore the marks of tears. Rowland +told her that he was afraid she was ill, and that if she preferred to +give up the visit to Florence he would submit with what grace he might. +She hesitated a moment, and then said she preferred to adhere to their +plan. "I am not well," she presently added, "but it 's a moral malady, +and in such cases I consider your company beneficial." + +"But if I am to be your doctor," said Rowland, "you must tell me how +your illness began." + +"I can tell you very little. It began with Mrs. Hudson being unjust to +me, for the first time in her life. And now I am already better!" + +I mention this incident because it confirmed an impression of Rowland's +from which he had derived a certain consolation. He knew that Mrs. +Hudson considered her son's ill-regulated passion for Christina Light a +very regrettable affair, but he suspected that her manifest compassion +had been all for Roderick, and not in the least for Mary Garland. She +was fond of the young girl, but she had valued her primarily, during the +last two years, as a kind of assistant priestess at Roderick's shrine. +Roderick had honored her by asking her to become his wife, but that poor +Mary had any rights in consequence Mrs. Hudson was quite incapable +of perceiving. Her sentiment on the subject was of course not very +vigorously formulated, but she was unprepared to admit that Miss Garland +had any ground for complaint. Roderick was very unhappy; that was +enough, and Mary's duty was to join her patience and her prayers to +those of his doting mother. Roderick might fall in love with whom he +pleased; no doubt that women trained in the mysterious Roman arts were +only too proud and too happy to make it easy for him; and it was very +presuming in poor, plain Mary to feel any personal resentment. Mrs. +Hudson's philosophy was of too narrow a scope to suggest that a mother +may forgive where a mistress cannot, and she thought herself greatly +aggrieved that Miss Garland was not so disinterested as herself. She was +ready to drop dead in Roderick's service, and she was quite capable +of seeing her companion falter and grow faint, without a tremor of +compassion. Mary, apparently, had given some intimation of her belief +that if constancy is the flower of devotion, reciprocity is the +guarantee of constancy, and Mrs. Hudson had rebuked her failing faith +and called it cruelty. That Miss Garland had found it hard to reason +with Mrs. Hudson, that she suffered deeply from the elder lady's +softly bitter imputations, and that, in short, he had companionship +in misfortune--all this made Rowland find a certain luxury in his +discomfort. + +The party at Villa Pandolfini used to sit in the garden in the evenings, +which Rowland almost always spent with them. Their entertainment was in +the heavily perfumed air, in the dim, far starlight, in the crenelated +tower of a neighboring villa, which loomed vaguely above them in the +warm darkness, and in such conversation as depressing reflections +allowed. Roderick, clad always in white, roamed about like a restless +ghost, silent for the most part, but making from time to time a brief +observation, characterized by the most fantastic cynicism. Roderick's +contributions to the conversation were indeed always so fantastic that, +though half the time they wearied him unspeakably, Rowland made an +effort to treat them humorously. With Rowland alone Roderick talked a +great deal more; often about things related to his own work, or about +artistic and aesthetic matters in general. He talked as well as ever, +or even better; but his talk always ended in a torrent of groans and +curses. When this current set in, Rowland straightway turned his back +or stopped his ears, and Roderick now witnessed these movements with +perfect indifference. When the latter was absent from the star-lit +circle in the garden, as often happened, Rowland knew nothing of his +whereabouts; he supposed him to be in Florence, but he never learned +what he did there. All this was not enlivening, but with an even, +muffled tread the days followed each other, and brought the month +of August to a close. One particular evening at this time was most +enchanting; there was a perfect moon, looking so extraordinarily large +that it made everything its light fell upon seem small; the heat was +tempered by a soft west wind, and the wind was laden with the odors of +the early harvest. The hills, the vale of the Arno, the shrunken river, +the domes of Florence, were vaguely effaced by the dense moonshine; they +looked as if they were melting out of sight like an exorcised vision. +Rowland had found the two ladies alone at the villa, and he had sat with +them for an hour. He felt absolutely hushed by the solemn splendor of +the scene, but he had risked the remark that, whatever life might yet +have in store for either of them, this was a night that they would never +forget. + +"It 's a night to remember on one's death-bed!" Miss Garland exclaimed. + +"Oh, Mary, how can you!" murmured Mrs. Hudson, to whom this savored +of profanity, and to whose shrinking sense, indeed, the accumulated +loveliness of the night seemed to have something shameless and defiant. + +They were silent after this, for some time, but at last Rowland +addressed certain idle words to Miss Garland. She made no reply, and he +turned to look at her. She was sitting motionless, with her head pressed +to Mrs. Hudson's shoulder, and the latter lady was gazing at him through +the silvered dusk with a look which gave a sort of spectral solemnity to +the sad, weak meaning of her eyes. She had the air, for the moment, of +a little old malevolent fairy. Miss Garland, Rowland perceived in an +instant, was not absolutely motionless; a tremor passed through her +figure. She was weeping, or on the point of weeping, and she could not +trust herself to speak. Rowland left his place and wandered to another +part of the garden, wondering at the motive of her sudden tears. Of +women's sobs in general he had a sovereign dread, but these, somehow, +gave him a certain pleasure. When he returned to his place Miss Garland +had raised her head and banished her tears. She came away from Mrs. +Hudson, and they stood for a short time leaning against the parapet. + +"It seems to you very strange, I suppose," said Rowland, "that there +should be any trouble in such a world as this." + +"I used to think," she answered, "that if any trouble came to me I would +bear it like a stoic. But that was at home, where things don't speak to +us of enjoyment as they do here. Here it is such a mixture; one does n't +know what to choose, what to believe. Beauty stands there--beauty such +as this night and this place, and all this sad, strange summer, have +been so full of--and it penetrates to one's soul and lodges there, and +keeps saying that man was not made to suffer, but to enjoy. This place +has undermined my stoicism, but--shall I tell you? I feel as if I were +saying something sinful--I love it!" + +"If it is sinful, I absolve you," said Rowland, "in so far as I have +power. We are made, I suppose, both to suffer and to enjoy. As you say, +it 's a mixture. Just now and here, it seems a peculiarly strange one. +But we must take things in turn." + +His words had a singular aptness, for he had hardly uttered them when +Roderick came out from the house, evidently in his darkest mood. He +stood for a moment gazing hard at the view. + +"It 's a very beautiful night, my son," said his mother, going to him +timidly, and touching his arm. + +He passed his hand through his hair and let it stay there, clasping +his thick locks. "Beautiful?" he cried; "of course it 's beautiful! +Everything is beautiful; everything is insolent, defiant, atrocious with +beauty. Nothing is ugly but me--me and my poor dead brain!" + +"Oh, my dearest son," pleaded poor Mrs. Hudson, "don't you feel any +better?" + +Roderick made no immediate answer; but at last he spoke in a different +voice. "I came expressly to tell you that you need n't trouble +yourselves any longer to wait for something to turn up. Nothing will +turn up! It 's all over! I said when I came here I would give it a +chance. I have given it a chance. Have n't I, eh? Have n't I, Rowland? +It 's no use; the thing 's a failure! Do with me now what you please. I +recommend you to set me up there at the end of the garden and shoot me." + +"I feel strongly inclined," said Rowland gravely, "to go and get my +revolver." + +"Oh, mercy on us, what language!" cried Mrs. Hudson. + +"Why not?" Roderick went on. "This would be a lovely night for it, and I +should be a lucky fellow to be buried in this garden. But bury me alive, +if you prefer. Take me back to Northampton." + +"Roderick, will you really come?" cried his mother. + +"Oh yes, I 'll go! I might as well be there as anywhere--reverting to +idiocy and living upon alms. I can do nothing with all this; perhaps I +should really like Northampton. If I 'm to vegetate for the rest of my +days, I can do it there better than here." + +"Oh, come home, come home," Mrs. Hudson said, "and we shall all be safe +and quiet and happy. My dearest son, come home with your poor mother!" + +"Let us go, then, and go quickly!" + +Mrs. Hudson flung herself upon his neck for gratitude. "We 'll go +to-morrow!" she cried. "The Lord is very good to me!" + +Mary Garland said nothing to this; but she looked at Rowland, and her +eyes seemed to contain a kind of alarmed appeal. Rowland noted it with +exultation, but even without it he would have broken into an eager +protest. + +"Are you serious, Roderick?" he demanded. + +"Serious? of course not! How can a man with a crack in his brain be +serious? how can a muddlehead reason? But I 'm not jesting, either; I +can no more make jokes than utter oracles!" + +"Are you willing to go home?" + +"Willing? God forbid! I am simply amenable to force; if my mother +chooses to take me, I won't resist. I can't! I have come to that!" + +"Let me resist, then," said Rowland. "Go home as you are now? I can't +stand by and see it." + +It may have been true that Roderick had lost his sense of humor, but he +scratched his head with a gesture that was almost comical in its effect. +"You are a queer fellow! I should think I would disgust you horribly." + +"Stay another year," Rowland simply said. + +"Doing nothing?" + +"You shall do something. I am responsible for your doing something." + +"To whom are you responsible?" + +Rowland, before replying, glanced at Miss Garland, and his glance made +her speak quickly. "Not to me!" + +"I 'm responsible to myself," Rowland declared. + +"My poor, dear fellow!" said Roderick. + +"Oh, Mr. Mallet, are n't you satisfied?" cried Mrs. Hudson, in the tone +in which Niobe may have addressed the avenging archers, after she had +seen her eldest-born fall. "It 's out of all nature keeping him here. +When we 're in a poor way, surely our own dear native land is the place +for us. Do leave us to ourselves, sir!" + +This just failed of being a dismissal in form, and Rowland bowed his +head to it. Roderick was silent for some moments; then, suddenly, he +covered his face with his two hands. "Take me at least out of this +terrible Italy," he cried, "where everything mocks and reproaches and +torments and eludes me! Take me out of this land of impossible beauty +and put me in the midst of ugliness. Set me down where nature is coarse +and flat, and men and manners are vulgar. There must be something +awfully ugly in Germany. Pack me off there!" + +Rowland answered that if he wished to leave Italy the thing might be +arranged; he would think it over and submit a proposal on the morrow. +He suggested to Mrs. Hudson, in consequence, that she should spend the +autumn in Switzerland, where she would find a fine tonic climate, plenty +of fresh milk, and several pensions at three francs and a half a day. +Switzerland, of course, was not ugly, but one could not have everything. + +Mrs. Hudson neither thanked him nor assented; but she wept and packed +her trunks. Rowland had a theory, after the scene which led to these +preparations, that Mary Garland was weary of waiting for Roderick to +come to his senses, that the faith which had bravely borne his manhood +company hitherto, on the tortuous march he was leading it, had begun +to believe it had gone far enough. This theory was not vitiated by +something she said to him on the day before that on which Mrs. Hudson +had arranged to leave Florence. + +"Cousin Sarah, the other evening," she said, "asked you to please leave +us. I think she hardly knew what she was saying, and I hope you have not +taken offense." + +"By no means; but I honestly believe that my leaving you would +contribute greatly to Mrs. Hudson's comfort. I can be your hidden +providence, you know; I can watch you at a distance, and come upon the +scene at critical moments." + +Miss Garland looked for a moment at the ground; and then, with sudden +earnestness, "I beg you to come with us!" she said. + +It need hardly be added that after this Rowland went with them. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XII. The Princess Casamassima + +Rowland had a very friendly memory of a little mountain inn, accessible +with moderate trouble from Lucerne, where he had once spent a blissful +ten days. He had at that time been trudging, knapsack on back, over half +Switzerland, and not being, on his legs, a particularly light weight, +it was no shame to him to confess that he was mortally tired. The inn +of which I speak presented striking analogies with a cow-stable; but +in spite of this circumstance, it was crowded with hungry tourists. +It stood in a high, shallow valley, with flower-strewn Alpine meadows +sloping down to it from the base of certain rugged rocks whose outlines +were grotesque against the evening sky. Rowland had seen grander places +in Switzerland that pleased him less, and whenever afterwards he wished +to think of Alpine opportunities at their best, he recalled this grassy +concave among the mountain-tops, and the August days he spent there, +resting deliciously, at his length, in the lee of a sun-warmed boulder, +with the light cool air stirring about his temples, the wafted odors of +the pines in his nostrils, the tinkle of the cattle-bells in his ears, +the vast progression of the mountain shadows before his eyes, and a +volume of Wordsworth in his pocket. His face, on the Swiss hill-sides, +had been scorched to within a shade of the color nowadays called +magenta, and his bed was a pallet in a loft, which he shared with a +German botanist of colossal stature--every inch of him quaking at an +open window. These had been drawbacks to felicity, but Rowland hardly +cared where or how he was lodged, for he spent the livelong day under +the sky, on the crest of a slope that looked at the Jungfrau. He +remembered all this on leaving Florence with his friends, and he +reflected that, as the midseason was over, accommodations would be more +ample, and charges more modest. He communicated with his old friend the +landlord, and, while September was yet young, his companions established +themselves under his guidance in the grassy valley. + +He had crossed the Saint Gothard Pass with them, in the same carriage. +During the journey from Florence, and especially during this portion +of it, the cloud that hung over the little party had been almost +dissipated, and they had looked at each other, in the close contiguity +of the train and the posting-carriage, without either accusing or +consoling glances. It was impossible not to enjoy the magnificent +scenery of the Apennines and the Italian Alps, and there was a tacit +agreement among the travelers to abstain from sombre allusions. The +effect of this delicate compact seemed excellent; it ensured them a +week's intellectual sunshine. Roderick sat and gazed out of the window +with a fascinated stare, and with a perfect docility of attitude. He +concerned himself not a particle about the itinerary, or about any +of the wayside arrangements; he took no trouble, and he gave none. He +assented to everything that was proposed, talked very little, and led +for a week a perfectly contemplative life. His mother rarely removed +her eyes from him; and if, a while before, this would have extremely +irritated him, he now seemed perfectly unconscious of her observation +and profoundly indifferent to anything that might befall him. They spent +a couple of days on the Lake of Como, at a hotel with white porticoes +smothered in oleander and myrtle, and the terrace-steps leading down +to little boats with striped awnings. They agreed it was the earthly +paradise, and they passed the mornings strolling through the perfumed +alleys of classic villas, and the evenings floating in the moonlight in +a circle of outlined mountains, to the music of silver-trickling +oars. One day, in the afternoon, the two young men took a long stroll +together. They followed the winding footway that led toward Como, close +to the lake-side, past the gates of villas and the walls of vineyards, +through little hamlets propped on a dozen arches, and bathing their feet +and their pendant tatters in the gray-green ripple; past frescoed walls +and crumbling campaniles and grassy village piazzas, and the mouth +of soft ravines that wound upward, through belts of swinging vine and +vaporous olive and splendid chestnut, to high ledges where white chapels +gleamed amid the paler boskage, and bare cliff-surfaces, with their +sun-cracked lips, drank in the azure light. It all was confoundingly +picturesque; it was the Italy that we know from the steel engravings in +old keepsakes and annuals, from the vignettes on music-sheets and +the drop-curtains at theatres; an Italy that we can never confess to +ourselves--in spite of our own changes and of Italy's--that we have +ceased to believe in. Rowland and Roderick turned aside from the little +paved footway that clambered and dipped and wound and doubled beside +the lake, and stretched themselves idly beneath a fig-tree, on a grassy +promontory. Rowland had never known anything so divinely soothing as the +dreamy softness of that early autumn afternoon. The iridescent mountains +shut him in; the little waves, beneath him, fretted the white pebbles at +the laziest intervals; the festooned vines above him swayed just visibly +in the all but motionless air. + +Roderick lay observing it all with his arms thrown back and his hands +under his head. "This suits me," he said; "I could be happy here and +forget everything. Why not stay here forever?" He kept his position for +a long time and seemed lost in his thoughts. Rowland spoke to him, but +he made vague answers; at last he closed his eyes. It seemed to Rowland, +also, a place to stay in forever; a place for perfect oblivion of the +disagreeable. Suddenly Roderick turned over on his face, and buried it +in his arms. There had been something passionate in his movement; but +Rowland was nevertheless surprised, when he at last jerked himself back +into a sitting posture, to perceive the trace of tears in his eyes. +Roderick turned to his friend, stretching his two hands out toward the +lake and mountains, and shaking them with an eloquent gesture, as if his +heart was too full for utterance. + +"Pity me, sir; pity me!" he presently cried. "Look at this lovely world, +and think what it must be to be dead to it!" + +"Dead?" said Rowland. + +"Dead, dead; dead and buried! Buried in an open grave, where you lie +staring up at the sailing clouds, smelling the waving flowers, and +hearing all nature live and grow above you! That 's the way I feel!" + +"I am glad to hear it," said Rowland. "Death of that sort is very near +to resurrection." + +"It 's too horrible," Roderick went on; "it has all come over me here +tremendously! If I were not ashamed, I could shed a bushel of tears. For +one hour of what I have been, I would give up anything I may be!" + +"Never mind what you have been; be something better!" + +"I shall never be anything again: it 's no use talking! But I don't know +what secret spring has been touched since I have lain here. Something +in my heart seemed suddenly to open and let in a flood of beauty and +desire. I know what I have lost, and I think it horrible! Mind you, +I know it, I feel it! Remember that hereafter. Don't say that he +was stupefied and senseless; that his perception was dulled and his +aspiration dead. Say that he trembled in every nerve with a sense of +the beauty and sweetness of life; that he rebelled and protested and +shrieked; that he was buried alive, with his eyes open, and his heart +beating to madness; that he clung to every blade of grass and every +way-side thorn as he passed; that it was the most horrible spectacle you +ever witnessed; that it was an outrage, a murder, a massacre!" + +"Good heavens, man, are you insane?" Rowland cried. + +"I never have been saner. I don't want to be bad company, and in this +beautiful spot, at this delightful hour, it seems an outrage to break +the charm. But I am bidding farewell to Italy, to beauty, to honor, to +life! I only want to assure you that I know what I lose. I know it in +every pulse of my heart! Here, where these things are all loveliest, I +take leave of them. Farewell, farewell!" + +During their passage of the Saint Gothard, Roderick absented himself +much of the time from the carriage, and rambled far in advance, along +the huge zigzags of the road. He displayed an extraordinary activity; +his light weight and slender figure made him an excellent pedestrian, +and his friends frequently saw him skirting the edge of plunging chasms, +loosening the stones on long, steep slopes, or lifting himself against +the sky, from the top of rocky pinnacles. Mary Garland walked a great +deal, but she remained near the carriage to be with Mrs. Hudson. Rowland +remained near it to be with Miss Garland. He trudged by her side up that +magnificent ascent from Italy, and found himself regretting that the +Alps were so low, and that their trudging was not to last a week. She +was exhilarated; she liked to walk; in the way of mountains, until +within the last few weeks, she had seen nothing greater than Mount +Holyoke, and she found that the Alps amply justified their reputation. +Rowland knew that she loved nature, but he was struck afresh with the +vivacity of her observation of it, and with her knowledge of plants and +stones. At that season the wild flowers had mostly departed, but a few +of them lingered, and Miss Garland never failed to espy them in their +outlying corners. They interested her greatly; she was charmed when +they were old friends, and charmed even more when they were new. She +displayed a very light foot in going in quest of them, and had soon +covered the front seat of the carriage with a tangle of strange +vegetation. Rowland of course was alert in her service, and he gathered +for her several botanical specimens which at first seemed inaccessible. +One of these, indeed, had at first appeared easier of capture than his +attempt attested, and he had paused a moment at the base of the little +peak on which it grew, measuring the risk of farther pursuit. Suddenly, +as he stood there, he remembered Roderick's defiance of danger and of +Miss Light, at the Coliseum, and he was seized with a strong desire to +test the courage of his companion. She had just scrambled up a grassy +slope near him, and had seen that the flower was out of reach. As he +prepared to approach it, she called to him eagerly to stop; the thing +was impossible! Poor Rowland, whose passion had been terribly starved, +enjoyed immensely the thought of having her care, for three minutes, +what became of him. He was the least brutal of men, but for a moment he +was perfectly indifferent to her suffering. + +"I can get the flower," he called to her. "Will you trust me?" + +"I don't want it; I would rather not have it!" she cried. + +"Will you trust me?" he repeated, looking at her. + +She looked at him and then at the flower; he wondered whether she would +shriek and swoon, as Miss Light had done. "I wish it were something +better!" she said simply; and then stood watching him, while he began to +clamber. Rowland was not shaped for an acrobat, and his enterprise +was difficult; but he kept his wits about him, made the most of narrow +foot-holds and coigns of vantage, and at last secured his prize. +He managed to stick it into his buttonhole and then he contrived to +descend. There was more than one chance for an ugly fall, but he evaded +them all. It was doubtless not gracefully done, but it was done, and +that was all he had proposed to himself. He was red in the face when +he offered Miss Garland the flower, and she was visibly pale. She had +watched him without moving. All this had passed without the knowledge +of Mrs. Hudson, who was dozing beneath the hood of the carriage. Mary +Garland's eyes did not perhaps display that ardent admiration which +was formerly conferred by the queen of beauty at a tournament; but they +expressed something in which Rowland found his reward. "Why did you do +that?" she asked, gravely. + +He hesitated. He felt that it was physically possible to say, "Because +I love you!" but that it was not morally possible. He lowered his pitch +and answered, simply, "Because I wanted to do something for you." + +"Suppose you had fallen," said Miss Garland. + +"I believed I would not fall. And you believed it, I think." + +"I believed nothing. I simply trusted you, as you asked me." + +"Quod erat demonstrandum!" cried Rowland. "I think you know Latin." + +When our four friends were established in what I have called their +grassy valley, there was a good deal of scrambling over slopes both +grassy and stony, a good deal of flower-plucking on narrow ledges, a +great many long walks, and, thanks to the lucid mountain air, not a +little exhilaration. Mrs. Hudson was obliged to intermit her suspicions +of the deleterious atmosphere of the old world, and to acknowledge the +edifying purity of the breezes of Engelthal. She was certainly more +placid than she had been in Italy; having always lived in the country, +she had missed in Rome and Florence that social solitude mitigated by +bushes and rocks which is so dear to the true New England temperament. +The little unpainted inn at Engelthal, with its plank partitions, its +milk-pans standing in the sun, its "help," in the form of angular young +women of the country-side, reminded her of places of summer sojourn +in her native land; and the beautiful historic chambers of the Villa +Pandolfini passed from her memory without a regret, and without having +in the least modified her ideal of domiciliary grace. Roderick had +changed his sky, but he had not changed his mind; his humor was still +that of which he had given Rowland a glimpse in that tragic explosion on +the Lake of Como. He kept his despair to himself, and he went doggedly +about the ordinary business of life; but it was easy to see that his +spirit was mortally heavy, and that he lived and moved and talked simply +from the force of habit. In that sad half-hour among the Italian olives +there had been such a fierce sincerity in his tone, that Rowland +began to abdicate the critical attitude. He began to feel that it was +essentially vain to appeal to the poor fellow's will; there was no will +left; its place was an impotent void. This view of the case indeed was +occasionally contravened by certain indications on Roderick's part of +the power of resistance to disagreeable obligations: one might still +have said, if one had been disposed to be didactic at any hazard, +that there was a method in his madness, that his moral energy had its +sleeping and its waking hours, and that, in a cause that pleased it, it +was capable of rising with the dawn. But on the other hand, pleasure, in +this case, was quite at one with effort; evidently the greatest bliss in +life, for Roderick, would have been to have a plastic idea. And then, it +was impossible not to feel tenderly to a despair which had so ceased to +be aggressive--not to forgive a great deal of apathy to a temper +which had so unlearned its irritability. Roderick said frankly that +Switzerland made him less miserable than Italy, and the Alps seemed less +to mock at his enforced leisure than the Apennines. He indulged in +long rambles, generally alone, and was very fond of climbing into dizzy +places, where no sound could overtake him, and there, flinging himself +on the never-trodden moss, of pulling his hat over his eyes and lounging +away the hours in perfect immobility. Rowland sometimes walked with +him; though Roderick never invited him, he seemed duly grateful for his +society. Rowland now made it a rule to treat him like a perfectly sane +man, to assume that all things were well with him, and never to allude +to the prosperity he had forfeited or to the work he was not doing. He +would have still said, had you questioned him, that Roderick's condition +was a mood--certainly a puzzling one. It might last yet for many a weary +hour; but it was a long lane that had no turning. Roderick's blues would +not last forever. Rowland's interest in Miss Garland's relations with +her cousin was still profoundly attentive, and perplexed as he was on +all sides, he found nothing transparent here. After their arrival at +Engelthal, Roderick appeared to seek the young girl's society more than +he had done hitherto, and this revival of ardor could not fail to set +his friend a-wondering. They sat together and strolled together, and +Miss Garland often read aloud to him. One day, on their coming to +dinner, after he had been lying half the morning at her feet, in the +shadow of a rock, Rowland asked him what she had been reading. + +"I don't know," Roderick said, "I don't heed the sense." Miss Garland +heard this, and Rowland looked at her. She looked at Roderick sharply +and with a little blush. "I listen to Mary," Roderick continued, +"for the sake of her voice. It 's distractingly sweet!" At this Miss +Garland's blush deepened, and she looked away. + +Rowland, in Florence, as we know, had suffered his imagination to +wander in the direction of certain conjectures which the reader may deem +unflattering to Miss Garland's constancy. He had asked himself whether +her faith in Roderick had not faltered, and that demand of hers which +had brought about his own departure for Switzerland had seemed almost +equivalent to a confession that she needed his help to believe. Rowland +was essentially a modest man, and he did not risk the supposition that +Miss Garland had contrasted him with Roderick to his own advantage; but +he had a certain consciousness of duty resolutely done which allowed +itself to fancy, at moments, that it might be not illogically rewarded +by the bestowal of such stray grains of enthusiasm as had crumbled away +from her estimate of his companion. If some day she had declared, in a +sudden burst of passion, that she was outwearied and sickened, and that +she gave up her recreant lover, Rowland's expectation would have gone +half-way to meet her. And certainly if her passion had taken this course +no generous critic would utterly condemn her. She had been neglected, +ignored, forsaken, treated with a contempt which no girl of a fine +temper could endure. There were girls, indeed, whose fineness, like that +of Burd Helen in the ballad, lay in clinging to the man of their love +through thick and thin, and in bowing their head to all hard usage. This +attitude had often an exquisite beauty of its own, but Rowland deemed +that he had solid reason to believe it never could be Mary Garland's. +She was not a passive creature; she was not soft and meek and grateful +for chance bounties. With all her reserve of manner she was proud and +eager; she asked much and she wanted what she asked; she believed in +fine things and she never could long persuade herself that fine things +missed were as beautiful as fine things achieved. Once Rowland passed an +angry day. He had dreamed--it was the most insubstantial of dreams--that +she had given him the right to believe that she looked to him to +transmute her discontent. And yet here she was throwing herself back +into Roderick's arms at his lightest overture, and playing with his own +half fearful, half shameful hopes! Rowland declared to himself that +his position was essentially detestable, and that all the philosophy +he could bring to bear upon it would make it neither honorable nor +comfortable. He would go away and make an end of it. He did not go away; +he simply took a long walk, stayed away from the inn all day, and on his +return found Miss Garland sitting out in the moonlight with Roderick. + +Rowland, communing with himself during the restless ramble in question, +had determined that he would at least cease to observe, to heed, or +to care for what Miss Garland and Roderick might do or might not do +together. Nevertheless, some three days afterward, the opportunity +presenting itself, he deliberately broached the subject with Roderick. +He knew this was inconsistent and faint-hearted; it was indulgence +to the fingers that itched to handle forbidden fruit. But he said to +himself that it was really more logical to be inconsistent than the +reverse; for they had formerly discussed these mysteries very candidly. +Was it not perfectly reasonable that he should wish to know the sequel +of the situation which Roderick had then delineated? Roderick had made +him promises, and it was to be expected that he should ascertain how +the promises had been kept. Rowland could not say to himself that if +the promises had been extorted for Mary Garland's sake, his present +attention to them was equally disinterested; and so he had to admit +that he was indeed faint-hearted. He may perhaps be deemed too narrow +a casuist, but we have repeated more than once that he was solidly +burdened with a conscience. + +"I imagine," he said to Roderick, "that you are not sorry, at present, +to have allowed yourself to be dissuaded from making a final rupture +with Miss Garland." + +Roderick eyed him with the vague and absent look which had lately become +habitual to his face, and repeated "Dissuaded?" + +"Don't you remember that, in Rome, you wished to break your engagement, +and that I urged you to respect it, though it seemed to hang by so +slender a thread? I wished you to see what would come of it? If I am not +mistaken, you are reconciled to it." + +"Oh yes," said Roderick, "I remember what you said; you made it a +kind of personal favor to yourself that I should remain faithful. I +consented, but afterwards, when I thought of it, your attitude greatly +amused me. Had it ever been seen before?--a man asking another man to +gratify him by not suspending his attentions to a pretty girl!" + +"It was as selfish as anything else," said Rowland. "One man puts his +selfishness into one thing, and one into another. It would have utterly +marred my comfort to see Miss Garland in low spirits." + +"But you liked her--you admired her, eh? So you intimated." + +"I admire her profoundly." + +"It was your originality then--to do you justice you have a great deal, +of a certain sort--to wish her happiness secured in just that fashion. +Many a man would have liked better himself to make the woman he admired +happy, and would have welcomed her low spirits as an opening for +sympathy. You were awfully queer about it." + +"So be it!" said Rowland. "The question is, Are you not glad I was +queer? Are you not finding that your affection for Miss Garland has a +permanent quality which you rather underestimated?" + +"I don't pretend to say. When she arrived in Rome, I found I did n't +care for her, and I honestly proposed that we should have no humbug +about it. If you, on the contrary, thought there was something to be +gained by having a little humbug, I was willing to try it! I don't see +that the situation is really changed. Mary Garland is all that she ever +was--more than all. But I don't care for her! I don't care for anything, +and I don't find myself inspired to make an exception in her favor. The +only difference is that I don't care now, whether I care for her or not. +Of course, marrying such a useless lout as I am is out of the question +for any woman, and I should pay Miss Garland a poor compliment to assume +that she is in a hurry to celebrate our nuptials." + +"Oh, you 're in love!" said Rowland, not very logically. It must be +confessed, at any cost, that this assertion was made for the sole +purpose of hearing Roderick deny it. + +But it quite failed of its aim. Roderick gave a liberal shrug of his +shoulders and an irresponsible toss of his head. "Call it what you +please! I am past caring for names." + +Rowland had not only been illogical, he had also been slightly +disingenuous. He did not believe that his companion was in love; he +had argued the false to learn the true. The true was that Roderick was +again, in some degree, under a charm, and that he found a healing virtue +in Mary's presence, indisposed though he was to admit it. He had said, +shortly before, that her voice was sweet to his ear; and this was a +promising beginning. If her voice was sweet it was probable that her +glance was not amiss, that her touch had a quiet magic, and that her +whole personal presence had learned the art of not being irritating. +So Rowland reasoned, and invested Mary Garland with a still finer +loveliness. + +It was true that she herself helped him little to definite conclusions, +and that he remained in puzzled doubt as to whether these happy touches +were still a matter of the heart, or had become simply a matter of the +conscience. He watched for signs that she rejoiced in Roderick's renewed +acceptance of her society; but it seemed to him that she was on her +guard against interpreting it too largely. It was now her turn--he +fancied that he sometimes gathered from certain nameless indications of +glance and tone and gesture--it was now her turn to be indifferent, to +care for other things. Again and again Rowland asked himself what these +things were that Miss Garland might be supposed to care for, to the +injury of ideal constancy; and again, having designated them, he divided +them into two portions. One was that larger experience, in general, +which had come to her with her arrival in Europe; the vague sense, borne +in upon her imagination, that there were more things one might do with +one's life than youth and ignorance and Northampton had dreamt of; the +revision of old pledges in the light of new emotions. The other was the +experience, in especial, of Rowland's--what? Here Rowland always paused, +in perfect sincerity, to measure afresh his possible claim to the young +girl's regard. What might he call it? It had been more than civility and +yet it had been less than devotion. It had spoken of a desire to serve, +but it had said nothing of a hope of reward. Nevertheless, Rowland's +fancy hovered about the idea that it was recompensable, and his +reflections ended in a reverie which perhaps did not define it, but +at least, on each occasion, added a little to its volume. Since Miss +Garland had asked him as a sort of favor to herself to come also to +Switzerland, he thought it possible she might let him know whether he +seemed to have effectively served her. The days passed without her doing +so, and at last Rowland walked away to an isolated eminence some +five miles from the inn and murmured to the silent rocks that she was +ungrateful. Listening nature seemed not to contradict him, so that, +on the morrow, he asked the young girl, with an infinitesimal touch of +irony, whether it struck her that his deflection from his Florentine +plan had been attended with brilliant results. + +"Why, we are delighted that you are with us!" she answered. + +He was anything but satisfied with this; it seemed to imply that she had +forgotten that she had solemnly asked him to come. He reminded her +of her request, and recalled the place and time. "That evening on the +terrace, late, after Mrs. Hudson had gone to bed, and Roderick being +absent." + +She perfectly remembered, but the memory seemed to trouble her. "I am +afraid your kindness has been a great charge upon you," she said. "You +wanted very much to do something else." + +"I wanted above all things to oblige you, and I made no sacrifice. But +if I had made an immense one, it would be more than made up to me by any +assurance that I have helped Roderick into a better mood." + +She was silent a moment, and then, "Why do you ask me?" she said. "You +are able to judge quite as well as I." + +Rowland blushed; he desired to justify himself in the most veracious +manner. "The truth is," he said, "that I am afraid I care only in the +second place for Roderick's holding up his head. What I care for in the +first place is your happiness." + +"I don't know why that should be," she answered. "I have certainly +done nothing to make you so much my friend. If you were to tell me you +intended to leave us to-morrow, I am afraid that I should not venture +to ask you to stay. But whether you go or stay, let us not talk of +Roderick!" + +"But that," said Rowland, "does n't answer my question. Is he better?" + +"No!" she said, and turned away. + +He was careful not to tell her that he intended to leave them. One day, +shortly after this, as the two young men sat at the inn-door watching +the sunset, which on that evening was very striking and lurid, Rowland +made an attempt to sound his companion's present sentiment touching +Christina Light. "I wonder where she is," he said, "and what sort of a +life she is leading her prince." + +Roderick at first made no response. He was watching a figure on +the summit of some distant rocks, opposite to them. The figure was +apparently descending into the valley, and in relief against the crimson +screen of the western sky, it looked gigantic. "Christina Light?" +Roderick at last repeated, as if arousing himself from a reverie. "Where +she is? It 's extraordinary how little I care!" + +"Have you, then, completely got over it?" + +To this Roderick made no direct reply; he sat brooding a while. "She 's +a humbug!" he presently exclaimed. + +"Possibly!" said Rowland. "But I have known worse ones." + +"She disappointed me!" Roderick continued in the same tone. + +"Had she, then, really given you hopes?" + +"Oh, don't recall it!" Roderick cried. "Why the devil should I think +of it? It was only three months ago, but it seems like ten years." +His friend said nothing more, and after a while he went on of his +own accord. "I believed there was a future in it all! She pleased +me--pleased me; and when an artist--such as I was--is pleased, you +know!" And he paused again. "You never saw her as I did; you never heard +her in her great moments. But there is no use talking about that! At +first she would n't regard me seriously; she chaffed me and made light +of me. But at last I forced her to admit I was a great man. Think of +that, sir! Christina Light called me a great man. A great man was what +she was looking for, and we agreed to find our happiness for life in +each other. To please me she promised not to marry till I gave her +leave. I was not in a marrying way myself, but it was damnation to think +of another man possessing her. To spare my sensibilities, she promised +to turn off her prince, and the idea of her doing so made me as happy as +to see a perfect statue shaping itself in the block. You have seen how +she kept her promise! When I learned it, it was as if the statue had +suddenly cracked and turned hideous. She died for me, like that!" And +he snapped his fingers. "Was it wounded vanity, disappointed desire, +betrayed confidence? I am sure I don't know; you certainly have some +name for it." + +"The poor girl did the best she could," said Rowland. + +"If that was her best, so much the worse for her! I have hardly thought +of her these two months, but I have not forgiven her." + +"Well, you may believe that you are avenged. I can't think of her as +happy." + +"I don't pity her!" said Roderick. Then he relapsed into silence, and +the two sat watching the colossal figure as it made its way downward +along the jagged silhouette of the rocks. "Who is this mighty man," +cried Roderick at last, "and what is he coming down upon us for? We are +small people here, and we can't undertake to keep company with giants." + +"Wait till we meet him on our own level," said Rowland, "and perhaps he +will not overtop us." + +"For ten minutes, at least," Roderick rejoined, "he will have been a +great man!" At this moment the figure sank beneath the horizon line +and became invisible in the uncertain light. Suddenly Roderick said, "I +would like to see her once more--simply to look at her." + +"I would not advise it," said Rowland. + +"It was her beauty that did it!" Roderick went on. "It was all her +beauty; in comparison, the rest was nothing. What befooled me was to +think of it as my property! And I had made it mine--no one else had +studied it as I had, no one else understood it. What does that stick of +a Casamassima know about it at this hour? I should like to see it just +once more; it 's the only thing in the world of which I can say so." + +"I would not advise it," Rowland repeated. + +"That 's right, dear Rowland," said Roderick; "don't advise! That 's no +use now." + +The dusk meanwhile had thickened, and they had not perceived a figure +approaching them across the open space in front of the house. Suddenly +it stepped into the circle of light projected from the door and windows, +and they beheld little Sam Singleton stopping to stare at them. He was +the giant whom they had seen descending along the rocks. When this was +made apparent Roderick was seized with a fit of intense hilarity--it was +the first time he had laughed in three months. Singleton, who carried +a knapsack and walking-staff, received from Rowland the friendliest +welcome. He was in the serenest possible humor, and if in the way of +luggage his knapsack contained nothing but a comb and a second shirt, he +produced from it a dozen admirable sketches. He had been trudging over +half Switzerland and making everywhere the most vivid pictorial notes. +They were mostly in a box at Interlaken, and in gratitude for Rowland's +appreciation, he presently telegraphed for his box, which, according to +the excellent Swiss method, was punctually delivered by post. The nights +were cold, and our friends, with three or four other chance sojourners, +sat in-doors over a fire of logs. Even with Roderick sitting moodily in +the outer shadow they made a sympathetic little circle, and they turned +over Singleton's drawings, while he perched in the chimney-corner, +blushing and grinning, with his feet on the rounds of his chair. He had +been pedestrianizing for six weeks, and he was glad to rest awhile at +Engelthal. It was an economic repose, however, for he sallied forth +every morning, with his sketching tools on his back, in search of +material for new studies. Roderick's hilarity, after the first evening, +had subsided, and he watched the little painter's serene activity with a +gravity that was almost portentous. Singleton, who was not in the secret +of his personal misfortunes, still treated him with timid frankness as +the rising star of American art. Roderick had said to Rowland, at +first, that Singleton reminded him of some curious little insect with a +remarkable mechanical instinct in its antennae; but as the days went by +it was apparent that the modest landscapist's unflagging industry grew +to have an oppressive meaning for him. It pointed a moral, and Roderick +used to sit and con the moral as he saw it figured in Singleton's bent +back, on the hot hill-sides, protruding from beneath his white umbrella. +One day he wandered up a long slope and overtook him as he sat at work; +Singleton related the incident afterwards to Rowland, who, after giving +him in Rome a hint of Roderick's aberrations, had strictly kept his own +counsel. + +"Are you always like this?" said Roderick, in almost sepulchral accents. + +"Like this?" repeated Singleton, blinking confusedly, with an alarmed +conscience. + +"You remind me of a watch that never runs down. If one listens hard one +hears you always--tic-tic, tic-tic." + +"Oh, I see," said Singleton, beaming ingenuously. "I am very equable." + +"You are very equable, yes. And do you find it pleasant to be equable?" + +Singleton turned and grinned more brightly, while he sucked the water +from his camel's-hair brush. Then, with a quickened sense of his +indebtedness to a Providence that had endowed him with intrinsic +facilities, "Oh, delightful!" he exclaimed. + +Roderick stood looking at him a moment. "Damnation!" he said at last, +solemnly, and turned his back. + +One morning, shortly after this, Rowland and Roderick took a long walk. +They had walked before in a dozen different directions, but they had not +yet crossed a charming little wooded pass, which shut in their valley +on one side and descended into the vale of Engelberg. In coming from +Lucerne they had approached their inn by this path, and, feeling that +they knew it, had hitherto neglected it in favor of untrodden ways. But +at last the list of these was exhausted, and Rowland proposed the walk +to Engelberg as a novelty. The place is half bleak and half pastoral; a +huge white monastery rises abruptly from the green floor of the valley +and complicates its picturesqueness with an element rare in Swiss +scenery. Hard by is a group of chalets and inns, with the usual +appurtenances of a prosperous Swiss resort--lean brown guides in baggy +homespun, lounging under carved wooden galleries, stacks of alpenstocks +in every doorway, sun-scorched Englishmen without shirt-collars. Our two +friends sat a while at the door of an inn, discussing a pint of wine, +and then Roderick, who was indefatigable, announced his intention of +climbing to a certain rocky pinnacle which overhung the valley, and, +according to the testimony of one of the guides, commanded a view of the +Lake of Lucerne. To go and come back was only a matter of an hour, but +Rowland, with the prospect of his homeward trudge before him, confessed +to a preference for lounging on his bench, or at most strolling a trifle +farther and taking a look at the monastery. Roderick went off alone, and +his companion after a while bent his steps to the monasterial church. It +was remarkable, like most of the churches of Catholic Switzerland, for +a hideous style of devotional ornament; but it had a certain cold and +musty picturesqueness, and Rowland lingered there with some tenderness +for Alpine piety. While he was near the high-altar some people came in +at the west door; but he did not notice them, and was presently engaged +in deciphering a curious old German epitaph on one of the mural tablets. +At last he turned away, wondering whether its syntax or its theology was +the more uncomfortable, and, to this infinite surprise, found himself +confronted with the Prince and Princess Casamassima. + +The surprise on Christina's part, for an instant, was equal, and at +first she seemed disposed to turn away without letting it give place to +a greeting. The prince, however, saluted gravely, and then Christina, in +silence, put out her hand. Rowland immediately asked whether they were +staying at Engelberg, but Christina only looked at him without speaking. +The prince answered his questions, and related that they had been +making a month's tour in Switzerland, that at Lucerne his wife had been +somewhat obstinately indisposed, and that the physician had recommended +a week's trial of the tonic air and goat's milk of Engelberg. The +scenery, said the prince, was stupendous, but the life was terribly +sad--and they had three days more! It was a blessing, he urbanely added, +to see a good Roman face. + +Christina's attitude, her solemn silence and her penetrating gaze +seemed to Rowland, at first, to savor of affectation; but he presently +perceived that she was profoundly agitated, and that she was afraid of +betraying herself. "Do let us leave this hideous edifice," she said; +"there are things here that set one's teeth on edge." They moved slowly +to the door, and when they stood outside, in the sunny coolness of the +valley, she turned to Rowland and said, "I am extremely glad to see +you." Then she glanced about her and observed, against the wall of the +church, an old stone seat. She looked at Prince Casamassima a moment, +and he smiled more intensely, Rowland thought, than the occasion +demanded. "I wish to sit here," she said, "and speak to Mr. +Mallet--alone." + +"At your pleasure, dear friend," said the prince. + +The tone of each was measured, to Rowland's ear; but that of Christina +was dry, and that of her husband was splendidly urbane. Rowland +remembered that the Cavaliere Giacosa had told him that Mrs. Light's +candidate was thoroughly a prince, and our friend wondered how he +relished a peremptory accent. Casamassima was an Italian of the +undemonstrative type, but Rowland nevertheless divined that, like other +princes before him, he had made the acquaintance of the thing called +compromise. "Shall I come back?" he asked with the same smile. + +"In half an hour," said Christina. + +In the clear outer light, Rowland's first impression of her was that she +was more beautiful than ever. And yet in three months she could hardly +have changed; the change was in Rowland's own vision of her, which that +last interview, on the eve of her marriage, had made unprecedentedly +tender. + +"How came you here?" she asked. "Are you staying in this place?" + +"I am staying at Engelthal, some ten miles away; I walked over." + +"Are you alone?" + +"I am with Mr. Hudson." + +"Is he here with you?" + +"He went half an hour ago to climb a rock for a view." + +"And his mother and that young girl, where are they?" + +"They also are at Engelthal." + +"What do you do there?" + +"What do you do here?" said Rowland, smiling. + +"I count the minutes till my week is up. I hate mountains; they depress +me to death. I am sure Miss Garland likes them." + +"She is very fond of them, I believe." + +"You believe--don't you know? But I have given up trying to imitate Miss +Garland," said Christina. + +"You surely need imitate no one." + +"Don't say that," she said gravely. "So you have walked ten miles this +morning? And you are to walk back again?" + +"Back again to supper." + +"And Mr. Hudson too?" + +"Mr. Hudson especially. He is a great walker." + +"You men are happy!" Christina cried. "I believe I should enjoy the +mountains if I could do such things. It is sitting still and having them +scowl down at you! Prince Casamassina never rides. He only goes on a +mule. He was carried up the Faulhorn on a litter." + +"On a litter?" said Rowland. + +"In one of those machines--a chaise a porteurs--like a woman." + +Rowland received this information in silence; it was equally unbecoming +to either relish or deprecate its irony. + +"Is Mr. Hudson to join you again? Will he come here?" Christina asked. + +"I shall soon begin to expect him." + +"What shall you do when you leave Switzerland?" Christina continued. +"Shall you go back to Rome?" + +"I rather doubt it. My plans are very uncertain." + +"They depend upon Mr. Hudson, eh?" + +"In a great measure." + +"I want you to tell me about him. Is he still in that perverse state of +mind that afflicted you so much?" + +Rowland looked at her mistrustfully, without answering. He was +indisposed, instinctively, to tell her that Roderick was unhappy; it was +possible she might offer to help him back to happiness. She immediately +perceived his hesitation. + +"I see no reason why we should not be frank," she said. "I should think +we were excellently placed for that sort of thing. You remember that +formerly I cared very little what I said, don't you? Well, I care +absolutely not at all now. I say what I please, I do what I please! How +did Mr. Hudson receive the news of my marriage?" + +"Very badly," said Rowland. + +"With rage and reproaches?" And as Rowland hesitated again--"With silent +contempt?" + +"I can tell you but little. He spoke to me on the subject, but I stopped +him. I told him it was none of his business, or of mine." + +"That was an excellent answer!" said Christina, softly. "Yet it was a +little your business, after those sublime protestations I treated you +to. I was really very fine that morning, eh?" + +"You do yourself injustice," said Rowland. "I should be at liberty now +to believe you were insincere." + +"What does it matter now whether I was insincere or not? I can't +conceive of anything mattering less. I was very fine--is n't it true?" + +"You know what I think of you," said Rowland. And for fear of being +forced to betray his suspicion of the cause of her change, he took +refuge in a commonplace. "Your mother, I hope, is well." + +"My mother is in the enjoyment of superb health, and may be seen +every evening at the Casino, at the Baths of Lucca, confiding to every +new-comer that she has married her daughter to a pearl of a prince." + +Rowland was anxious for news of Mrs. Light's companion, and the natural +course was frankly to inquire about him. "And the Cavaliere Giacosa is +well?" he asked. + +Christina hesitated, but she betrayed no other embarrassment. "The +Cavaliere has retired to his native city of Ancona, upon a pension, for +the rest of his natural life. He is a very good old man!" + +"I have a great regard for him," said Rowland, gravely, at the same time +that he privately wondered whether the Cavaliere's pension was paid +by Prince Casamassima for services rendered in connection with his +marriage. Had the Cavaliere received his commission? "And what do you +do," Rowland continued, "on leaving this place?" + +"We go to Italy--we go to Naples." She rose and stood silent a moment, +looking down the valley. The figure of Prince Casamassima appeared in +the distance, balancing his white umbrella. As her eyes rested upon it, +Rowland imagined that he saw something deeper in the strange expression +which had lurked in her face while he talked to her. At first he had +been dazzled by her blooming beauty, to which the lapse of weeks had +only added splendor; then he had seen a heavier ray in the light of her +eye--a sinister intimation of sadness and bitterness. It was the outward +mark of her sacrificed ideal. Her eyes grew cold as she looked at her +husband, and when, after a moment, she turned them upon Rowland, they +struck him as intensely tragical. He felt a singular mixture of sympathy +and dread; he wished to give her a proof of friendship, and yet it +seemed to him that she had now turned her face in a direction where +friendship was impotent to interpose. She half read his feelings, +apparently, and she gave a beautiful, sad smile. "I hope we may never +meet again!" she said. And as Rowland gave her a protesting look--"You +have seen me at my best. I wish to tell you solemnly, I was sincere! I +know appearances are against me," she went on quickly. "There is a great +deal I can't tell you. Perhaps you have guessed it; I care very little. +You know, at any rate, I did my best. It would n't serve; I was beaten +and broken; they were stronger than I. Now it 's another affair!" + +"It seems to me you have a large chance for happiness yet," said +Rowland, vaguely. + +"Happiness? I mean to cultivate rapture; I mean to go in for bliss +ineffable! You remember I told you that I was, in part, the world's and +the devil's. Now they have taken me all. It was their choice; may they +never repent!" + +"I shall hear of you," said Rowland. + +"You will hear of me. And whatever you do hear, remember this: I was +sincere!" + +Prince Casamassima had approached, and Rowland looked at him with a +good deal of simple compassion as a part of that "world" against which +Christina had launched her mysterious menace. It was obvious that he +was a good fellow, and that he could not, in the nature of things, be +a positively bad husband; but his distinguished inoffensiveness only +deepened the infelicity of Christina's situation by depriving her +defiant attitude of the sanction of relative justice. So long as she had +been free to choose, she had esteemed him: but from the moment she was +forced to marry him she had detested him. Rowland read in the young +man's elastic Italian mask a profound consciousness of all this; and +as he found there also a record of other curious things--of pride, of +temper, of bigotry, of an immense heritage of more or less aggressive +traditions--he reflected that the matrimonial conjunction of his two +companions might be sufficiently prolific in incident. + +"You are going to Naples?" Rowland said to the prince by way of +conversation. + +"We are going to Paris," Christina interposed, slowly and softly. +"We are going to London. We are going to Vienna. We are going to St. +Petersburg." + +Prince Casamassima dropped his eyes and fretted the earth with the point +of his umbrella. While he engaged Rowland's attention Christina turned +away. When Rowland glanced at her again he saw a change pass over her +face; she was observing something that was concealed from his own eyes +by the angle of the church-wall. In a moment Roderick stepped into +sight. + +He stopped short, astonished; his face and figure were jaded, his +garments dusty. He looked at Christina from head to foot, and then, +slowly, his cheek flushed and his eye expanded. Christina returned his +gaze, and for some moments there was a singular silence. "You don't look +well!" Christina said at last. + +Roderick answered nothing; he only looked and looked, as if she had been +a statue. "You are no less beautiful!" he presently cried. + +She turned away with a smile, and stood a while gazing down the valley; +Roderick stared at Prince Casamassima. Christina then put out her hand +to Rowland. "Farewell," she said. "If you are near me in future, +don't try to see me!" And then, after a pause, in a lower tone, "I was +sincere!" She addressed herself again to Roderick and asked him some +commonplace about his walk. But he said nothing; he only looked at +her. Rowland at first had expected an outbreak of reproach, but it was +evident that the danger was every moment diminishing. He was forgetting +everything but her beauty, and as she stood there and let him feast upon +it, Rowland was sure that she knew it. "I won't say farewell to you," +she said; "we shall meet again!" And she moved gravely away. Prince +Casamassima took leave courteously of Rowland; upon Roderick he bestowed +a bow of exaggerated civility. Roderick appeared not to see it; he +was still watching Christina, as she passed over the grass. His eyes +followed her until she reached the door of her inn. Here she stopped and +looked back at him. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. Switzerland + +On the homeward walk, that evening, Roderick preserved a silence which +Rowland allowed to make him uneasy. Early on the morrow Roderick, +saying nothing of his intentions, started off on a walk; Rowland saw +him striding with light steps along the rugged path to Engelberg. He was +absent all day and he gave no account of himself on his return. He said +he was deadly tired, and he went to bed early. When he had left the room +Miss Garland drew near to Rowland. + +"I wish to ask you a question," she said. "What happened to Roderick +yesterday at Engelberg?" + +"You have discovered that something happened?" Rowland answered. + +"I am sure of it. Was it something painful?" + +"I don't know how, at the present moment, he judges it. He met the +Princess Casamassima." + +"Thank you!" said Miss Garland, simply, and turned away. + +The conversation had been brief, but, like many small things, it +furnished Rowland with food for reflection. When one is looking for +symptoms one easily finds them. This was the first time Mary Garland had +asked Rowland a question which it was in Roderick's power to answer, +the first time she had frankly betrayed Roderick's reticence. Rowland +ventured to think it marked an era. + +The next morning was sultry, and the air, usually so fresh at those +altitudes, was oppressively heavy. Rowland lounged on the grass a while, +near Singleton, who was at work under his white umbrella, within view of +the house; and then in quest of coolness he wandered away to the rocky +ridge whence you looked across at the Jungfrau. To-day, however, the +white summits were invisible; their heads were muffled in sullen clouds +and the valleys beneath them curtained in dun-colored mist. Rowland had +a book in his pocket, and he took it out and opened it. But his page +remained unturned; his own thoughts were more importunate. His interview +with Christina Light had made a great impression upon him, and he was +haunted with the memory of her almost blameless bitterness, and of all +that was tragic and fatal in her latest transformation. These things +were immensely appealing, and Rowland thought with infinite impatience +of Roderick's having again encountered them. It required little +imagination to apprehend that the young sculptor's condition had +also appealed to Christina. His consummate indifference, his supreme +defiance, would make him a magnificent trophy, and Christina had +announced with sufficient distinctness that she had said good-by to +scruples. It was her fancy at present to treat the world as a garden of +pleasure, and if, hitherto, she had played with Roderick's passion on +its stem, there was little doubt that now she would pluck it with an +unfaltering hand and drain it of its acrid sweetness. And why the +deuce need Roderick have gone marching back to destruction? Rowland's +meditations, even when they began in rancor, often brought him peace; +but on this occasion they ushered in a quite peculiar quality of unrest. +He felt conscious of a sudden collapse in his moral energy; a current +that had been flowing for two years with liquid strength seemed at last +to pause and evaporate. Rowland looked away at the stagnant vapors on +the mountains; their dreariness seemed a symbol of the dreariness which +his own generosity had bequeathed him. At last he had arrived at the +uttermost limit of the deference a sane man might pay to other people's +folly; nay, rather, he had transgressed it; he had been befooled on a +gigantic scale. He turned to his book and tried to woo back patience, +but it gave him cold comfort and he tossed it angrily away. He pulled +his hat over his eyes, and tried to wonder, dispassionately, whether +atmospheric conditions had not something to do with his ill-humor. He +remained for some time in this attitude, but was finally aroused from +it by a singular sense that, although he had heard nothing, some one had +approached him. He looked up and saw Roderick standing before him on the +turf. His mood made the spectacle unwelcome, and for a moment he felt +like uttering an uncivil speech. Roderick stood looking at him with an +expression of countenance which had of late become rare. There was an +unfamiliar spark in his eye and a certain imperious alertness in his +carriage. Confirmed habit, with Rowland, came speedily to the front. +"What is it now?" he asked himself, and invited Roderick to sit down. +Roderick had evidently something particular to say, and if he remained +silent for a time it was not because he was ashamed of it. + +"I would like you to do me a favor," he said at last. "Lend me some +money." + +"How much do you wish?" Rowland asked. + +"Say a thousand francs." + +Rowland hesitated a moment. "I don't wish to be indiscreet, but may I +ask what you propose to do with a thousand francs?" + +"To go to Interlaken." + +"And why are you going to Interlaken?" + +Roderick replied without a shadow of wavering, "Because that woman is to +be there." + +Rowland burst out laughing, but Roderick remained serenely grave. "You +have forgiven her, then?" said Rowland. + +"Not a bit of it!" + +"I don't understand." + +"Neither do I. I only know that she is incomparably beautiful, and that +she has waked me up amazingly. Besides, she asked me to come." + +"She asked you?" + +"Yesterday, in so many words." + +"Ah, the jade!" + +"Exactly. I am willing to take her for that." + +"Why in the name of common sense did you go back to her?" + +"Why did I find her standing there like a goddess who had just stepped +out of her cloud? Why did I look at her? Before I knew where I was, the +harm was done." + +Rowland, who had been sitting erect, threw himself back on the grass and +lay for some time staring up at the sky. At last, raising himself, "Are +you perfectly serious?" he asked. + +"Deadly serious." + +"Your idea is to remain at Interlaken some time?" + +"Indefinitely!" said Roderick; and it seemed to his companion that the +tone in which he said this made it immensely well worth hearing. + +"And your mother and cousin, meanwhile, are to remain here? It will soon +be getting very cold, you know." + +"It does n't seem much like it to-day." + +"Very true; but to-day is a day by itself." + +"There is nothing to prevent their going back to Lucerne. I depend upon +your taking charge of them." + +At this Rowland reclined upon the grass again; and again, after +reflection, he faced his friend. "How would you express," he asked, "the +character of the profit that you expect to derive from your excursion?" + +"I see no need of expressing it. The proof of the pudding is in the +eating! The case is simply this. I desire immensely to be near Christina +Light, and it is such a huge refreshment to find myself again desiring +something, that I propose to drift with the current. As I say, she has +waked me up, and it is possible something may come of it. She makes me +feel as if I were alive again. This," and he glanced down at the inn, "I +call death!" + +"That I am very grateful to hear. You really feel as if you might do +something?" + +"Don't ask too much. I only know that she makes my heart beat, makes me +see visions." + +"You feel encouraged?" + +"I feel excited." + +"You are really looking better." + +"I am glad to hear it. Now that I have answered your questions, please +to give me the money." + +Rowland shook his head. "For that purpose, I can't!" + +"You can't?" + +"It 's impossible. Your plan is rank folly. I can't help you in it." + +Roderick flushed a little, and his eye expanded. "I will borrow what +money I can, then, from Mary!" This was not viciously said; it had +simply the ring of passionate resolution. + +Instantly it brought Rowland to terms. He took a bunch of keys from +his pocket and tossed it upon the grass. "The little brass one opens my +dressing-case," he said. "You will find money in it." + +Roderick let the keys lie; something seemed to have struck him; he +looked askance at his friend. "You are awfully gallant!" + +"You certainly are not. Your proposal is an outrage." + +"Very likely. It 's a proof the more of my desire." + +"If you have so much steam on, then, use it for something else. You say +you are awake again. I am delighted; only be so in the best sense. Is +n't it very plain? If you have the energy to desire, you have also the +energy to reason and to judge. If you can care to go, you can also care +to stay, and staying being the more profitable course, the inspiration, +on that side, for a man who has his self-confidence to win back again, +should be greater." + +Roderick, plainly, did not relish this simple logic, and his eye grew +angry as he listened to its echo. "Oh, the devil!" he cried. + +Rowland went on. "Do you believe that hanging about Christina Light will +do you any good? Do you believe it won't? In either case you should keep +away from her. If it won't, it 's your duty; and if it will, you can get +on without it." + +"Do me good?" cried Roderick. "What do I want of 'good'--what should I +do with 'good'? I want what she gives me, call it by what name you will. +I want to ask no questions, but to take what comes and let it fill the +impossible hours! But I did n't come to discuss the matter." + +"I have not the least desire to discuss it," said Rowland. "I simply +protest." + +Roderick meditated a moment. "I have never yet thought twice of +accepting a favor of you," he said at last; "but this one sticks in my +throat." + +"It is not a favor; I lend you the money only under compulsion." + +"Well, then, I will take it only under compulsion!" Roderick exclaimed. +And he sprang up abruptly and marched away. + +His words were ambiguous; Rowland lay on the grass, wondering what they +meant. Half an hour had not elapsed before Roderick reappeared, heated +with rapid walking, and wiping his forehead. He flung himself down and +looked at his friend with an eye which expressed something purer than +bravado and yet baser than conviction. + +"I have done my best!" he said. "My mother is out of money; she is +expecting next week some circular notes from London. She had only ten +francs in her pocket. Mary Garland gave me every sou she possessed in +the world. It makes exactly thirty-four francs. That 's not enough." + +"You asked Miss Garland?" cried Rowland. + +"I asked her." + +"And told her your purpose?" + +"I named no names. But she knew!" + +"What did she say?" + +"Not a syllable. She simply emptied her purse." + +Rowland turned over and buried his face in his arms. He felt a movement +of irrepressible elation, and he barely stifled a cry of joy. Now, +surely, Roderick had shattered the last link in the chain that bound +Mary to him, and after this she would be free!... When he turned about +again, Roderick was still sitting there, and he had not touched the keys +which lay on the grass. + +"I don't know what is the matter with me," said Roderick, "but I have an +insurmountable aversion to taking your money." + +"The matter, I suppose, is that you have a grain of wisdom left." + +"No, it 's not that. It 's a kind of brute instinct. I find it extremely +provoking!" He sat there for some time with his head in his hands and +his eyes on the ground. His lips were compressed, and he was evidently, +in fact, in a state of profound irritation. "You have succeeded in +making this thing excessively unpleasant!" he exclaimed. + +"I am sorry," said Rowland, "but I can't see it in any other way." + +"That I believe, and I resent the range of your vision pretending to +be the limit of my action. You can't feel for me nor judge for me, and +there are certain things you know nothing about. I have suffered, sir!" +Roderick went on with increasing emphasis. "I have suffered damnable +torments. Have I been such a placid, contented, comfortable man this +last six months, that when I find a chance to forget my misery, I should +take such pains not to profit by it? You ask too much, for a man who +himself has no occasion to play the hero. I don't say that invidiously; +it 's your disposition, and you can't help it. But decidedly, there are +certain things you know nothing about." + +Rowland listened to this outbreak with open eyes, and Roderick, if +he had been less intent upon his own eloquence, would probably have +perceived that he turned pale. "These things--what are they?" Rowland +asked. + +"They are women, principally, and what relates to women. Women for +you, by what I can make out, mean nothing. You have no imagination--no +sensibility!" + +"That 's a serious charge," said Rowland, gravely. + +"I don't make it without proof!" + +"And what is your proof?" + +Roderick hesitated a moment. "The way you treated Christina Light. I +call that grossly obtuse." + +"Obtuse?" Rowland repeated, frowning. + +"Thick-skinned, beneath your good fortune." + +"My good fortune?" + +"There it is--it 's all news to you! You had pleased her. I don't say +she was dying of love for you, but she took a fancy to you." + +"We will let this pass!" said Rowland, after a silence. + +"Oh, I don't insist. I have only her own word for it." + +"She told you this?" + +"You noticed, at least, I suppose, that she was not afraid to speak. I +never repeated it, not because I was jealous, but because I was curious +to see how long your ignorance would last if left to itself." + +"I frankly confess it would have lasted forever. And yet I don't +consider that my insensibility is proved." + +"Oh, don't say that," cried Roderick, "or I shall begin to suspect--what +I must do you the justice to say that I never have suspected--that you +are a trifle conceited. Upon my word, when I think of all this, your +protest, as you call it, against my following Christina Light seems +to me thoroughly offensive. There is something monstrous in a man's +pretending to lay down the law to a sort of emotion with which he is +quite unacquainted--in his asking a fellow to give up a lovely woman for +conscience' sake, when he has never had the impulse to strike a blow for +one for passion's!" + +"Oh, oh!" cried Rowland. + +"All that 's very easy to say," Roderick went on; "but you must remember +that there are such things as nerves, and senses, and imagination, and +a restless demon within that may sleep sometimes for a day, or for six +months, but that sooner or later wakes up and thumps at your ribs till +you listen to him! If you can't understand it, take it on trust, and let +a poor imaginative devil live his life as he can!" + +Roderick's words seemed at first to Rowland like something heard in a +dream; it was impossible they had been actually spoken--so supreme an +expression were they of the insolence of egotism. Reality was never so +consistent as that! But Roderick sat there balancing his beautiful +head, and the echoes of his strident accent still lingered along the +half-muffled mountain-side. Rowland suddenly felt that the cup of his +chagrin was full to overflowing, and his long-gathered bitterness surged +into the simple, wholesome passion of anger for wasted kindness. But +he spoke without violence, and Roderick was probably at first far from +measuring the force that lay beneath his words. + +"You are incredibly ungrateful," he said. "You are talking arrogant +nonsense. What do you know about my sensibilities and my imagination? +How do you know whether I have loved or suffered? If I have held my +tongue and not troubled you with my complaints, you find it the most +natural thing in the world to put an ignoble construction on my silence. +I loved quite as well as you; indeed, I think I may say rather better. I +have been constant. I have been willing to give more than I received. I +have not forsaken one mistress because I thought another more beautiful, +nor given up the other and believed all manner of evil about her because +I had not my way with her. I have been a good friend to Christina Light, +and it seems to me my friendship does her quite as much honor as your +love!" + +"Your love--your suffering--your silence--your friendship!" cried +Roderick. "I declare I don't understand!" + +"I dare say not. You are not used to understanding such things--you are +not used to hearing me talk of my feelings. You are altogether too +much taken up with your own. Be as much so as you please; I have always +respected your right. Only when I have kept myself in durance on purpose +to leave you an open field, don't, by way of thanking me, come and call +me an idiot." + +"Oh, you claim then that you have made sacrifices?" + +"Several! You have never suspected it?" + +"If I had, do you suppose I would have allowed it?" cried Roderick. + +"They were the sacrifices of friendship and they were easily made; only +I don't enjoy having them thrown back in my teeth." + +This was, under the circumstances, a sufficiently generous speech; but +Roderick was not in the humor to take it generously. "Come, be more +definite," he said. "Let me know where it is the shoe has pinched." + +Rowland frowned; if Roderick would not take generosity, he should have +full justice. "It 's a perpetual sacrifice," he said, "to live with a +perfect egotist." + +"I am an egotist?" cried Roderick. + +"Did it never occur to you?" + +"An egotist to whom you have made perpetual sacrifices?" He repeated +the words in a singular tone; a tone that denoted neither exactly +indignation nor incredulity, but (strange as it may seem) a sudden +violent curiosity for news about himself. + +"You are selfish," said Rowland; "you think only of yourself and believe +only in yourself. You regard other people only as they play into your +own hands. You have always been very frank about it, and the thing +seemed so mixed up with the temper of your genius and the very structure +of your mind, that often one was willing to take the evil with the good +and to be thankful that, considering your great talent, you were no +worse. But if one believed in you, as I have done, one paid a tax upon +it." + +Roderick leaned his elbows on his knees, clasped his hands together, and +crossed them, shadewise, over his eyes. In this attitude, for a +moment, he sat looking coldly at his friend. "So I have made you very +uncomfortable?" he went on. + +"Extremely so." + +"I have been eager, grasping, obstinate, vain, ungrateful, indifferent, +cruel?" + +"I have accused you, mentally, of all these things, with the exception +of vanity." + +"You have often hated me?" + +"Never. I should have parted company with you before coming to that." + +"But you have wanted to part company, to bid me go my way and be +hanged!" + +"Repeatedly. Then I have had patience and forgiven you." + +"Forgiven me, eh? Suffering all the while?" + +"Yes, you may call it suffering." + +"Why did you never tell me all this before?" + +"Because my affection was always stronger than my resentment; because +I preferred to err on the side of kindness; because I had, myself, in a +measure, launched you in the world and thrown you into temptations; and +because nothing short of your unwarrantable aggression just now could +have made me say these painful things." + +Roderick picked up a blade of long grass and began to bite it; Rowland +was puzzled by his expression and manner. They seemed strangely cynical; +there was something revolting in his deepening calmness. "I must have +been hideous," Roderick presently resumed. + +"I am not talking for your entertainment," said Rowland. + +"Of course not. For my edification!" As Roderick said these words there +was not a ray of warmth in his brilliant eye. + +"I have spoken for my own relief," Rowland went on, "and so that you +need never again go so utterly astray as you have done this morning." + +"It has been a terrible mistake, then?" What his tone expressed was not +willful mockery, but a kind of persistent irresponsibility which Rowland +found equally exasperating. He answered nothing. + +"And all this time," Roderick continued, "you have been in love? Tell me +the woman." + +Rowland felt an immense desire to give him a visible, palpable pang. +"Her name is Mary Garland," he said. + +Apparently he succeeded. The surprise was great; Roderick colored as he +had never done. "Mary Garland? Heaven forgive us!" + +Rowland observed the "us;" Roderick threw himself back on the turf. The +latter lay for some time staring at the sky. At last he sprang to his +feet, and Rowland rose also, rejoicing keenly, it must be confessed, in +his companion's confusion. + +"For how long has this been?" Roderick demanded. + +"Since I first knew her." + +"Two years! And you have never told her?" + +"Never." + +"You have told no one?" + +"You are the first person." + +"Why have you been silent?" + +"Because of your engagement." + +"But you have done your best to keep that up." + +"That 's another matter!" + +"It 's very strange!" said Roderick, presently. "It 's like something in +a novel." + +"We need n't expatiate on it," said Rowland. "All I wished to do was to +rebut your charge that I am an abnormal being." + +But still Roderick pondered. "All these months, while I was going on! I +wish you had mentioned it." + +"I acted as was necessary, and that 's the end of it." + +"You have a very high opinion of her?" + +"The highest." + +"I remember now your occasionally expressing it and my being struck with +it. But I never dreamed you were in love with her. It 's a pity she does +n't care for you!" + +Rowland had made his point and he had no wish to prolong the +conversation; but he had a desire to hear more of this, and he remained +silent. + +"You hope, I suppose, that some day she may?" + +"I should n't have offered to say so; but since you ask me, I do." + +"I don't believe it. She idolizes me, and if she never were to see me +again she would idolize my memory." + +This might be profound insight, and it might be profound fatuity. +Rowland turned away; he could not trust himself to speak. + +"My indifference, my neglect of her, must have seemed to you horrible. +Altogether, I must have appeared simply hideous." + +"Do you really care," Rowland asked, "what you appeared?" + +"Certainly. I have been damnably stupid. Is n't an artist supposed to be +a man of perceptions? I am hugely disgusted." + +"Well, you understand now, and we can start afresh." + +"And yet," said Roderick, "though you have suffered, in a degree, I +don't believe you have suffered so much as some other men would have +done." + +"Very likely not. In such matters quantitative analysis is difficult." + +Roderick picked up his stick and stood looking at the ground. +"Nevertheless, I must have seemed hideous," he repeated--"hideous." He +turned away, scowling, and Rowland offered no contradiction. + +They were both silent for some time, and at last Roderick gave a heavy +sigh and began to walk away. "Where are you going?" Rowland then asked. + +"Oh, I don't care! To walk; you have given me something to think +of." This seemed a salutary impulse, and yet Rowland felt a nameless +perplexity. "To have been so stupid damns me more than anything!" +Roderick went on. "Certainly, I can shut up shop now." + +Rowland felt in no smiling humor, and yet, in spite of himself, he could +almost have smiled at the very consistency of the fellow. It was egotism +still: aesthetic disgust at the graceless contour of his conduct, but +never a hint of simple sorrow for the pain he had given. Rowland let +him go, and for some moments stood watching him. Suddenly Mallet became +conscious of a singular and most illogical impulse--a desire to stop +him, to have another word with him--not to lose sight of him. He called +him and Roderick turned. "I should like to go with you," said Rowland. + +"I am fit only to be alone. I am damned!" + +"You had better not think of it at all," Rowland cried, "than think in +that way." + +"There is only one way. I have been hideous!" And he broke off and +marched away with his long, elastic step, swinging his stick. Rowland +watched him and at the end of a moment called to him. Roderick stopped +and looked at him in silence, and then abruptly turned, and disappeared +below the crest of a hill. + +Rowland passed the remainder of the day uncomfortably. He was half +irritated, half depressed; he had an insufferable feeling of having been +placed in the wrong, in spite of his excellent cause. Roderick did not +come home to dinner; but of this, with his passion for brooding away the +hours on far-off mountain sides, he had almost made a habit. Mrs. Hudson +appeared at the noonday repast with a face which showed that Roderick's +demand for money had unsealed the fountains of her distress. Little +Singleton consumed an enormous and well-earned dinner. Miss Garland, +Rowland observed, had not contributed her scanty assistance to her +kinsman's pursuit of the Princess Casamassima without an effort. The +effort was visible in her pale face and her silence; she looked so ill +that when they left the table Rowland felt almost bound to remark upon +it. They had come out upon the grass in front of the inn. + +"I have a headache," she said. And then suddenly, looking about at the +menacing sky and motionless air, "It 's this horrible day!" + +Rowland that afternoon tried to write a letter to his cousin Cecilia, +but his head and his heart were alike heavy, and he traced upon the +paper but a single line. "I believe there is such a thing as being too +reasonable. But when once the habit is formed, what is one to do?" He +had occasion to use his keys and he felt for them in his pocket; they +were missing, and he remembered that he had left them lying on the +hill-top where he had had his talk with Roderick. He went forth in +search of them and found them where he had thrown them. He flung +himself down in the same place again; he felt indisposed to walk. He +was conscious that his mood had vastly changed since the morning; +his extraordinary, acute sense of his rights had been replaced by the +familiar, chronic sense of his duties. Only, his duties now seemed +impracticable; he turned over and buried his face in his arms. He lay +so a long time, thinking of many things; the sum of them all was that +Roderick had beaten him. At last he was startled by an extraordinary +sound; it took him a moment to perceive that it was a portentous growl +of thunder. He roused himself and saw that the whole face of the sky had +altered. The clouds that had hung motionless all day were moving from +their stations, and getting into position, as it were, for a battle. The +wind was rising; the sallow vapors were turning dark and consolidating +their masses. It was a striking spectacle, but Rowland judged best to +observe it briefly, as a storm was evidently imminent. He took his way +down to the inn and found Singleton still at his post, profiting by the +last of the rapidly-failing light to finish his study, and yet at the +same time taking rapid notes of the actual condition of the clouds. + +"We are going to have a most interesting storm," the little painter +gleefully cried. "I should like awfully to do it." + +Rowland adjured him to pack up his tools and decamp, and repaired to +the house. The air by this time had become portentously dark, and the +thunder was incessant and tremendous; in the midst of it the lightning +flashed and vanished, like the treble shrilling upon the bass. The +innkeeper and his servants had crowded to the doorway, and were looking +at the scene with faces which seemed a proof that it was unprecedented. +As Rowland approached, the group divided, to let some one pass from +within, and Mrs. Hudson came forth, as white as a corpse and trembling +in every limb. + +"My boy, my boy, where is my boy?" she cried. "Mr. Mallet, why are you +here without him? Bring him to me!" + +"Has no one seen Mr. Hudson?" Rowland asked of the others. "Has he not +returned?" + +Each one shook his head and looked grave, and Rowland attempted to +reassure Mrs. Hudson by saying that of course he had taken refuge in a +chalet. + +"Go and find him, go and find him!" she cried, insanely. "Don't stand +there and talk, or I shall die!" It was now as dark as evening, and +Rowland could just distinguish the figure of Singleton scampering +homeward with his box and easel. "And where is Mary?" Mrs. Hudson went +on; "what in mercy's name has become of her? Mr. Mallet, why did you +ever bring us here?" + +There came a prodigious flash of lightning, and the limitless tumult +about them turned clearer than midsummer noonday. The brightness lasted +long enough to enable Rowland to see a woman's figure on the top of +an eminence near the house. It was Mary Garland, questioning the lurid +darkness for Roderick. Rowland sprang out to interrupt her vigil, but in +a moment he encountered her, retreating. He seized her hand and hurried +her to the house, where, as soon as she stepped into the covered +gallery, Mrs. Hudson fell upon her with frantic lamentations. + +"Did you see nothing,--nothing?" she cried. "Tell Mr. Mallet he must go +and find him, with some men, some lights, some wrappings. Go, go, go, +sir! In mercy, go!" + +Rowland was extremely perturbed by the poor lady's vociferous folly, for +he deemed her anxiety superfluous. He had offered his suggestion with +sincerity; nothing was more probable than that Roderick had found +shelter in a herdsman's cabin. These were numerous on the neighboring +mountains, and the storm had given fair warning of its approach. Miss +Garland stood there very pale, saying nothing, but looking at him. He +expected that she would check her cousin's importunity. "Could you find +him?" she suddenly asked. "Would it be of use?" + +The question seemed to him a flash intenser than the lightning that was +raking the sky before them. It shattered his dream that he weighed in +the scale! But before he could answer, the full fury of the storm was +upon them; the rain descended in sounding torrents. Every one fell back +into the house. There had been no time to light lamps, and in the little +uncarpeted parlor, in the unnatural darkness, Rowland felt Mary's hand +upon his arm. For a moment it had an eloquent pressure; it seemed to +retract her senseless challenge, and to say that she believed, for +Roderick, what he believed. But nevertheless, thought Rowland, the cry +had come, her heart had spoken; her first impulse had been to sacrifice +him. He had been uncertain before; here, at least, was the comfort of +certainty! + +It must be confessed, however, that the certainty in question did little +to enliven the gloom of that formidable evening. There was a noisy +crowd about him in the room--noisy even with the accompaniment of the +continual thunder-peals; lodgers and servants, chattering, shuffling, +and bustling, and annoying him equally by making too light of the +tempest and by vociferating their alarm. In the disorder, it was some +time before a lamp was lighted, and the first thing he saw, as it was +swung from the ceiling, was the white face of Mrs. Hudson, who was being +carried out of the room in a swoon by two stout maid-servants, with Mary +Garland forcing a passage. He rendered what help he could, but when they +had laid the poor woman on her bed, Miss Garland motioned him away. + +"I think you make her worse," she said. + +Rowland went to his own chamber. The partitions in Swiss mountain-inns +are thin, and from time to time he heard Mrs. Hudson moaning, three +rooms off. Considering its great fury, the storm took long to expend +itself; it was upwards of three hours before the thunder ceased. But +even then the rain continued to fall heavily, and the night, which had +come on, was impenetrably black. This lasted till near midnight. Rowland +thought of Mary Garland's challenge in the porch, but he thought even +more that, although the fetid interior of a high-nestling chalet may +offer a convenient refuge from an Alpine tempest, there was no possible +music in the universe so sweet as the sound of Roderick's voice. At +midnight, through his dripping window-pane, he saw a star, and he +immediately went downstairs and out into the gallery. The rain had +ceased, the cloud-masses were dissevered here and there, and several +stars were visible. In a few minutes he heard a step behind him, and, +turning, saw Miss Garland. He asked about Mrs. Hudson and learned that +she was sleeping, exhausted by her fruitless lamentations. Miss Garland +kept scanning the darkness, but she said nothing to cast doubt on +Roderick's having found a refuge. Rowland noticed it. "This also have I +guaranteed!" he said to himself. There was something that Mary wished to +learn, and a question presently revealed it. + +"What made him start on a long walk so suddenly?" she asked. "I saw him +at eleven o'clock, and then he meant to go to Engelberg, and sleep." + +"On his way to Interlaken?" Rowland said. + +"Yes," she answered, under cover of the darkness. + +"We had some talk," said Rowland, "and he seemed, for the day, to have +given up Interlaken." + +"Did you dissuade him?" + +"Not exactly. We discussed another question, which, for the time, +superseded his plan." + +Miss Garland was silent. Then--"May I ask whether your discussion was +violent?" she said. + +"I am afraid it was agreeable to neither of us." + +"And Roderick left you in--in irritation?" + +"I offered him my company on his walk. He declined it." + +Miss Garland paced slowly to the end of the gallery and then came back. +"If he had gone to Engelberg," she said, "he would have reached the +hotel before the storm began." + +Rowland felt a sudden explosion of ferocity. "Oh, if you like," he +cried, "he can start for Interlaken as soon as he comes back!" + +But she did not even notice his wrath. "Will he come back early?" she +went on. + +"We may suppose so." + +"He will know how anxious we are, and he will start with the first +light!" + +Rowland was on the point of declaring that Roderick's readiness to throw +himself into the feelings of others made this extremely probable; but he +checked himself and said, simply, "I expect him at sunrise." + +Miss Garland bent her eyes once more upon the irresponsive darkness, and +then, in silence, went into the house. Rowland, it must be averred, in +spite of his resolution not to be nervous, found no sleep that night. +When the early dawn began to tremble in the east, he came forth again +into the open air. The storm had completely purged the atmosphere, and +the day gave promise of cloudless splendor. Rowland watched the early +sun-shafts slowly reaching higher, and remembered that if Roderick +did not come back to breakfast, there were two things to be taken +into account. One was the heaviness of the soil on the mountain-sides, +saturated with the rain; this would make him walk slowly: the other +was the fact that, speaking without irony, he was not remarkable for +throwing himself into the sentiments of others. Breakfast, at the inn, +was early, and by breakfast-time Roderick had not appeared. Then Rowland +admitted that he was nervous. Neither Mrs. Hudson nor Miss Garland had +left their apartment; Rowland had a mental vision of them sitting there +praying and listening; he had no desire to see them more directly. There +were a couple of men who hung about the inn as guides for the ascent of +the Titlis; Rowland sent each of them forth in a different direction, +to ask the news of Roderick at every chalet door within a morning's +walk. Then he called Sam Singleton, whose peregrinations had made him an +excellent mountaineer, and whose zeal and sympathy were now unbounded, +and the two started together on a voyage of research. By the time +they had lost sight of the inn, Rowland was obliged to confess that, +decidedly, Roderick had had time to come back. + +He wandered about for several hours, but he found only the sunny +stillness of the mountain-sides. Before long he parted company with +Singleton, who, to his suggestion that separation would multiply their +resources, assented with a silent, frightened look which reflected too +vividly his own rapidly-dawning thought. The day was magnificent; the +sun was everywhere; the storm had lashed the lower slopes into a deeper +flush of autumnal color, and the snow-peaks reared themselves against +the near horizon in glaring blocks and dazzling spires. Rowland made his +way to several chalets, but most of them were empty. He thumped at their +low, foul doors with a kind of nervous, savage anger; he challenged the +stupid silence to tell him something about his friend. Some of these +places had evidently not been open in months. The silence everywhere +was horrible; it seemed to mock at his impatience and to be a conscious +symbol of calamity. In the midst of it, at the door of one of the +chalets, quite alone, sat a hideous cretin, who grinned at Rowland over +his goitre when, hardly knowing what he did, he questioned him. The +creature's family was scattered on the mountain-sides; he could give +Rowland no help to find them. Rowland climbed into many awkward +places, and skirted, intently and peeringly, many an ugly chasm and +steep-dropping ledge. But the sun, as I have said, was everywhere; it +illumined the deep places over which, not knowing where to turn next, +he halted and lingered, and showed him nothing but the stony Alpine +void--nothing so human even as death. At noon he paused in his quest and +sat down on a stone; the conviction was pressing upon him that the worst +that was now possible was true. He suspended his search; he was afraid +to go on. He sat there for an hour, sick to the depths of his soul. +Without his knowing why, several things, chiefly trivial, that had +happened during the last two years and that he had quite forgotten, +became vividly present to his mind. He was aroused at last by the sound +of a stone dislodged near by, which rattled down the mountain. In a +moment, on a steep, rocky slope opposite to him, he beheld a figure +cautiously descending--a figure which was not Roderick. It was +Singleton, who had seen him and began to beckon to him. + +"Come down--come down!" cried the painter, steadily making his own way +down. Rowland saw that as he moved, and even as he selected his foothold +and watched his steps, he was looking at something at the bottom of the +cliff. This was a great rugged wall which had fallen backward from +the perpendicular, and the descent, though difficult, was with care +sufficiently practicable. + +"What do you see?" cried Rowland. + +Singleton stopped, looked across at him and seemed to hesitate; then, +"Come down--come down!" he simply repeated. + +Rowland's course was also a steep descent, and he attacked it so +precipitately that he afterwards marveled he had not broken his neck. +It was a ten minutes' headlong scramble. Half-way down he saw something +that made him dizzy; he saw what Singleton had seen. In the gorge below +them a vague white mass lay tumbled upon the stones. He let himself go, +blindly, fiercely. Singleton had reached the rocky bottom of the ravine +before him, and had bounded forward and fallen upon his knees. Rowland +overtook him and his own legs collapsed. The thing that yesterday was +his friend lay before him as the chance of the last breath had left it, +and out of it Roderick's face stared upward, open-eyed, at the sky. + +He had fallen from a great height, but he was singularly little +disfigured. The rain had spent its torrents upon him, and his clothes +and hair were as wet as if the billows of the ocean had flung him upon +the strand. An attempt to move him would show some hideous fracture, +some horrible physical dishonor; but what Rowland saw on first looking +at him was only a strangely serene expression of life. The eyes were +dead, but in a short time, when Rowland had closed them, the whole +face seemed to awake. The rain had washed away all blood; it was as if +Violence, having done her work, had stolen away in shame. Roderick's +face might have shamed her; it looked admirably handsome. + +"He was a beautiful man!" said Singleton. + +They looked up through their horror at the cliff from which he had +apparently fallen, and which lifted its blank and stony face above +him, with no care now but to drink the sunshine on which his eyes were +closed, and then Rowland had an immense outbreak of pity and anguish. At +last they spoke of carrying him back to the inn. "There must be three or +four men," Rowland said, "and they must be brought here quickly. I have +not the least idea where we are." + +"We are at about three hours' walk from home," said Singleton. "I will +go for help; I can find my way." + +"Remember," said Rowland, "whom you will have to face." + +"I remember," the excellent fellow answered. "There was nothing I could +ever do for him in life; I will do what I can now." + +He went off, and Rowland stayed there alone. He watched for seven long +hours, and his vigil was forever memorable. The most rational of men was +for an hour the most passionate. He reviled himself with transcendent +bitterness, he accused himself of cruelty and injustice, he would +have lain down there in Roderick's place to unsay the words that had +yesterday driven him forth on his lonely ramble. Roderick had been fond +of saying that there are such things as necessary follies, and Rowland +was now proving it. At last he grew almost used to the dumb exultation +of the cliff above him. He saw that Roderick was a mass of hideous +injury, and he tried to understand what had happened. Not that it helped +him; before that confounding mortality one hypothesis after another +faltered and swooned away. Roderick's passionate walk had carried him +farther and higher than he knew; he had outstayed, supposably, the first +menace of the storm, and perhaps even found a defiant entertainment +in watching it. Perhaps he had simply lost himself. The tempest had +overtaken him, and when he tried to return, it was too late. He +had attempted to descend the cliff in the darkness, he had made the +inevitable slip, and whether he had fallen fifty feet or three hundred +little mattered. The condition of his body indicated the shorter fall. +Now that all was over, Rowland understood how exclusively, for two +years, Roderick had filled his life. His occupation was gone. + +Singleton came back with four men--one of them the landlord of the inn. +They had formed a sort of rude bier of the frame of a chaise a porteurs, +and by taking a very round-about course homeward were able to follow a +tolerably level path and carry their burden with a certain decency. To +Rowland it seemed as if the little procession would never reach the inn; +but as they drew near it he would have given his right hand for a longer +delay. The people of the inn came forward to meet them, in a little +silent, solemn convoy. In the doorway, clinging together, appeared the +two bereaved women. Mrs. Hudson tottered forward with outstretched hands +and the expression of a blind person; but before she reached her son, +Mary Garland had rushed past her, and, in the face of the staring, +pitying, awe-stricken crowd, had flung herself, with the magnificent +movement of one whose rights were supreme, and with a loud, tremendous +cry, upon the senseless vestige of her love. + +That cry still lives in Rowland's ears. It interposes, persistently, +against the reflection that when he sometimes--very rarely--sees her, +she is unreservedly kind to him; against the memory that during the +dreary journey back to America, made of course with his assistance, +there was a great frankness in her gratitude, a great gratitude in her +frankness. Miss Garland lives with Mrs. Hudson, at Northampton, where +Rowland visits his cousin Cecilia more frequently than of old. When he +calls upon Miss Garland he never sees Mrs. Hudson. Cecilia, who, having +her shrewd impression that he comes to see Miss Garland as much as to +see herself, does not feel obliged to seem unduly flattered, calls him, +whenever he reappears, the most restless of mortals. But he always says +to her in answer, "No, I assure you I am the most patient!" + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Roderick Hudson, by Henry James + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RODERICK HUDSON *** + +***** This file should be named 176.txt or 176.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/176/ + +Produced by Judy Boss and David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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