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diff --git a/old/21773.txt b/old/21773.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8293e26 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/21773.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1664 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Four Meetings, 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: Four Meetings + +Author: Henry James + +Release Date: June 8, 2007 [EBook #21773] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOUR MEETINGS *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +FOUR MEETINGS. + +By Henry James + +1885 + + +I saw her only four times, but I remember them vividly; she made an +impression upon me. I thought her very pretty and very interesting,--a +charming specimen of a type. I am very sorry to hear of her death; and +yet, when I think of it, why should I be sorry? The last time I saw her +she was certainly not--But I will describe all our meetings in order. + + + + +I. + +The first one took place in the country, at a little tea-party, one +snowy night. It must have been some seventeen years ago. My friend +Latouche, going to spend Christmas with his mother, had persuaded me to +go with him, and the good lady had given in our honor the entertainment +of which I speak. To me it was really entertaining; I had never been in +the depths of New England at that season. It had been snowing all day, +and the drifts were knee-high. I wondered how the ladies had made their +way to the house; but I perceived that at Grimwinter a conversazione +offering the attraction of two gentlemen from New York was felt to be +worth an effort. + +Mrs. Latouche, in the course of the evening, asked me if I "did n't want +to" show the photographs to some of the young ladies. The photographs +were in a couple of great portfolios, and had been brought home by her +son, who, like myself, was lately returned from Europe. I looked round +and was struck with the fact that most of the young ladies were +provided with an object of interest more absorbing than the most +vivid sun-picture. But there was a person standing alone near the +mantelshelf, and looking round the room with a small gentle smile which +seemed at odds, somehow, with her isolation. I looked at her a moment, +and then said, "I should like to show them to that young lady." + +"Oh, yes," said Mrs. Latouche, "she is just the person. She doesn't care +for flirting; I will speak to her." + +I rejoined that if she did not care for flirting, she was, perhaps, +not just the person; but Mrs. Latouche had already gone to propose the +photographs to her. + +"She's delighted," she said, coming back. "She is just the person, so +quiet and so bright." And then she told me the young lady was, by name, +Miss Caroline Spencer, and with this she introduced me. + +Miss Caroline Spencer was not exactly a beauty, but she was a charming +little figure. She must have been close upon thirty, but she was made +almost like a little girl, and she had the complexion of a child. She +had a very pretty head, and her hair was arranged as nearly as possible +like the hair of a Greek bust, though indeed it was to be doubted if she +had ever seen a Greek bust. She was "artistic," I suspected, so far as +Grimwinter allowed such tendencies. She had a soft, surprised eye, and +thin lips, with very pretty teeth. Round her neck she wore what ladies +call, I believe, a "ruche," fastened with a very small pin in pink +coral, and in her hand she carried a fan made of plaited straw and +adorned with pink ribbon. She wore a scanty black silk dress. She spoke +with a kind of soft precision, showing her white teeth between her +narrow but tender-looking lips, and she seemed extremely pleased, even +a little fluttered, at the prospect of my demonstrations. These went +forward very smoothly, after I had moved the portfolios out of their +corner and placed a couple of chairs near a lamp. The photographs were +usually things I knew,--large views of Switzerland, Italy, and Spain, +landscapes, copies of famous buildings, pictures, and statues. I said +what I could about them, and my companion, looking at them as I +held them up, sat perfectly still, with her straw fan raised to her +underlip. Occasionally, as I laid one of the pictures down, she said +very softly, "Have you seen that place?" I usually answered that I had +seen it several times (I had been a great traveller), and then I felt +that she looked at me askance for a moment with her pretty eyes. I had +asked her at the outset whether she had been to Europe; to this she +answered, "No, no, no," in a little quick, confidential whisper. But +after that, though she never took her eyes off the pictures, she said +so little that I was afraid she was bored. Accordingly, after we had +finished one portfolio, I offered, if she desired it, to desist. I felt +that she was not bored, but her reticence puzzled me, and I wished to +make her speak. I turned round to look at her, and saw that there was a +faint flush in each of her cheeks. She was waving her little fan to +and fro. Instead of looking at me she fixed her eyes upon the other +portfolio, which was leaning against the table. + +"Won't you show me that?" she asked, with a little tremor in her voice. +I could almost have believed she was agitated. + +"With pleasure," I answered, "if you are not tired." + +"No, I am not tired," she affirmed. "I like it--I love it." + +And as I took up the other portfolio she laid her hand upon it, rubbing +it softly. + +"And have you been here too?" she asked. + +On my opening the portfolio it appeared that I had been there. One of +the first photographs was a large view of the Castle of Chillon, on the +Lake of Geneva. + +"Here," I said, "I have been many a time. Is it not beautiful?" And I +pointed to the perfect reflection of the rugged rocks and pointed towers +in the clear still water. She did not say, "Oh, enchanting!" and push it +away to see the next picture. She looked awhile, and then she asked +if it was not where Bonnivard, about whom Byron wrote, was confined. I +assented, and tried to quote some of Byron's verses, but in this attempt +I succeeded imperfectly. + +She fanned herself a moment, and then repeated the lines correctly, in +a soft, flat, and yet agreeable voice. By the time she had finished she +was blushing. I complimented her and told her she was perfectly equipped +for visiting Switzerland and Italy. She looked at me askance again, to +see whether I was serious, and I added, that if she wished to recognize +Byron's descriptions she must go abroad speedily; Europe was getting +sadly dis-Byronized. + +"How soon must I go?" she asked. + +"Oh, I will give you ten years." + +"I think I can go within ten years," she answered very soberly. + +"Well," I said, "you will enjoy it immensely; you will find it very +charming." And just then I came upon a photograph of some nook in a +foreign city which I had been very fond of, and which recalled tender +memories. I discoursed (as I suppose) with a certain eloquence; my +companion sat listening, breathless. + +"Have you been _very_ long in foreign lands?" she asked, some time after +I had ceased. + +"Many years," I said. + +"And have you travelled everywhere?" + +"I have travelled a great deal. I am very fond of it; and, happily, I +have been able." + +Again she gave me her sidelong gaze. "And do you know the foreign +languages?" + +"After a fashion." + +"Is it hard to speak them?" + +"I don't believe you would find it hard," I gallantly responded. + +"Oh, I shouldn't want to speak; I should only want to listen," she +said. Then, after a pause, she added, "They say the French theatre is so +beautiful." + +"It is the best in the world." + +"Did you go there very often?" + +"When I was first in Paris I went every night." + +"Every night!" And she opened her clear eyes very wide. "That to me +is:--" and she hesitated a moment--"is very wonderful." A few minutes +later she asked, "Which country do you prefer?" + +"There is one country I prefer to all others. I think you would do the +same." + +She looked at me a moment, and then she said softly, "Italy?" + +"Italy," I answered softly, too; and for a moment we looked at each +other. She looked as pretty as if, instead of showing her photographs, I +had been making love to her. To increase the analogy, she glanced away, +blushing. There was a silence, which she broke at last by saying,-- + +"That is the place which, in particular, I thought of going to." + +"Oh, that's the place, that's the place!" I said. + +She looked at two or three photographs in silence. "They say it is not +so dear." + +"As some other countries? Yes, that is not the least of its charms." + +"But it is all very dear, is it not?" + +"Europe, you mean?" + +"Going there and travelling. That has been the trouble. I have very +little money. I give lessons," said Miss Spencer. + +"Of course one must have money," I said, "but one can manage with a +moderate amount." + +"I think I should manage. I have laid something by, and I am always +adding a little to it. It's all for that." She paused a moment, and then +went on with a kind of suppressed eagerness, as if telling me the story +were a rare, but a possibly impure satisfaction, "But it has not been +only the money; it has been everything. Everything has been against it +I have waited and waited. It has been a mere castle in the air. I am +almost afraid to talk about it. Two or three times it has been a little +nearer, and then I have talked about it and it has melted away. I have +talked about it too much," she said hypocritically; for I saw that such +talking was now a small tremulous ecstasy. "There is a lady who is a +great friend of mine; she does n't want to go; I always talk to her +about it. I tire her dreadfully. She told me once she did n't know what +would become of me. I should go crazy if I did not go to Europe, and I +should certainly go crazy if I did." + +"Well," I said, "you have not gone yet, and nevertheless you are not +crazy." + +She looked at me a moment, and said, "I am not so sure. I don't think of +anything else. I am always thinking of it. It prevents me from thinking +of things that are nearer home, things that I ought to attend to. That +is a kind of craziness." + +"The cure for it is to go," I said. + +"I have a faith that I shall go. I have a cousin in Europe!" she +announced. + +We turned over some more photographs, and I asked her if she had always +lived at Grimwinter. + +"Oh, no, sir," said Miss Spencer. "I have spent twenty-three months in +Boston." + +I answered, jocosely, that in that case foreign lands would probably +prove a disappointment to her; but I quite failed to alarm her. + +"I know more about them than you might think," she said, with her shy, +neat little smile. "I mean by reading; I have read a great deal I have +not only read Byron; I have read histories and guidebooks. I know I +shall like it." + +"I understand your case," I rejoined. "You have the native American +passion,--the passion for the picturesque. With us, I think it is +primordial,--antecedent to experience. Experience comes and only shows +us something we have dreamt of." + +"I think that is very true," said Caroline Spencer. "I have dreamt of +everything; I shall know it all!" + +"I am afraid you have wasted a great deal of time." + +"Oh, yes, that has been my great wickedness." + +The people about us had begun to scatter; they were taking their leave. +She got up and put out her hand to me, timidly, but with a peculiar +brightness in her eyes. + +"I am going back there," I said, as I shook hands with her. "I shall +look out for you." + +"I will tell you," she answered, "if I am disappointed." + +And she went away, looking delicately agitated, and moving her little +straw fan. + + + + +II. + +A few months after this I returned to Europe, and some three years +elapsed. I had been living in Paris, and, toward the end of October, I +went from that city to Havre, to meet my sister and her husband, who +had written me that they were about to arrive there. On reaching Havre +I found that the steamer was already in; I was nearly two hours late. +I repaired directly to the hotel, where my relatives were already +established. My sister had gone to bed, exhausted and disabled by her +voyage; she was a sadly incompetent sailor, and her sufferings on this +occasion had been extreme. She wished, for the moment, for undisturbed +rest, and was unable to see me more than five minutes; so it was agreed +that we should remain at Havre until the next day. My brother-in-law, +who was anxious about his wife, was unwilling to leave her room; but +she insisted upon his going out with me to take a walk and recover his +landlegs. The early autumn day was warm and charming, and our stroll +through the bright-colored, busy streets of the old French seaport was +sufficiently entertaining. We walked along the sunny, noisy quays, and +then turned into a wide, pleasant street, which lay half in sun and +half in shade--a French provincial street, that looked like an old +water-color drawing: tall, gray, steep-roofed, red-gabled, many-storied +houses; green shutters on windows and old scroll-work above them; +flower-pots in balconies, and white-capped women in doorways. We walked +in the shade; all this stretched away on the sunny side of the street +and made a picture. We looked at it as we passed along; then, suddenly, +my brother-in-law stopped, pressing my arm and staring. I followed his +gaze and saw that we had paused just before coming to a _cafe_, where, +under an awning, several tables and chairs were disposed upon the +pavement The windows were open behind; half a dozen plants in tubs were +ranged beside the door; the pavement was besprinkled with clean bran. +It was a nice little, quiet, old-fashioned _cafe_; inside, in the +comparative dusk, I saw a stout, handsome woman, with pink ribbons in +her cap, perched up with a mirror behind her back, smiling at some one +who was out of sight. All this, however, I perceived afterwards; what I +first observed was a lady sitting alone, outside, at one of the little +marble-topped tables. My brother-in-law had stopped to look at her. +There was something on the little table, but she was leaning back +quietly, with her hands folded, looking down the street, away from us. +I saw her only in something less than profile; nevertheless, I instantly +felt that I had seen her before. + +"The little lady of the steamer!" exclaimed my brother-in-law. + +"Was she on your steamer?" I asked. + +"From morning till night She was never sick. She used to sit perpetually +at the side of the vessel with her hands crossed that way, looking at +the eastward horizon." + +"Are you going to speak to her?" + +"I don't know her. I never made acquaintance with her. I was too seedy. +But I used to watch her and--I don't know why--to be interested in her. +She's a dear little Yankee woman. I have an idea she is a schoolmistress +taking a holiday, for which her scholars have made up a purse." + +She turned her face a little more into profile, looking at the steep +gray house-fronts opposite to her. Then I said, "I shall speak to her +myself." + +"I would n't; she is very shy," said my brother-in-law. + +"My dear fellow, I know her. I once showed her photographs at a +tea-party." + +And I went up to her. She turned and looked at me, and I saw she was in +fact Miss Caroline Spencer. But she was not so quick to recognize me; +she looked startled. I pushed a chair to the table and sat down. + +"Well," I said, "I hope you are not disappointed!" + +She stared, blushing a little; then she gave a small jump which betrayed +recognition. + +"It was you who showed me the photographs, at Grimwinter!" + +"Yes, it was I. This happens very charmingly, for I feel as if it were +for me to give you a formal reception here, an official welcome. I +talked to you so much about Europe." + +"You did n't say too much. I am so happy!" she softly exclaimed. + +Very happy she looked. There was no sign of her being older; she was as +gravely, decently, demurely pretty as before. If she had seemed before a +thin-stemmed, mild-hued flower of Puritanism, it may be imagined whether +in her present situation this delicate bloom was less apparent. Beside +her an old gentleman was drinking absinthe; behind her the _dame de +comptoir_ in the pink ribbons was calling "Alcibiade! Alcibiade!" to the +long-aproned waiter. I explained to Miss Spencer that my companion +had lately been her shipmate, and my brother-in-law came up and was +introduced to her. But she looked at him as if she had never seen him +before, and I remembered that he had told me that her eyes were always +fixed upon the eastward horizon. She had evidently not noticed him, and, +still timidly smiling, she made no attempt whatever to pretend that she +had. I stayed with her at the _cafe_ door, and he went back to the hotel +and to his wife. I said to Miss Spencer that this meeting of ours in +the first hour of her landing was really very strange, but that I was +delighted to be there and receive her first impressions. + +"Oh, I can't tell you," she said; "I feel as if I were in a dream. I +have been sitting here for an hour, and I don't want to move. Everything +is so picturesque. I don't know whether the coffee has intoxicated me; +it 's so delicious." + +"Really," said I, "if you are so pleased with this poor prosaic Havre, +you will have no admiration left for better things. Don't spend your +admiration all the first day; remember it's your intellectual letter of +credit. Remember all the beautiful places and things that are waiting +for you; remember that lovely Italy!" + +"I 'm not afraid of running short," she said gayly, still looking at the +opposite houses. "I could sit here all day, saying to myself that here I +am at last. It's so dark and old and different." + +"By the way," I inquired, "how come you to be sitting here? Have you not +gone to one of the inns?" For I was half amused, half alarmed, at the +good conscience with which this delicately pretty woman had stationed +herself in conspicuous isolation on the edge of the _trottoir_. + +"My cousin brought me here," she answered. "You know I told you I had a +cousin in Europe. He met me at the steamer this morning." + +"It was hardly worth his while to meet you if he was to desert you so +soon." + +"Oh, he has only left me for half an hour," said Miss Spencer. "He has +gone to get my money." + +"Where is your money?" + +She gave a little laugh. "It makes me feel very fine to tell you! It is +in some circular notes." + +"And where are your circular notes?" + +"In my cousin's pocket." + +This statement was very serenely uttered, but--I can hardly say why--it +gave me a sensible chill At the moment I should have been utterly +unable to give the reason of this sensation, for I knew nothing of Miss +Spencer's cousin. Since he was her cousin, the presumption was in his +favor. But I felt suddenly uncomfortable at the thought that, half an +hour after her landing, her scanty funds should have passed into his +hands. + +"Is he to travel with you?" I asked. + +"Only as far as Paris. He is an art-student, in Paris. I wrote to him +that I was coming, but I never expected him to come off to the ship. I +supposed he would only just meet me at the train in Paris. It is very +kind of him. But he _is_ very kind, and very bright." + +I instantly became conscious of an extreme curiosity to see this bright +cousin who was an art-student. + +"He is gone to the banker's?" I asked. + +"Yes, to the banker's. He took me to a hotel, such a queer, quaint, +delicious little place, with a court in the middle, and a gallery all +round, and a lovely landlady, in such a beautifully fluted cap, and +such a perfectly fitting dress! After a while we came out to walk to the +banker's, for I haven't got any French money. But I was very dizzy from +the motion of the vessel, and I thought I had better sit down. He found +this place for me here, and he went off to the banker's himself. I am to +wait here till he comes back." + +It may seem very fantastic, but it passed through my mind that he would +never come back. I settled myself in my chair beside Miss Spencer and +determined to await the event. She was extremely observant; there was +something touching in it. She noticed everything that the movement of +the street brought before us,--peculiarities of costume, the shapes of +vehicles, the big Norman horses, the fat priests, the shaven poodles. +We talked of these things, and there was something charming in her +freshness of perception and the way her book-nourished fancy recognized +and welcomed everything. + +"And when your cousin comes back, what are you going to do?" I asked. + +She hesitated a moment. "We don't quite know." + +"When do you go to Paris? If you go by the four o'clock train, I may +have the pleasure of making the journey with you." + +"I don't think we shall do that. My cousin thinks I had better stay here +a few days." + +"Oh!" said I; and for five minutes said nothing more. I was wondering +what her cousin was, in vulgar parlance, "up to." I looked up and +down the street, but saw nothing that looked like a bright American +art-student. At last I took the liberty of observing that Havre was +hardly a place to choose as one of the aesthetic stations of a European +tour. It was a place of convenience, nothing more; a place of transit, +through which transit should be rapid. I recommended her to go to Paris +by the afternoon train, and meanwhile to amuse herself by driving to the +ancient fortress at the mouth of the harbor,--that picturesque circular +structure which bore the name of Francis the First, and looked like a +small castle of St. Angelo. (It has lately been demolished.) + +She listened with much interest; then for a moment she looked grave. + +"My cousin told me that when he returned he should have something +particular to say to me, and that we could do nothing or decide nothing +until I should have heard it. But I will make him tell me quickly, and +then we will go to the ancient fortress. There is no hurry to get to +Paris; there is plenty of time." + +She smiled with her softly severe little lips as she spoke those last +words. But I, looking at her with a purpose, saw just a tiny gleam of +apprehension in her eye. + +"Don't tell me," I said, "that this wretched man is going to give you +bad news!" + +"I suspect it is a little bad, but I don't believe it is very bad. At +any rate, I must listen to it." + +I looked at her again an instant. "You did n't come to Europe to +listen," I said. "You came to see!" But now I was sure her cousin +would come back; since he had something disagreeable to say to her, he +certainly would turn up. We sat a while longer, and I asked her about +her plans of travel She had them on her fingers' ends, and she told over +the names with a kind of solemn distinctness: from Paris to Dijon and +to Avignon, from Avignon to Marseilles and the Cornice road; thence to +Genoa, to Spezia, to Pisa, to Florence, to Home. It apparently had +never occurred to her that there could be the least incommodity in her +travelling alone; and since she was unprovided with a companion I of +course scrupulously abstained from disturbing her sense of security. +At last her cousin came back. I saw him turn towards us out of a side +street, and from the moment my eyes rested upon him I felt that this was +the bright American art-student. He wore a slouch hat and a rusty black +velvet jacket, such as I had often encountered in the Rue Bonaparte. His +shirt-collar revealed the elongation of a throat which, at a distance, +was not strikingly statuesque. He was tall and lean; he had red hair and +freckles. So much I had time to observe while he approached the _cafe_, +staring at me with natural surprise from under his umbrageous coiffure. +When he came up to us I immediately introduced myself to him as an old +acquaintance of Miss Spencer. He looked at me hard with a pair of little +red eyes, then he made me a solemn bow in the French fashion, with his +sombrero. + +"You were not on the ship?" he said. + +"No, I was not on the ship. I have been in Europe these three years." + +He bowed once more, solemnly, and motioned me to be seated again. I sat +down, but it was only for the purpose of observing him an instant; I saw +it was time I should return to my sister. Miss Spencer's cousin was a +queer fellow. Nature had not shaped him for a Raphaelesque or Byronic +attire, and his velvet doublet and naked neck were not in harmony with +his facial attributes. His hair was cropped close to his head; his ears +were large and ill-adjusted to the same. He had a lackadaisical carriage +and a sentimental droop which were peculiarly at variance with his keen, +strange-colored eyes. Perhaps I was prejudiced, but I thought his eyes +treacherous. He said nothing for some time; he leaned his hands on his +cane and looked up and down the street Then at last, slowly lifting +his cane and pointing with it, "That's a very nice bit," he remarked, +softly. He had his head on one side, and his little eyes were half +closed. I followed the direction of his stick; the object it indicated +was a red cloth hung out of an old window. "Nice bit of color," he +continued; and without moving his head he transferred his half-closed +gaze to me. "Composes well," he pursued. "Make a nice thing." He spoke +in a hard vulgar voice. + +"I see you have a great deal of eye," I replied. "Your cousin tells +me you are studying art." He looked at me in the same way without +answering, and I went on with deliberate urbanity, "I suppose you are at +the studio of one of those great men." + +Still he looked at me, and then he said softly, "Gerome." + +"Do you like it?" I asked. + +"Do you understand French?" he said. + +"Some kinds," I answered. + +He kept his little eyes on me; then he said, "J'adore la peinture!" + +"Oh, I understand that kind!" I rejoined. Miss Spencer laid her hand +upon her cousin's arm with a little pleased and fluttered movement; +it was delightful to be among people who were on such easy terms with +foreign tongues. I got up to take leave, and asked Miss Spencer where, +in Paris, I might have the honor of waiting upon her. To what hotel +would she go? + +She turned to her cousin inquiringly, and he honored me again with his +little languid leer. "Do you know the Hotel des Princes?" + +"I know where it is." + +"I shall take her there." + +"I congratulate you," I said to Caroline Spencer. "I believe it is the +best inn in the world; and in case I should still have a moment to call +upon you here, where are you lodged?" + +"Oh, it's such a pretty name," said Miss Spencer gleefully. "A la Belle +Normande." + +As I left them her cousin gave me a great flourish with his picturesque +hat. + + + + +III. + +My sister, as it proved, was not sufficiently restored to leave Havre by +the afternoon train; so that, as the autumn dusk began to fall, I found +myself at liberty to call at the sign of the Fair Norman. I must confess +that I had spent much of the interval in wondering what the disagreeable +thing was that my charming friend's disagreeable cousin had been telling +her. The "Belle Normande" was a modest inn in a shady bystreet, where it +gave me satisfaction to think Miss Spencer must have encountered local +color in abundance. There was a crooked little court, where much of the +hospitality of the house was carried on; there was a staircase climbing +to bedrooms on the outer side of the wall; there was a small trickling +fountain with a stucco statuette in the midst of it; there was a little +boy in a white cap and apron cleaning copper vessels at a conspicuous +kitchen door; there was a chattering landlady, neatly laced, arranging +apricots and grapes into an artistic pyramid upon a pink plate. I looked +about, and on a green bench outside of an open door labelled _Salle a +Manger_, I perceived Caroline Spencer. No sooner had I looked at her +than I saw that something had happened since the morning. She was +leaning back on her bench, her hands were clasped in her lap, and her +eyes were fixed upon the landlady, at the other side of the court, +manipulating her apricots. + +But I saw she was not thinking of apricots. She was staring absently, +thoughtfully; as I came near her I perceived that she had been crying. +I sat down on the bench beside her before she saw me; then, when she had +done so, she simply turned round, without surprise, and rested her sad +eyes upon me. Something very bad indeed had happened; she was completely +changed. + +I immediately charged her with it. "Your cousin has been giving you bad +news; you are in great distress." + +For a moment she said nothing, and I supposed that she was afraid to +speak, lest her tears should come back. But presently I perceived that +in the short time that had elapsed since my leaving her in the morning +she had shed them all, and that she was now softly stoical, intensely +composed. + +"My poor cousin is in distress," she said at last. "His news was bad." +Then, after a brief hesitation, "He was in terrible want of money." + +"In want of yours, you mean?" + +"Of any that he could get--honestly. Mine was the only money." + +"And he has taken yours?" + +She hesitated again a moment, but her glance, meanwhile, was pleading. +"I gave him what I had." + +I have always remembered the accent of those words as the most angelic +bit of human utterance I had ever listened to; but then, almost with a +sense of personal outrage, I jumped up. "Good heavens!" I said, "do you +call that getting, it honestly?" + +I had gone too far; she blushed deeply. "We will not speak of it," she +said. + +"We _must_ speak of it," I answered, sitting down again. "I am your +friend; it seems to me you need one. What is the matter with your +cousin?" + +"He is in debt." + +"No doubt! But what is the special fitness of your paying his debts?" + +"He has told me all his story; I am very sorry for him." + +"So am I! But I hope he will give you back your money." + +"Certainly he will; as soon as he can." + +"When will that be?" + +"When he has finished his great picture." + +"My dear young lady, confound his great picture! Where is this desperate +cousin?" + +She certainly hesitated now. Then,--"At his dinner," she answered. + +I turned about and looked through the open door into the _salle a +manger_. There, alone at the end of a long table, I perceived the object +of Miss Spencer's compassion, the bright young art-student. He was +dining too attentively to notice me at first; but in the act of setting +down a well-emptied wineglass he caught sight of my observant attitude. +He paused in his repast, and, with his head on one side and his meagre +jaws slowly moving, fixedly returned my gaze. Then the landlady came +lightly brushing by with her pyramid of apricots. + +"And that nice little plate of fruit is for him?" I exclaimed. + +Miss Spencer glanced at it tenderly. "They do that so prettily!" she +murmured. + +I felt helpless and irritated. "Come now, really," I said; "do you +approve of that long strong fellow accepting your funds?" She looked +away from me; I was evidently giving her pain. The case was hopeless; +the long strong fellow had "interested" her. + +"Excuse me if I speak of him so unceremoniously," I said. "But you are +really too generous, and he is not quite delicate enough. He made his +debts himself; he ought to pay them himself." + +"He has been foolish," she answered; "I know that He has told me +everything. We had a long talk this morning; the poor fellow threw +himself upon my charity. He has signed notes to a large amount." + +"The more fool he!" + +"He is in extreme distress; and it is not only himself. It is his poor +wife." + +"Ah, he has a poor wife?" + +"I didn't know it; but he confessed everything. He married two years +since, secretly." + +"Why secretly?" + +Caroline Spencer glanced about her, as if she feared listeners. Then +softly, in a little impressive tone,--"She was a countess!" + +"Are you very sure of that?" + +"She has written me a most beautiful letter." + +"Asking you for money, eh?" + +"Asking me for confidence and sympathy," said Miss Spencer. "She has +been disinherited by her father. My cousin told me the story, and she +tells it in her own way, in the letter. It is like an old romance. +Her father opposed the marriage, and when he discovered that she had +secretly disobeyed him he cruelly cast her off. It is really most +romantic. They are the oldest family in Provence." + +I looked and listened in wonder. It really seemed that the poor woman +was enjoying the "romance" of having a discarded countess-cousin, out of +Provence, so deeply as almost to lose the sense of what the forfeiture +of her money meant for her. + +"My dear young lady," I said, "you don't want to be ruined for +picturesqueness' sake?" + +"I shall not be ruined. I shall come back before long to stay with them. +The Countess insists upon that." + +"Come back! You are going home, then?" + +She sat for a moment with her eyes lowered, then with an heroic +suppression of a faint tremor of the voice,--"I have no money for +travelling!" she answered. + +"You gave it _all_ up?" + +"I have kept enough to take me home." + +I gave an angry groan; and at this juncture Miss Spencer's cousin, +the fortunate possessor of her sacred savings and of the hand of the +Provencal countess, emerged from the little dining-room. He stood on the +threshold for an instant, removing the stone from a plump apricot which +he had brought away from the table; then he put the apricot into his +mouth, and while he let it sojourn there, gratefully, stood looking at +us, with his long legs apart and his hands dropped into the pockets of +his velvet jacket. My companion got up, giving him a thin glance which +I caught in its passage, and which expressed a strange commixture of +resignation and fascination,--a sort of perverted exaltation. Ugly, +vulgar, pretentious, dishonest, as I thought the creature, he had +appealed successfully to her eager and tender imagination. I was deeply +disgusted, but I had no warrant to interfere, and at any rate I felt +that it would be vain. + +The young man waved his hand with a pictorial gesture. "Nice old court," +he observed. "Nice mellow old place. Good tone in that brick. Nice +crooked old staircase." + +Decidedly, I could n't stand it; without responding I gave my hand to +Caroline Spencer. She looked at me an instant with her little white +face and expanded eyes, and as she showed her pretty teeth I suppose she +meant to smile. + +"Don't be sorry for me," she said, "I am very sure I shall see something +of this dear old Europe yet." + +I told her that I would not bid her goodby; I should find a moment +to come back the next morning. Her cousin, who had put on his sombrero +again, flourished it off at me by way of a bow, upon which I took my +departure. + +The next morning I came back to the inn, where I met in the court the +landlady, more loosely laced than in the evening. On my asking for Miss +Spencer,--"_Partie_, monsieu," said the hostess. "She went away last +night at ten o 'clock, with her--her--not her husband, eh?--in fine, +her _monsieur_. They went down to the American ship." I turned away; the +poor girl had been about thirteen hours in Europe. + + + + +IV. + +I myself, more fortunate, was there some five years longer. During this +period I lost my friend Latouche, who died of a malarious fever during a +tour in the Levant. One of the first things I did on my return was to go +up to Grimwinter to pay a consolatory visit to his poor mother. I found +her in deep affliction, and I sat with her the whole of the morning +that followed my arrival (I had come in late at night), listening to +her tearful descant and singing the praises of my friend. We talked of +nothing else, and our conversation terminated only with the arrival of +a quick little woman who drove herself up to the door in a "carryall," +and whom I saw toss the reins upon the horse's back with the briskness +of a startled sleeper throwing back the bed-clothes. She jumped out +of the carryall and she jumped into the room. She proved to be the +minister's wife and the great town-gossip, and she had evidently, in the +latter capacity, a choice morsel to communicate. I was as sure of this +as I was that poor Mrs. Latouche was not absolutely too bereaved to +listen to her. It seemed to me discreet to retire; I said I believed I +would go and take a walk before dinner. + +"And, by the way," I added, "if you will tell me where my old friend +Miss Spencer lives, I will walk to her house." + +The minister's wife immediately responded. Miss Spencer lived in the +fourth house beyond the "Baptist church; the Baptist church was the one +on the right, with that queer green thing over the door; they called it +a portico, but it looked more like an old-fashioned bedstead. + +"Yes, do go and see poor Caroline," said Mrs. Latouche. "It will refresh +her to see a strange face." + +"I should think she had had enough of strange faces!" cried the +minister's wife. + +"I mean, to see a visitor," said Mrs. Latouche, amending her phrase. + +"I should think she had had enough of visitors!" her companion rejoined. +"But _you_ don't mean to stay ten years," she added, glancing at me. + +"Has she a visitor of that sort?" I inquired, perplexed. + +"You will see the sort!" said the minister's wife. "She's easily seen; +she generally sits in the front yard. Only take care what you say to +her, and be very sure you are polite." + +"Ah, she is so sensitive?" + +The minister's wife jumped up and dropped me a curtsey, a most ironical +curtsey. + +"That's what she is, if you please. She's a countess!" + +And pronouncing this word with the most scathing accent, the little +woman seemed fairly to laugh in the Countess's face. I stood a moment, +staring, wondering, remembering. + +"Oh, I shall be very polite!" I cried; and grasping my hat and stick, I +went on my way. + +I found Miss Spencer's residence without difficulty. The Baptist church +was easily identified, and the small dwelling near it, of a rusty +white, with a large central chimney-stack and a Virginia creeper, seemed +naturally and properly the abode of a frugal old maid with a taste for +the picturesque. As I approached I slackened my pace, for I had heard +that some one was always sitting in the front yard, and I wished +to reconnoitre. I looked cautiously over the low white fence which +separated the small garden-space from the unpaved street; but I descried +nothing in the shape of a countess. A small straight path led up to the +crooked doorstep, and on either side of it was a little grass-plot, +fringed with currant-bushes. In the middle of the grass, on either side, +was a large quince-tree, full of antiquity and contortions, and beneath +one of the quince-trees were placed a small table and a couple of +chairs. On the table lay a piece of unfinished embroidery and two or +three books in bright-colored paper covers. I went in at the gate and +paused halfway along the path, scanning the place for some farther +token of its occupant, before whom--I could hardly have said why--I +hesitated abruptly to present myself. Then I saw that the poor little +house was very shabby. I felt a sudden doubt of my right to intrude; +for curiosity had been my motive, and curiosity here seemed singularly +indelicate. While I hesitated, a figure appeared in the open doorway and +stood there looking at me. I immediately recognized Caroline Spencer, +but she looked at me as if she had never seen me before. Gently, but +gravely and timidly, I advanced to the doorstep, and then I said, with +an attempt at friendly badinage,-- + +"I waited for you over there to come back, but you never came." + +"Waited where, sir?" she asked softly, and her light-colored eyes +expanded more than before. + +She was much older; she looked tired and wasted. + +"Well," I said, "I waited at Havre." + +She stared; then she recognized me. She smiled and blushed and clasped +her two hands together. "I remember you now," she said. "I remember that +day." But she stood there, neither coming out nor asking me to come in. +She was embarrassed. + +I, too, felt a little awkward. I poked my stick into the path. "I kept +looking out for you, year after year," I said. + +"You mean in Europe?" murmured Miss Spencer. + +"In Europe, of course! Here, apparently, you are easy enough to find." + +She leaned her hand against the unpainted doorpost, and her head fell a +little to one side. She looked at me for a moment without speaking, and +I thought I recognized the expression that one sees in women's eyes +when tears are rising. Suddenly she stepped out upon the cracked slab +of stone before the threshold and closed the door behind her. Then she +began to smile intently, and I saw that her teeth were as pretty as +ever. But there had been tears too. + +"Have you been there ever since?" she asked, almost in a whisper. + +"Until three weeks ago. And you--you never came back?" + +Still looking at me with her fixed smile, she put her hand behind her +and opened the door again. "I am not very polite," she said. "Won't you +come in?" + +"I am afraid I incommode you." + +"Oh, no!" she answered, smiling more than ever. And she pushed back the +door, with a sign that I should enter. + +I went in, following her. She led the way to a small room on the left of +the narrow hall, which I supposed to be her parlor, though it was at the +back of the house, and we passed the closed door of another apartment +which apparently enjoyed a view of the quince-trees. This one looked +out upon a small woodshed and two clucking hens. But I thought it very +pretty, until I saw that its elegance was of the most frugal kind; after +which, presently, I thought it prettier still, for I had never seen +faded chintz and old mezzotint engravings, framed in varnished autumn +leaves, disposed in so graceful a fashion. Miss Spencer sat down on a +very small portion of the sofa, with her hands tightly clasped in her +lap. She looked ten years older, and it would have souuded very perverse +now to speak of her as pretty. But I thought her so; or at least I +thought her touching. She was peculiarly agitated. I tried to appear not +to notice it; but suddenly, in the most inconsequent fashion,--it was an +irresistible memory of our little friendship at Havre,--I said to her, +"I do incommode you. You are distressed." + +She raised her two hands to her face, and for a moment kept it buried in +them. Then, taking them away,--"It's because you remind me--" she said. + +"I remind you, you mean, of that miserable day at Havre?" + +She shook her head. "It was not miserable. It was delightful." + +"I never was so shocked as when, on going back to your inn the next +morning, I found you had set sail again." + +She was silent a moment; and then she said, "Please let us not speak of +that." + +"Did you come straight back here?" I asked. + +"I was back here just thirty days after I had gone away." + +"And here you have remained ever since?" + +"Oh, yes!" she said gently. + +"When are you going to Europe again?" + +This question seemed brutal; but there was something that irritated me +in the softness of her resignation, and I wished to extort from her some +expression of impatience. + +She fixed her eyes for a moment upon a small sunspot on the carpet; +then she got up and lowered the window-blind a little, to obliterate +it. Presently, in the same mild voice, answering my question, she said, +"Never!" + +"I hope your cousin repaid you your money." + +"I don't care for it now," she said, looking away from me. + +"You don't care for your money?" + +"For going to Europe." + +"Do you mean that you would not go if you could?" + +"I can't--I can't," said Caroline Spencer. "It is all over; I never +think of it." + +"He never repaid you, then!" I exclaimed. + +"Please--please," she began. + +But she stopped; she was looking toward the door. There had been a +rustling aud a sound of steps in the hall. + +I also looked toward the door, which was open, and now admitted another +person, a lady, who paused just within the threshold. Behind her came +a young man. The lady looked at me with a good deal of fixedness, long +enough for my glance to receive a vivid impression of herself. Then +she turned to Caroline Spencer, and, with a smile and a strong foreign +accent,-- + +"Excuse my interruption!" she said. "I knew not you had company, the +gentleman came in so quietly." + +With this she directed her eyes toward me again. + +She was very strange; yet my first feeling was that I had seen her +before. Then I perceived that I had only seen ladies who were very much +like her. But I had seen them very far away from Grimwinter, and it was +an odd sensation to be seeing her here. Whither was it the sight of her +seemed to transport me? To some dusky landing before a shabby Parisian +_quatrieme_,--to an open door revealing a greasy antechamber, and to +Madame leaning over the banisters, while she holds a faded dressing-gown +together and bawls down to the portress to bring up her coffee. Miss +Spencer's visitor was a very large woman, of middle age, with a plump, +dead-white face, and hair drawn back _a la chinoise_. She had a small +penetrating eye, and what is called in French an agreeable smile. +She wore an old pink cashmere dressing-gown, covered with white +embroideries, and, like the figure in my momentary vision, she was +holding it together in front with a bare and rounded arm and a plump and +deeply dimpled hand. + +"It is only to spick about my _cafe_," she said to Miss Spencer, with +her agreeable smile. "I should like it served in the garden under the +leetle tree." + +The young man behind her had now stepped into the room, and he also +stood looking at me. He was a pretty-faced little fellow, with an air +of provincial foppishness,--a tiny Adonis of Grimwinter. He had a +small pointed nose, a small pointed chin, and, as I observed, the most +diminutive feet. He looked at me foolishly, with his mouth open. + +"You shall have your coffee," said Miss Spencer, who had a faint red +spot in each of her cheeks. + +"It is well!" said the lady in the dressing-gown. "Find your bouk," she +added, turning to the young man. + +He gazed vaguely round the room. "My grammar, d 'ye mean?" he asked, +with a helpless intonation. + +But the large lady was inspecting me, curiously, and gathering in her +dressing-gown with her white arm. + +"Find your bouk, my friend," she repeated. + +"My poetry, d 'ye mean?" said the young man, also staring at me again. + +"Never mind your bouk," said his companion. "To-day we will talk. We +will make some conversation. But we must not interrupt. Come;" and she +turned away. "Under the leetle tree," she added, for the benefit of Miss +Spencer. + +Then she gave me a sort of salutation, and a "Monsieur!" with which she +swept away again, followed by the young man. + +Caroline Spencer stood there with her eyes fixed upon the ground. + +"Who is that?" I asked. + +"The Countess, my cousin." + +"And who is the young man?" + +"Her pupil, Mr. Mixter." + +This description of the relation between the two persons who had just +left the room made me break into a little laugh. Miss Spencer looked at +me gravely. + +"She gives French lessons; she has lost her fortune." + +"I see," I said. "She is determined to be a burden to no one. That is +very proper." + +Miss Spencer looked down on the ground again, "I must go and get the +coffee," she said. + +"Has the lady many pupils?" I asked. + +"She has only Mr. Mixter. She gives all her time to him." + +At this I could not laugh, though I smelt provocation; Miss Spencer was +too grave. "He pays very well," she presently added, with simplicity. +"He is very rich. He is very kind. He takes the Countess to drive." And +she was turning away. + +"You are going for the Countess's coffee?" I said. + +"If you will excuse me a few moments." + +"Is there no one else to do it?" + +She looked at me with the softest serenity. "I keep no servants." + +"Can she not wait upon herself?" + +"She is not used to that." + +"I see," said I, as gently as possible. "But before you go, tell me +this: who is this lady?" + +"I told you about her before--that day. She is the wife of my cousin, +whom you saw." + +"The lady who was disowned by her family in consequence of her +marriage?" + +"Yes; they have never seen her again. They have cast her off." + +"And where is her husband?" + +"He is dead." + +"And where is your money?" + +The poor girl flinched; there was something too consistent in my +questions. "I don't know," she said wearily. + +But I continued a moment. "On her husband's death this lady came over +here?" + +"Yes, she arrived one day." + +"How long ago?" + +"Two years." + +"She has been here ever since?" + +"Every moment." + +"How does she like it?" + +"Not at all." + +"And how do _you_ like it?" + +Miss Spencer laid her face in her two hands an instant, as she had done +ten minutes before. + +Then, quickly, she went to get the Countess's coffee. + +I remained alone in the little parlor; I wanted to see more, to learn +more. At the end of five minutes the young man whom Miss Spencer had +described as the Countess's pupil came in. He stood looking at me for a +moment with parted lips. I saw he was a very rudimentary young man. + +"She wants to know if you won't come out there," he observed at last. + +"Who wants to know?" + +"The Countess. That French lady." + +"She has asked you to bring me?" + +"Yes, sir," said the young man feebly, looking at my six feet of +stature. + +I went out with him, and we found the Countess sitting under one of +the little quince-trees in front of the house. She was drawing a needle +through the piece of embroidery which she had taken from the small +table. She pointed graciously to the chair beside her, and I seated +myself. Mr. Mixter glanced about him, and then sat down in the grass at +her feet. He gazed upward, looking with parted lips from the Countess +to me. "I am sure you speak French," said the Countess, fixing her +brilliant little eyes upon me. + +"I do, madam, after a fashion," I answered in the lady's own tongue. + +"_Voila!_" she cried most expressively. "I knew it so soon as I looked +at you. You have been in my poor dear country." + +"A long time." + +"You know Paris?" + +"Thoroughly, madam." And with a certain conscious purpose I let my eyes +meet her own. + +She presently, hereupon, moved her own and glanced down at Mr. Mixter +"What are we talking about?" she demanded of her attentive pupil. + +He pulled his knees up, plucked at the grass with his hand, stared, +blushed a little. "You are talking French," said Mr. Mixter. + +"_La belle decouverte!_" said the Countess. "Here are ten months," she +explained to me, "that I am giving him lessons. Don't put yourself out +not to say he's an idiot; he won't understand you." + +"I hope your other pupils are more gratifying," I remarked. + +"I have no others. They don't know what French is in this place; they +don't want to know. You may therefore imagine the pleasure it is to me +to meet a person who speaks it like yourself." I replied that my own +pleasure was not less; and she went on drawing her stitches through +her embroidery, with her little finger curled out. Every few moments +she put her eyes close to her work, nearsightedly. I thought her a very +disagreeable person; she was coarse, affected, dishonest, and no more a +countess than I was a caliph. "Talk to me of Paris," she went on. "The +very name of it gives me an emotion! How long since you were there?" + +"Two months ago." + +"Happy man! Tell me something about it What were they doing? Oh, for an +hour of the boulevard!" + +"They were doing about what they are always doing,--amusing themselves a +good deal." + +"At the theatres, eh?" sighed the Countess. "At the _cafes-concerts_, at +the little tables in front of the doors? _Quelle existence!_ You know I +am a Parisienne, monsieur," she added, "to my fingertips." + +"Miss Spencer was mistaken, then," I ventured to rejoin, "in telling me +that you are a Provencale." + +She stared a moment, then she put her nose to her embroidery, which had +a dingy, desultory aspect. "Ah, I am a Provencale by birth; but I am a +Parisienne by--inclination." + +"And by experience, I suppose?" I said. + +She questioned me a moment with her hard little eyes. "Oh, experience! +I could talk of experience if I wished. I never expected, for example, +that experience had _this_ in store for me." And she pointed with her +bare elbow, and with a jerk of her head, at everything that surrounded +her,--at the little white house, the quince-tree, the rickety paling, +even at Mr. Mixter. + +"You are in exile!" I said, smiling. + +"You may imagine what it is! These two years that I have been here I +have passed hours--hours! One gets used to things, and sometimes I +think I have got used to this. But there are some things that are always +beginning over again. For example, my coffee." + +"Do you always have coffee at this hour?" I inquired. + +She tossed back her head and measured me. + +"At what hour would you prefer me to have it? I must have my little cup +after breakfast." + +"Ah, you breakfast at this hour?" + +"At midday--_comme cela se fait_. Here they breakfast at a quarter past +seven! That 'quarter past' is charming!" + +"But you were telling me about your _coffee?_ I observed +sympathetically. + +"My _cousine_ can't believe in it; she can't understand it. She's an +excellent girl; but that little cup of black coffee, with a drop of +cognac, served at this hour,--they exceed her comprehension. So I have +to break the ice every day, and it takes the coffee the time you see to +arrive. And when it arrives, monsieur! If I don't offer you any of it +you must not take it ill. It will be because I know you have drunk it on +the boulevard." + +I resented extremely this scornful treatment of poor Caroline Spencer's +humble hospitality; but I said nothing, in order to say nothing uncivil. +I only looked on Mr. Mixter, who had clasped his arms round his +knees and was watching my companion's demonstrative graces in solemn +fascination. She presently saw that I was observing him; she glanced at +me with a little bold explanatory smile. "You know, he adores me," she +murmured, putting her nose into her tapestry again. I expressed the +promptest credence, and she went on. "He dreams of becoming my lover! +Yes, it's his dream. He has read a French novel; it took him six +months. But ever since that he has thought himself the hero, and me +the heroine!" + +Mr. Mixter had evidently not an idea that he was being talked about; he +was too preoccupied with the ecstasy of contemplation. At this moment +Caroline Spencer came out of the house, bearing a coffee-pot on a little +tray. I noticed that on her way from the door to the table she gave me a +single quick, vaguely appealing glance. I wondered what it signified; I +felt that it signified a sort of half-frightened longing to know what, +as a man of the world who had been in France, I thought of the Countess. +It made me extremely uncomfortable. I could not tell her that the +Countess was very possibly the runaway wife of a little hair-dresser. I +tried suddenly, on the contrary, to show a high consideration for +her. But I got up; I could n't stay longer. It vexed me to see Caroline +Spencer standing there like a waiting-maid. + +"You expect to remain some time at Grimwinter?" I said to the Countess. + +She gave a terrible shrug. + +"Who knows? Perhaps for years. When one is in misery!--_Chere belle_" +she added, turning to Miss Spencer, "you have forgotten the cognac!" + +I detained Caroline Spencer as, after looking a moment in silence at the +little table, she was turning away to procure this missing delicacy. I +silently gave her my hand in farewell. She looked very tired, but there +was a strange hint of prospective patience in her severely mild little +face. I thought she was rather glad I was going. Mr. Mixter had risen to +his feet and was pouring out the Countess's coffee. As I went back past +the Baptist church I reflected that poor Miss Spencer had been right in +her presentiment that she should still see something of that dear old +Europe. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Four Meetings, by Henry James + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOUR MEETINGS *** + +***** This file should be named 21773.txt or 21773.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/7/7/21773/ + +Produced by 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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