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The Aspern Papers-Part9_HENRY JAMES(1843-1916)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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that there have been all sorts of changes in all these years?

You ought to see them and at your age (I don't mean because



you're so young) you ought to take the chances that come.

You're old enough, my dear, and this gentleman won't hurt you.



He will show you the famous sunsets, if they still go

on--DO they go on? The sun set for me so long ago.



But that's not a reason. Besides, I shall never miss you;

you think you are too important. Take her to the Piazza;



it used to be very pretty," Miss Bordereau continued, addressing

herself to me. "What have they done with the funny old church?



I hope it hasn't tumbled down. let her look at the shops;

she may take some money, she may buy what she likes."



Poor Miss Tita had got up, discountenanced and helpless, and as we stood

there before her aunt it would certainly have seemed to a spectator



of the scene that the old woman was amusing herself at our expense.

Miss Tita protested, in a confusion of exclamations and murmurs;



but I lost no time in saying that if she would do me the honor to accept

the hospitality of my boat I would engage that she should not be bored.



Or if she did not want so much of my company the boat itself,

with the gondolier, was at her service; he was a capital oar



and she might have every confidence. Miss Tita, without definitely

answering this speech, looked away from me, out of the window,



as if she were going to cry; and I remarked that once we had Miss

Bordereau's approval we could easily come to an understanding.



We would take an hour, whichever she liked, one of the very next days.

As I made my obeisance to the old lady I asked her if she would



kindly permit me to see her again.

For a moment she said nothing; then she inquired, "Is it very necessary



to your happiness?"

"It diverts me more than I can say."



"You are wonderfully civil. Don't you know it almost kills ME?"

"How can I believe that when I see you more animated, more brilliant



than when I came in?"

"That is very true, Aunt," said Miss Tita. I think it does you good."



"Isn't it touching, the solicitude we each have that

the other shall enjoy herself?" sneered Miss Bordereau.



"If you think me brilliant today you don't know what you

are talking about; you have never seen an agreeable woman.



Don't try to pay me a compliment; I have been spoiled," she went on.

"My door is shut, but you may sometimes knock."



With this she dismissed me, and I left the room.

The latch closed behind me, but Miss Tita, contrary to my hope,



had remained within. I passed slowly across the hall

and before taking my way downstairs I waited a little.



My hope was answered; after a minute Miss Tita followed me.

"That's a delightful idea about the Piazza," I said.



"When will you go--tonight, tomorrow?"

She had been disconcerted, as I have mentioned, but I had



already perceived and I was to observe again that when Miss Tita

was embarrassed she did not (as most women would have done)



turn away from you and try to escape, but came closer, as it were,

with a deprecating, clinging appeal to be spared, to be protected.



Her attitude was perpetually a sort of prayer for assistance,

for explanation; and yet no woman in the world could have been



less of a comedian. From the moment you were kind to her she

depended on you absolutely; her self-consciousness dropped from



her and she took the greatest intimacy, the innocentintimacy

which was the only thing she could conceive, for granted.



She told me she did not know what had got into her aunt;

she had changed so quickly, she had got some idea. I replied



that she must find out what the idea was and then let me know;

we would go and have an ice together at Florian's, and she



should tell me while we listened to the band.

"Oh, it will take me a long time to find out!" she said, rather ruefully;



and she could promise me this satisfaction neither for that night nor for

the next. I was patient now, however, for I felt that I had only to wait;



and in fact at the end of the week, one lovely evening after dinner,

she stepped into my gondola, to which in honor of the occasion I had



attached a second oar.

We swept in the course of five minutes into the Grand Canal;



whereupon she uttered a murmur of ecstasy as fresh as if she

had been a tourist just arrived. She had forgotten how splendid



the great waterway looked on a clear, hot summer evening,

and how the sense of floating between marble palaces and






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