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The Coxon Fund-Part7_HENRY JAMES(1843-1916)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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the philosopher is undiscoverable."



He began to gather up his papers. "Who can set a limit to the

ingenuity of an extravagant woman?"



"Yes, after all, who indeed?" I echoed as I recalled the

extravagance commemorated in Adelaide's anecdote of Miss Anvoy and



the thirty pounds.

CHAPTER IX



The thing I had been most sensible of in that talk with George

Gravener was the way Saltram's name kept out of it. It seemed to



me at the time that we were quite pointedly silent about him; but

afterwards it appeared more probable there had been on my



companion's part no conscious avoidance. Later on I was sure of

this, and for the best of reasons--the simple reason of my



perceiving more completely that, for evil as well as for good, he

said nothing to Gravener's imagination. That honest man didn't



fear him--he was too much disgusted with him. No more did I,

doubtless, and for very much the same reason. I treated my



friend's story as an absolute confidence; but when before

Christmas, by Mrs. Saltram, I was informed of Lady Coxon's death



without having had news of Miss Anvoy's return, I found myself

taking for granted we should hear no more of these nuptials, in



which, as obscurely unnatural, I now saw I had never TOO

disconcertedly believed. I began to ask myself how people who



suited each other so little could please each other so much. The

charm was some material charm, some afffinity, exquisite doubtless,



yet superficial some surrender to youth and beauty and passion, to

force and grace and fortune, happy accidents and easy contacts.



They might dote on each other's persons, but how could they know

each other's souls? How could they have the same prejudices, how



could they have the same horizon? Such questions, I confess,

seemed quenched but not answered when, one day in February, going



out to Wimbledon, I found our young lady in the house. A passion

that had brought her back across the wintry ocean was as much of a



passion as was needed. No impulseequally strong indeed had drawn

George Gravener to America; a circumstance on which, however, I



reflected only long enough to remind myself that it was none of my

business. Ruth Anvoy was distinctly different, and I felt that the



difference was not simply that of her marks of mourning. Mrs.

Mulville told me soon enough what it was: it was the difference



between a handsome girl with large expectations and a handsome girl

with only four hundred a year. This explanation indeed didn't



wholly content me, not even when I learned that her mourning had a

double cause--learned that poor Mr. Anvoy, giving way altogether,



buried under the ruins of his fortune and leaving next to nothing,

had died a few weeks before.



"So she has come out to marry George Gravener?" I commented.

"Wouldn't it have been prettier of him to have saved her the



trouble?"

"Hasn't the House just met?" Adelaide replied. "And for Mr.



Gravener the House--!" Then she added: "I gather that her having

come is exactly a sign that the marriage is a little shaky. If it



were quite all right a self-respecting girl like Ruth would have

waited for him over there."



I noted that they were already Ruth and Adelaide, but what I said

was: "Do you mean she'll have had to return to MAKE it so?"



"No, I mean that she must have come out for some reason independent

of it." Adelaide could only surmise, however, as yet, and there



was more, as we found, to be revealed. Mrs. Mulville, on hearing

of her arrival, had brought the young lady out in the green landau



for the Sunday. The Coxons were in possession of the house in

Regent's Park, and Miss Anvoy was in dreary lodgings. George



Gravener had been with her when Adelaide called, but had assented

graciously enough to the little visit at Wimbledon. The carriage,



with Mr. Saltram in it but not mentioned, had been sent off on some

errand from which it was to return and pick the ladies up.



Gravener had left them together, and at the end of an hour, on the

Saturday afternoon, the party of three had driven out to Wimbledon.



This was the girl's second glimpse of our great man, and I was

interested in asking Mrs. Mulville if the impression made by the



first appeared to have been confirmed. On her replying after

consideration, that of course with time and opportunity it couldn't



fail to be, but that she was disappointed, I was sufficiently

struck with her use of this last word to question her further.






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