Henry James: Complete Stories 1864-1874 (82 page)

BOOK: Henry James: Complete Stories 1864-1874

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Page 485

and she guessed that as this product had not yet been domesticated in the western world the desire to behold it, after having read so much about it, had been one of the motives of Mr. Wendover's pilgrimage. Mrs. Schooling, who must have been a goose, had told him that Mrs. Berrington, though transplanted, was the finest flower of a rich, ripe society and as clever and virtuous as she was beautiful. Meanwhile Laura knew what Selina thought of Fanny Schooling and her incurable provinciality. Now was that a good example of London talkwhat I heard (I only heard a little of it, but the conversation was more general before you came in) in your sister's drawing-room? I don't mean literary, intellectual talkI suppose there are special places to hear that; I meanI mean Mr. Wendover went on with a deliberation which gave his companion an opportunity to interrupt him. They had arrived at Lady Davenant's door and she cut his meaning short. A fancy had taken her, on the spot, and the fact that it was whimsical seemed only to recommend it.

If you want to hear London talk there will be some very good going on in here, she said. If you would like to come in with me?

Oh, you are very kindI should be delighted, replied Mr. Wendover, endeavouring to emulate her own more rapid processes. They stepped into the porch and the young man, anticipating his companion, lifted the knocker and gave a postman's rap. She laughed at him for this and he looked bewildered; the idea of taking him in with her had become agreeably exhilarating. Their acquaintance, in that moment, took a long jump. She explained to him who Lady Davenant was and that if he was in search of the characteristic it would be a pity he shouldn't know her; and then she added, before he could put the question:

And what I am doing is
not
in the least usual. No, it is not the custom for young ladies here to take strange gentlemen off to call on their friends the first time they see them.

So that Lady Davenant will think it rather extraordinary? Mr. Wendover eagerly inquired; not as if that idea frightened him, but so that his observation on this point should also be well founded. He had entered into Laura's proposal with complete serenity.

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Oh, most extraordinary! said Laura, as they went in. The old lady however concealed such surprise as she may have felt, and greeted Mr. Wendover as if he were any one of fifty familiars. She took him altogether for granted and asked him no questions about his arrival, his departure, his hotel or his business in England. He noticed, as he afterwards confided to Laura, her omission of these forms; but he was not wounded by ithe only made a mark against it as an illustration of the difference between English and American manners: in New York people always asked the arriving stranger the first thing about the steamer and the hotel. Mr. Wendover appeared greatly impressed with Lady Davenant's antiquity, though he confessed to his companion on a subsequent occasion that he thought her a little flippant, a little frivolous even for her years. Oh yes, said the girl, on that occasion, I have no doubt that you considered she talked too much, for one so old. In America old ladies sit silent and listen to the young. Mr. Wendover stared a little and replied to this that with herwith Laura Wingit was impossible to tell which side she was on, the American or the English: sometimes she seemed to take one, sometimes the other. At any rate, he added, smiling, with regard to the other great division it was easy to seeshe was on the side of the old. Of course I am, she said; when one
is
old! And then he inquired, according to his wont, if she were thought so in England; to which she answered that it was England that had made her so.

Lady Davenant's bright drawing-room was filled with mementoes and especially with a collection of portraits of distinguished people, mainly fine old prints with signatures, an array of precious autographs. Oh, it's a cemetery, she said, when the young man asked her some question about one of the pictures; they are my contemporaries, they are all dead and those things are the tombstones, with the inscriptions. I'm the grave-digger, I look after the place and try to keep it a little tidy. I have dug my own little hole, she went on, to Laura, and when you are sent for you must come and put me in. This evocation of mortality led Mr. Wendover to ask her if she had known Charles Lamb; at which she stared for an instant, replying: Dear me, noone didn't meet him.

Page 487

Oh, I meant to say Lord Byron, said Mr. Wendover.

Bless me, yes; I was in love with him. But he didn't notice me, fortunatelywe were so many. He was very nice-looking but he was very vulgar. Lady Davenant talked to Laura as if Mr. Wendover had not been there; or rather as if his interests and knowledge were identical with hers. Before they went away the young man asked her if she had known Garrick and she replied: Oh, dear, no, we didn't have them in our houses, in those days.

He must have been dead long before you were born! Laura exclaimed.

I daresay; but one used to hear of him.

I think I meant Edmund Kean, said Mr. Wendover.

You make little mistakes of a century or two, Laura Wing remarked, laughing. She felt now as if she had known Mr. Wendover a long time.

Oh, he was very clever, said Lady Davenant.

Very magnetic, I suppose, Mr. Wendover went on.

What's that? I believe he used to get tipsy.

Perhaps you don't use that expression in England? Laura's companion inquired.

Oh, I daresay we do, if it's American; we talk American now. You seem very good-natured people, but such a jargon as you
do
speak!

I like
your
way, Lady Davenant, said Mr. Wendover, benevolently, smiling.

You might do worse, cried the old woman; and then she added: Please go out! They were taking leave of her but she kept Laura's hand and, for the young man, nodded with decision at the open door. Now, wouldn't
he
do? she asked, after Mr. Wendover had passed into the hall.

Do for what?

For a husband, of course.

For a husbandfor whom?

Whyfor me, said Lady Davenant.

I don't knowI think he might tire you.

Ohif he's tiresome! the old lady continued, smiling at the girl.

I think he is very good, said Laura.

Page 488

Well then, he'll do.

Ah, perhaps
you
won't! Laura exclaimed, smiling back at her and turning away.

VIII.

She was of a serious turn by nature and unlike many serious people she made no particular study of the art of being gay. Had her circumstances been different she might have done so, but she lived in a merry house (heaven save the mark! as she used to say) and therefore was not driven to amuse herself for conscience sake. The diversions she sought were of a serious cast and she liked those best which showed most the note of difference from Selina's interests and Lionel's. She felt that she was most divergent when she attempted to cultivate her mind, and it was a branch of such cultivation to visit the curiosities, the antiquities, the monuments of London. She was fond of the Abbey and the British Museumshe had extended her researches as far as the Tower. She read the works of Mr. John Timbs and made notes of the old corners of history that had not yet been abolishedthe houses in which great men had lived and died. She planned a general tour of inspection of the ancient churches of the City and a pilgrimage to the queer places commemorated by Dickens. It must be added that though her intentions were great her adventures had as yet been small. She had wanted for opportunity and independence; people had other things to do than to go with her, so that it was not till she had been some time in the country and till a good while after she had begun to go out alone that she entered upon the privilege of visiting public institutions by herself. There were some aspects of London that frightened her, but there were certain spots, such as the Poets' Corner in the Abbey or the room of the Elgin marbles, where she liked better to be alone than not to have the right companion. At the time Mr. Wendover presented himself in Grosvenor Place she had begun to put in, as they said, a museum or something of that sort whenever she had a chance. Besides her idea that such places were sources of knowledge (it is to be feared that the poor girl's notions of knowledge were at once conventional and crude) they were also occasions

Page 489

for detachment, an escape from worrying thoughts. She forgot Selina and she qualified herself a littlethough for what she hardly knew.

The day Mr. Wendover dined in Grosvenor Place they talked about St. Paul's, which he expressed a desire to see, wishing to get some idea of the great past, as he said, in England as well as of the present. Laura mentioned that she had spent half an hour the summer before in the big black temple on Ludgate Hill; whereupon he asked her if he might entertain the hope thatif it were not disagreeable to her to go againshe would serve as his guide there. She had taken him to see Lady Davenant, who was so remarkable and worth a long journey, and now he should like to pay her backto show
her
something. The difficulty would be that there was probably nothing she had not seen; but if she could think of anything he was completely at her service. They sat together at dinner and she told him she would think of something before the repast was over. A little while later she let him know that a charming place had occurred to hera place to which she was afraid to go alone and where she should be grateful for a protector: she would tell him more about it afterwards. It was then settled between them that on a certain afternoon of the same week they would go to St. Paul's together, extending their ramble as much further as they had time. Laura lowered her voice for this discussion, as if the range of allusion had had a kind of impropriety. She was now still more of the mind that Mr. Wendover was a good young manhe had such worthy eyes. His principal defect was that he treated all subjects as if they were equally important; but that was perhaps better than treating them with equal levity. If one took an interest in him one might not despair of teaching him to discriminate.

Laura said nothing at first to her sister about her appointment with him: the feelings with which she regarded Selina were not such as to make it easy for her to talk over matters of conduct, as it were, with this votary of pleasure at any price, or at any rate to report her arrangements to her as one would do to a person of fine judgment. All the same, as she had a horror of positively hiding anything (Selina herself did that enough for two) it was her purpose to mention at luncheon

Page 490

on the day of the event that she had agreed to accompany Mr. Wendover to St. Paul's. It so happened however that Mrs. Berrington was not at home at this repast; Laura partook of it in the company of Miss Steet and her young charges. It very often happened now that the sisters failed to meet in the morning, for Selina remained very late in her room and there had been a considerable intermission of the girl's earlier custom of visiting her there. It was Selina's habit to send forth from this fragrant sanctuary little hieroglyphic notes in which she expressed her wishes or gave her directions for the day. On the morning I speak of her maid put into Laura's hand one of these communications, which contained the words: Please be sure and replace me with the children at lunchI meant to give them that hour to-day. But I have a frantic appeal from Lady Watermouth; she is worse and beseeches me to come to her, so I rush for the 12.30 train. These lines required no answer and Laura had no questions to ask about Lady Watermouth. She knew she was tiresomely ill, in exile, condemned to forego the diversions of the season and calling out to her friends, in a house she had taken for three months at Weybridge (for a certain particular air) where Selina had already been to see her. Selina's devotion to her appeared commendableshe had her so much on her mind. Laura had observed in her sister in relation to other persons and objects these sudden intensities of charity, and she had said to herself, watching themIs it because she is bad?does she want to make up for it somehow and to buy herself off from the penalties?

Mr. Wendover called for his
cicerone
and they agreed to go in a romantic, Bohemian manner (the young man was very docile and appreciative about this), walking the short distance to the Victoria station and taking the mysterious underground railway. In the carriage she anticipated the inquiry that she figured to herself he presently would make and said, laughing: No, no, this is very exceptional; if we were both Englishand both what we are, otherwisewe wouldn't do this.

And if only one of us were English?

It would depend upon which one.

Well, say me.

BOOK: Henry James: Complete Stories 1864-1874

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