登陆注册
15388100000063

第63章

It's extraordinary.And you don't find it out.He's the same to every one.He doesn't ask questions.'

"Ah doesn't he?" Strether laughed.

Bilham met it with all his candour."How then should I be here?

"Oh for what you tell me.You're part of the perfect choice."Well, the young man took in the scene."It seems rather good to-day."Strether followed the direction of his eyes."Are they all, this time, femmes du monde?"Little Bilham showed his competence."Pretty well."This was a category our friend had a feeling for; a light, romantic and mysterious, on the feminine element, in which he enjoyed for a little watching it."Are there any Poles?"His companion considered."I think I make out a 'Portuguee.' But I've seen Turks."Strether wondered, desiring justice."They seem--all the women--very harmonious."

"Oh in closer quarters they come out!" And then, while Strether was aware of fearing closer quarters, though giving himself again to the harmonies, "Well," little Bilham went on, "it IS at the worst rather good, you know.If you like it, you feel it, this way, that shows you're not in the least out But you always know things," he handsomely added, "immediately."Strether liked it and felt it only too much; so "I say, don't lay traps for me!" he rather helplessly murmured.

"Well," his companion returned, "he's wonderfully kind to us.""To us Americans you mean?"

"Oh no--he doesn't know anything about THAT.That's half the battle here--that you can never hear politics.We don't talk them.

I mean to poor young wretches of all sorts.And yet it's always as charming as this; it's as if, by something in the air, our squalor didn't show.It puts us all back--into the last century.""I'm afraid," Strether said, amused, "that it puts me rather forward: oh ever so far!""Into the next? But isn't that only," little Bilham asked, "because you're really of the century before?""The century before the last? Thank you!" Strether laughed."If Iask you about some of the ladies it can't be then that I may hope, as such a specimen of the rococo, to please them.""On the contrary they adore--we all adore here--the rococo, and where is there a better setting for it than the whole thing, the pavilion and the garden, together? There are lots of people with collections," little Bilham smiled as he glanced round."You'll be secured!"It made Strether for a moment give himself again to contemplation.

There were faces he scarce knew what to make of.Were they charming or were they only strange? He mightn't talk politics, yet he suspected a Pole or two.The upshot was the question at the back of his head from the moment his friend had joined him."Have Madame de Vionnet and her daughter arrived?""I haven't seen them yet, but Miss Gostrey has come.She's in the pavilion looking at objects.One can see SHE'S a collector,"little Bilham added without offence.

"Oh yes, she's a collector, and I knew she was to come.Is Madame de Vionnet a collector?" Strether went on.

"Rather, I believe; almost celebrated." The young man met, on it, a little, his friend's eyes."I happen to know--from Chad, whom Isaw last night--that they've come back; but only yesterday.

He wasn't sure--up to the last.This, accordingly," little Bilham went on, "will be--if they ARE here--their first appearance after their return."Strether, very quickly, turned these things over."Chad told you last night? To me, on our way here, he said nothing about it.""But did you ask him?"

Strether did him the justice."I dare say not.""Well," said little Bilham, "you're not a person to whom it's easy to tell things you don't want to know.Though it is easy, I admit--it's quite beautiful," he benevolently added, "when you do want to."Strether looked at him with an indulgence that matched his intelligence."Is that the deep reasoning on which--about these ladies--you've been yourself so silent?"Little Bilham considered the depth of his reasoning."I haven't been silent.I spoke of them to you the other day, the day we sat together after Chad's tea-party."Strether came round to it."They then are the virtuous attachment?""I can only tell you that it's what they pass for.But isn't that enough? What more than a vain appearance does the wisest of us know? I commend you," the young man declared with a pleasant emphasis, "the vain appearance."Strether looked more widely round, and what he saw, from face to face, deepened the effect of his young friend's words."Is it so good?""Magnificent."

Strether had a pause."The husband's dead?""Dear no.Alive."

"Oh!" said Strether.After which, as his companion laughed:

"How then can it be so good?"

"You'll see for yourself.One does see.""Chad's in love with the daughter?"

"That's what I mean."

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 余生——初始

    余生——初始

    初次和橄榄爸爸写小说,大家多多支持!每周五中午更新~
  • 偏不爱你

    偏不爱你

    打从娘胎就跟他订了娃娃亲,知道将来必须要嫁给他的事实,为了摆脱他故意惹事。当她出现了生命里最重要的人时,决定私奔却被他逮个正着,逼着自己和他订婚,她不甘心,一场腥风血雨正要袭来、她能成功摆脱这个钳制了二十年的他吗?(本文纯属虚构,请勿模仿。)
  • 江湖说书录

    江湖说书录

    【江湖危不危险?】(危险,但很公平)【江湖好走吗?】(好走但你得有能力活下去)【江湖在哪里,远吗】(不远,因为人就是江湖)
  • 网游之异界霸主

    网游之异界霸主

    一个身患绝症的女生网游老手玩最后一次游戏却不曾想,在这个看似是古风的游戏中,却似异界的游戏中收获到人生中最精彩的时光收获到最真挚的感情既然生命有限,为何不在游戏里玩出自己的精彩人生?各种精彩,各种离奇,请大家不要错过!!!
  • 都市花绽

    都市花绽

    一个少年精通武术,见到一个玉瓶获得了异能,武智双全,向一个绽开着“鲜花”的都市走去,学校里跟六大恶少杠了起来,成为护花使者,遇到前世的林雨若,进行了逆天的改变。。。。。。
  • 血皇回归:吸血鬼的禁忌之恋

    血皇回归:吸血鬼的禁忌之恋

    “来吧,让我们分享你那甘甜的血液,让我们带你徜徉那永生之河,让我们共同坠入万劫不复的黑暗世纪。"
  • 汪苏泷:银河灵主

    汪苏泷:银河灵主

    汪苏泷,一个独一无二的名字;汪苏泷,一个注定不平凡的人。“其实到现在我都不知道我的使命是究竟什么,但我知道,我要好好保护他们,就像他们拼了命也要保护好我一样。”
  • 临济慧照玄公大宗师语录

    临济慧照玄公大宗师语录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 大宋王妃不好当

    大宋王妃不好当

    刚穿越就得知自己要嫁人了,未来的官人叫赵德芳,未来的公公叫赵匡胤。瞬间想到某影视剧里的八贤王,那英俊的大叔是多少人心里的男神啊,难道自己福来运转,要给男神当媳妇儿了?可过了没几天,焦婉婉就绝望了,男神媳妇儿不好当,因为男神他短命。【情节虚构,请勿模仿】
  • 福妻驾到

    福妻驾到

    现代饭店彪悍老板娘魂穿古代。不分是非的极品婆婆?三年未归生死不明的丈夫?心狠手辣的阴毒亲戚?贪婪而好色的地主老财?吃上顿没下顿的贫困宭境?不怕不怕,神仙相助,一技在手,天下我有!且看现代张悦娘,如何身带福气玩转古代,开面馆、收小弟、左纳财富,右傍美男,共绘幸福生活大好蓝图!!!!快本新书《天媒地聘》已经上架开始销售,只要3.99元即可将整本书抱回家,你还等什么哪,赶紧点击下面的直通车,享受乐乐精心为您准备的美食盛宴吧!)