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The Sacred Fount
Edición BooksWhale en inglés de Henry James
A psychological mystery built from suspicion, social observation, and an elusive theory of hidden influence.
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Introducción del libro
The Sacred Fount
At a country weekend, an unnamed observer constructs a strange theory about the relationships and vitality of the guests. Conversation and interpretation become the central drama.
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Esta edición se basa en un texto de dominio público y fue preparada por BooksWhale para lectura digital.
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Henry James died in 1916; this 1901 English original is public domain.
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The Sacred Fount
Henry James
Capítulo de vista previaI , II , III , IV , V , VI , VII , VIII , IX , X , XI , XII , XIII , XIVVista previa
THE SACRED FOUNT
Capítulo de vista previaIVista previa
I T was an occasion, I felt—the prospect of a large party—to look out at the station for others, possible friends and even possible enemies, who might be going. Such premonitions, it was true, bred fears when they failed to breed hopes, though it was to be added that there were sometimes, in the case, rather happy ambiguities. One was glowered at, in the compartment, by people who on the morrow, after breakfast, were to prove charming; one was spoken to first by people whose sociability was subsequently to show as bleak; and one built with confidence on others who were never to reappear at all—who were only going to Birmingham. As soon as I saw Gilbert Long, some way up the platform, however, I knew him as an element. It was not so much that the wish was father to the thought as that I remembered having already more than once met him at Newmarch. He was a friend of the house—he wouldn't be going to Birmingham. I so little expected him, at the same time, to recognise me that I stopped short of the carriage near which he stood—I looked for a seat that wouldn't make us neighbours.
I had met him at Newmarch only—a place of a charm so special as to create rather a bond among its guests; but he had always, in the interval, so failed to know me that I could only hold him as stupid unless I held him as impertinent. He was stupid in fact, and in that character had no business at Newmarch; but he had also, no doubt, his system, which he applied without discernment. I wondered, while I saw my things put into my corner, what Newmarch could see in him—for it always had to see something before it made a sign. His good looks, which were striking, perhaps paid his way—his six feet and more of stature, his low-growing, tight-curling hair, his big, bare, blooming face. He was a fine piece of human furniture—he made a small party seem more numerous. This, at least, was the impression of him that had revived before I stepped out again to the platform, and it armed me only at first with surprise when I saw him come down to me as if for a greeting. If he had decided at last to treat me as an acquaintance made, it was none the less a case for letting him come all the way. That, accordingly, was what he did, and with so clear a conscience, I hasten to add, that at the end of a minute we were talking together quite as with the tradition of prompt intimacy. He was good-looking enough, I now again saw, but not such a model of it as I had seemed to remember; on the other hand his manners had distinctly gained in ease. He referred to our previous encounters and common contacts—he was glad I was going; he peeped into my compartment and thought it better than his own. He called a porter, the next minute, to shift his things, and while his attention was so taken I made out some of the rest of the contingent, who were finding or had already found places.
This lasted till Long came back with his porter, as well as with a lady unknown to me and to whom he had apparently mentioned that our carriage would pleasantly accommodate her. The porter carried in fact her dressing-bag, which he put upon a seat and the bestowal of which left the lady presently free to turn to me with a reproach: "I don't think it very nice of you not to speak to me." I stared, then caught at her identity through her voice; after which I reflected that she might easily have thought me the same sort of ass as I had thought Long. For she was simply, it appeared, Grace Brissenden. We had, the three of us, the carriage to ourselves, and we journeyed together for more than an hour, during which, in my corner, I had my companions opposite. We began at first by talking a little, and then as the train—a fast one—ran straight and proportionately bellowed, we gave up the effort to compete with its music. Meantime, however, we had exchanged with each other a fact or two to turn over in silence. Brissenden was coming later—not, indeed, that that was such a fact. But his wife was informed—she knew about the numerous others; she had mentioned, while we waited, people and things: that Obert, R.A. , was somewhere in the train, that her husband was to bring on Lady John, and that Mrs. Froome and Lord Lutley were in the wondrous new fashion—and their servants too, like a single household—starting, travelling, arriving together. It came back to me as I sat there that when she mentioned Lady John as in charge of Brissenden the other member of our trio had expressed interest and surprise—expressed it so as to have made her reply with a smile: "Didn't you really know?" This passage had taken place on the platform while, availing ourselves of our last minute, we hung about our door.
Índice
Dentro de esta edición
- 01Full text
- 02I , II , III , IV , V , VI , VII , VIII , IX , X , XI , XII , XIII , XIV
- 03I
- 04I turned the picture round. "They're scarcely together when she's together with Brissenden."
- 05II
- 06I reflected. "Mrs. Server? Does Mrs. Server make love?"
- 07I scarcely made it out. "In what way different? She's as charming as ever."
- 08I waited a little, having for the moment an idea on my hands. "Do you see him often?"
- 09III
- 10I remembered what she had mentioned to me. "His making her come down with poor Briss?"
- 11I thought a minute—but I had been abundantly thinking. "I know what you mean by 'lots.' Is Brissenden in it?"
- 12I perceived at once that I needn't fear: her conscience was too good—she was only amused. "Sacrifice, for mercy's sake, of what?"
- 13IV
- 14I immediately named the other. "Do you mean Ford Obert?"
- 15I had to wait a moment. "Do you mean he struck you as avoiding her?"
- 16I pondered. "Different from whom?"
- 17I could again but feebly repeat it. "A great light?"
- 18I wondered a little. "Honourable to whom?"
- 19V
- 20I literally blushed for her. "Squared?"
- 21I had unfortunately to discriminate here. "No, not like Lady John."
- 22I had gone too far indeed; but I got off as I could. "You neglect him so! But what is she, at any rate," I went on, "nervous—as nervous as you describe her— about ?"
- 23VI
- 24VII
- 25I stayed him there while I put it to him that he would probably in fact prefer to go back.
- 26I took, as quickly as possible, refuge in a surprised demurrer. "Not any ?"
- 27I considered. "Really?"
- 28I could only be surprised. "The most harmless man in the house?"
- 29I had all his attention again. "Is that what she is ?"
- 30I daresay my smile at him, while I waited, showed a discomfort. "Do you mean people are talking about her?"
- 31I felt a trifle pushed. "I'll tell you some other time. And among the ladies I except Mrs. Brissenden, with whom, as you may have noticed, I've been having much talk."
- 32I showed myself at a loss. "Of 'this'——?"
- 33I winced a little, but tried not to show it. "My dear man, how do I know?"
- 34I could only stare. "Mrs. Server thinks I know what makes her happy?" I the more easily represented such a conviction as monstrous in that it truly had its surprise for me.
- 35I hesitated. "Do you mean in her circumstances?"
- 36I turned it over. "How you do get on with her!"
- 37I saw how he had them, whatever they were, before him as he slowly shook his head. "They're not an attraction. They're too queer."
- 38I weighed it. "But isn't that the best thing?"
- 39I shook my head reassuringly. "It doesn't cost you anything if—as I confess to it now—I do to some extent understand."
- 40I had still, after all, to dodge a little. "Know what?"
- 41I felt as if he were now, intellectually speaking, plastic wax in my hand. "And her wanting me not to?"
- 42VIII
- 43I gave her the benefit of the most apparent consideration. "Strikingly, you call it?"
- 44IX
- 45I emulated her reflection. "Do they complain of it to you?"
- 46I showed, over and above my hesitation, my regret for the need of it. "I'm afraid I can't tell you."
- 47X
- 48I debated. "I haven't thought. And you?"
- 49I thought a moment. "I wish I had seen it. But I do see it. Yes—splendid. Is the place wholly cleared of them?"
- 50I waited a moment, then went on: "Did you happen to count them?"
- 51XI
- 52I ventured to keep it up. "Oh, don't you?"
- 53I patted his arm again. "Thank you for your patience. It's really good of you. Who knows if I shall be alive to-morrow? We are meeting. We do talk."
- 54I can see again now the long look that, on this, he gave me. I made out already much of what was in it. "So then do I!"
- 55I turned this over. "You've made evidently an admirable use of it. But the wonderful thing is that you seem to have done so without having all the elements."
- 56I saw in fact that he had, and it struck me really as wonderful. But I controlled the expression of my wonder. "So that if you spoke therefore just now of watching them——"
- 57I was now full of concurrence. "Ah, naturally, above all, the wife."
- 58I remained a moment, however, not sure whether I had been too subtle or too simple. He had another of his cautions. "What do you ——?"
- 59I couldn't help jumping straight up—I stood before him. "So that whoever may have been the man, the man now , the actual man——"
- 60I shall never forget the way that, struck by my word, he let his white face fix me in the dusk. "'Show'? What do I show?"
- 61I had taken his hand for farewell, and, inevitably laughing, but as the falsest of notes, I gave it a shake. "You show nothing! You're magnificent."
- 62I wondered myself, but found an assurance. "She must have squared the household! And it won't probably take us very long."
- 63XII
- 64I almost gaped—by which I mean that I looked as if I did—for surprise. "You agree that it's not she——?" Then, as she again waited, "It's you who've come round?" I insisted.
- 65I paused for a reply, but it was not to come so happily as from Obert. "You talk too much!" said Mrs. Briss.
- 66I met it with amazement. "Why, whom have I told?"
- 67XIII
- 68I could only want to fix it. "'Horrid'——?"
- 69I let her see the full process of my taking—or not taking—this in. "And who is it then that—if, as you say, you've spoken to no one—has, as I may call it, talked you under?"
- 70I watched her an instant. "Can you tell me then what one does to recover from such mistakes?"
- 71I threw back, in despair, both head and hands. "But, you poor, dear thing, you don't in the least agree with me! You flatly contradict me. You deny my miracle."
- 72I was all interest. "On a single point?" Then, as, almost excessively deliberate, she still kept me: "You mean the still commonplace character of Long's—a—consciousness?"
- 73I turned it over. "But do you call that intelligible?"
- 74I gave her then the benefit of my stirred speculation. "It always happens, of course, that one is one's self the last to know. You're perfectly convinced?"
- 75I thought; but her preparation was natural, though in a moment I could match it. "Do you know that's what I was too?"
- 76I thought a little. "Why, isn't it simply a matter rather of the renunciation of a confidence?"
- 77I thought for a moment that, in her despair, she would find something that would do. But she only found: "It didn't come in a flash."
- 78I hung on her lips. "But you can now ?"
- 79I remained suspended. "Ah, but this is lovely! It's what I want."
- 80I saw I should have more of it, and more in fact came. "You were saying just now what you were full of, and I can do the same. I was full of him ."
- 81I wondered. "What had you said to him?"
- 82I mused, sceptical but reasonable. "He was ."
- 83I followed, but before I caught up, "Whereas Long's only a stupid man gone right?" I threw out.
- 84I laughed at her readiness. Well, I had wanted to make her fight! "It's true it would have been the only one."
- 85XIV
- 86I had faced her again just in time to take it, and I immediately made up my mind how best to do so. "Then I go utterly to pieces!"
- 87I thought. "To me?"
- 88I tried to do justice to this account of myself. "You mean I see so much?"
- 89I wondered. "Well, names are a convenience. People catch me in the act?"
- 90I started. "As that I perpetrate them?"
- 91I followed. "Horrors?"
- 92I tried to think then who the person would be. "It would have come to Long himself?"
- 93I had after an instant extracted from this the single meaning it could appear to yield. "I'm to understand that you know ?"
- 94I kept my eyes on her; I traced the buried figure in the ruins. "She's good enough for a fool; and so"—I made it out—"is he! If he is the same ass—yes—they might be."
- 95I continued to look at her. "He would have no need then of her having transformed and inspired him."
- 96I kept it up. "She would do perfectly."
- 97I really couldn't but admire her. "Ah—so you have talked!"
- 98I cast about. "Since when?"
- 99I fairly, while my look at her turned rueful, scratched my head. "Don't you think it a little late for that?"
- 100I could only meet her with admiration. "You're of an astuteness——!"
- 101I greeted her acquiescence, but I insisted. "And yet if she is extravagant—what do you do with it?"
- 102I sought to combine firmness with my mildness. "What do you do with it?"
- 103I was at sea. "'Knew'? But you saw."
- 104I gasped—she turned it out so. " She —Mrs. Server?"
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