Henry James: Complete Stories 1864-1874 (11 page)

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Authors: Henry James

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at this idea. This was of bad omen for the success of his errand; for it showed that he recognised the ground of her presumptionhis having the superstition of old promises. By the time she appeared he was flushed, very angry. She closed the door behind her, and stood there looking at him, with the width of the room between them.
The first emotion her presence excited was a quick sense of the strange fact that, after all these years of loneliness, such a magnificent person should be his wife. For she was magnificent, in the maturity of her beauty, her head erect, her complexion splendid, her auburn tresses undimmed, a certain plenitude in her very glance. He saw in a moment that she wished to seem to him beautiful, she had endeavoured to dress herself to the best effect. Perhaps, after all, it was only for this she had delayed; she wished to give herself every possible touch. For some moments they said nothing; they had not stood face to face for nearly ten years, and they met now as adversaries. No two persons could possibly be more interested in taking each other's measure. It scarcely belonged to Georgina, however, to have too much the air of timidity, and after a moment, satisfied, apparently, that she was not to receive a broadside, she advanced, slowly, rubbing her jewelled hands and smiling. He wondered why she should smile, what thought was in her mind. His impressions followed each other with extraordinary quickness of pulse, and now he saw, in addition to what he had already perceived, that she was waiting to take her cue: she had determined on no definite line. There was nothing definite about her but her courage; the rest would depend upon him. As for her courage, it seemed to glow in the beauty which grew greater as she came nearer, with her eyes on his and her fixed smile; to be expressed in the very perfume that accompanied her steps. By this time he had got a still further impression, and it was the strangest of all. She was ready for anything, she was capable of anything, she wished to surprise him with her beauty, to remind him that it belonged, after all, at the bottom of everything, to him. She was ready to bribe him, if bribing should be necessary. She had carried on an intrigue before she was twenty; it would be more, rather than less, easy for her now that she was thirty. All this and more was in her cold, living eyes, as, in the
 
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prolonged silence, they engaged themselves with his; but I must not dwell upon it, for reasons extraneous to the remarkable fact. She was a truly amazing creature.
Raymond! she said, in a low voicea voice which might represent either a vague greeting or an appeal.
He took no heed of the exclamation, but asked her why she had deliberately kept him waiting, as if she had not made a fool enough of him already. She couldn't suppose it was for his pleasure he had come into the house.
She hesitated a moment, still with her smile. I must tell you I have a son, the dearest little boy. His nurse happened to be engaged for the moment, and I had to watch him. I am more devoted to him than you might suppose.
He fell back from her a few steps. I wonder if you are insane, he murmured.
To allude to my child? Why do you ask me such questions then? I tell you the simple truth. I take every care of this one. I am older and wiser. The other one was a complete mistake; he had no right to exist.
Why didn't you kill him then with your own hands, instead of that torture?
Why didn't I kill myself? That question would be more to the point. You are looking wonderfully well, she broke off, in another tone; hadn't we better sit down?
I didn't come here for the advantage of conversation, Benyon answered. And he was going on, but she interrupted him.
You came to say something dreadful, very likely; though I hoped you would see it was better not. But just tell me this, before you begin. Are you successful, are you happy? It has been so provoking, not knowing more about you.
There was something in the manner in which this was said that caused him to break into a loud laugh; whereupon she added
Your laugh is just what it used to be. How it comes back to me! You
have
improved in appearance, she continued.
She had seated herself, though he remained standing; and she leaned back in a low, deep chair, looking up at him, with her arms folded. He stood near her and over her, as it were, dropping his baffled eyes on her, with his hand resting on the
 
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corner of the chimney-piece. Has it never occurred to you that I may deem myself absolved from the promise I made you before I married you?
Very often, of course. But I have instantly dismissed the idea. How can you be absolved? One promises, or one doesn't. I attach no meaning to that, and neither do you. And she glanced down at the front of her dress.
Benyon listened, but he went on as if he had not heard her. What I came to say to you is this: that I should like your consent to my bringing a suit for divorce against you.
A suit for divorce? I never thought of that.
So that I may marry another woman. I can easily obtain a divorce on the ground of your desertion. It will simplify our situation.
She stared a moment, then her smile solidified, as it were, and she looked grave; but he could see that her gravity, with her lifted eyebrows, was partly assumed. Ah, you want to marry another woman! she exclaimed, slowly, thoughtfully. He said nothing, and she went on, Why don't you do as I have done?
Because I don't want my children to be
Before he could say the words she sprang up, checking him with a cry. Don't say it; it isn't necessary! Of course I know what you mean; but they won't be if no one knows it.
I should object to knowing it myself; it's enough for me to know it of yours.
Of course I have been prepared for your saying that.
I should hope so! Benyon exclaimed. You may be a bigamist, if it suits you, but to me the idea is not attractive. I wish to marry and, hesitating a moment, with his slight stammer, he repeated, I wish to marry
Marry, then, and have done with it! cried Mrs. Roy.
He could already see that he should be able to extract no consent from her; he felt rather sick. It's extraordinary to me that you shouldn't be more afraid of being found out, he said, after a moment's reflection. There are two or three possible accidents.
How do you know how much afraid I am? I have thought of every accident, in dreadful nights. How do you know what
 
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my life is, or what it has been all these horrid years? But every one is dead.
You look wasted and worn, certainly.
Ah, don't compliment me! Georgina exclaimed. If I had never known youif I had not been through all thisI believe I should have been handsome. When did you hear of my marriage? Where were you at the time?
At Naples, more than six months ago, by a mere chance.
How strange that is should have taken you so long! Is the lady a Neapolitan? They don't mind what they do over there.
I have no information to give you beyond what I have just said, Benyon rejoined. My life doesn't in the least regard you.
Ah, but it does from the moment I refuse to let you divorce me.
You refuse? Benyon said, softly.
Don't look at me that way! You haven't advanced so rapidly as I used to think you would; you haven't distinguished yourself so much, she went on, irrelevantly.
I shall be promoted commodore one of these days, Benyon answered. You don't know much about it, for my advancement has already been extraordinary rapid. He blushed as soon as the words were out of his mouth. She gave a light laugh on seeing it; but he took up his hat and added, Think over a day or two what I have proposed to you. It's a perfectly possible proceeding. Think of the temper in which I ask it.
The temper? she stared. Pray, what have you to do with temper? And as he made no reply, smoothing his hat with his glove, she went on, Years ago, as much as you please! you had a good right, I don't deny, and you raved, in your letters, to your heart's content. That's why I wouldn't see you; I didn't wish to take it full in the face. But that's all over now; time is a healer; you have cooled off, and by your own admission you have consoled yourself. Why do you talk to me about temper? What in the world have I done to you but let you alone?
What do you call this business? Benyon asked, with his eye flashing all over the room.
Ah, excuse me, that doesn't touch you; it's my affair. I leave you your liberty, and I can live as I like. If I choose to
 
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live in this way, it may be queer (I admit it is, tremendously), but you have nothing to say to it. If I am willing to take the risk, you may be. If I am willing to play such an infernal trick upon a confiding gentleman (I will put it as strongly as you possibly could), I don't see what you have to say to it except that you are exceedingly glad such a woman as that isn't known to be your wife! She had been cool and deliberate up to this time, but with these words her latent agitation broke out. Do you think I have been happy? Do you think I have enjoyed existence? Do you see me freezing up into a stark old maid?
I wonder you stood out so long, said Benyon.
I wonder I did! They were bad years.
I have no doubt they were!
You could do as you pleased, Georgina went on. You roamed about the world, you formed charming relations. I am delighted to hear it from your own lips. Think of my going back to my father's housethat family vaultand living there, year after year, as Miss Gressie! If you remember my father and motherthey are round in Twelfth Street, just the sameyou must admit that I paid for my folly!
I have never understood you; I don't understand you now, said Benyon.
She looked at him a moment. I adored you.
I could damn you with a word! he exclaimed.
XV.
The moment he had spoken she grasped his arm and held up her other hand, as if she were listening to a sound outside the room. She had evidently had an inspiration, and she carried it into instant effect. She swept away to the door, flung it open, and passed into the hall, whence her voice came back to Benyon as she addressed a person who apparently was her husband. She had heard him enter the house at his habitual hour, after his long morning at business; the closing of the door of the vestibule had struck her ear. The parlour was on a level with the hall, and she greeted him without impediment. She asked him to come in and be introduced to Captain Benyon, and he responded with due solemnity. She returned in
 
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advance of him, her eyes fixed upon Benyon and lighted with defiance, her whole face saying to him vividly, Here is your opportunity; I give it to you with my own hands. Break your promise and betray me if you dare! You say you can damn me with a word; speak the word and let us see!
Benyon's heart beat faster, as he felt that it was indeed a chance; but half his emotion came from the spectacle, magnificent in its way, of her unparalleled impudence. A sense of all that he had escaped in not having had to live with her rolled over him like a wave, while he looked strangely at Mr. Roy, to whom this privilege had been vouchsafed. He saw in a moment his successor had a constitution that would carry it. Mr. Roy suggested squareness and solidity; he was a broad-based, comfortable, polished man, with a surface in which the rank tendrils of irritation would not easily obtain a foothold. He had a broad, blank face, a capacious mouth, and a small, light eye, to which, as he entered, he was engaged in adjusting a double gold-rimmed glass. He approached Benyon with a prudent, civil, punctual air, as if he habitually met a good many gentlemen in the course of business, and though, naturally, this was not that sort of occasion, he was not a man to waste time in preliminaries. Benyon had immediately the impression of having seen him, or his equivalent, a thousand times before. He was middle-aged, fresh-coloured, whiskered, prosperous, indefinite. Georgina introduced them to each othershe spoke of Benyon as an old friend, whom she had known long before she had known Mr. Roy, who had been very kind to her years ago, when she was a girl.
He is in the navy. He has just come back from a long cruise.
Mr. Roy shook handsBenyon gave him his before he knew itsaid he was very happy, smiled, looked at Benyon from head to foot, then at Georgina, then round the room, then back at Benyon againat Benyon, who stood there, without sound or movement, with a dilated eye and a pulse quickened to a degree of which Mr. Roy could have little idea. Georgina made some remark about their sitting down, but William Roy replied that he hadn't time for that, if Captain Benyon would excuse him. He should have to go straight into the library and write a note to send back to his office, where,

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