| | 1 | Author: | James, Henry | Add | | | Title: | The Aspern Papers  | | | | Published: | 1994 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | I had taken Mrs. Prest into my confidence; in truth without
her I should have made but little advance, for the fruitful idea in
the whole business dropped from her friendly lips. It was she who
invented the short cut, who severed the Gordian knot. It is not
supposed to be the nature of women to rise as a general thing to
the largest and most liberal view — I mean of a practical scheme;
but it has struck me that they sometimes throw off a bold
conception — such as a man would not have risen to — with singular
serenity. "Simply ask them to take you in on the footing of a
lodger" — I don't think that unaided I should have risen to that.
I was beating about the bush, trying to be ingenious, wondering by
what combination of arts I might become an acquaintance, when she
offered this happy suggestion that the way to become an
acquaintance was first to become an inmate. Her actual knowledge
of the Misses Bordereau was scarcely larger than mine, and indeed
I had brought with me from England some definite facts which were
new to her. Their name had been mixed up ages before with one of
the greatest names
of the century, and they lived now in Venice in
obscurity, on very small means, unvisited, unapproachable, in a
dilapidated old palace on an out-of-the-way canal: this was the
substance of my friend's impression of them. She herself had been
established in Venice for fifteen years and had done a great deal
of good there; but the circle of her benevolence did not include
the two shy, mysterious and, as it was somehow supposed, scarcely
respectable Americans (they were believed to have lost in their
long exile all national quality, besides having had, as their name
implied, some French strain in their origin), who asked no favors
and desired no attention. In the early years of her residence she
had made an attempt to see them, but this had been successful only
as regards the little one, as Mrs. Prest called the niece; though
in reality as I afterward learned she was considerably the bigger
of the two. She had heard Miss Bordereau was ill and had a
suspicion that she was in want; and she had gone to the house to
offer assistance, so that if there were suffering (and American
suffering), she should at least not have it on her conscience. The
"little one" received her in the great cold, tarnished Venetian
sala, the central hall of the house, paved with marble and roofed
with dim crossbeams, and did not even ask her to sit down. This
was not encouraging for me, who wished to sit so fast, and I
remarked as much to Mrs. Prest. She however replied with
profundity, "Ah, but there's all the difference: I went to confer
a favor and you will go to ask one. If they are proud you will be
on the right side." And she offered to show me their house to
begin with — to row me thither in her gondola. I let her know that
I had already been to
look at it half a dozen times; but I accepted
her invitation, for it charmed me to hover about the place. I had
made my way to it the day after my arrival in Venice (it had been
described to me in advance by the friend in England to whom I owed
definite information as to their possession of the papers), and I
had besieged it with my eyes while I considered my plan of
campaign. Jeffrey Aspern had never been in it that I knew of; but
some note of his voice seemed to abide there by a roundabout
implication, a faint reverberation. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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