Page:The Novels and Tales of Henry James, Volume 1 (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1907).djvu/111

 "No, I 'm principally very shrewd. Roderick will repay me. It's a speculation. At first, I think," he added shortly afterwards, "you wouldn't have paid me that little compliment. You didn't believe in me."

She made no attempt to deny it. "I did n't see why you should wish to make Roderick discontented. I thought you were rather frivolous."

"You did me injustice. I don't think I'm that."

"It was because you 're unlike other men—those at least whom I 've seen."

"In what way?"

"Why, as you describe yourself. You have no duties, no profession, no home. You live for your pleasure."

"That 's all very true. And yet I maintain I strike myself as not frivolous."

"I hope not," she said quietly. They had reached a point where the wood-path forked and put forth two divergent tracks which appeared to lose themselves, at no great distance, in a tangle of undergrowth. The young girl seemed to think the difficulty of choice between them a reason for giving them up and turning back, but Rowland thought otherwise and detected agreeable grounds for preference in the left-hand path. As a compromise they sat down on a fallen log. Looking about him, Rowland espied a curious wild shrub with a spotted crimson leaf; he went and plucked a spray of it and brought it to his companion. He had never observed it before, but she immediately called it by its name. She expressed surprise at his not knowing it; it was 77