Page:The Novels and Tales of Henry James, Volume 1 (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1907).djvu/117

 a dull companion and over-addicted to moping, remember in justice to me that I 'm in love and that the loved object is five thousand miles away."

Rowland listened to all this with a feeling that fortune had played him an elaborately devised trick. It had lured him out into mid-ocean and smoothed the sea and stilled the winds and given him a singularly sympathetic comrade, and then it had turned and delivered him a thumping blow in mid-chest. "Yes," he said after an attempt at the usual formal congratulation, "you certainly ought to do better—with Miss Garland waiting for you at Northampton!"

Roderick, now that he had broken ground, was vivid, was natural, was delightful, and rang a hundred changes on the assurance that he was a very happy man. Then at last, suddenly, his climax was a yawn and he declared that he must tumble in. Rowland let him go alone and sat there late between sea and sky. 83