Page:The Novels and Tales of Henry James, Volume 1 (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1907).djvu/239

 man who has done his duty. Roderick wiped his forehead and looked askance at Rowland; he seemed to be guessing his thoughts, and it might have been imaginable that they made him colour. But he smiled blandly and, addressing the Cavaliere, "I 'm much obliged to you for the information," he gracefully declared. "Now that I 've obtained it, let me tell you that I 'm no more in love with Miss Light than my friend here is. He perfectly knows that. I admire her—yes, immensely. But that 's no one's business but my own, and though I have, as you say, neither a princely title nor a princely fortune, I mean to suffer neither that drawback nor those who can boast of its opposite to diminish my right."

"If you 're not in love, my dear young man," said the Cavaliere with his hand on his heart and an apologetic smile, "meno male. But let me entreat you as an affectionate old busybody to keep a watch on your sensibility. You 're young, you also are admirably beautiful; you have a brilliant genius and a generous heart. But—I may say it almost with authority—you 're not our young lady's 'fate.'"

Whether Roderick were in love or not, he was nettled by what apparently seemed to him too insistent a negation of an inspiring possibility. "You speak as if she had made her choice!" he answered. "Without pretending to confidential information on the subject, I 'm very sure she has done nothing of the sort."

"No, but she must make it soon," said the Cavaliere. And raising his forefinger, he laid it against his under lip. "She must choose very great things. And she will!" 205