Page:The Novels and Tales of Henry James, Volume 1 (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1907).djvu/252

 XI

day on entering Roderick's lodging (not the modest rooms on the Ripetta which he had first oc cupied, but a much ampler apartment on the Corso) Rowland found a letter on the table addressed to himself. It was from Roderick and consisted of but three lines. "I'm gone to Frascati—for meditation. If I 'm not at home on Friday you had better join me." On Friday he was still absent, and Rowland went out to Frascati. Here he found his friend living at the inn and spending his days, according to his own account, lying under the trees of Villa Mondragone and reading Ariosto. He was melancholy, almost morose; his subjects of "meditation" seemed not to have been happy. Nothing especially pertinent to our narrative had passed between the two young men since Mrs. Light's ball save a few words bearing on a passage of that entertainment. Rowland had informed Roderick the next day that he had told Miss Light of his engagement, and had added: "I don't know whether you 'll thank me, but it 's my duty to let you know it. Miss Light perhaps has already done so."

Roderick stared hard an instant, his colour rising. "Why should I not thank you? I 'm not ashamed of my engagement."

"As you had not spoken of it yourself I thought you might have a reason for not having it known." 218