Page:The Novels and Tales of Henry James, Volume 1 (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1907).djvu/400

 a failure of attention to Augusta's doings, made some such observation.

"But you did n't find it so," his hostess objected—"I mean when you, on your side, were so kind to her without seeming to care that it might have committed you. It was a matter of course perhaps that Mr. Leavenworth, who seems to be going about Europe with the sole view of picking up furniture for his 'home,' as he calls it, should think Miss Blanchard a very handsome morceau; but it was not a matter of course—or it need n't have been—that she should be willing to become a sort of superior table-ornament. She would have accepted you in a jiffy if you had tried."

"You 're supposing the insupposable," said Rowland. "She never gave me a particle of encourage ment."

"What would you have had her do? The poor girl did her best, and I 'm sure that when she surrendered to Mr. Leavenworth she was thinking of quite another gentleman."

"She thought of the pleasure her marriage would give him."

"Aye, pleasure indeed! She's a thoroughly good girl, but she has her little grain of feminine spite as well as the rest. Well, he 's richer than you, and she will have what she wants; but before I forgive you I must wait and see this new arrival—what do you call her?—Miss Garlant of the Back Woods. If I like her very much I 'll forgive you; if I don't I shall always bear you a grudge."

Rowland answered that he was sorry to forfeit any 366