Page:The Novels and Tales of Henry James, Volume 1 (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1907).djvu/528

 with the point of his umbrella. While he engaged Rowland's attention Christina turned away, and when our friend observed her again a fresh impression was reflected in her face. She had noticed something concealed from his own sight by the angle of the church wall. In a moment Roderick stepped upon the scene.

He stopped short, astonished; his face and figure were jaded, his garments dusty. He looked at Christina from head to foot, and then, slowly, his cheek flushed and his eyes darkened. Christina returned this unadorned recognition, and for some moments there was a singular silence. "You don't look well!" she said at last.

Roderick answered nothing; he only kept his attention on her as if she had been some striking object in the picture. "I don't see that you 're less wonderful, you know," he presently remarked.

She turned away with a smile and stood a while gazing down the valley; Roderick then simply stared at her husband. Christina put out her hand to Rowland. "Farewell," she said. "If you 're near me in future don't try to see me." And after a pause, in a lower tone: "I was sincere!" She addressed herself again to Roderick and asked him some commonplace about his walk; but his answer, barely articulate, was all in his eyes. Rowland at first had expected an outbreak of reproach, but it was evident that the danger was every moment diminishing. He was forgetting everything but her beauty, and as she stood there and let him feast upon it Rowland was sure she acted with intention. "I won't 494