Page:The Novels and Tales of Henry James, Volume 1 (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1907).djvu/534

 Rowland, who had been sitting erect, threw himself back on the grass and lay for some time staring up at the sky. At last, raising himself again, "Are you perfectly serious?" he demanded.

"Deadly serious."

"Your idea 's to remain at Interlaken some time?"

"Indefinitely!" said Roderick; and it seemed to his companion that the tone in which he spoke this made it immensely well worth hearing.

"And your mother and cousin meanwhile are to remain here? It will soon be getting very cold, you know."

"It does n't seem much like it to-day."

"Very true; but to-day 's a day by itself."

"There 's nothing to prevent their going back to Lucerne. I quite depend upon your taking charge of them."

At this Rowland threw himself at his length again, and then again, after reflexion, faced his interlocutor. "How would you express," he asked, "the nature of the profit that you expect to derive from your excursion?"

"I see no need of expressing it. I shall express it by going. The case is simply that that appeals to me as an interest, and I find myself so delighted to recognise an interest that I have n't it in my heart to dash it away. As I say, she has waked me up, and it 's possible that something may come of that. She makes me live again—though I admit there 's a strange pain in the act of coming to life. But at least it 's movement, and what else, or who else, for so many weeks, has moved me?" 500