Page:The Novels and Tales of Henry James, Volume 1 (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1907).djvu/86

 With this invitation Rowland prepared to comply, and, turning, grasped the first chair that offered it self.

"Not that one," said a full grave voice; whereupon he perceived that a thick skein of sewing-silk had been suspended in entanglement over the back for the purpose of being wound on reels. He felt the least bit irritated at the curtness of the warning, coming as it did from a young woman whose countenance he had mentally pronounced interesting and with regard to whom he was conscious of the germ of the inevitable desire to produce a responsive interest. And then he thought it would break the ice to say something playfully urbane.

"Oh, you should let me take the chair," he answered, "and have the pleasure of holding the skein myself!"

For all reply to this sally he received a stare of undisguised amazement from Miss Garland, who then looked across at Mrs. Hudson with a glance which plainly said, "You see he 's quite the insinuating foreigner we feared." The elder lady, however, sat with her eyes fixed on the ground and her two hands tightly clasped. But as regards Mrs. Hudson Rowland felt much more compassion than resentment; her attitude was not coldness, it was the instinct of fear, almost of terror. She was a small, softly-desperate woman, whose desperation gave her a false air of eagerness, just as her pale troubled face added to her apparent age. After looking at her for some minutes Rowland saw that she was still young and personable and that she must have been a very 52