Page:The Novels and Tales of Henry James, Volume 2 (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1907).djvu/209

THE AMERICAN "Well, she would n't have got much by that," he made answer.

She looked at him a moment. "No one, I think, gets as much by anything as you. When I told you to go your own way and do what came into your head I had no idea you 'd go over the ground so fast. I never dreamed you 'd propose after five or six morning calls. What had you done as yet to make her like you? You had simply sat—not very straight—and stared at her. But she does like you."

"That remains to be seen."

"No, it only remains to be criticised. What will come of it remains to be seen. That you should make but a mouthful of her marrying you without more ado could never have come into her head. You can form very little idea of what passed through her mind as you spoke; if she ever really takes you the affair will be marked by the usual justice of all human judgements of women. You 'll think you take generous views of her, but you'll never begin to know through what a strange sea of feeling she'll have passed before accepting you. As she stood there in front of you the other day she plunged into it. She said 'Well, why not?' to something that a few hours earlier had been inconceivable. She turned about on a thousand gathered prejudices and traditions as on a pivot and looked where she had never looked till that instant. When I think of it, when I think of Claire de Cintré and all that she represents, there seems to me something very fine in it. When I recommended you to try your fortune with her I of course thought well of you, and in spite of your base 179