Roderick Hudson

essed to himself. It was from Roderick, and consisted of but three lines: "I am gone to Frascati-for meditation. If I am not at home on Friday, you had better join me." On Friday he was still absen

since Mrs. Light's ball, save a few words bearing on an incident of that entertainment. Rowland informed Roderick, the next day, that he had told Miss Li

is color slowly rising. "Why should n't I thank y

rself, I thought you might have

er with strangers," Roderick rejoined, w

s-no!" said Ro

ing round with a frown: "If you supposed I had a reas

oke, and promised myself to let you know immediately afterwards. It seeme

into your head, then, that

I would not have s

n, that she is ma

h she may play indifference, at your finding her so. I said to myself that it might save her some sentimental di

ure of my liberty with extraordi

our being exposed to temptations which she hardly even suspects. How could I ever face her,"

impression on you. You are too zealous; I take it

you, I am accountable. Y

that! But I am not a small boy nor an outer barbarian any longer, and, whatever I do, I do with my eyes open. When I do well, the merit 's mine; if I do ill, the fault 's mine! The

and had implicitly offered everything that belongs to friendship, and Roderick had, apparently, as deliberately accepted it. Rowland, indeed, had taken an exquisite satisfaction in his companion's deep, inexpressive assent to his interest in him. "Here is an uncommonly fine thing," he said to himself: "a nature unconsciously grateful, a man in whom friendship does the thing that love alone generally has the c

o zealous," he said. "If I had not been zeal

tool up to the handle into the clay. "Say it outr

stly believe I do!" said Rowland. "It seems to me I am r

he felt just now, more than ever, that all this was but the painful complexity of genius. Rowland, who had not a grain of genius either to make one say he was an interested reasoner, or to enable one to feel that he could afford a dangerous theory or two, adhered to his conviction of the essential salubrity of genius. Suddenly he felt an irresistible compassion for his companion; it seemed to him that his beautiful faculty of production was a double-edged instrument, susceptible of being dealt in back-handed b

wn," he said at last. "It is because your f

riend's shoulder. "You are the best man in the world," he said, "and I am a vile brute. Only," he added in a moment, "you don't understand me!" And he looked at him with eyes of such ra

adly. "What is i

pressing my deepest feelings-it 's this!" And he swung his tool. He stood looking at the half-wrough

he saw no sufficient reason to forbear uttering the words he had had on his conscience from the beginning. "We must do what

, despairingly; a gesture that had become frequent with him since he had been in Ital

elp you, then?" said

ce. You demand of us to be imaginative, and you deny us that which feeds the imagination. In labor we must be as passionate as the inspired sibyl; in life we must be mere machines. It won't do. When you have got an artist to deal with, you must take him as he is, good and bad together. I don't say they are pleasant fellows to know or easy fellows to live with; I don't say they satisfy themselves any better than

development? Do you really mean that you have an inexorable need of embarking on a flirtation with Miss Light?-a flirtation as to the felicity of which there may be differences of opinion, but whi

uisitive, and I admire Miss Light. That 's enough. I shall go as far as admiration leads me.

you should come to grief, not on

times I half suspect it. But let me at least go out and reconnoitre for the enemy,

scussion, as anything but a pernicious illusion. But he saw it was vain to combat longer, for inclination was powerfully on Roderick's

or the street. As he was arranging his cravat before the glass, something occurred to him which made him thoughtful. He stopped a few moments afterward, as th

e which was partly an interrogatio

ay," Roderick added, "you hav

u propose to devote your

t interesting creature in the world! The next time you me

avor, or too much, as the reader chooses; it is certain, at least, that he had a constitutional tendency towards magnanimous interpretations. Nothing happened, however, to suggest to him that he was deluded in thinking that Roderick's secondary impulses were wiser than his primary ones, and that the rounded total of his nature had a harmony perfectly attuned to the most amiable of its brilliant parts. Roderick's humor, for the time, was pitched in a minor key; he was lazy, listless, and melancholy, but he had never been more friendly and kindly and appealingly submissive. Winter had begun, by the calen

, idle, half-nonsensical drawl. Rowland was half a dozen times on the point of asking him what was the matter with him; he was afraid he was going to be ill. Roderick had taken a great fancy to the Villa Mondragone, and used to declaim fantastic compliments to it as they strolled in the winter sunshine on the great terrace which looks toward Tivoli and the iridescent Sabine mountains. He carried his volume of Ariosto in his pocket, and took it out every now and then and spouted half a dozen stanzas to his companion. He was, as a general thing, very little of a reader; but at intervals he would take a fancy to one of the classics a

subject, to find color and attitudes, stuffs and composition; I should only have to look up from the page at that mouldy old fountain against the blue sky, at that cypress alley wandering away like a procession of priests in couples, at the crags and hollows of the Sabine hills, to find myself grasping my brush. Best of all would be to be Ariosto himself, or one of his brotherhood. Then everything in nature would give you a hint, and every form of beauty be part of your stock. You would n't have to look at things only to say,-with tears of rage half the time,-'Oh, yes, it 's wonderfully pretty, but what the deuce can I do with it?' But a sculptor, now! That 's a pre

more as it was for Oliver Twist to ask for more porridge. Lucky for you if you 've got one of the big cups; we drink them down in the dark, and we can't tell their size until we tip them up and hear the last gurgle. Those of some men last for life; those of others for a couple of years. Nay, what are you smiling at so damnably?" he went on. "Nothing is more common than for an artist who has set out on his journey on a high-stepping horse to find himself all of a sudden dismounted and invited to go his way on foot. You can number them by the thousand-the people of two or three successes; the poor fellows whose candle burnt out in a night. Some of them groped their way along without it, some of them gave themselves up for blind and sat down by the wayside to beg. Who shall say that I 'm not one of these? Who shall assure me that my credit is for an unlimited sum? Nothing proves it, and I never claimed it; or if I did, I did so

ins to set his copy. He may bespatter you with ink, he may hit you in the eye, but he writes a magnificent hand. It was nevertheless true that at present poor Roderick gave unprecedented tokens of moral stagnation, and as for genius being held by the precarious tenure he had sketched, Rowland was at a loss to see whence he could borrow the authority to contradict him. He sighed to himself, and wished that his companion had a trifle more of little Sam Singleton's evenness of impulse. But then, was Singleton a man of genius? He answered t

must either stay in the saddle or not go at all. I won't do second-rate work; I can't if I would. I have no cleverness, apart from inspiration. I am not a Gloriani

rilliant, but was he, like many brilliant things, brittle? Suddenly, to his musing sense, the soft atmospheric hum was overscored with distincter sounds. He heard voices beyond a mass of shrubbery, at the turn of a neighboring path. In a moment one of them began to seem familiar, and an instant later a large white poodle emerged into view. He was slowly followed b

d. "Happy man! Stenterello"-and sh

ng pink tongue and began

Rowland, "if

s. Light had approached, walking with a gentleman on each side of her. One of these was the Cavaliere Giacosa; the other was Prince

sh, with a tone of great precision. "There

rs. Light. "Do you

aid the young girl. "Your servant, sir!" And she smiled at him with a grac

g and to explain that the day was so lovely that she had been charmed with the idea of spending it in t

don; I was not slee

dson's sheep-dog?" asked Christina. "He w

madame!" said Rowland,

never yet happened to learn what men were doing when they supposed women w

smoothing his ruffled locks,

ave you been here? It 's an age since I have seen you. We consider

inutes later the group was assembled there. Mrs. Light was extravagant in her satisfaction; Christina looke

st. "My word of honor. Have you

d Mrs. Light, amorously. "I

view is a thousand times more beautiful than this. You see,

hwith, "the prince has a terrace four hu

ittle cough and began

he prince must have out his golden carriage." This was apparently

" said the prince. "I kn

you. Heaven forbid! You are much too serious an affair. I assure you I feel your importance.

yet!" said the poor young

. "We have a note of it; mamma writes a

s if to resist his possible displacement under the shock of her daughter's sarcasm. But the prince looked heavy-eyed t

ked, pointing to the vast melancholy s

k. "It is occupied by a Jesui

omen g

cy the poor little devils looking up from their Lati

have some other. We must not stand planted on this enchanting terrace as if we were stakes driven into the earth. We must dance, we must feast, we must do something picturesque. Mamma has arranged, I

ing. Her spirits had risen with the occasion, and she talked irresistible nonsense. "Bring the best they have," she said, "no matter if it ruins us! And if the best is very bad, it will be all the more amusing. I shall enjoy seeing Mr. Mallet try to swallow it for propriety's sake! Mr. Hudson will say out like a man that it 's horrible stuff, and that he 'll

caressingly on the shoulder. He looked askance at Rowland; his little blac

ed he had held his tongue, for although the toast was drunk with demonstrative good-will, the Cavaliere received it with various small signs of eager self-effacement which suggested to Rowland that his diminished gentility but half relished honors which had a flavor of patronage. To perform punctiliously his mysterious duties toward the two ladies, and to elude or to baffle observation on his own merits-this seemed the Cavaliere's modest programme. Rowland perceived that Mrs. Light, who was not always remarkable for tact, seemed to have divined his humor on this point. She touched her glass to her lips, but offered him no compliment and immediately gave another direction to the conversation. He had brought no guitar, so that when the feast was over there was nothing to hold the little group together. Christina wandered away with Roderick to another part of the terrace; the prince, whose smile had vanished, sat gnawing the head of his cane, near Mrs. Light, and Rowland strolled apart with the Cavaliere, to whom he wished to address a friendly word in compensation for the discomfort he had inflicted on his modesty. The Cavaliere was a mine of information upon all Roman places and people; he told Rowland a number of curious anecdotes about the old Villa Mondragone. "If hi

ot go after her and insist

y proud!" said

who cultivates a passion for that young

a race of princes who for six hundred years have married none but the daughte

will not

n, for he presently continued: "It would be a great match, for she brings him neither a name nor a fortune-nothing but her beauty. But the signorina will receive no favors; I know

s knees she is working upon his jealousy by pretending to be intere

able of interesting herself seriously in an interesting young man, like your friend, and doing her utmost to discourage a splendid suitor, like the prince. Sh

lar girl

more brilliant parti

would be h

e would be circumstances..

ted suitor would also come back.

restlessly to and fro between the villa and the parapet of the terrace. Every now and then he looked at his watch. "In this count

us, and if he overlooks it h

verlook it. He

mplary lover, th

ying Miss Light, and they have sent us word that he forfeits his property if he takes his wife out of a certain line. I have investigated the question minutely, and I find this is but a fiction to frighten us. He is perfectly free; but the estates are such that it is no wonder they wish to keep them in their own hands. For Italy, it is an extraordinary case of unincumbered property. The prince has been an orphan from his third year; he has therefore had a long minority and made no inroads upon his fortune. Besid

of princes! The signora m

ably grave. "The signora has a

joined Rowland, with a smile; "

will handle that point after marriage. He 's as you see him there: a young man without many ideas, but with a very firm grasp of a single one-the conviction that Prince Casamassima is a very great person, that he greatly honors any yo

in conclusion, "that Miss Light will ac

ld make too perfect a pri

while, in listening to, say, my friend Huds

e, and gave an inscrutable smile. "Eh, dea

lly retract, in consequence not of a change of s

rce. But it is mysterious, as you say, and you

norina, then,

o much,

e is nothing but disappointment in store for th

in a moment, "go and pursue his studies in Flore

he said; "sit down here; I have something serious to say to you. I am going to talk to you as a friend. I

owland, "he s

names in Italy and owns one of the greatest properti

avaliere

ed, he 's devoured. It 's a real Italian passion; I know what that means!" And the lady gave a speaking glance, which seemed to coquet for a

s to me that you ought to find nothing easier than to

and send me word that, if she had a mind to, she would walk in the woods till midnight. Fancy the Cavaliere coming back and delivering such a message a

nly very sad,

precious young meddler to vegetate in his native v

," said Rowland. "You came and disinterre

wish to Heaven you w

done m

Take him to travel. Go to the East-go to Timbuctoo. Then, when Christina is Princ

are for him?" Rowl

ugh to give the prince a chill. If that were to happen, I don't know what I should do! I should be the most miserable of women. It would be too cruel, after all I 've suffered to make her what

period, had gathered her maternal hopes into a sacred sheaf, which she said her prayers and burnt incense to, and treated like a sort of fetish. They had been her religion; she had none other, and she performed her devotions bravely and cheerily, in the light of day. The poor old fetish had been so caressed and manipulated, so thrust in and out of its niche, so passed from hand to hand, so dressed and undressed, so mumbled and fumbled over, that it had lost by this time much of its early freshness, and seemed a rather battered and disfeatured divinity. But it was still br

. I rushed with my child to the carriage, drove home post-haste, pulled off her rags, and, as I may say, wrapped her in cotton. I had been blind, I had been insane; she was a creature in ten millions, she was to be a beauty of beauties, a priceless treasure! Every day, after that, the certainty grew. From that time I lived only for my daughter. I watched her, I caressed her from morning till night, I worshipped her. I went to see doctors about her, I took every sort of advice. I was determined she should be perfection. The things that have been done for that girl, sir-you would n't believe them; they would make you smile! Nothing was spared; if I had been told that she must have a bath every morning of molten pearls, I would have found means to give it to her. She never raised a finger for herself, she breathed nothing but perfumes, she walked upon velvet. She never was out of my sight, and from that day to this I have never said a sharp word to her. By the time she was ten years old she was beautiful as an angel, and so noticed wherever we went that I had to make her wear a veil, like a woman of twenty. Her hair reached down to her feet; her hands were the hands of a princess. Then I saw that she was as clever as she was beautiful, and that she had only to play her cards. She had masters, professors, every educational advantage. They told me she was a little prodigy. She speaks French, Italian, German, better than most natives. She has a wonderful genius for music, and might make her fortune as a pianist, if it was not made for her otherwise! I traveled all over Europe; every one told me she was a marvel. The director of the opera in Paris saw her dance at a child's party at Spa, and offered me an enormous sum if I would give her up to him and let him have her educated for the ballet. I said, 'No, I thank you, sir; she is meant to be something finer than a princesse de theatre.' I had a passionate belief that she might marry absolutely whom she chose, that she might be a princess out and out. It has never left me till this hour, and I can assure you that it has sustained me in many embarrassments. Financial, some of them; I don't mind confessing it! I have raised money on that girl's face! I 've taken her to the Jews and bade her put up her veil, and asked if the mo

! He looked at the prince and wondered whether he too had heard Mrs. Light's story. If he had he was a brave man. "I certainly hope you 'll keep him," he sa

th which she had departed. Rowland imagined that there was a faint pink flush in her cheek which she had not ca

ed and glanced from the prince to her mother, and from Rowland to the Cavaliere, and then threw back her head and burst into far-ringing laughter.

er have ventured to ask you to walk wit

say! Our walk has been charming. I hope you, on

redestined son-in-law, "I shall have something serious to sa

e to make no confessions without conferring previously with each other! They may put us on th

of his lately-stirred pity in his eyes. "Possibl

uraging. Cavaliere, you, only, look as if you had a little of the milk of human kindness left; from yo

wland imagined the prince was grateful, as it enabled him to look at her without seeming to depart from his attitude of distinguished disapproval. Rowland found himself aroused from sleep early the next morning, to see Roderick standin