Roderick Hudson

woman seated on one of the fragments of stone which are ranged along the line of the ancient parapet. It seemed to him that he had seen her before, but he was unable to localize he

he ruin. The views were as fine as he had supposed; the lights on the Sabine Mountains had never been more lovely. He gazed to his satisfaction and retraced his steps. In a moment he paused again on an abutment somewhat lower, from which the glance dropped dizzily into the interior. There are chance anfractuosities of ruin in the upper portions of the Coliseum which offer a very fair imitation of the rugged face of an Alpine cliff. In those days a multitude of delicate flowers and sprays of wild herbage had found a friendly soil in the hoary crevices, and they bloomed and nodded amid the antique masonry as freely as they would have done in the virgin rock. Rowland was turning away, when he heard a sound of voices rising up from below. He had but to step slightly forward to find himself overlooking two persons who had seated themselves on a narrow ledge, in a sunny corner. They had apparently had an eye to extreme privacy, but they had not observed that their

ness-it made her words rise with peculiar distinctness to Rowland's ear-"

"I maintain that I am not weak! I am incomplete, perhaps

ng, so long as it keeps you from splendid achievement. Is it written,

e you dre

t in a larger mould than most of the vile human breed, to be large in character, great in talent, strong in will! In such a man as that, I say, one's weary imagination at last may rest; or it may wander if it wil

I believe I have

oes out, you tell me, for whole weeks together. From your own a

r you say them they make me feel as if I could work

and yet I believe I have one merit! I should know a great character when I saw it, and I should delight in it with a generosity which would do something toward the remission of my sins. For a man who should really give me a certain feeling-which I have never had, but which I should know when it came-I would send Prince Casamassima and his millions to perdition. I don't know what you th

d when I say that I thank you from my soul, my voic

of moving. "You pretend to such devotion," she went on, "and yet I am s

o speak of her," said

nds of good. I am certain she is a far better gir

ment," said Roderick; "though you have such a

t it was hideous, and yet said, 'No matter, I 'll brave the penalty, I 'll bear the shame!' You have closed your eyes; you have tried to stifle remembrance, to persuade yourself that you were not behaving as badly as you seemed to be, and th

bent, and his hands clapsed around his legs. He b

ut to be, after all, rather ordinary? Fancy feeling one's self ground in the mill of a third-rate talent! If you have doubts about yourself, I can't reassure you; I have too many doubts myself, about everything in this weary world. You have gone up like a rocket, in your profession, they tell me; are you going to come down like the stick? I don't pretend to know; I repeat frankly what I have said before-that all modern sculpture seems to me we

ke him fling himself back with an inarticulate murmur. Rowland, admonished by the silence, was on the point of turning away, but he wa

"as intensely blue as it looks through my veil?" She spoke apparently with t

elicate plant of radiant hue, which sprouted from the top of an

ng. At last, glancing round, "Put up your veil!" he said.

r!" she murmured, leani

u like to

t and then broke i

ave it?" he repeated

eat me up," she answered. "I

which he stood by a rugged surface of vertical wall, which dropped straight into the dusky vaults beh

ing it you

re you crazy? Do you m

kill myself

u do!" And she grasped

ith a violent gesture to her former

urmured beseechingly, claspin

oice almost thunderous, a voice which awakened the echoes of the mighty ruin, he repeated, "Sit d

ains apparently of a brick cornice supporting the arch of a vault which had long since collapsed. It was by lodging his toes on these loose brackets and grasping with his hands at certain mouldering protuberances on a level with his head, that Roderick intended to proceed. The relics of the cornice were utterly worthless as a support. Rowland had observed this, and yet, for a moment, he had hesitated. If the thing were

her wonder and alarm. "My dear Roderick," said Rowland, "I am only preventing you from doi

es, as if with a spasm, of retarded dizziness. "I won't resist you," he said

ght past him and addressed Rowland: "Be so good a

ifiable, and he had made it as prompt as possible. Roderick was far from hanging his head, like a man who has been caught in the perpetration of an extravagant folly; but if he held it more erect than usual Rowland believed that this was much less because he had made a show of personal daring than because he had triumphantly proved to Christina that, like a certain person she had dreamed of, he too could speak the language of decision. Christina descended to the arena in silence, apparently occupie

e omitted the ceremony of denouncing himself to Roderick. He preferred, howev

" Roderick said, "a proof t

isting you round her finger. I don't think she exactly meant to defy you; but your crazy pursui

meditatively; "she i

you expect to

into his pockets and looked as if he had an

late interview, what do yo

ould be plain sailing. But she

y sure you a

t she shall n

d the Corso, when he asked his compani

ettle down to work after such a scene as that. I was not afraid of breaking my neck the

lemnly: "that the next time you meet Miss Light

rsons whom Roderick declared it was infamy to be paired with. There had been grand tailors, he said, who declined to make you a coat unless you got the hat you were to wear with it from an artist of their own choosing. It seemed to him that he had an equal right to exact that his statue should not form part of the same system of ornament as the "Pearl of Perugia," a picture by an American confrere who had, in Mr. Leavenworth's opinion, a prodigious eye for color. As a customer, Mr. Leavenworth used to drop into Roderick's studio, to see how things were getting on, and give a friendly hint or so. He would seat himself squarely, plant hi

rks gave him the smallest desire to make acquaintance with the insides of their heads. For Gloriani he professed a superb contempt, and, having been once to look at his wares, never crossed his threshold again. The only one of the fraternity for whom by his own admission he cared a straw was little Singleton; but he expressed his regard only in a kind of sublime hilarity whenever he encountered this humble genius, and quite forgot his existence in the intervals. He had never been to see him, but Singleton edged his way, from time to time, timidly, into Roderick's studio, and agreed with characteristic modesty that brilliant fellows like the sculptor might consent to receive homage, but could hardly be expected to render it. Roderick never exactly accepted homage, and apparently did not quite observe whether poor Singleton spoke in admiration or in blame. Roderick's taste as to companions was singularly capricious. There were very good fellows, who were disposed to culti

some renown in the Spanish colony, and very late, on his way home, Roderick came up to Rowland's rooms, in whose windows he had seen a light. Rowland was going to bed, but Roderick flung himself into an armchair and chattered for an hour. The friends of the Costa Rican envoy were as amusing as himself, and in very much the same line. The mistress of the house had worn a yellow satin dress, and gold heels to her slippers, and at the close of the entertainment had sent for a pair of castanets, tucked up her petticoats, and danced a fandango, while the gentlemen sat cross-legged on the floor. "It was awfully low," Roderick said; "all of a sudden I perceived it, and bolted. Nothing of that kind ever amuses me to the end: before it 's half over it bores me to death; it makes me sick. Hang it, why can't a poor fellow enjoy things in peace? My illusions are all broken-winded; they won't carry me twenty paces! I can't laugh and forget; my laugh dies away before it begins. Your friend Stendhal writes on his book-covers (I never got farther) that he has seen too early in life la

said Rowland, "wh

y good," he answered. "But my idea

e of his metamorphoses, but he had no desire to officiate as chorus to the play

ralize at this hour of the night. You think I want to throw dust into your eye

king any view at a

given me

y suspended judgm

then positively t

ark and made people care for you, you should n't twist your weapon abou

e, but no part of Rome seemed more historic, in the sense of being weighted with a crushing past, blighted with the melancholy of things that had had their day. When the yellow afternoon sunshine slept on the sallow, battered walls, and lengthened the shadows in the grassy courtyards of small closed churches, the place acquired a strange fascination. The church of Saint Cecilia has one of these sunny, waste-looking courts; the edifice seems abandoned to silence and the charity of chance devotion. Rowland never passed it without going in, and he wa

tired. She was dressed simply, as if for walking and escaping observation. When he h

ooking for Mr. Hudson? He is

. "This is a strang

in a carriage. I get horribly restless. I must move; I must do something and see something. Mamma suggests a cup of tea. Meanwhile I put on an old dress and half a dozen veils, I take Assunta under my arm, and we start

not to walk would, I think, be poor pleasure. But you ar

ough to sit

you my company

e to amuse me. I am

d he found a peculiar excitement in talking to her. The background of her nature, as he would have called it, was large and mysterious, and it emitted strange, fantastic gleams and flashes. Watching for these r

stina motioned her away. "No, no; while you are about it, say a few dozen more!" she said. "Pray for me,

degree," Rowland asked, "the

nd the Life of Saint Catherine. I fully believed in the miracles of the saints, and I was dying to have one of my own. The least little accident that could have been twisted into a mirac

nite capacity for extemporized reminiscence adapted to the mood of the hour. She liked to idealize herself, to take interesting and picturesque attitudes to her own imagination; and the vivacity and spontaneity of her character gave her, really, a starting-point in experience; so that the many-colored flowers of fiction which blossomed in her talk were not so much perversions, as sympathetic exaggerations, of fact. And R

ked Christina, looking at

ieve i

nder a while, and then gave a littl

n that line have n

I have

oo young t

ung! My mother took care of that. I w

a moment, "that you are fond of

," she demanded at last, "to win my eternal gratit

st to know what yo

d to learn even the things I imagine about myself, and shoc

ns. But, at a venture, I promise you to catch you

trying to flatter me? I thought you and I had falle

push his advantage farther. The opportunity seemed excellent. But while he was hesitating as to just how to beg

n't!" said Rowland, with

ghty mystery it cannot be put into wor

rt of my life, and I can't detach mysel

nd aggressive. It should wish to make converts,

's general disposition. I am not aggre

tell the truth, my lonely musings, before you came in, were eloquent enough, in their way. What do you know of anything but this strange, terrible world that surrounds

ws the contrary. But one's religion is extr

as this it certai

is your particular qua

akes it seriously? Poor stupid Assunta there gives in her adhesion in a jargon she does n't understand, and you and I, proper, passionless tourists, come lounging in to rest from a walk. And yet the Catholic church was once the proudest institution in the world, and had quite its own way with men's souls. When such a

hensive," said Rowland, smiling, "that on

, because it 's sure to be half-hearted. Yo

you kn

am an o

ted, I suppose, but I assure

your honesty. To begin

t have me com

uch I know! You need n't protest; I ask no questions. You wi

n-because I had not been in a month, because I was passing, because I admire you. It would be because I should

particular, in this ocean of inan

ether you w

heaven it 's no

nableness. You perhaps remember that I gave

ll this time? Explode! I pr

g. "The case is simply this," he went on. "It was by my advice he renounced his career at home and embraced his present one. I made him burn his ships. I brought him to Rome, I launched him in the world, and I stand surety, in a measure, to-to his mot

nd her silence now had something which it is hardly extravagant to call portentous. He had of course asked himself how far it was questionable taste to inform an unprotected girl, for the needs of a cause, that another man admired her; the thing, superficially, had an uncomfortable analogy with

I," he asked, "from this point of

underst

on to be happ

great in his profession? And for that you

's a general rule, but I

very happy, he would

least do hims

you mean a

eat d

ked and polished slabs of the pavement. At last, looking up, "Yo

no m

ill engag

est of my

u say, he should be made happy

You probably know that your lovers have rather a restless time of it. I can answer for two of them. You don't know your own mind very well, I imagin

know it. I am a h

appeal to your generosity. I am pretty sure yo

I cannot imagine!

impatiently. "I cannot ima

en, very gently, "I am not so

question of whether circumstances don't

I can be bullied

and passionate enough when he 's left to himself. The sooner passion is at rest, therefore, the sooner he will settle down to work, and the fewer emotions he has that are mere emotions and nothing more, the better for him.

s you say, all will be wel

but things will be easier. He will be

now? Wherein does

that 's running down. He is moody, d

a list! And it

turn to you because you are a more tangible,

to measure the effect of his venture; she rather surprised him by her gentleness. At last,

se that she would be

tly on a stone bench, and unprovided, on this occasion, with military consolation, gave him a bright, frank smile, which might have been

sked, looking at him, "of

't lik

much in lov

to marry him.

she

he is

much in lov

r too litt

u have settled in your mind, then, that

ely, until the co

ed? How do you know w

; but, like you, I am an observer. Hudson ha

e. One must hope so, at least. On the other hand, simply as a

disadvantage. "There are doubtless many good things you might do, if you had proper opportunity," he said. "But you seem to be sailing with a current which leaves

hopelessly frivolous. Yo

e to belong, both by character and by circumstance, to what is called the world, the great

would depend upon the artist. Extraordinary tal

ed. "That is

take a low view of me-no, you need n't protest-I won

ings do

ble education. There must be some good in me, since I have p

Light!" Rowl

You don't want to hear? you don't

o? You need n't j

gain. "Is there not some novel or some play," she asked at last, "in which some beautiful, wi

id Rowland. "I ho

ion-that in ceasing to flirt with Mr. Hudson, so that he may go about his business,

she would deserve the finest name in the world; but he instantly suspected tha

greatly respect," he con

nt she beckoned to her maid. "Wha

o see about those laces that were sent to be washed. You said also that you wished to say three sharp words to the Buonvicini about your pink dress. You want some moss-rosebuds for to-night, and you won't

sew them in a kind of immense apron, down the front of my dress. Packed tight together, eh? It will be delightfully barbarous. And then

ng w

h Embassy, or

ina? Dio buono! You must gi

ed; he imagined he saw the traces of hastily suppressed tears. They had lost time, she said, and they must hurry; she sent Assunta to look for a fiacre. She remained silent a while, scratching the ground with the point of her parasol, and then at last, looking up, she thanked Rowland for his confidence in her "reasonableness." "It 's really very comfortable to be asked, to be expected, to do something good, after all the horrid things one has been us

el very brutal,

ellow that it would be r

e him no more,

ber promising me, soon after we first met, that at the end of

foolish

rolled away. Rowland stood for some minutes, looking after it, and then went his way with a sigh. If this expressed genera

it. Begin a

C.

evening upon Roderick, and found one in the information offered him at the door, by t