Roderick Hudson

ult. He never indulged in professions (touching personal conduct) as to the future, or in remorse as to the past, and as he would have asked no praise if he had trav

me the story of the adventures of the two ladies from Northampton. Miss Garland's wish, at Leghorn, on finding they were left at the mercy of circumstances, had been to telegraph to Roderick and await an answer; for she knew that their arrival was a trifle premature. But Mrs. Hudson's maternal heart had taken the alarm. Roderick's sending for them was, to her imagination, a confession of illness, and his not being at Leghorn, a proof of it; an hour's delay was therefore cruel both to herself and to him. She insisted on immediate departure; and, unskilled as they were in the mysteries of foreign (or even of domestic) travel, they had hurried in trembling eagerness to Rome. They had arriv

rom Miss Garland's eyes the night before. It had been but a flash, for what provoked it had instantly vanished. Rowland had murmured a rapturous blessing on Roderick's head, as he perceived him instantly apprehend the situation. If he had been drinking, its gravity sobered him on the spot; in a single moment he collected his wits. The next moment, with a ringing, jovial cry, he was folding the young girl in his arms, and the next he was beside his mother's carriage, half smothered in her sobs and caresses. Rowland had recommended a hotel close at hand, and had then discreetly withdrawn. Roderick was at this time doing his part superbly, and Miss Garland's brow was serene. It was serene now, twenty-four hours later; but nevertheless, her alarm had lasted an appreciable moment. What had become of it? It had dropped down deep into her memory, and it was lying there for the present in the shade. But with another week, Rowland said to himself, it would leap erect again; the lightest friction would strike a spark from it. Rowland thought he had schooled himself to face the issue of Mary Garland's advent, casting it even in a tragical phase; but in her personal presence-in which he found a poignant mixture of the familiar and the strange-he seemed to face it and all that it might bring with it for the first time. In vulgar parlance, he stood uneasy in his shoes. He felt like walking on tiptoe, not to arouse the sleeping shadows. He felt, indeed, almost like saying that they might have their own way later, if they would only allow to these first few days the clear light of ardent contemplation. For Rowland at last was ardent, and all the bells within his soul were ringing bravely in j

riminate and reflect, and to come to Italy for the first time-that is one of the greatest pleasures that life offers us. It is but righ

went to the window again. "I expect to enjoy it,

for 'proficiency in Ancient History'-the seven kings, or is it the seven hills? and Quintus Curtius and Julius Caesar and-and that period, you know. I believe I have my medal somewhere in a drawer, now, but I have forgotten all about the kings. But after Rod

Italian Republics,"

ng; whereupon Mary blushed. "

her-a shorter one-Ro

ind them i

ye

like h

e of

's answer! And d

oment. "I have

such advantages. You come straight to the highest authorities. Roderick, I suppose, will show you the practice of art, and Mr

y simply living," said Rowland; "by going

of art being out there in the streets! We did n't see much of it last evening, as we drove from the dep

ary, gravely, and wandere

Miss Garland. Rowland sat with Mrs. Hudson, who evidently had a word which she deemed

if I owed it all to you, sir. To find my poor boy so handsome, so prosperous, so elegant, so famous-and ever

derick to find effective inspiration in those confidently expectant eyes. It was to be supposed that he was seeking for it now; he remained sometime at the window with his cousin. But at last he turned away and came over to the fireside with a contraction of the eyebrows which seemed to intimate that Miss Garland's influence was for the moment, at least, not soothing. She presently followed him, and for a

he mill," Roderick said to his mother. "And be it hereby

"So long as I have you with me I don't care where I g

owland? If you had seen the big hole I have been making in it! Where will y

e will go first to Saint Peter's. Miss Garland,

rst to Roderick's stud

place," said Roderic

ings before we can look contentedly

d Roderick. "You may see what the

er, who, in response, glanced appealingly at Ma

"What has happened to it these two y

ed a great deal," sai

good face-very interesting, very solemn. It has very fine lines in it; something mi

"My son, my son," she said with

own mother!" he cried. "If you please, madame, you 'll sit to me for that head.

bly do something eminently original. She gave her promise, at last, after many soft, inar

d had felt disposed he might have made a joke of her intense seriousness. From time to time he told her the name of a place or a building, and she nodded, without looking at him. When they emerged into the great square between Bernini's colonnades, she laid her hand on Mrs. Hudson's arm and sank back in the carriage, staring up at the vast yellow facade of the church. Inside the church, Roderick gave his arm to his mother, and Rowland constituted himself the especial guide of Miss Garland. He walked with her slowly everywhere, and made the entire circuit, telling her all he knew of the history of the building. This was a great deal, but she listened att

think of Europe?"

horrible!" sh

rri

rangely-I cou

it that

that seems to have died her

u 're pleased-yo

y mind had been knocked down at a stroke. Before me lies an immense new world, and it ma

s fastened on that narrow little world. Forget

eemed to see in it the vague shapes of certain people and things at home. To enjoy, as you say,

ease to trouble you. Enjoy, enjoy;

ne espe

of doing the most liberal justice to everything inter

w," said Miss

don't want to seem patronizing, but I suspect that your mind is susceptib

the gorgeous vista of the great church. "But w

he better!" c

the worst. It seems to me very frightful to

s well do it with a good grace as with a bad! Since one

you call lif

you mean

ndor, all Rome-pictures, rui

. All these things are impregnated with life; they

ivilization: I am afr

e number of very beautiful things-things that you are made to understand. They won't leave you as they found

ft in the dome. "I am not sur

" said Rowland. "You need n't be afraid to tell the truth.

e things in Rome, then," she added in a moment, turni

of t

t beautiful thin

estio

which things h

to taste. I shoul

ee them all? to know, at le

s leisure. The more time you spend among them, the more you care for them." After a moment's hesitation

ay be that I shall always live here, amon

hould like to see y

m greatly altered. But

wh

say about my understanding, but even if they are true, it won't matter. I shall be what I was made, what I

ear it: that 's an e

ore, you will not always think so k

say something to you: Be what you are, be what

iss Garland; but she seemed at least slightly disturbe

e great Catholic temples. "Mary, dear," she whispered, "suppose we had to kiss that dreadful brass toe. If I could only have ke

erse. "It 's sublimer than anything that y

mes gives us very difficult

cult. But it 's not sublime. I am speaking of ceremonies, of forms. It is in my line, you know, to make muc

intently and then shook

y n

know; I c

squalid, savage-looking peasant, a tattered ruffian of the most orthodox Italian aspect, had been performing

thinks he is as good as any one! And her

d Christina Light. He was stupefied: had she suddenly embraced the Catholic faith? It was but a few weeks before that she had treated him to a passionate profession of indifference. Had she entered the church to put her

d gently, to Rowland, "that Rome contained some of the most

udson, she looked at Mary Garland. At Mary Garland she looked fixedly, piercingly, from head to foot, as the slow pace at which she was advancing made possible. Then suddenly, as if she had per

Hudson, in an awe-struck whisper. "I

is the most beautiful girl in Euro

red Mrs. Hudson, vaguely shoc

nge eyes," said Ma

r way they passed Mrs. Light, the Cavaliere, and the poodle, and Rowland informed his

. "What splendid people he must know!

little old gent

or?" Rowland asked, str

o!" she ans

iew with Miss Light had perceptibly brightened his eye. "So you are acquaint

a princess!" said

so," urged Mrs. Hudso

e was going to b

n that she is even going

Rowland, "I

dio, and he found Miss Garland sitting alone at the open window, turning the leaves of some book of artistic or antiquarian reference that he had given her. She always had a smile, she was always eager, alert, responsive. She might be grave by nature, she might be sad by circumstance, she might have secret doubts and pangs, but she was essentially young and strong and fresh and able to enjoy. Her enjoyment was not especially demonstrative, but it was curiously diligent. Rowland felt that it was not amusement and sensation that she coveted, but knowledge-facts that she might noiselessly lay away, piece by piece, in the perfumed darkness of her serious mind, so that, under this head at least, she should not be a perfectly portionless bride. She never merely pretended to understand; she let things go, in her modest fashion, at the moment, but she watched them on their way, over the crest of the hill, and when her fancy seemed not likely to be missed it went hurrying after them and ran breathless at their side, as it were, and begged them for the secret. Rowland took an immense satisfaction in observing that she never mistook the second-best for the best, and that when she was in the presence of a masterpiece, she recognized the occasion as a mighty one. She said many things which he thought very profound-that is, if they really had the fine intention he suspected. This point he usually tried to ascertain; but he was obliged to proceed cautiously, for in her mistrustful shyness it seemed to her that cross-examination must necessarily be ironical. She wished to know just where she was going-what she would gain or lose. This was partly on account of a native intellectual purity, a temper of mind that had not lived with its door ajar, as one might say, upon the high-road of thought, for passing ideas to drop in and out at their pleasure; but had made much of a few long visits from guests cherished and honored-guests whose presence was a solemnity. But it wa

etics a perte de vue. He discovered that she made notes of her likes and dislikes in a new-looking little memorandum book, and he wondered to what extent she reported his own discourse. These were charming hours. The galleries had been so cold all winter that Rowland had been an exile from them; but now that the sun was already scorching in the great square between the colonnades, where the twin fountains flashed almost fiercely, the marble coolness of the long, image-bordered vistas made them a delightful refuge. The great herd of tourists had almost departed, and our two friends often found themselves, for half an hour at a time, in sole and tranquil possession of the beautiful Braccio Nuovo. Here and there was an open window, where they

stness with which the words were uttered. Rowland

fine," she said, "but that sculp

pliant to social uses than when he had seen her at home, that he had a desire to draw from her some categorical account of her occupa

r growth, then, was unconscious? You did

pe is more delightful than I supposed; and I don't think that, mentally, I had

country which produced you!" Rowlan

nge-to assimilate Europe, I

made you thus far; let America finish you! I should like to ship you back without delay and see w

is broken; the thread is snap

At this she colored a little, and he said that in default of any larger confidence it would at least be a satisfaction to make her confess to that charge. But even this satisfaction she denied him, and his only revenge was in making, two or three time

if she had been curious in the matter, she might have detected a spark of restless ardor, with having an insatiable avidity f

and said that she knew she was eager for facts. "One must make hay while the sun shines," she added. "I must lay up a sto

ble to say-that fortune possibly had in store for her a bitter disappointment, she would have been capable of

this point interested him, for he had not the slightest real apprehension that she was dry or pedantic. The simple human truth was, the poor fellow was jealous of science. In preaching science to her, he had over-estimated his powers of self-effa

y inconsistent, Mr

ow

plunge into all this. I was all ready; I only wanted a little push; yours was a great one; h

aid Rowland, "I strik

is the

played my p

is your part supp

t. "That of usefulne

aid; and picking up her Murray,

it was not uttered with such an intention. "Do you remember," he asked, "my begging you

taci

this: whenever you catch me in the act of what you call inconsistency, ask me the

rred bones of the past; where damp, frescoed corridors, relics, possibly, of Nero's Golden House, serve as gigantic bowers, and where, in the springtime, you may sit on a Latin inscription, in the shade of a flowering almond-tree, and admire the composition of the Campagna. The day left a deep impression on Rowland's mind, partly owing to its intrinsic sweetne

in one to contradict it. But if one is idle, surely it is depressing to live, year after year, among the ashes of things that once were

t wo

little beggars; though I am sadly afraid

nd, "and yet I have kep

idle," she answe

o you remember our talking

s your coming abroad succeeded, fo

at it has turned out

you h

I loo

sitated a moment-"I imagine you loo

that we saw just now in yonder ex

me back here

prob

ettled her

g time. I live only

ou never

never!' You handle large ideas. I

you like

like it

r: but presently she asked,

e more freely. "A book! W

thing about art

the learning n

she had supposed otherwise. "You ought, at any rate," s

supposed that if ever a man

d, "to careless observers. But we know-we k

, and she brought out the l

; "she has been thinking she owed it to me, and it seemed to

made to know very well what we all feel. Mrs. Hudson tells me that she has told you what she feels.

the tragic mask much more than the comic. But Miss Garland

es on vacancy, it was to be supposed that his fancy was hovering about the half-shaped image in his studio, exquisite even in its immaturity. He said little, but his silence did not of necessity imply disaffection, for he evidently found it a deep personal luxury to lounge away the hours in an atmosphere so charged with feminine tenderness. He was not alert, he suggested nothing in the way of excursions (Rowland was the prime mover in such as were attempted), but he conformed passively at least to the tranquil temper of the two women, and made no harsh comments nor sombre allusions. Rowland wondered whether he had, after all, done his friend injustice in denying him the sentiment of duty. He refused invitations, to Rowland's knowledge, in order to dine at the jejune little table-d'hote; wherever his spiri