Sacred Fount
The Sacred Fount
作者：James, Henry, 1843-1916
体例：题 章数：126
字数：339,393 来源：Project Gutenberg
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cache/epub/32939/pg32939.txt（Project Gutenberg）
章节目录
共 126 题- THE SACRED FOUNT
- BY
- HENRY JAMES
- NEW YORK
- CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
- COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY
- CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
- THE SACRED FOUNT
- II
- I reflected. "Mrs. Server? Does Mrs. Server make love?"
- He seemed to think again. "I don't know. You'll see."
- But he had already broken away. "What has that to do with it?"
- He met my eyes a moment--then glanced about. "Where is he?"
- Long disengaged the ash from his cigarette. "No. Why should I?"
- He appeared to have strayed, in our interval, far. "'Fabulous'?"
- He had quite forgotten. "How then did I put it?"
- To which my friend, as we quitted the room, replied simply: "Oh!"
- He fairly pulled up in our march. "Have you got him on the brain?"
- He was much amused. "How you polish them off!"
- My friend was charmed with my ingenuity. "How you've worked it out!"
- He looked surprised. "Something still more?"
- III
- My friend had caught up. "Oh, you've a standard of wit!"
- She wondered. "Such a one as whose else then?"
- This Mrs. Brissenden grasped. "Oh, you mean in the lady's?"
- She surveyed me in splendid serenity. "But what have we in common?"
- IV
- I immediately named the other. "Do you mean Ford Obert?"
- She gave me, with a laugh, one of her beautiful looks. "Yes!"
- It was indeed a fresh view. "They strike you as characteristic?"
- I had to wait a moment. "Do you mean he struck you as avoiding her?"
- I pondered. "Different from whom?"
- I could again but feebly repeat it. "A great light?"
- I wondered a little. "Honourable to whom?"
- I literally blushed for her. "Squared?"
- I had unfortunately to discriminate here. "No, not like Lady John."
- It kept me for a minute staring at her. "So--do you know?--are _you_!"
- But by this time she was satisfied. "It's _he_!"
- VI
- VII
- I considered. "Really?"
- He just hesitated. "You haven't any idea at all what it represents?"
- I could only be surprised. "The most harmless man in the house?"
- It gave me a kind of shock. "A creature so beautiful, and so--so----"
- I had all his attention again. "Is that what she _is_?"
- But he waited himself. "Haven't they shown you----?"
- I showed myself at a loss. "Of 'this'----?"
- He almost jumped at it. "Well, that's just it!"
- But Brissenden now was all with his own thought. "She _isn't_ happy."
- I hesitated. "Do you mean in her circumstances?"
- I turned it over. "How you _do_ get on with her!"
- He put it a little differently. "Well, to be thoroughly pleased."
- I weighed it. "But isn't that the best thing?"
- He still ranged the tree-tops. "Yes."
- He wondered. "Does she know?"
- I had still, after all, to dodge a little. "Know what?"
- His poor old face fairly pleaded. "But I want so to know."
- He puzzled it out. "And being willing, therefore----"
- VIII
- IX
- I emulated her reflection. "Do they complain of it to you?"
- I debated. "I haven't thought. And you?"
- He seemed to wonder. "'Lingers?' For what?"
- I waited a moment, then went on: "Did you happen to count them?"
- He gave a jerk of impatience. "Go and see for yourself!"
- Once more I just waited. "But suppose I should find Mrs. Server----?"
- XI
- I ventured to keep it up. "Oh, don't you?"
- His good nature was proof. "I don't care."
- He had to think an instant for this. "No--not quite to that."
- He tried in a manner to oblige me. "To something else."
- He on his side considered. "What do you call all the elements?"
- I was now full of concurrence. "Ah, naturally, above all, the wife."
- My companion stared. "At this extraordinary hour?"
- He looked vague. "Ah, but _that_----"
- XII
- I met it with amazement. "Why, whom have I told?"
- She slowly, at this, headed about. "To Long himself?"
- XIII
- It took her but an instant. "Surely--to have made him out horrid."
- I could only want to fix it. "'Horrid'----?"
- It came back to her dim. "Are we accusing each other?"
- Mrs. Brissenden flushed. "You didn't insist it wasn't anybody!"
- She looked about at the top of the room. "The mistake's now yours."
- She had to think even to do that. "At what point?"
- She gave her high head a toss. "If it's yours it's nobody else's!"
- But it gave her at least a chance. "Oh, your imagination!"
- Equally with her voice her face echoed me again. "Teach you?"
- It naturally struck me. "Crazy?"
- I turned it over. "But do you call that intelligible?"
- Here indeed was an affair. "Not sincere--_I_?"
- Again she stood to it. "Everything."
- She hesitated. "Well--yes, if you say so."
- She continued to think. "To do with what?"
- She wondered. "Was it a 'situation'?"
- She kept her distance. "'In anything'?"
- Well, she was brave. "It _was_. But it's not, thank God, now!"
- I hung on her lips. "But you can _now_?"
- I remained suspended. "Ah, but this is lovely! It's what I want."
- I wondered. "What had you said to him?"
- She pieced it out. "Nothing--or very little. But I had listened."
- I mused, sceptical but reasonable. "He _was_."
- XIV
- I thought. "To me?"
- I wondered. "Well, names are a convenience. People catch me in the act?"
- I started. "As that I perpetrate them?"
- I followed. "Horrors?"
- She hesitated. "She _is_ lost. But she can take care of herself."
- Oh, how it sharpened my look! "No, no--she wouldn't need that."
- I kept it up. "She would do perfectly."
- Mrs. Briss was not behind. "My dear man, she has _got_ to do!"
- This was brisker still, but I held my way. "Almost anyone would do."
- It pulled her up a trifle. "'Confirmed'----?"
- It pulled _me_ up a trifle. "Brissenden knows?"
- I really couldn't but admire her. "Ah--so you _have_ talked!"
- I cast about. "Since when?"
- But she had it ready. "Since this evening."
- I could only meet her with admiration. "You're of an astuteness----!"
- She stared. "Not liking it?"
- I sought to combine firmness with my mildness. "What do you do with it?"
- But she could match me at this. "I thought you wouldn't hear of it!"
- But suddenly she was almost sharp with me. "Isn't what?"
- I was at sea. "'Knew'? But you saw."
- It in fact brought light. "Knew it by _him_?"
- I gasped--she turned it out so. "_She_--Mrs. Server?"
- THE END