DOI Artikel:
James, Henry: The Coxon Fund
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21215#0312
308 The Coxon Fund
if this had happened it would have been through one's feeling that
there could be none for such a woman.
I recognised her superiority when I asked her about the aunt of
the disappointed young lady : it sounded like a sentence from a
phrase-book. She triumphed in what she told me and she may
have triumphed still more in what she withheld. My friend of
the other evening, Miss Anvoy, had but lately come to England ;
Lady Coxon, the aunt, had been established here for years in
consequence of her marriage with the late Sir Gregory of thatilk.
She had a house in the Regent's Park and a Bath-chair and a
page ; and above all she had sympathy. Mrs. Saltram had made
her acquaintance through mutual friends. This vagueness caused
me to feel how much I was out of it and how large an inde-
pendent circle Mrs. Saltram had at her command. I should have
been glad to know more about the charming Miss Anvoy, but I
feit that I should know mostby not depriving her of heradvantage,
as she might have mysterious means of depriving me of my
knowledge. For the present, moreover, this experience was
arrested, Lady Coxon having in fact gone abroad, accompanied by
her niece. The niece, besides being immensely clever, was an
heiress, Mrs. Saltram said ; the only daughter and the lighf of
the eyes of some great American merchant, a man, over there, of
endless indulgences and dollars. She had pretty clothes and pretty
manners, and she had, what was prettier still, the great thing of
all. The great thing of all for Mrs. Saltram was always sym-
pathy, and she spoke as if during the absence of these ladies she
might not know where to turn for it. A few months later
indeed, when they had come back, her tone perceptibly changed :
she alluded to them, on my leading her up to it, rather as to
persons in her debt for favours received. What had happened I
didn't know, but I saw it would take only a little more or a little
less
if this had happened it would have been through one's feeling that
there could be none for such a woman.
I recognised her superiority when I asked her about the aunt of
the disappointed young lady : it sounded like a sentence from a
phrase-book. She triumphed in what she told me and she may
have triumphed still more in what she withheld. My friend of
the other evening, Miss Anvoy, had but lately come to England ;
Lady Coxon, the aunt, had been established here for years in
consequence of her marriage with the late Sir Gregory of thatilk.
She had a house in the Regent's Park and a Bath-chair and a
page ; and above all she had sympathy. Mrs. Saltram had made
her acquaintance through mutual friends. This vagueness caused
me to feel how much I was out of it and how large an inde-
pendent circle Mrs. Saltram had at her command. I should have
been glad to know more about the charming Miss Anvoy, but I
feit that I should know mostby not depriving her of heradvantage,
as she might have mysterious means of depriving me of my
knowledge. For the present, moreover, this experience was
arrested, Lady Coxon having in fact gone abroad, accompanied by
her niece. The niece, besides being immensely clever, was an
heiress, Mrs. Saltram said ; the only daughter and the lighf of
the eyes of some great American merchant, a man, over there, of
endless indulgences and dollars. She had pretty clothes and pretty
manners, and she had, what was prettier still, the great thing of
all. The great thing of all for Mrs. Saltram was always sym-
pathy, and she spoke as if during the absence of these ladies she
might not know where to turn for it. A few months later
indeed, when they had come back, her tone perceptibly changed :
she alluded to them, on my leading her up to it, rather as to
persons in her debt for favours received. What had happened I
didn't know, but I saw it would take only a little more or a little
less