DOI Artikel:
James, Henry: The Coxon Fund
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21215#0344
34°
The Coxon Fund
It afterwards made me uncomfortable for her that, alone in the
lodging Mrs. Mulville had put before me as dreary, she should
have in any degree the air of waiting for her fate ; so that I was
presently relieved at hearing of her having gone to stay at Cold-
field. If she was in England at all while the engagement stood
the only proper place for her was under Lady Maddock's wing.
Now that she was unfortunate and relatively poor, perhaps her
prospective sister-in-law would be wholly won over. There
would be much to say, if I had space, about the way her behaviour,
as I caught gleams of it, ministered to the image that had taken
birth in my mind, to my private amusement, as I listened to
George Gravener in the railway carriage. I watched her in the
light of this queer possibility—a formidable thing certainly to
meet—and I was aware that it coloured, extravagantly perhaps,
my interpretation of her very looks and tones. At Wimbledon
for instance it had seemed to me that she was literally afraid of
Saltram, in dread of a coercion that she had begun already to feel.
I had come up to town with her the next day and had been con-
vinced that, though deeply interested, she was immensely on her
guard. She would show as little as possible before she should be
ready to show everything. What this final exhibition might be
on the part of a girl perceptibly so able to think things out I
found it great sport to conjecture. It would have been exciting
to be approached by her, appealed to by her for advice ; but I
prayed to heaven I mightn't find myself in such a predicament.
If there was really a present rigour in the Situation of which
Gravener had sketched for me the elements she would have to get
out of her difficulty by herseif. It was not I who had launched
her and it was_not I who could help her. I didn't fail to ask
myself why, since I couldn't help her, I should think so much
about her. It was in part my suspense that was responsible for
this:
The Coxon Fund
It afterwards made me uncomfortable for her that, alone in the
lodging Mrs. Mulville had put before me as dreary, she should
have in any degree the air of waiting for her fate ; so that I was
presently relieved at hearing of her having gone to stay at Cold-
field. If she was in England at all while the engagement stood
the only proper place for her was under Lady Maddock's wing.
Now that she was unfortunate and relatively poor, perhaps her
prospective sister-in-law would be wholly won over. There
would be much to say, if I had space, about the way her behaviour,
as I caught gleams of it, ministered to the image that had taken
birth in my mind, to my private amusement, as I listened to
George Gravener in the railway carriage. I watched her in the
light of this queer possibility—a formidable thing certainly to
meet—and I was aware that it coloured, extravagantly perhaps,
my interpretation of her very looks and tones. At Wimbledon
for instance it had seemed to me that she was literally afraid of
Saltram, in dread of a coercion that she had begun already to feel.
I had come up to town with her the next day and had been con-
vinced that, though deeply interested, she was immensely on her
guard. She would show as little as possible before she should be
ready to show everything. What this final exhibition might be
on the part of a girl perceptibly so able to think things out I
found it great sport to conjecture. It would have been exciting
to be approached by her, appealed to by her for advice ; but I
prayed to heaven I mightn't find myself in such a predicament.
If there was really a present rigour in the Situation of which
Gravener had sketched for me the elements she would have to get
out of her difficulty by herseif. It was not I who had launched
her and it was_not I who could help her. I didn't fail to ask
myself why, since I couldn't help her, I should think so much
about her. It was in part my suspense that was responsible for
this: