登陆注册
5198300000017

第17章

Poor woman, before we parted for the night my mind was at rest as to HER capacity for entertaining one.

She told me more about their affairs than I had hoped;there was no need to be prying, for it evidently drew her out simply to feel that I listened, that I cared.

She ceased wondering why I cared, and at last, as she spoke of the brilliant life they had led years before, she almost chattered.

It was Miss Tita who judged it brilliant; she said that when they first came to live in Venice, years and years before (I saw that her mind was essentially vague about dates and the order in which events had occurred), there was scarcely a week that they had not some visitor or did not make some delightful passeggio in the city.They had seen all the curiosities;they had even been to the Lido in a boat (she spoke as if I might think there was a way on foot); they had had a collation there, brought in three baskets and spread out on the grass.

I asked her what people they had known and she said, Oh! very nice ones--the Cavaliere Bombicci and the Contessa Altemura, with whom they had had a great friendship.Also English people--the Churtons and the Goldies and Mrs.Stock-Stock, whom they had loved dearly; she was dead and gone, poor dear.

That was the case with most of their pleasant circle (this expression was Miss Tita's own), though a few were left, which was a wonder considering how they had neglected them.

She mentioned the names of two or three Venetian old women; of a certain doctor, very clever, who was so kind--he came as a friend, he had really given up practice; of the avvocato Pochintesta, who wrote beautiful poems and had addressed one to her aunt.

These people came to see them without fail every year, usually at the capo d'anno, and of old her aunt used to make them some little present--her aunt and she together:

small things that she, Miss Tita, made herself, like paper lampshades or mats for the decanters of wine at dinner or those woolen things that in cold weather were worn on the wrists.

The last few years there had not been many presents;she could not think what to make, and her aunt had lost her interest and never suggested.But the people came all the same;if the Venetians liked you once they liked you forever.

There was something affecting in the good faith of this sketch of former social glories; the picnic at the Lido had remained vivid through the ages, and poor Miss Tita evidently was of the impression that she had had a brilliant youth.

She had in fact had a glimpse of the Venetian world in its gossiping, home-keeping, parsimonious, professional walks;for I observed for the first time that she had acquired by contact something of the trick of the familiar, soft-sounding, almost infantile speech of the place.

I judged that she had imbibed this invertebrate dialect from the natural way the names of things and people--mostly purely local--rose to her lips.If she knew little of what they represented she knew still less of anything else.

Her aunt had drawn in--her failing interest in the table mats and lampshades was a sign of that--and she had not been able to mingle in society or to entertain it alone; so that the matter of her reminiscences struck one as an old world altogether.

If she had not been so decent her references would have seemed to carry one back to the queer rococo Venice of Casanova.

I found myself falling into the error of thinking of her too as one of Jeffrey Aspern's contemporaries; this came from her having so little in common with my own.It was possible, I said to myself, that she had not even heard of him;it might very well be that Juliana had not cared to lift even for her the veil that covered the temple of her youth.In this case she perhaps would not know of the existence of the papers, and I welcomed that presumption--it made me feel more safe with her--until I remembered that we had believed the letter of disavowal received by Cumnor to be in the handwriting of the niece.

If it had been dictated to her she had of course to know what it was about; yet after all the effect of it was to repudiate the idea of any connection with the poet.I held it probable at all events that Miss Tita had not read a word of his poetry.

Moreover if, with her companion, she had always escaped the interviewer there was little occasion for her having got it into her head that people were "after" the letters.

People had not been after them, inasmuch as they had not heard of them; and Cumnor's fruitless feeler would have been a solitary accident.

When midnight sounded Miss Tita got up; but she stopped at the door of the house only after she had wandered two or three times with me round the garden."When shall I see you again?"I asked before she went in; to which she replied with promptness that she should like to come out the next night.

She added however that she should not come--she was so far from doing everything she liked.

"You might do a few things that _I_ like," I said with a sigh.

"Oh, you--I don't believe you!" she murmured at this, looking at me with her simple solemnity.

"Why don't you believe me?"

"Because I don't understand you."

"That is just the sort of occasion to have faith."I could not say more, though I should have liked to, as I saw that I only mystified her; for I had no wish to have it on my conscience that I might pass for having made love to her.

Nothing less should I have seemed to do had I continued to beg a lady to "believe in me" in an Italian garden on a midsummer night.

There was some merit in my scruples, for Miss Tita lingered and lingered:

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 蔡氏春秋

    蔡氏春秋

    《蔡氏春秋》是一部长篇小说,作者以蔡氏一家创业、生活为线索,用第一人称讲述了蔡氏家族从清代嘉庆、道光年间直到今天的故事,时间跨度近两百年。小说将一个家族的繁衍史和人物命运放置于社会和朝代更迭的大背景下,人物命运随历史的延进、时代的变迁而变化。
  • 胭脂铁马冰河入梦

    胭脂铁马冰河入梦

    苏各,你要活下去!在这兵荒马乱、毫不熟悉的异世界,你没有理由放弃!因为,我还在现实中等着你……各儿,你走吧!往生门我已替你关上,我凡青此生都不会再开启它!小庄,我与你拜过天地,行过六礼。即便是死,碑上刻的只会是……庄苏氏……
  • 万能管家吉夫斯5:伍斯特家训

    万能管家吉夫斯5:伍斯特家训

    少爷伍斯特冤家众多,唯独与巴塞特爵士结怨颇深。不料冤家路窄,爵士的女儿和侄女分别爱上了伍斯特的两位好友,苛刻的爵士对他们统统不看好,百般阻挠。更过分的是,他不仅将伍斯特即将到手的宝贝硬生生抢走,甚至设计要挖走伍斯特的心头大爱——名厨阿纳托。情况不容乐观,所有重担都系于伍斯特一身,客场作战的他,此刻必须直面强人巴塞特。然而变数实在太多,唯有吉夫斯,才是这场胜利的真正保证啊!
  • 虞初新志

    虞初新志

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 好文案一句话就够了

    好文案一句话就够了

    今天没灵感,写不出文案——这几乎是每个营销人都经历过的痛苦。而翻阅市面上现有的文案书,大多侧重于文案创作理论的讲解。本书作者川上徹也作为日本广告界殿堂级大师,结合其多年的业界销售经验,创立了目前深受追捧的“故事营销法”。他指出,文案创作不在多,而在精,力求句句戳心。真正的高手写文案,一句话就够了。书中给出了9大锦囊、77个技巧,以实际案例示范改善写作方式,3秒钟即可帮助读者引爆创意。让人忍不住把书常置办公桌,如同字典一般,随时翻阅,让创作灵感随叫随到。一句好文案,胜过100个销售高手。
  • 灵魂也有一席之地(英文爱藏双语系列)

    灵魂也有一席之地(英文爱藏双语系列)

    拥有信心,所有的事情才有可能成功。缺乏信心,即便是最微小的挑战,都会显得无法逾越,难以克服。本书收录的百则经典哲理美文,其内容涉及人生的方方面面,它们有的睿智凝练,让心灵为之震撼;有的灵气十足,宛如一线罅隙中奔涌而出的清泉,悄然渗入心田。
  • 一剑娇仙

    一剑娇仙

    新书《喵喵欲仙》萌系来袭,欢迎收藏养肥! ———————————————————————— 上一世,沈辞死在替嫁后的第四年。死得凄惨又委屈。只因为正主回来,她这个冒牌货就要死无葬身之地!这一世,惹不起,我还躲不起吗?沈辞只想离这些人都远远的,一心一意地修仙得道。某人却偏偏紧追不舍。沈辞:修仙已经这么难,别烦我!某人:双修不难啊!这是一篇前虐后虐,但还是甜甜甜的修仙文。书友群:27236360欢迎小可爱们来聊聊八卦谈谈人生~(?˙▽˙?) 新书:《喵喵欲仙》萌系来袭,欢迎收藏!
  • 神奇宝贝之雨夜

    神奇宝贝之雨夜

    搞同人。想着一本搞定我曾经所有的想法,但是估计八成要有变数,咳咳咳,离题了。这本小说以神奇宝贝为平台主要写倒霉学生完成穿越梦。目标是神奇宝贝大师!!!!
  • 麻雀变身,贪欢总裁不淡定

    麻雀变身,贪欢总裁不淡定

    推荐小满好看的新文《蜜爱不休,宣战男情敌》http://wkkk.net/a/1367537/迟先生,我只愿,此生从不曾遇见你。夕照凋敝,大地残亘,地震后的景象一片荒凉,百朵陷入昏迷前,心中惟留下这一句。*******百朵怎么也想不到会对一个人一见钟情,男人长得并不惊为天人,也不妖孽的让人忘乎所以,最主要的是,自己连他除了是男的、章奶奶的孙子以外,干什么,家住哪里,有无婚配等等,什么都不知道,但心动的痕迹,却真真实实表明了这是真的。简直没天理。没想到医院里遇见那个白痴的女人,竟然那么得奶奶喜欢。算了,对他来说不过就是多养两个人吃饭而已,一起接入迟家就好了。“百小姐,我很诚意的你谈关于入住迟家的问题的。”“我不会考虑的。”“百小姐,我真的很诚心的跟你谈这个问题的。”“我说过我不会答应的。”“百小姐,真的不考虑这个问题?”“坚决不考虑。”“百小姐,你所有的骄傲与自尊,在我看来,不过是场小丑跳梁罢了,在你奶奶的生命的前提下,我想不出你有什么拒绝的理由。”*******她意外的睡了他,意外的有了小BB,欢喜的准备告知他这个消息,他却冷脸拖她进民政局,在她还没反应过来的时候,甩过来一本结婚证,讽刺的道:“迟太太,恭喜你,目的达到了。”她目的是什么?鬼都知道自己除了想他喜欢自己、爱自己以外还有什么目的。*******那颗2块钱淘来的破珠子,原来,原来,他所有的宠爱皆不过那颗2块钱的破珠子。她的爱,廉价到2块钱都不如,哈哈......那就当是交易吧,我送与你珠子,感谢你收留并很好的照顾我们祖孙这么久。*******终于从昏迷中醒来,出现在自己眼前这个男人怎么回事?一哭二闹三上吊四撒娇五耍赖?不会是这里震后怨气太重中邪了吧?“迟先生,您好,我是唐朵,我再重申一遍,您找错人了。我真的不认识您说的百朵是谁!”“是吗?那请问,你为什么是唐朵?”“因为我姓唐名朵,所以唐朵。”“哦,是吗?不管是唐朵还是百朵,一日入我迟家门,终生为我迟家妇,所以,否认无效......”
  • 将夜

    将夜

    与天斗,其乐无穷。……