登陆注册
5198300000035

第35章

With this it was the end of my experiment--or would be in the course of half an hour, when I should really have learned that the papers had been reduced to ashes.After that there would be nothing left for me but to go to the station; for seriously (and as it struck me in the morning light) I could not linger there to act as guardian to a piece of middle-aged female helplessness.If she had not saved the papers wherein should I be indebted to her? I think I winced a little as I asked myself how much, if she HAD saved them, I should have to recognize and, as it were, to reward such a courtesy.

Might not that circumstance after all saddle me with a guardianship?

If this idea did not make me more uncomfortable as I walked up and down it was because I was convinced I had nothing to look to.

If the old woman had not destroyed everything before she pounced upon me in the parlor she had done so afterward.

It took Miss Tita rather longer than I had expected to guess that I was there;but when at last she came out she looked at me without surprise.

I said to her that I had been waiting for her, and she asked why I had not let her know.I was glad the next day that I had checked myself before remarking that I had wished to see if a friendly intuition would not tell her:

it became a satisfaction to me that I had not indulged in that rather tender joke.What I did say was virtually the truth--that I was too nervous, since I expected her now to settle my fate.

"Your fate?" said Miss Tita, giving me a queer look;and as she spoke I noticed a rare change in her.

She was different from what she had been the evening before--less natural, less quiet.She had been crying the day before and she was not crying now, and yet she struck me as less confident.

It was as if something had happened to her during the night, or at least as if she had thought of something that troubled her--something in particular that affected her relations with me, made them more embarrassing and complicated.

Had she simply perceived that her aunt's not being there now altered my position?

"I mean about our papers.ARE there any? You must know now.""Yes, there are a great many; more than I supposed."I was struck with the way her voice trembled as she told me this.

"Do you mean that you have got them in there--and that I may see them?""I don't think you can see them," said Miss Tita with an extraordinary expression of entreaty in her eyes, as if the dearest hope she had in the world now was that I would not take them from her.But how could she expect me to make such a sacrifice as that after all that had passed between us?

What had I come back to Venice for but to see them, to take them?

My delight in learning they were still in existence was such that if the poor woman had gone down on her knees to beseech me never to mention them again I would have treated the proceeding as a bad joke.

"I have got them but I can't show them," she added.

"Not even to me? Ah, Miss Tita!" I groaned, with a voice of infinite remonstrance and reproach.

She colored, and the tears came back to her eyes;I saw that it cost her a kind of anguish to take such a stand but that a dreadful sense of duty had descended upon her.

It made me quite sick to find myself confronted with that particular obstacle; all the more that it appeared to me Ihad been extremely encouraged to leave it out of account.

I almost considered that Miss Tita had assured me that if she had no greater hindrance than that--! "You don't mean to say you made her a deathbed promise? It was precisely against your doing anything of that sort that I thought I was safe.

Oh, I would rather she had burned the papers outright than that!""No, it isn't a promise," said Miss Tita.

"Pray what is it then?"

She hesitated and then she said, "She tried to burn them, but I prevented it.

She had hid them in her bed."

"In her bed?"

"Between the mattresses.That's where she put them when she took them out of the trunk.I can't understand how she did it, because Olimpia didn't help her.She tells me so, and I believe her.

My aunt only told her afterward, so that she shouldn't touch the bed--anything but the sheets.So it was badly made,"added Miss Tita simply.

"I should think so! And how did she try to burn them?""She didn't try much; she was too weak, those last days.

But she told me--she charged me.Oh, it was terrible!

She couldn't speak after that night; she could only make signs.""And what did you do?"

"I took them away.I locked them up."

"In the secretary?"

"Yes, in the secretary," said Miss Tita, reddening again.

"Did you tell her you would burn them?"

"No, I didn't--on purpose."

"On purpose to gratify me?"

"Yes, only for that."

"And what good will you have done me if after all you won't show them?""Oh, none; I know that--I know that."

"And did she believe you had destroyed them?""I don't know what she believed at the last.I couldn't tell--she was too far gone."

"Then if there was no promise and no assurance I can't see what ties you.""Oh, she hated it so--she hated it so! She was so jealous.

But here's the portrait--you may have that," Miss Tita announced, taking the little picture, wrapped up in the same manner in which her aunt had wrapped it, out of her pocket.

"I may have it--do you mean you give it to me?"I questioned, staring, as it passed into my hand.

"Oh, yes."

"But it's worth money--a large sum."

"Well!" said Miss Tita, still with her strange look.

I did not know what to make of it, for it could scarcely mean that she wanted to bargain like her aunt.She spoke as if she wished to make me a present.

"I can't take it from you as a gift," I said, "and yet I can't afford to pay you for it according to the ideas Miss Bordereau had of its value.

She rated it at a thousand pounds."

"Couldn't we sell it?" asked Miss Tita.

"God forbid! I prefer the picture to the money.""Well then keep it."

"You are very generous."

"So are you."

"I don't know why you should think so," I replied; and this was a truthful speech, for the singular creature appeared to have some very fine reference in her mind, which I did not in the least seize.

同类推荐
  • 灵宝大炼内旨行持机要

    灵宝大炼内旨行持机要

    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。
  • 石洞集

    石洞集

    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。
  • THE BLUE FAIRY BOOK

    THE BLUE FAIRY BOOK

    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。
  • 不思议光菩萨所说经

    不思议光菩萨所说经

    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。
  • 道德经注释

    道德经注释

    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。
热门推荐
  • 诸天最强修仙者

    诸天最强修仙者

    《新书无限制穿越万界》杨文昊踏上修仙路,在每一个世界夺天地珍宝,得到成仙,证道成圣。PS:会写超神学院,斗破苍穹,遮天,神话,斗罗大陆,秦时明月,诛仙,花千骨等等,如果要什么意见,可以加群:705798164,向作者提意见
  • 异战风云录

    异战风云录

    因为小行星的爆炸,而产生的空间曲扭,无意中特别作战小组成员——陆子扬,被传送到了异世界。生活在高科技时代的他,在异世界将有怎样的经历呢?
  • 天龙八部(全五册)(纯文字新修版)

    天龙八部(全五册)(纯文字新修版)

    《天龙八部》一书以北宋、辽、西夏、大理并立的历史为宏大背景,将儒释道、琴棋书画等中国传统文化融会贯通其中,书中人物繁多,个性鲜明,情节离奇,尽显芸芸众生百态。丐帮帮主乔峰与大理国王子段誉、少林弟子虚竹结为兄弟。他身为大宋武林第一大帮帮主,发现自己竟是契丹人,虽受尽中原武林人士唾弃而不肯以怨报怨;他身为辽国南院大王,却甘愿背上叛族罪名,最终以悲壮的自杀来阻止辽国发兵攻宋,不愧为顶天立地的大英雄。
  • 无限未来之科技帝国

    无限未来之科技帝国

    一次邂逅,获得了外星人工智能的帮助,从而开启了科技帝国的崛起之路。科技,改变世界,美好生活。如果只想赚钱,那和机器有啥区别?做理想主义者,有点傻,但我愿意。
  • 息除中夭陀罗尼经

    息除中夭陀罗尼经

    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。
  • 扁鹊的禁方

    扁鹊的禁方

    神秘的千年秘方,居然会引起诡异的杀机!? 千年前,医祖扁鹊将记载惊世医术的秘笈《禁方》传于弟子,溘然长逝。其弟子创立神医门,修建古城,将《禁方》深藏其中,世代守护,再不外传。数十年前,侵华日军占领古城,挟持神医门,疯狂寻找《禁方》,却丧生诡秘地穴。如今,遗失数十年的神医门……
  • 风吹雏菊开

    风吹雏菊开

    青春里,我们都在向未来成长,我们都耗费着时光做着疯狂的事。有人说,我们错了。可我们一点也不后悔。因为我们正好,岁月正好。你好,我是高一六班的袁小橘,很高兴认识你。
  • 清容无双

    清容无双

    二十一世纪的外科医生穿越到一个架空的王朝之中,什么?是被打入冷宫的王妃,王爷是个面瘫脸?没关系,且看本王妃如何逆转乾坤,小王爷,你逃不出本王妃手掌心的。
  • 疯骑士的宇宙时代

    疯骑士的宇宙时代

    “金手指系统?你当我是傻子吗?这年头哪有什么天上掉下来的馅饼?从我脑袋中滚出去,新型的诈骗骗局?还是外星人附带催眠能力的杀戮机器训练装置?”“不,我是虚空中呢喃的混沌,南十字星所有生灵最恐惧的噩梦,无上神位的传承者,还有……你姐。”“……我只有一个妹妹,没姐!”“不,你有,我是私生女,只是你爸没和你说。”
  • 绿森不浓为你挽歌

    绿森不浓为你挽歌

    三年前,她意外睡了权势滔天的帝国总裁傅贺琛。三年后,她携一对萌宝强势回归。一位深情霸道的男人闯入她的世界。“路五月,可以给我签个名吗?”“可以,签哪里?”傅贺琛拿出结婚登记,指了指:“签这里!”萌宝宝不服了:“粑粑,你东西掉了。”“什么掉了?”“宝宝的心,你弄掉了!”【搞笑轻松,暖萌甜宠,男主深情到你这辈子只见过这一个】