Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-07-27
BY HENRY JAMES.
SECOND PART.
CHAPTER III.

CHAPTER III.
II will doubtless seem to the reader very
singular that, in spite Of this reflection.
which appeared to sum up her Judgment
of the matter, Mrs. POrticO should, in the
course Of a very few days, have consented
10 everything that GeOrgina asked of her.
have thought it well to narrate at length
the first conversation that took place be-
tween them, but shall not trace further
the details OF the girls urgency, or the
steps by which-in the face Of a hundred
robust and salutary cOnVietiOns-the loud
kind, sharp, simple, skepticaI, creduIOus
woman took under her protection a dam
sci whose Obstinacy she could not speak
Of without getting red with anger. 1t
n was the simple fact OF GeOrgina's personal
conditiOn that moved her; this young lady's
greatest elOquence was the seriousness of
her predieament. She might be bad, and
she had a splendid, careless, insOlent. fair
faced way Of admitting it, which at mo-
ments, incOherently, inconsistency and
irTesitibly resolved the harsh confession
into tears OF weakness; but Mrs. Portico
had known her from her rosiest years,
and when GeOrgina declared that she
couldn't go home; that she wished to be
with her, and not with her mother: that
she couldn't expose herself--she couldn't
and that she must remain with her.
the poor lady was forced TO make that daV
reality. She was overmastered. she
was cajOled, she was, to a certain extent.
fascinated. She had to accept GeOrgina's
rightly she had none Of her own to Op-
pose to il; she was only violent, she was
not continuously; and once she did this. it
was plain, after an. that to take her
young friend to Europe was 70
help her, and to leave her alone
was not to help her. Georgina
literally frightened Mrs. P1rtico into
compliance sue IVES evidently capable
vi strange H.,ngs if thrown upon her own
t.oes. So, from one day to another Mrs.
POrticO announced that she was really
at last about to sail for foreign lands her
doctor having told her that if
she didn't look out she would
get too old to enjoy them, and
that she had invited that healthy Miss
Gressie, who could stand so long on her
feet, to accompany her. There was joy
in the house of Gressie at this announce
ment, for though the danger was over, it
was great general advantage to Georgina
to 90, and the GTessies were always elated !
at the prospect of an advantage. There |
was danger that she might meet Mr..
BenyOn on the other side Of the world :;
but it didn't seem likely that Mrs.
POrticO would lend herself to a plot of
that kind. If she had taken it into her
head to favor their love affair, she would |
have done il frankly, and GeOrgina would |
have been married by this time. Her ar
engagements were made as quickly as her
decision had been-Or rather had appeared |
slow; for this concerned those agile !
young men down town. Co. =
no ~~OvIg gina was
-. peIuaIIy at her house; it was under
stood IN Twelfth street that she was talk
ing over her future travels with her kind
friend. Talk there was, of course, to a
considerable degree; but after it was set
tied they sbo,'Ild start nothing more was
Said about the motive of the jour-
new. Notbirr said, that is,
till the night before t9ey sailed;
then a few words pass, TX, 1891 %e1n
1hem. GeOTgina had already la II 80 -
OF her relations in Twelfth street. IA =.
to sleep at Mrs. POrtico's in order t,
down 10 the snip at an early hour. ThA
two ladies were sitting together in the
f, -,,,. silent with the consciousness of
korded luggage. when the elder one sud-
denly remarked to her companion that she
seemed to be taking great deal upon her
self in assuming that Raymond Kenyon
wouldn't force her hand. He might choose
to acknowledge his child, if she didn't; /
there were promises and promises, and
many people would consider they had /
been let of when circumstances were so |
altered. She would have to reckon with |
Mr.. BenyOn more than she thought.
Il know what l am about" GeOrgina /
answered. ''There is only one promise for /
him. l don't know what you mean by /
circumstances being altered
Everything seems to me to lie altered
M, Mrs. POrticO murmured, rather tragi- !
oa Ny IN, -
am sure of him-as sure as that sit mere.
DO YOU think l would have looked at HIM |
if hadn't known he was man OF his |
ssYou have chosen him well, my DEAR"
said Mrs POrticO, who by this time was
reduced to a KIND Of bewildered acquies-
cence. ..,,,
such a matter as this he will be perfectly
splendid." Then suddenly, perfectly
splendid-that's why / cared for himP'
she repeated with flash Of incongruous
passion.
TO the point OF being sublime; but she had
given up trying TO understand anything
that the girl might say or do. She under
stood less and less after they had disem-
barked in England and begun TO travel
southwark. and she understood least Of all
when. in the middle of the winter =
event came of with which "a imagina-
ton, she had tried to ,smillarize herself.
put "hlcD --aea It occurred, seemed to
-ueycnd measure strange and dreadful.
1t took place at Genoa, for GeOrgina had
made up her mind that there would
be more privacy in a big town than in
little. and she wrote to America that both
Mrs. PorticO and she had fallen in love
with the place, and would spend two or
three months there. At that time people
In the United States knew much less than
to-day about the comparative attractions
of foreign cities, and it was not thought
surprising that absent New Workers
should wish to hnger in a seaport where
they might find apartments, according to
GeOrgina's report, in a palace painted
with frescO by Vandyke and Titan.
GeOrgina in her letters, omitted, 1t Will
be seen, no detail that could give color to
Mrs. POrticO's long stay at Genoa. In
such a palace-where the travellers hired
twenty gilded rooms for the most inslg-
nifcant sum-a remarkably fine boy came
into the world. Nothing could have
been more successful and comfortable
than this transaction. Mrs. PORTED
was almost appalled, at the facility and
felicity of il. She was by this time in q
Dratty bad way. and-What had never hap
pened to her before in her Hfe-she sui
fered from chronic depression OF spirits
She hated to have to lie, and now she was
living all the time. Everything she wrote
home. everything that had been said o.
dome i, connection with their stay in &c
noa. was lie. The way they remained
indoors to avoid meeting chance compat
riots was a lie. COmpatriots In Genoa, a
that period, were very rare; but notnlni
could exceed the business-ike complete
ness Of GeOrgina's precautions. He
nerves, her self-pOssession, her apparen
want OF feeling, excited on Mrs. Portico'
part a kind Of gloomy suspense; MOI
bid anxiety to see how far her companion
would 20. took possession Of the excellen
woman, who, a few months before