The Aspern Papers and Other Tales by Henry James

Author:Henry James [James, Henry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141389806
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2014-03-22T00:00:00+00:00

III

The smoking-room at Summersoft was on the scale of the rest of the place; that is it was high and light and commodious, and decorated with such refined old carvings and mouldings that it seemed rather a bower for ladies who should sit at work at fading crewels than a parliament of gentlemen smoking strong cigars. The gentlemen mustered there in considerable force on the Sunday evening, collecting mainly at one end, in front of one of the cool fair fireplaces of white marble, the entablature of which was adorned with a delicate little Italian ‘subject’. There was another in the wall that faced it, and, thanks to the mild summer night, there was no fire in either; but a nucleus for aggregation was furnished on one side by a table in the chimney-corner laden with bottles, decanters and tall tumblers. Paul Overt was an insincere smoker; he puffed cigarettes occasionally for reasons with which tobacco had nothing to do. This was particularly the case on the occasion of which I speak; his motive was the vision of a little direct talk with Henry St George. The ‘tremendous’ communion of which the great man had held out hopes to him earlier in the day had not yet come off, and this saddened him considerably, for the party was to go its several ways immediately after breakfast on the morrow. He had, however, the disappointment of finding that apparently the author of Shadowmere was not disposed to prolong his vigil. He was not among the gentlemen assembled in the smoking-room when Overt entered it, nor was he one of those who turned up, in bright habiliments, during the next ten minutes. The young man waited a little, wondering whether he had only gone to put on something extraordinary; this would account for his delay as well as contribute further to Overt’s observation of his tendency to do the approved superficial thing. But he didn’t arrive – he must have been putting on something more extraordinary than was probable. Paul gave him up, feeling a little injured, a little wounded at his not having managed to say twenty words to him. He was not angry, but he puffed his cigarette sighingly, with the sense of having lost a precious chance. He wandered away with his regret, moved slowly round the room, looking at the old prints on the walls. In this attitude he presently felt a hand laid on his shoulder and a friendly voice in his ear. ‘This is good. I hoped I should find you. I came down on purpose.’ St George was there, without a change of dress and with a kind face – his graver one – to which Overt eagerly responded. He explained that it was only for the Master9 – the idea of a little talk – that he had sat up and that, not finding him, he had been on the point of going to bed.

‘Well, you know, I don’t smoke – my wife doesn’t let me,’ said St George, looking for a place to sit down.

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