Free Daisy Miller by Henry James Page B

delusive—or at least TOO delusive—hopes of matrimony and dollars. On this occasion he strolled away from his companion to pluck a sprig of almond blossom, which he carefully arranged in his buttonhole.
    "I know why you say that," said Daisy, watching Giovanelli. "Because you think I go round too much with HIM." And she nodded at her attendant.
    "Every one thinks so—if you care to know," said Winterbourne.
    "Of course I care to know!" Daisy exclaimed seriously. "But I don't believe it. They are only pretending to be shocked. They don't really care a straw what I do. Besides, I don't go round so much."
    "I think you will find they do care. They will show it disagreeably."
    Daisy looked at him a moment. "How disagreeably?"
    "Haven't you noticed anything?" Winterbourne asked.
    "I have noticed you. But I noticed you were as stiff as an umbrella the first time I saw you."
    "You will find I am not so stiff as several others," said Winterbourne, smiling.
    "How shall I find it?"
    "By going to see the others."
    "What will they do to me?"
    "They will give you the cold shoulder. Do you know what that means?"
    Daisy was looking at him intently; she began to color. "Do you mean as Mrs. Walker did the other night?"
    "Exactly!" said Winterbourne.
    She looked away at Giovanelli, who was decorating himself with his almond blossom. Then looking back at Winterbourne, "I shouldn't think you would let people be so unkind!" she said.
    "How can I help it?" he asked.
    "I should think you would say something."
    "I do say something;" and he paused a moment. "I say that your mother tells me that she believes you are engaged."
    "Well, she does," said Daisy very simply.
    Winterbourne began to laugh. "And does Randolph believe it?" he asked.
    "I guess Randolph doesn't believe anything," said Daisy. Randolph's skepticism excited Winterbourne to further hilarity, and he observed that Giovanelli was coming back to them. Daisy, observing it too, addressed herself again to her countryman. "Since you have mentioned it," she said, "I AM engaged." * * * Winterbourne looked at her; he had stopped laughing. "You don't believe!" she added.
    He was silent a moment; and then, "Yes, I believe it," he said.
    "Oh, no, you don't!" she answered. "Well, then—I am not!"
    The young girl and her cicerone were on their way to the gate of the enclosure, so that Winterbourne, who had but lately entered, presently took leave of them. A week afterward he went to dine at a beautiful villa on the Caelian Hill, and, on arriving, dismissed his hired vehicle. The evening was charming, and he promised himself the satisfaction of walking home beneath the Arch of Constantine and past the vaguely lighted monuments of the Forum. There was a waning moon in the sky, and her radiance was not brilliant, but she was veiled in a thin cloud curtain which seemed to diffuse and equalize it. When, on his return from the villa (it was eleven o'clock), Winterbourne approached the dusky circle of the Colosseum, it recurred to him, as a lover of the picturesque, that the interior, in the pale moonshine, would be well worth a glance. He turned aside and walked to one of the empty arches, near which, as he observed, an open carriage—one of the little Roman streetcabs—was stationed. Then he passed in, among the cavernous shadows of the great structure, and emerged upon the clear and silent arena. The place had never seemed to him more impressive. One-half of the gigantic circus was in deep shade, the other was sleeping in the luminous dusk. As he stood there he began to murmur Byron's famous lines, out of "Manfred," but before he had finished his quotation he remembered that if nocturnal meditations in the Colosseum are recommended by the poets, they are deprecated by the doctors. The historic atmosphere was there, certainly; but the historic atmosphere, scientifically considered, was no better than a villainous miasma. Winterbourne walked to the middle of the arena, to take a more general glance,