Free Henry James: Complete Stories 1864-1874 by Henry James Page A

done, these things took on an identity, and the gaze of the painted face seemed to fasten itself to his own. But who in the world was Georgina Roy, and what was this talk about sisters-in-law? He turned to the little lady at his side a countenance unexpectedly puzzled by the problem she had lightly presented to him.
Your brother-in-law's second wife? That's rather complicated.
Well, of course, he needn't have married again, said Mrs. Percival, with a small sigh.
Whom did he marry? asked Benyon, staring. Percival Theory had turned away. Oh, if you are going into her relationships, he murmured, and joined his sister at the brilliant window, through which, from the distance, the many-voiced uproar of Naples came in.
He married first my sister Cora, and she died five years ago. Then he married her; and Mrs. Percival nodded at the princess.
Benyon's eyes went back to the portrait; he could see what she meantit stared out at him. Her? Georgina?
Georgina Gressie! Gracious, do you know her?
It was very distinctthat answer of Mrs. Percival's, and the question that followed it as well. But he had the resource of the picture; he could look at it, seem to take it very seriously, though it danced up and down before him. He felt that he was turning red, then he felt that he was turning pale. The brazen impudence! That was the way he could speak to himself now of the woman he had once loved, and whom he afterwards hated, till this had died out too. Then the wonder of it was lost in the quickly growing sense that it would make a difference for hima great difference. Exactly what, he

 

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didn't see yet; only a difference that swelled and swelled as he thought of it, and caught up, in its expansion, the girl who stood behind him so quietly, looking into the Italian garden.
The custodian drew Mrs. Percival away to show her another princess, before Benyon answered her last inquiry. This gave him time to recover from his first impulse, which had been to answer it with a negative; he saw in a moment that an admission of his acquaintance with Mrs. Roy (Mrs. Roy!it was prodigious!) was necessarily helping him to learn more. Besides, it needn't be compromising. Very likely Mrs. Percival would hear one day that he had once wanted to marry her. So, when he joined his companions a minute later he remarked that he had known Miss Gressie years before, and had even admired her considerably, but had lost sight of her entirely in later days. She had been a great beauty, and it was a wonder that she had not married earlier. Five years ago, was it? No, it was only two. He had been going to say that in so long a time it would have been singular he should not have heard of it. He had been away from New York for ages; but one always heard of marriages and deaths. This was a proof, though two years was rather long. He led Mrs. Percival insidiously into a further room, in advance of the others, to whom the cicerone returned. She was delighted to talk about her connections, and she supplied him with every detail. He could trust himself now; his self-possession was complete, or, so far as it was wanting, the fault was that of a sudden gaiety which he could not, on the spot, have accounted for. Of course it was not very flattering to themMrs. Percival's own peoplethat poor Cora's husband should have consoled himself; but men always did it (talk of widows!) and he had chosen a girl who waswell, very fine-looking, and the sort of successor to Cora that they needn't be ashamed of. She had been awfully admired, and no one had understood why she had waited so long to marry. She had had some affair as a girlan engagement to an officer in the armyand the man had jilted her, or they had quarrelled, or something or other. She was almost an old maidwell, she was thirty, or very nearlybut she had done something good now. She was handsomer than ever, and tremendously striking. William Roy had one of the biggest incomes in the city, and he was quite

 

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