Project Gutenberg's The Wings of the Dove, Volume II, by Henry James

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Title: The Wings of the Dove, Volume II

Author: Henry James

Release Date: September 22, 2009 [EBook #30059]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE WINGS OF THE DOVE

BY HENRY JAMES

VOLUME II

NEW YORK

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

1909

Copyright, 1902 and 1909 by Charles Scribner's Sons

BOOK SIXTH

THE WINGS OF THE DOVE

I

"I say, you know, Kate--you _did_ stay!" had been Merton Densher's
punctual remark on their adventure after they had, as it were, got out
of it; an observation which she not less promptly, on her side, let him
see that she forgave in him only because he was a man. She had to
recognise, with whatever disappointment, that it was doubtless the most
helpful he could make in this character. The fact of the adventure was
flagrant between them; they had looked at each other, on gaining the
street, as people look who have just rounded together a dangerous
corner, and there was therefore already enough unanimity sketched out
to have lighted, for her companion, anything equivocal in her action.
But the amount of light men _did_ need!--Kate could have been eloquent
at this moment about that. What, however, on his seeing more, struck
him as most distinct in her was her sense that, reunited after his
absence and having been now half the morning together, it behooved them
to face without delay the question of handling their immediate future.
That it would require some handling, that they should still have to
deal, deal in a crafty manner, with difficulties and delays, was the
great matter he had come back to, greater than any but the refreshed
consciousness of their personal need of each other. This need had had
twenty minutes, the afternoon before, to find out where it stood, and
the time was fully accounted for by the charm of the demonstration. He
had arrived at Euston at five, having wired her from Liver