Henry James
The Lesson of the Master
I
He had been told the ladies were at church, but this was corrected by what he saw from the top of the stepsthey descended from a great height in two arms, with a circular sweep of the most charming effectat the threshold of the door which, from the long bright gallery, overlooked the immense lawn. Three gentlemen, on the grass, at a distance, sat under the great trees, while the fourth figure showed a crimson dress that told as a bit of colour amid the fresh rich green. The servant had so far accompanied Paul Overt as to introduce him to this view, after asking him if he wished first to go to his room. The young man declined that privilege, conscious of no disrepair from so short and easy a journey and always liking to take at once a general perceptive possession of a new scene. He stood there a little with his eyes on the group and on the admirable picture, the wide grounds of an old country-house near Londonthat only made it betteron a splendid Sunday in June. But that lady, whos she? he said to the servant before the man left him.
I think shes Mrs. St. George, sir.
Mrs. St. George, the wife of the distinguished Then Paul Overt checked himself, doubting if a footman would know.
Yes, sirprobably, sir, said his guide, who appeared to wish to intimate that a person staying at Summersoft would naturally be, if only by alliance, distinguished. His tone, however, made poor Overt himself feel for the moment scantly so.
And the gentlemen? Overt went on.
Well, sir, one of thems General Fancourt.
Ah yes, I know; thank you. General Fancourt was distinguished, there was no doubt of that, for something he had done, or perhaps even hadnt donethe young man couldnt remember whichsome years before in India. The servant went away, leaving the glass doors open into the gallery, and Paul Overt remained at the head of the wide double staircase, saying to himself that the place was sweet and promised a pleasant visit, while he leaned on the balustrade of fine old ironwork which, like all the other details, was of the same period as the house. It all went together and spoke in one voicea rich English voice of the early part of the eighteenth century. It might have been church-time on a summers day in the reign of Queen Anne; the stillness was too perfect to be modern, the nearness counted so as distance, and there was something so fresh and sound in the originality of the large smooth house, the expanse of beautiful brickwork that showed for pink rather than red and that had been kept clear of messy creepers by the law under which a woman with a rare complexion disdains a veil. When Paul Overt became aware that the people under the trees had noticed him he turned back through the open doors into the great gallery which was the pride of the place. It marched across from end to end and seemedwith its bright colours, its high panelled windows, its faded flowered chintzes, its quickly-recognised portraits and pictures, the blue-and-white china of its cabinets and the attenuated festoons and rosettes of its ceilinga cheerful upholstered avenue into the other century.
Our friend was slightly nervous; that went with his character as a student of fine prose, went with the artists general disposition to vibrate; and there was a particular thrill in the idea that Henry St. George might be a member of the party. For the young aspirant he had remained a high literary figure, in spite of the lower range of production to which he had fallen after his first three great successes, the comparative absence of quality in his later work. There had been moments when Paul Overt almost shed tears for this; but now that he was near himhe had never met himhe was conscious only of the fine original source and of his own immense debt. After he had taken a turn or two up and down the gallery he came out again and descended the steps. He was but slenderly supplied with a certain social boldnessit was really a weakness in himso that, conscious of a want of acquaintance with the four persons in the distance, he gave way to motions recommended by their not committing him to a positive approach. There was a fine English awkwardness in thishe felt that too as he sauntered vaguely and obliquely across the lawn, taking an independent line. Fortunately there was an equally fine English directness in the way one of the gentlemen presently rose and made as if to stalk him, though with an air of conciliation and reassurance. To this demonstration Paul Overt instantly responded, even if the gentleman were not his host. He was tall, straight and elderly and had, like the great house itself, a pink smiling face, and into the bargain a white moustache. Our young man met him halfway while he laughed and said: ErLady Watermouth told us you were coming; she asked me just to look after you. Paul Overt thanked him, liking him on the spot, and turned round with him to walk toward the others. Theyve all gone to churchall except us, the stranger continued as they went; were just sitting hereits so jolly. Overt pronounced it jolly indeed: it was such a lovely place. He mentioned that he was having the charming impression for the first time.
Ah youve not been here before? said his companion. Its a nice little placenot much to do, you know. Overt wondered what he wanted to dohe felt that he himself was doing so much. By the time they came to where the others sat he had recognised his initiator for a military man andsuch was the turn of Overts imaginationhad found him thus still more sympathetic. He would naturally have a need for action, for deeds at variance with the pacific pastoral scene. He was evidently so good-natured, however, that he accepted the inglorious hour for what it was worth. Paul Overt shared it with him and with his companions for the next twenty minutes; the latter looked at him and he looked at them without knowing much who they were, while the talk went on without much telling him even what it meant. It seemed indeed to mean nothing in particular; it wandered, with casual pointless pauses and short terrestrial flights, amid names of persons and placesnames which, for our friend, had no great power of evocation. It was all sociable and slow, as was right and natural of a warm Sunday morning.
His first attention was given to the question, privately considered, of whether one of the two younger men would be Henry St. George. He knew many of his distinguished contemporaries by their photographs, but had never, as happened, seen a portrait of the great misguided novelist. One of the gentlemen was unimaginablehe was too young; and the other scarcely looked clever enough, with such mild undiscriminating eyes. If those eyes were St. Georges the problem, presented by the ill-matched parts of his genius would be still more difficult of solution. Besides, the deportment of their proprietor was not, as regards the lady in the red dress, such as could be natural, toward the wife of his bosom, even to a writer accused by several critics of sacrificing too much to manner. Lastly Paul Overt had a vague sense that if the gentleman with the expressionless eyes bore the name that had set his heart beating faster (he also had contradictory conventional whiskersthe young admirer of the celebrity had never in a mental vision seen his face in so vulgar a frame) he would have given him a sign of recognition or of friendliness, would have heard of him a little, would know something about Ginistrella, would have an impression of how that fresh fiction had caught the eye of real criticism. Paul Overt had a dread of being grossly proud, but even morbid modesty might view the authorship of Ginistrella as constituting a degree of identity. His soldierly friend became clear enough: he was Fancourt, but was also the General; and he mentioned to the new visitor in the course of a few moments that he had but lately returned from twenty years service abroad.
And now you remain in England? the young man asked.
Oh yes; Ive bought a small house in London.
And I hope you like it, said Overt, looking at Mrs. St. George.
Well, a little house in Manchester Squaretheres a limit to the enthusiasm that inspires.
Oh I meant being at home againbeing back in Piccadilly.
My daughter likes Piccadillythats the main thing. Shes very fond of art and music and literature and all that kind of thing. She missed it in India and she finds it in London, or she hopes shell find it. Mr. St. George has promised to help herhe has been awfully kind to her. She has gone to churchshes fond of that toobut theyll all be back in a quarter of an hour. You must let me introduce you to hershell be so glad to know you. I dare say she has read every blest word youve written.
I shall be delightedI havent written so very many, Overt pleaded, feeling, and without resentment, that the General at least was vagueness itself about that. But he wondered a little why, expressing this friendly disposition, it didnt occur to the doubtless eminent soldier to pronounce the word that would put him in relation with Mrs. St. George. If it was a question of introductions Miss Fancourtapparently as yet unmarriedwas far away, while the wife of his illustrious confrère was almost between them. This lady struck Paul Overt as altogether pretty, with a surprising juvenility and a high smartness of aspect, something thathe could scarcely have said whyserved for mystification. St. George certainly had every right to a charming wife, but he himself would never have imagined the important little woman in the aggressively Parisian dress the partner for life, the alter ego, of a man of letters. That partner in general, he knew, that second self, was far from presenting herself in a single type: observation had taught him that she was not inveterately, not necessarily plain. But he had never before seen her look so much as if her prosperity had deeper foundations than an ink-spotted study-table littered with proof-sheets. Mrs. St. George might have been the wife of a gentleman who kept books rather than wrote them, who carried on great affairs in the City and made better bargains than those that poets mostly make with publishers. With this she hinted at a success more personala success peculiarly stamping the age in which society, the world of conversation, is a great drawing-room with the City for its antechamber. Overt numbered her years at first as some thirty, and then ended by believing that she might approach her fiftieth. But she somehow in this case juggled away the excess and the differenceyou only saw them in a rare glimpse, like the rabbit in the conjurers sleeve. She was extraordinarily white, and her every element and item was pretty; her eyes, her ears, her hair, her voice, her hands, her feetto which her relaxed attitude in her wicker chair gave a great publicityand the numerous ribbons and trinkets with which she was bedecked. She looked as if she had put on her best clothes to go to church and then had decided they were too good for that and had stayed at home. She told a story of some length about the shabby way Lady Jane had treated the Duchess, as well as an anecdote in relation to a purchase she had made in Parison her way back from Cannes; made for Lady Egbert, who had never refunded the money. Paul Overt suspected her of a tendency to figure great people as larger than life, until he noticed the manner in which she handled Lady Egbert, which was so sharply mutinous that it reassured him. He felt he should have understood her better if he might have met her eye; but she scarcely so much as glanced at him. Ah here they comeall the good ones! she said at last; and Paul Overt admired at his distance the return of the church-goersseveral persons, in couples and threes, advancing in a flicker of sun and shade at the end of a large green vista formed by the level grass and the overarching boughs.
If you mean to imply that were bad, I protest, said one of the gentlemenafter making ones self agreeable all the morning!
Ah if theyve found you agreeable! Mrs. St. George gaily cried. But if were good the others are better.
They must be angels then, said the amused General.
Your husband was an angel, the way he went off at your bidding, the gentleman who had first spoken declared to Mrs. St. George.
At my bidding?
Didnt you make him go to church?
I never made him do anything in my life but oncewhen I made him burn up a bad book. Thats all! At her Thats all! our young friend broke into an irrepressible laugh; it lasted only a second, but it drew her eyes to him. His own met them, though not long enough to help him to understand her; unless it were a step towards this that he saw on the instant how the burnt bookthe way she alluded to it!would have been one of her husbands finest things.
A bad book? her interlocutor repeated.
I didnt like it. He went to church because your daughter went, she continued to General Fancourt. I think it my duty to call your attention to his extraordinary demonstrations to your daughter.
Well, if you dont mind them I dont, the General laughed.
Il sattache à ses pas. But I dont wondershes so charming.
I hope she wont make him burn any books! Paul Overt ventured to exclaim.
If shed make him write a few it would be more to the purpose, said Mrs. St. George. He has been of a laziness of late!
Our young man staredhe was so struck with the ladys phraseology. Her Write a few seemed to him almost as good as her Thats all. Didnt she, as the wife of a rare artist, know what it was to produce one perfect work of art? How in the world did she think they were turned on? His private conviction was that, admirably as Henry St. George wrote, he had written for the last ten years, and especially for the last five, only too much, and there was an instant during which he felt inwardly solicited to make this public. But before he had spoken a diversion was effected by the return of the absentees. They strolled up dispersedlythere were eight or ten of themand the circle under the trees rearranged itself as they took their place in it. They made it much larger, so that Paul Overt could feelhe was always feeling that sort of thing, as he said to himselfthat if the company had already been interesting to watch the interest would now become intense. He shook hands with his hostess, who welcomed him without many words, in the manner of a woman able to trust him to understand and conscious that so pleasant an occasion would in every way speak for itself. She offered him no particular facility for sitting by her, and when they had all subsided again he found himself still next General Fancourt, with an unknown lady on his other flank.
Thats my daughterthat one opposite, the General said to him without lose of time. Overt saw a tall girl, with magnificent red hair, in a dress of a pretty grey-green tint and of a limp silken texture, a garment that clearly shirked every modern effect. It had therefore somehow the stamp of the latest thing, so that our beholder quickly took her for nothing if not contemporaneous.
Shes very handsomevery handsome, he repeated while he considered her. There was something noble in her head, and she appeared fresh and strong.
Her good father surveyed her with complacency, remarking soon: She looks too hotthats her walk. But shell be all right presently. Then Ill make her come over and speak to you.