She received this announcement with serenity and with no apparent sense that after all it would be becoming of her to say that I ought to see the rooms first.This did not occur to her and indeed her serenity was mainly what I wanted.Our little bargain was just concluded when the door opened and the younger lady appeared on the threshold.
As soon as Miss Bordereau saw her niece she cried out almost gaily, "He will give three thousand--three thousand tomorrow!"Miss Tita stood still, with her patient eyes turning from one of us to the other; then she inquired, scarcely above her breath, "Do you mean francs?""Did you mean francs or dollars?" the old woman asked of me at this.
"I think francs were what you said," I answered, smiling.
"That is very good," said Miss Tita, as if she had become conscious that her own question might have looked overreaching.
"What do YOU know? You are ignorant," Miss Bordereau remarked;not with acerbity but with a strange, soft coldness.
"Yes, of money--certainly of money!" Miss Tita hastened to exclaim.
"I am sure you have your own branches of knowledge,"I took the liberty of saying, genially.There was something painful to me, somehow, in the turn the conversation had taken, in the discussion of the rent.
"She had a very good education when she was young.
I looked into that myself," said Miss Bordereau.
Then she added, "But she has learned nothing since.""I have always been with you," Miss Tita rejoined very mildly, and evidently with no intention of making an epigram.
"Yes, but for that!" her aunt declared with more satirical force.
She evidently meant that but for this her niece would never have got on at all; the point of the observation however being lost on Miss Tita, though she blushed at hearing her history revealed to a stranger.
Miss Bordereau went on, addressing herself to me: "And what time will you come tomorrow with the money?""The sooner the better.If it suits you I will come at noon.""I am always here but I have my hours," said the old woman, as if her convenience were not to be taken for granted.
"You mean the times when you receive?"
"I never receive.But I will see you at noon, when you come with the money.""Very good, I shall be punctual;" and I added, "May I shake hands with you, on our contract?" I thought there ought to be some little form, it would make me really feel easier, for I foresaw that there would be no other.
Besides, though Miss Bordereau could not today be called personally attractive and there was something even in her wasted antiquity that bade one stand at one's distance, I felt an irresistible desire to hold in my own for a moment the hand that Jeffrey Aspern had pressed.
For a minute she made no answer, and I saw that my proposal failed to meet with her approbation.She indulged in no movement of withdrawal, which I half-expected; she only said coldly, "I belong to a time when that was not the custom."I felt rather snubbed but I exclaimed good humoredly to Miss Tita, "Oh, you will do as well!" I shook hands with her while she replied, with a small flutter, "Yes, yes, to show it's all arranged!""Shall you bring the money in gold?" Miss Bordereau demanded, as I was turning to the door.
I looked at her for a moment."Aren't you a little afraid, after all, of keeping such a sum as that in the house?"It was not that I was annoyed at her avidity but I was really struck with the disparity between such a treasure and such scanty means of guarding it.
"Whom should I be afraid of if I am not afraid of you?"she asked with her shrunken grimness.
"Ah well," said I, laughing, "I shall be in point of fact a protector and Iwill bring gold if you prefer."
"Thank you," the old woman returned with dignity and with an inclination of her head which evidently signified that I might depart.I passed out of the room, reflecting that it would not be easy to circumvent her.
As I stood in the sala again I saw that Miss Tita had followed me, and I supposed that as her aunt had neglected to suggest that I should take a look at my quarters it was her purpose to repair the omission.
But she made no such suggestion; she only stood there with a dim, though not a languid smile, and with an effect of irresponsible, incompetent youth which was almost comically at variance with the faded facts of her person.
She was not infirm, like her aunt, but she struck me as still more helpless, because her inefficiency was spiritual, which was not the case with Miss Bordereau's.I waited to see if she would offer to show me the rest of the house, but I did not precipitate the question, inasmuch as my plan was from this moment to spend as much of my time as possible in her society.
I only observed at the end of a minute:
"I have had better fortune than I hoped.It was very kind of her to see me.
Perhaps you said a good word for me."
"It was the idea of the money," said Miss Tita.
"And did you suggest that?"
"I told her that you would perhaps give a good deal.""What made you think that?"
"I told her I thought you were rich."
"And what put that idea into your head?"
"I don't know; the way you talked."
"Dear me, I must talk differently now," I declared.
"I'm sorry to say it's not the case."
"Well," said Miss Tita, "I think that in Venice the forestieri, in general, often give a great deal for something that after all isn't much."She appeared to make this remark with a comforting intention, to wish to remind me that if I had been extravagant I was not really foolishly singular.
We walked together along the sala, and as I took its magnificent measure I said to her that I was afraid it would not form a part of my quartiere.Were my rooms by chance to be among those that opened into it?
"Not if you go above, on the second floor," she answered with a little startled air, as if she had rather taken for granted I would know my proper place.