|
||||||||
I havent the least idea, said the girl. Thats the second time you have said that to me, her aunt rejoined. And yet you dont look at all stupid. Im not stupid; but I dont know anything about money. Yes, thats the way you were brought upas if you were to inherit a million. What have you in point of fact inherited? I really cant tell you. You must ask Edmund and Lilian; theyll be back in half an hour. In Florence we should call it a very bad house, said Mrs Touchett; but here, I dare say, it will bring a high price. It ought to make a considerable sum for each of you. In addition to that you must have something else; its most extraordinary your not knowing. The positions of value, and theyll probably pull it down and make a row of shops. I wonder you dont do that yourself; you might let the shops to great advantage. Isabel stared; the idea of letting shops was new to her. I hope they wont pull it down, she said; Im extremely fond of it. I dont see what makes you fond of it; your father died here. Yes; but I dont dislike it for that, the girl rather strangely returned. I like places in which things have happenedeven if theyre sad things. A great many people have died here; the place has been full of life. Is that what you call being full of life? I mean full of experienceof peoples feelings and sorrows. And not of their sorrows only, for Ive been very happy here as a child. You should go to Florence if you like houses in which things have happenedespecially deaths. I live in an old palace in which three people have been murdered; three that were known and I dont know how many more besides. In an old palace? Isabel repeated. Yes, my dear; a very different affair from this. This is very bourgeois. Isabel felt some emotion, for she had always thought highly of her grandmothers house. But the emotion was of a kind which led her to say: I should like very much to go to Florence. Well, if youll be very good, and do everything I tell you Ill take you there, Mrs Touchett declared. Our young womans emotion deepened; she flushed a little and smiled at her aunt in silence. Do everything you tell me? I dont think I can promise that. No, you dont look like a person of that sort. Youre fond of your own way; but its not for me to blame you. And yet, to go to Florence, the girl exclaimed in a moment, Id promise almost anything! Edmund and Lilian were slow to return, and Mrs Touchett had an hours uninterrupted talk with her niece, who found her a strange and interesting figure: a figure essentiallyalmost the first she had ever met. She was as eccentric as Isabel had always supposed; and hitherto, whenever the girl had heard people described as eccentric, she had thought of them as offensive or alarming. The term had always suggested |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
Copyright: All texts on Bibliomania are © Bibliomania.com Ltd, and may not be reproduced in any form without our written permission. See our FAQ for more details. | ||||||||