‘What on earth are you so grave about?’ she suddenly demanded, fixing her agreeable eyes upon Winterbourne’s.
‘Am I grave?’ he asked. ‘I had an idea I was grinning from ear to ear.’
‘You look as if you were taking me to a funeral. If that’s a grin, your ears are very near together.’
‘Should you like me to dance a hornpipe on the deck?’
‘Pray do, and I’ll carry round your hat. It will pay the expenses of our journey.’
‘I never was better pleased in my life,’ murmured Winterbourne.
She looked at him a moment, and then burst into a little laugh. ‘I like to make you say those things! You’re a queer mixture!’
In the castle, after they had landed, the subjective element decidedly prevailed. Daisy tripped about the vaulted chambers, rustled her skirts in the corkscrew staircases, flirted back with a pretty little cry and a shudder from the edge of the oubliettes, and turned a singularly well-shaped ear to everything that Winterbourne told her about the place. But he saw that she cared very little for feudal antiquities, and that the dusky traditions of Chillon made but a slight impression upon her. They had the good fortune to have been able to walk about without other companionship than that of the custodian; and Winterbourne arranged with this functionary that they should not be hurried – that they should linger and pause wherever they chose. The custodian interpreted the bargain generously – Winterbourne, on his side, had been generous – and ended by leaving them quite to themselves. Miss Miller’s observations were not remarkable for logical consistency; for anything she wanted to say she was sure to find a pretext. She found a great many pretexts in the rugged embrasures of Chillon for asking Winterbourne sudden questions about himself – his family, his previous history, his tastes, his habits, his intentions – and for supplying information upon corresponding points in her own personality. Of her own tastes, habits and intentions Miss Miller was prepared to give the most definite, and indeed the most favourable, account.
‘Well; I hope you know enough!’ she said to her companion, after he had told her the history of the unhappy Bonivard. ‘I never saw a man that knew so much!’ The history of Bonivard had evidently, as they say, gone into one ear and out of the other. But Daisy went on to say that she wished Winterbourne would travel with them and ‘go round’ with them; they might know something, in that case. ‘Don’t you want to come and teach Randolph?’ she asked. Winterbourne said that nothing could possibly please him so much; but that he had unfortunately other occupations. ‘Other occupations? I don’t believe it!’ said Miss Daisy. ‘What do you mean? You are not in business.’ The young man admitted that he was not in business; but he had engagements which, even within a day or two, would force him to go back to Geneva. ‘Oh, bother!’ she said, ‘I don’t believe it!’ and she began to talk about something else. But a few moments later, when he was pointing out to her the pretty design of an antique fireplace, she broke out irrelevantly, ‘You don’t mean to say you are going back to Geneva?’
‘It is a melancholy fact that I shall have to return to Geneva to-morrow.’
‘Well, Mr Winterbourne,’ said Daisy; ‘I think you’re horrid!’
‘Oh, don’t say such dreadful things!’ said Winterbourne – ‘just at the last.’
‘The last!’ cried the young girl; ‘I call it the first. I have half a mind to leave you here and go straight back to the hotel alone.’ And for the next ten minutes she did nothing but call him horrid. Poor Winterbourne was fairly bewildered; no young lady had as yet done him the honour to be so agitated by the announcement of his movements. His companion, after this, ceased to pay any attention to the curiosities of Chillon or the beauties of the lake; she opened fire upon the mysterious charmer in Geneva, whom she appeared to have instantly taken it for granted that he was hurrying back to see. How did Miss Daisy Miller know that there was a charmer in Geneva? Winterbourne, who denied the existence of such a person, was quite unable to discover; and he was divided between amazement at the rapidity of her induction and amusement at the frankness of her persiflage. She seemed to him, in all this, an extraordinary mixture of innocence and crudity. ‘Does she never allow you more than three days at a time?’ asked Daisy, ironically. ‘Doesn’t she give you a vacation in summer? There’s no one so hard worked but they can get leave to go off somewhere at this season. I suppose, if you stay another day, she’ll come after you in the boat. Do wait over till Friday, and I will go down to the landing to see her arrive!’ Winterbourne began to think he had been wrong to feel disappointed in the temper in which the young lady had embarked. If he had missed the personal accent, the personal accent was now making its appearance. It sounded very distinctly, at last, in her telling him she would stop ‘teasing’ him if he would promise her solemnly to come down to Rome in the winter.
‘That’s not a difficult promise to make,’ said Winterbourne. ‘My aunt has taken an apartment in Rome for the winter, and has already asked me to come and see her.’
‘I don’t want you to come for your aunt,’ said Daisy; ‘I want you to come for me.’ And this was the only allusion that the young man was ever to hear her make to his invidious kinswoman. He declared that, at any rate, he would certainly come. After this Daisy stopped teasing. Winterbourne took a carriage, and they drove back to Vevey in the dusk; the young girl was very quiet.
In the evening Winterbourne mentioned to Mrs Costello that he had spent the afternoon at Chillon, with Miss Daisy Miller.
‘The Americans – of the courier?’ asked this lady.
‘Ah, happily,’ said Winterbourne, ‘the courier stayed at home.’
‘She went with you all alone?’
‘All alone.’
Mrs Costello sniffed a little at her smelling-bottle. ‘And that,’ she exclaimed, ‘is the young person you wanted me to know!’
III
WINTERBOURNE, who had returned to Geneva the day after his excursion to Chillon, went to Rome towards the end of January. His aunt had been established there for several weeks, and he had received a couple of letters from her. ‘Those people you were so devoted to last summer at Vevey have turned up here, courier and all,’ she wrote. ‘They seem to have made several acquaintances, but the courier continues to be the most intime. The young lady, however, is also very intimate with some third-rate Italians, with whom she rackets about in a way that makes much talk. Bring me that pretty novel of Cherbuliez’s – “Paule Méré” – and don’t come later than the 23rd.’
In the natural course of events, Winterbourne, on arriving in Rome, would presently have ascertained Mrs Miller’s address at the American banker’s and have gone to pay his compliments to Miss Daisy. ‘After what happened at Vevey I certainly think I may call upon them,’ he said to Mrs Costello.
‘If, after what happens – at Vevey and everywhere – you desire to keep up the acquaintance, you are very welcome. Of course a man may know every one. Men are welcome to the privilege!’
‘Pray what is it that happens – here, for instance?’ Winterbourne demanded.
‘The girl goes about alone with her foreigners. As to what happens farther, you must apply elsewhere for information. She has picked up half-a-dozen of the regular Roman fortunehunters, and she takes them about to people’s houses. When she comes to a party she brings with her a gentleman with a good deal of manner and a wonderful moustache.’
‘And where is the mother?’
‘I haven’t the least idea. They are very dreadful people.’
Winterbourne meditated a moment. ‘They are very ignorant – very innocent only. Depend upon it they are not bad.’
‘They are hopelessly vulgar,’ said Mrs Costello. ‘Whether or no being hopelessly vulgar is being “bad” is a question for the metaphysicians. They are bad enough to dislike, at any rate; and for this short life that is quite enough.’
The news that Daisy Miller was surrounded by half-a-dozen wonderful moustaches checked Winterbourne’s impulse to go s
traightway to see her. He had perhaps not definitely flattered himself that he had made an ineffaceable impression upon her heart, but he was annoyed at hearing of a state of affairs so little in harmony with an image that had lately flitted in and out of his own meditations; the image of a very pretty girl looking out of an old Roman window and asking herself urgently when Mr Winterbourne would arrive. If, however, he determined to wait a little before reminding Miss Miller of his claims to her consideration, he went very soon to call upon two or three other friends. One of these friends was an American lady who had spent several winters at Geneva, where she had placed her children at school. She was a very accomplished woman and she lived in the Via Gregoriana. Winterbourne found her in a little crimson drawing-room, on a third floor; the room was filled with southern sunshine. He had not been there ten minutes when the servant came in, announcing ‘Madame Mila!’ This announcement was presently followed by the entrance of little Randolph Miller, who stopped in the middle of the room and stood staring at Winterbourne. An instant later his pretty sister crossed the threshold; and then, after a considerable interval, Mrs Miller slowly advanced.
‘I know you!’ said Randolph.
‘I’m sure you know a great many things,’ exclaimed Winterbourne, taking him by the hand. ‘How is your education coming on?’
Daisy was exchanging greetings very prettily with her hostess; but when she heard Winterbourne’s voice she quickly turned her head. ‘Well, I declare!’ she said.
‘I told you I should come, you know,’ Winterbourne rejoined, smiling.
‘Well – I didn’t believe it,’ said Miss Daisy.
‘I am much obliged to you,’ laughed the young man.
‘You might have come to see me!’ said Daisy.
‘I arrived only yesterday.’
‘I don’t believe that!’ the young girl declared.
Winterbourne turned with a protesting smile to her mother; but this lady evaded his glance, and seating herself, fixed her eyes upon her son. ‘We’ve got a bigger place than this,’ said Randolph. ‘It’s all gold on the walls.’
Mrs Miller turned uneasily in her chair. ‘I told you if I were to bring you, you would say something!’ she murmured.
‘I told you!’ Randolph exclaimed. ‘I tell you, sir!’ he added jocosely, giving Winterbourne a thump on the knee. ‘It is bigger, too!’
Daisy had entered upon a lively conversation with her hostess; Winterbourne judged it becoming to address a few words to her mother. ‘I hope you have been well since we parted at Vevey,’ he said.
Mrs Miller now certainly looked at him – at his chin. ‘Not very well, sir,’ she answered.
‘She’s got the dyspepsia,’ said Randolph. ‘I’ve got it too. Father’s got it. I’ve got it worst!’
This announcement, instead of embarrassing Mrs Miller, seemed to relieve her. ‘I suffer from the liver,’ she said. ‘I think it’s this climate; it’s less bracing than Schenectady, especially in the winter season. I don’t know whether you know we reside at Schenectady. I was saying to Daisy that I certainly hadn’t found any one like Dr Davis, and I didn’t believe I should. Oh, at Schenectady, he stands first; they think everything of him. He has so much to do, and yet there was nothing he wouldn’t do for me. He said he never saw anything like my dyspepsia, but he was bound to cure it. I’m sure there was nothing he wouldn’t try. He was just going to try something new when we came off. Mr Miller wanted Daisy to see Europe for herself. But I wrote to Mr Miller that it seems as if I couldn’t get on without Dr Davis. At Schenectady he stands at the very top; and there’s a great deal of sickness there, too. It affects my sleep.’
Winterbourne had a good deal of pathological gossip with Dr Davis’s patient, during which Daisy chattered unremittingly to her own companion. The young man asked Mrs Miller how she was pleased with Rome. ‘Well, I must say I am disappointed,’ she answered. ‘We had heard so much about it; I suppose we had heard too much. But we couldn’t help that. We had been led to expect something different.’
‘Ah, wait a little, and you will become very fond of it,’ said Winterbourne.
‘I hate it worse and worse every day!’ cried Randolph.
‘You are like the infant Hannibal,’ said Winterbourne.
‘No, I ain’t!’ Randolph declared, at a venture.
‘You are not much like an infant,’ said his mother. ‘But we have seen places,’ she resumed, ‘that I should put a long way before Rome.’ And in reply to Winterbourne’s interrogation, ‘There’s Zurich,’ she observed; ‘I think Zurich is lovely; and we hadn’t heard half so much about it.’
‘The best place we’ve seen is the City of Richmond!’ said Randolph.
‘He means the ship,’ his mother explained. ‘We crossed in that ship. Randolph had a good time on the City of Richmond.’
‘It’s the best place I’ve seen,’ the child repeated. ‘Only it was turned the wrong way.’
‘Well, we’ve got to turn the right way some time,’ said Mrs Miller, with a little laugh. Winterbourne expressed the hope that her daughter at least found some gratification in Rome, and she declared that Daisy was quite carried away. ‘It’s on account of the society – the society’s splendid. She goes round everywhere; she has made a great number of acquaintances. Of course she goes round more than I do. I must say they have been very sociable; they have taken her right in. And then she knows a great many gentlemen. Oh, she thinks there’s nothing like Rome. Of course, it’s a great deal pleasanter for a young lady if she knows plenty of gentlemen.’
By this time Daisy had turned her attention again to Winterbourne. ‘I’ve been telling Mrs Walker how mean you were!’ the young girl announced.
‘And what is the evidence you have offered?’ asked Winterbourne, rather annoyed at Miss Miller’s want of appreciation of the zeal of an admirer who on his way down to Rome had stopped neither at Bologna nor at Florence, simply because of a certain sentimental impatience. He remembered that a cynical compatriot had once told him that American women – the pretty ones, and this gave a largeness to the axiom – were at once the most exacting in the world and the least endowed with a sense of indebtedness.
‘Why, you were awfully mean at Vevey,’ said Daisy. ‘You wouldn’t do anything. You wouldn’t stay there when I asked you.’
‘My dearest young lady,’ cried Winterbourne, with eloquence, ‘have I come all the way to Rome to encounter your reproaches?’
‘Just hear him say that!’ said Daisy to her hostess, giving a twist to a bow on this lady’s dress. ‘Did you ever hear anything so quaint?’
‘So quaint, my dear?’ murmured Mrs Walker, in the tone of a partisan of Winterbourne.
‘Well, I don’t know,’ said Daisy, fingering Mrs Walker’s ribbons. ‘Mrs Walker, I want to tell you something.’
‘Mother,’ interposed Randolph, with his rough ends to his words, ‘I tell you you’ve got to go. Eugenio’ll raise something!’
‘I’m not afraid of Eugenio,’ said Daisy, with a toss of her head. ‘Look here, Mrs Walker,’ she went on, ‘you know I’m coming to your party.’
‘I am delighted to hear it.’
‘I’ve got a lovely dress.’
‘I am very sure of that.’
‘But I want to ask a favour – permission to bring a friend.’
‘I shall be happy to see any of your friends,’ said Mrs Walker, turning with a smile to Mrs Miller.
‘Oh, they are not my friends,’ answered Daisy’s mamma, smiling shyly, in her own fashion. ‘I never spoke to them!’
‘It’s an intimate friend of mine – Mr Giovanelli,’ said Daisy, without a tremor in her clear little voice or a shadow on her brilliant little face.
Mrs Walker was silent a moment, she gave a rapid glance at Winterbourne. ‘I shall be glad to see Mr Giovanelli,’ she then said.
‘He’s an Italian,’ Daisy pursued, with the prettiest serenity. ‘He’s a great friend of mine – he’s the handsomest man in the world – exce
pt Mr Winterbourne! He knows plenty of Italians, but he wants to know some Americans. He thinks ever so much of Americans. He’s tremendously clever. He’s perfectly lovely!’
It was settled that this brilliant personage should be brought to Mrs Walker’s party, and then Mrs Miller prepared to take her leave. ‘I guess we’ll go back to the hotel,’ she said.
‘You may go back to the hotel, mother, but I’m going to take a walk,’ said Daisy.
‘She’s going to walk with Mr Giovanelli,’ Randolph proclaimed.
‘I am going to the Pincio,’ said Daisy, smiling.
‘Alone, my dear – at this hour?’ Mrs Walker asked. The afternoon was drawing to a close – it was the hour for the throng of carriages and of contemplative pedestrians. ‘I don’t think it’s safe, my dear,’ said Mrs Walker.
‘Neither do I,’ subjoined Mrs Miller. ‘You’ll get the fever as sure as you live. Remember what Dr Davis told you!’