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Page 11
"Have you been all alone?" he asked.
"I have been walking round with mother. But mother gets tired
walking round," she answered.
"Has she gone to bed?"
"No; she doesn't like to go to bed," said the young girl.
"She doesn't sleep--not three hours. She says she
doesn't know how she lives. She's dreadfully nervous.
I guess she sleeps more than she thinks. She's gone somewhere
after Randolph; she wants to try to get him to go to bed.
He doesn't like to go to bed."
"Let us hope she will persuade him," observed Winterbourne.
"She will talk to him all she can; but he doesn't like her to talk
to him," said Miss Daisy, opening her fan. "She's going to try
to get Eugenio to talk to him. But he isn't afraid of Eugenio.
Eugenio's a splendid courier, but he can't make much impression
on Randolph! I don't believe he'll go to bed before eleven."
It appeared that Randolph's vigil was in fact triumphantly prolonged,
for Winterbourne strolled about with the young girl for some
time without meeting her mother. "I have been looking round
for that lady you want to introduce me to," his companion resumed.
"She's your aunt." Then, on Winterbourne's admitting the fact
and expressing some curiosity as to how she had learned it,
she said she had heard all about Mrs. Costello from the chambermaid.
She was very quiet and very comme il faut; she wore white puffs;
she spoke to no one, and she never dined at the table d'hote.
Every two days she had a headache. "I think that's a lovely
description, headache and all!" said Miss Daisy, chattering along
in her thin, gay voice. "I want to know her ever so much.
I know just what YOUR aunt would be; I know I should like her.
She would be very exclusive. I like a lady to be exclusive;
I'm dying to be exclusive myself. Well, we ARE exclusive,
mother and I. We don't speak to everyone--or they don't speak to us.
I suppose it's about the same thing. Anyway, I shall be ever
so glad to know your aunt."
Winterbourne was embarrassed. "She would be most happy," he said;
"but I am afraid those headaches will interfere."
The young girl looked at him through the dusk.
"But I suppose she doesn't have a headache every day,"
she said sympathetically.
Winterbourne was silent a moment. "She tells me she does,"
he answered at last, not knowing what to say.
Miss Daisy Miller stopped and stood looking at him. Her prettiness
was still visible in the darkness; she was opening and closing her
enormous fan. "She doesn't want to know me!" she said suddenly.
"Why don't you say so? You needn't be afraid. I'm not afraid!"
And she gave a little laugh.
Winterbourne fancied there was a tremor in her voice; he was touched, shocked,
mortified by it. "My dear young lady," he protested, "she knows no one.
It's her wretched health."
The young girl walked on a few steps, laughing still.
"You needn't be afraid," she repeated. "Why should she want
to know me?" Then she paused again; she was close to the parapet
of the garden, and in front of her was the starlit lake.
There was a vague sheen upon its surface, and in the distance
were dimly seen mountain forms. Daisy Miller looked out upon
the mysterious prospect and then she gave another little laugh.
"Gracious! she IS exclusive!" she said. Winterbourne wondered
whether she was seriously wounded, and for a moment almost
wished that her sense of injury might be such as to make it
becoming in him to attempt to reassure and comfort her.
He had a pleasant sense that she would be very approachable
for consolatory purposes. He felt then, for the instant,
quite ready to sacrifice his aunt, conversationally; to admit
that she was a proud, rude woman, and to declare that they needn't
mind her. But before he had time to commit himself to this
perilous mixture of gallantry and impiety, the young lady,
resuming her walk, gave an exclamation in quite another tone.
"Well, here's Mother! I guess she hasn't got Randolph to go to bed."
The figure of a lady appeared at a distance, very indistinct
in the darkness, and advancing with a slow and wavering movement.
Suddenly it seemed to pause.
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