"I took them away. I locked them up."

"In the secretary?"

"Yes, in the secretary," said Miss t.i.ta, reddening again.

"Did you tell her you would burn them?"

"No, I didn't--on purpose."

"On purpose to gratify me?"

"Yes, only for that."

"And what good will you have done me if after all you won't show them?"

"Oh, none; I know that--I know that."

"And did she believe you had destroyed them?"

"I don't know what she believed at the last. I couldn't tell--she was too far gone."

"Then if there was no promise and no a.s.surance I can't see what ties you."

"Oh, she hated it so--she hated it so! She was so jealous. But here's the portrait--you may have that," Miss t.i.ta announced, taking the little picture, wrapped up in the same manner in which her aunt had wrapped it, out of her pocket.

"I may have it--do you mean you give it to me?" I questioned, staring, as it pa.s.sed into my hand.

"Oh, yes."

"But it's worth money--a large sum."

"Well!" said Miss t.i.ta, still with her strange look.

I did not know what to make of it, for it could scarcely mean that she wanted to bargain like her aunt. She spoke as if she wished to make me a present. "I can't take it from you as a gift," I said, "and yet I can't afford to pay you for it according to the ideas Miss Bordereau had of its value. She rated it at a thousand pounds."

"Couldn't we sell it?" asked Miss t.i.ta.

"G.o.d forbid! I prefer the picture to the money."

"Well then keep it."

"You are very generous."

"So are you."

"I don't know why you should think so," I replied; and this was a truthful speech, for the singular creature appeared to have some very fine reference in her mind, which I did not in the least seize.

"Well, you have made a great difference for me," said Miss t.i.ta.

I looked at Jeffrey Aspern's face in the little picture, partly in order not to look at that of my interlocutress, which had begun to trouble me, even to frighten me a little--it was so self-conscious, so unnatural.

I made no answer to this last declaration; I only privately consulted Jeffrey Aspern's delightful eyes with my own (they were so young and brilliant, and yet so wise, so full of vision); I asked him what on earth was the matter with Miss t.i.ta. He seemed to smile at me with friendly mockery, as if he were amused at my case. I had got into a pickle for him--as if he needed it! He was unsatisfactory, for the only moment since I had known him. Nevertheless, now that I held the little picture in my hand I felt that it would be a precious possession. "Is this a bribe to make me give up the papers?" I demanded in a moment, perversely. "Much as I value it, if I were to be obliged to choose, the papers are what I should prefer. Ah, but ever so much!"

"How can you choose--how can you choose?" Miss t.i.ta asked, slowly, lamentably.

"I see! Of course there is nothing to be said, if you regard the interdiction that rests upon you as quite insurmountable. In this case it must seem to you that to part with them would be an impiety of the worst kind, a simple sacrilege!"

Miss t.i.ta shook her head, full of her dolefulness. "You would understand if you had known her. I'm afraid," she quavered suddenly--"I'm afraid!

She was terrible when she was angry."

"Yes, I saw something of that, that night. She was terrible. Then I saw her eyes. Lord, they were fine!"

"I see them--they stare at me in the dark!" said Miss t.i.ta.

"You are nervous, with all you have been through."

"Oh, yes, very--very!"

"You mustn't mind; that will pa.s.s away," I said, kindly. Then I added, resignedly, for it really seemed to me that I must accept the situation, "Well, so it is, and it can't be helped. I must renounce." Miss t.i.ta, at this, looking at me, gave a low, soft moan, and I went on: "I only wish to heaven she had destroyed them; then there would be nothing more to say. And I can't understand why, with her ideas, she didn't."

"Oh, she lived on them!" said Miss t.i.ta.

"You can imagine whether that makes me want less to see them," I answered, smiling. "But don't let me stand here as if I had it in my soul to tempt you to do anything base. Naturally you will understand if I give up my rooms. I leave Venice immediately." And I took up my hat, which I had placed on a chair. We were still there rather awkwardly, on our feet, in the middle of the sala. She had left the door of the apartments open behind her but she had not led me that way.

A kind of spasm came into her face as she saw me take my hat.

"Immediately--do you mean today?" The tone of the words was tragical--they were a cry of desolation.

"Oh, no; not so long as I can be of the least service to you."

"Well, just a day or two more--just two or three days," she panted. Then controlling herself, she added in another manner, "She wanted to say something to me--the last day--something very particular, but she couldn't."

"Something very particular?"

"Something more about the papers."

"And did you guess--have you any idea?"

"No, I have thought--but I don't know. I have thought all kinds of things."

"And for instance?"

"Well, that if you were a relation it would be different."

"If I were a relation?"

"If you were not a stranger. Then it would be the same for you as for me. Anything that is mine--would be yours, and you could do what you like. I couldn't prevent you--and you would have no responsibility."

She brought out this droll explanation with a little nervous rush, as if she were speaking words she had got by heart. They gave me an impression of subtlety and at first I failed to follow. But after a moment her face helped me to see further, and then a light came into my mind. It was embarra.s.sing, and I bent my head over Jeffrey Aspern's portrait. What an odd expression was in his face! "Get out of it as you can, my dear fellow!" I put the picture into the pocket of my coat and said to Miss t.i.ta, "Yes, I'll sell it for you. I shan't get a thousand pounds by any means, but I shall get something good."