JAMES, Henry - "Aspernovi papiri" ("Aspern Papers")

I had taken Mrs. Prest into my confidence; in truth without her I should have made but little advance, for the fruitful idea in the whole business dropped from her friendly lips. It was she who invented the short cut, who severed the Gordian knot. It is not supposed to be the nature of women to rise as a general thing to the largest and most liberal view--I mean of a practical scheme; but it has struck me that they sometimes throw off a bold conception-- such as a man would not have risen to--with singular serenity. "Simply ask them to take you in on the footing of a lodger"-- I don't think that unaided I should have risen to that. I was beating about the bush, trying to be ingenious, wondering by what combination of arts I might become an acquaintance, when she offered this happy suggestion that the way to become an acquaintance was first to become an inmate. Her actual knowledge of the Misses Bordereau was scarcely larger than mine, and indeed I had brought with me from England some definite facts which were new to her. Their name had been mixed up ages before with one of the greatest names of the century, and they lived now in Venice in obscurity, on very small means, unvisited, unapproachable, in a dilapidated old palace on an out-of-the-way canal: this was the substance of my friend's impression of them. She herself had been established in Venice for fifteen years and had done a great deal of good there; but the circle of her benevolence did not include the two shy, mysterious and, as it was somehow supposed, scarcely respectable Americans (they were believed to have lost in their long exile all national quality, besides having had, as their name implied, some French strain in their origin), who asked no favors and desired no attention. In the early years of her residence she had made an attempt to see them, but this had been successful only as regards the little one, as Mrs. Prest called the niece; though in reality as I afterward learned she was considerably the bigger of the two. She had heard Miss Bordereau was ill and had a suspicion that she was in want; and she had gone to the house to offer assistance, so that if there were suffering (and American suffering), she should at least not have it on her conscience. The "little one" received her in the great cold, tarnished Venetian sala, the central hall of the house, paved with marble and roofed with dim crossbeams, and did not even ask her to sit down. This was not encouraging for me, who wished to sit so fast, and I remarked as much to Mrs. Prest. She however replied with profundity, "Ah, but there's all the difference: I went to confer a favor and you will go to ask one. If they are proud you will be on the right side." And she offered to show me their house to begin with--to row me thither in her gondola. I let her know that I had already been to look at it half a dozen times; but I accepted her invitation, for it charmed me to hover about the place. I had made my way to it the day after my arrival in Venice (it had been described to me in advance by the friend in England to whom I owed definite information as to their possession of the papers), and I had besieged it with my eyes while I considered my plan of campaign. Jeffrey Aspern had never been in it that I knew of; but some note of his voice seemed to abide there by a roundabout implication, a faint reverberation.
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Sam uzeo gospođu Prest u moje povjerenje, u istini bez nje Trebao sam napravio, ali malo unaprijed, za plodnu ideju u cijeli posao pao s njezinim prijateljskih usnama. To je bila ona koja je izumio kratku frizuru, koji odsječenu Gordijski čvor. To ne bi trebao biti priroda žene rasti kao opće stvar do najvećih i liberalni pogled - mislim od praktične sheme, ali to mi je na pamet da oni ponekad baciti hrabar koncepciju - kao što su Čovjek ne bi popeo na - s jedinstvenom miru. "Jednostavno ih zamoliti da vas odvesti u na osnovi jedne stanar" - Ne mislim da bez pomoći Trebao sam popeo se na to. Bio sam premlaćivanja oko grm, pokušava biti genijalna, pitate ono što kombinacija umjetnosti sam mogao postati poznanik, kad je ponudio ovu sretnu sugestiju da način da postane poznanik je bio prvi postati zatvorenik. Njezina stvarna poznavanje promaši Bordereau bio jedva veći od mog, i uistinu sam donio sa sobom iz Engleske neke određene činjenice koje su novi u nju. Njihovo ime je pomiješana dobi prije s jednim od najvećih imena stoljeća, i živjeli su sada u Veneciji u tami, na vrlo malim sredstvima, unvisited, nepristupačnim, u ruševnom staroj palači na out-of-the-način Kanal: to je suština mog prijatelja dojam od njih. Ona sama je osnovana u Veneciji za petnaest godina, a učinio mnogo dobra postoji, ali krug njezina dobročinstva ne uključuju dvije sramiti, tajanstven i, kao što je bio nekako trebalo, jedva ugledni Amerikanci (oni su vjerovali da su izgubili u svojoj dugoj egzilu sve nacionalne kvalitete, osim što je imao, kao i njihovo ime implicira, neki francuski soj u njihova podrijetla), koji je zamolio da ne favorizira i željeni nikakvu pozornost. U prvim godinama svog prebivališta joj je napravio pokušaj da ih vide, ali ovo je bila uspješna samo u odnosu na malo jedna, kao gđa Prest zove nećakinja, iako je u stvarnosti kao što sam kasnije saznao je bila znatno veća od dva. Čula je Miss Bordereau bio bolestan i imao je sumnja da je ona bila u žele, a ona je otišla u kuću da nude pomoć, tako da ako je bilo patnje (i američki patnja), ona bi trebala barem ne ga imati na svojoj savjesti . "Mali" je dobio u velikoj hladnoći, potamnio venecijanski Sala, središnjoj dvorani Doma, utro mramorom i natkrivenom sa slabom gredama, a nije ni zamoliti da sjedne. Ovo nije ohrabrujuće za mene, koji je želio sjediti tako brzo, a ja sam primijetio koliko gospođi Prest. Ona je međutim odgovorio s dubinom, "Ah, ali tamo je sve razlika: Otišao sam da se stekne milost i da će ići pitati jednog Ako su ponosni što će biti na desnoj strani.." I ona je ponudila da mi pokaže svoju kuću za početak - veslati me onamo u svojoj gondoli. Dopustio sam joj da sam već bio na to gledate polovine desetak puta, ali sam prihvatio njezin poziv, jer očarala me da lebde o mjestu. Sam napravio moj put do njega dan nakon mog dolaska u Veneciji (to je opisao da mi unaprijed do prijatelja u Engleskoj na kojima sam dugovao točne podatke o njihovoj posjedu novinama), a ja sam ga opsjedaju s mojim Oči dok sam smatra svoj plan kampanje. Jeffrey Aspernu nikada nije bio u tome da sam znao, ali neki prizvuk njegova glasa činilo se da ondje po obilaznim implicitno, onesvijestiti odječnoj.