Transcribed from 1893 Macmillan and Co. edition by DavidPrice, . Proofed by Nina Hall, MohuaSen, Bridie, Francine Smith and David.
This Edition is intended forcirculation only in India
and the British Colonies
Macmillan’s ColonialLibrary
AND OTHER TALES
BY
HENRYJAMES
London
MACMILLAN AND CO.
AND NEW YORK
1893
Copyright,1892,
By MACMILLAN & CO.
NorwoodPress:
J. S. Cushing & Co.—Berwick& Smith
Boston, Mass, U.S.A.
The second of the following talesbore, on its first appearance, in The Cosmopolitan, adifferent title.
| PAGE |
The Real Thing | |
Sir Dominick Ferrand | |
Nona Vincent | |
The Chaperon | |
Greville Fane |
When the porter’s wife (sheused to answer the house-bell), announced “Agentleman—with a lady, sir,” I had, as I often had inthose days, for the wish was father to the thought, an immediatevision of sitters. Sitters my visitors in this case provedto be; but not in the sense I should have preferred. However, there was nothing at first to indicate that they mightnot have come for a portrait. The gentleman, a man offifty, very high and very straight, with a moustache slightlygrizzled and a dark grey walking-coat admirably fitted, both ofwhich I noted professionally—I don’t mean as a barberor yet as a tailor—would have struck me as a celebrity ifcelebrities often were striking. It was a truth of which Ihad for some time been conscious that a figure with a good dealof frontage was, as one might say, almost never a publicinstitution. A glance at the lady helped to remind me ofthis paradoxical law: she also looked too distinguished to be a“personality.” Moreover one would scarcely comeacross two variations together.
Neither of the pair spoke immediately—they onlyprolonged the preliminary gaze