Americans -- Europe -- Fiction; Europe -- Fiction; Psychological fiction; Young women -- Fiction
seat; he remarked to himself that she had the most charming nose he had
ever seen; he wondered what were the regular conditions and limitations
of one’s intercourse with a pretty American flirt. It presently became
apparent that he was on the way to learn.
“Have you been to that old castle?” asked the young girl, pointing with
her parasol to the far-gleaming walls of the Chateau de Chillon.
“Yes, formerly, more than once,” said Winterbourne. “You too, I suppose,
have seen it?”
“No; we haven’t been there. I want to go there dreadfully. Of course I
mean to go there. I wouldn’t go away from here without having seen that
old castle.”
“It’s a very pretty excursion,” said Winterbourne, “and very easy to
make. You can drive, you know, or you can go by the little steamer.”
“You can go in the cars,” said Miss Miller.
“Yes; you can go in the cars,” Winterbourne assented.
“Our courier says they take you right up to the castle,” the young girl
continued. “We were going last week, but my mother gave out. She suffers
dreadfully from dyspepsia. She said she couldn’t go. Randolph wouldn’t
go either; he says he doesn’t think much of old castles. But I guess
we’ll go this week, if we can get Randolph.”
“Your brother is not interested in ancient monuments?” Winterbourne
inquired, smiling.
“He says he don’t care much about old castles. He’s only nine. He
wants to stay at the hotel. Mother’s afraid to leave him alone, and the
courier won’t stay with him; so we haven’t been to many places. But it
will be too bad if we don’t go up there.” And Miss Miller pointed again
at the Chateau de Chillon.
“I should think it might be arranged,” said Winterbourne. “Couldn’t you
get some one to stay for the afternoon with Randolph?”
Miss Miller looked at him a moment, and then, very placidly, “I wish YOU
would stay with him!” she said.
Winterbourne hesitated a moment. “I should much rather go to Chillon
with you.”
“With me?” asked the young girl with the same placidity.
She didn’t rise, blushing, as a young girl at Geneva would have done;
and yet Winterbourne, conscious that he had been very bold, thought
it possible she was offended. “With your mother,” he answered very
respectfully.
But it seemed that both his audacity and his respect were lost upon Miss
Daisy Miller. “I guess my mother won’t go, after all,” she said. “She
don’t like to ride round in the afternoon. But did you really mean what
you said just now--that you would like to go up there?”
“Most earnestly,” Winterbourne declared.
“Then we may arrange it. If mother will stay with Randolph, I guess
Eugenio will.”
“Eugenio?” the young man inquired.
“Eugenio’s our courier. He doesn’t like to stay with Randolph; he’s the
most fastidious man I ever saw. But he’s a splendid courier. I guess
he’ll stay at home with Randolph if mother does, and then we can go to
the castle.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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