The Path Of Duty

Henry James
The Path Of Duty, by Henry
James

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Title: The Path Of Duty
Author: Henry James
Release Date: June 8, 2007 [EBook #21772]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE PATH OF DUTY.
By Henry James
1885

I am glad I said to you the other night at Doubleton, inquiring--too
inquiring--compatriot, that I wouldn't undertake to tell you the story
(about Ambrose Tester), but would write it out for you; inasmuch as,
thinking it over since I came back to town, I see that it may really be
made interesting. It is a story, with a regular development, and for
telling it I have the advantage that I happened to know about it from the
first, and was more or less in the confidence of every one concerned.
Then it will amuse me to write it, and I shall do so as carefully and as
cleverly as possible The first winter days in London are not madly gay,
so that I have plenty of time; and if the fog is brown outside, the fire is
red within. I like the quiet of this season; the glowing chimney-corner,
in the midst of the December mirk, makes me think, as I sit by it, of all
sorts of things. The idea that is almost always uppermost is the bigness
and strangeness of this London world. Long as I have lived here,--the
sixteenth anniversary of my marriage is only ten days off,--there is still
a kind of novelty and excitement in it It is a great pull, as they say here,
to have remained sensitive,--to have kept one's own point of view. I
mean it's more entertaining,--it makes you see a thousand things (not
that they are all very charming). But the pleasure of observation does
not in the least depend on the beauty of what one observes. You see
innumerable little dramas; in fact, almost everything has acts and
scenes, like a comedy. Very often it is a comedy with tears. There have
been a good many of them, I am afraid, in the case I am speaking of. It
is because this history of Sir Ambrose Tester and Lady Vandeleur
struck me, when you asked me about the relations of the parties, as
having that kind of progression, that when I was on the point of
responding, I checked myself, thinking it a pity to tell you a little when
I might tell you all. I scarcely know what made you ask, inasmuch as I
had said nothing to excite your curiosity. Whatever you suspected, you
suspected on your own hook, as they say. You had simply noticed the
pair together that evening at Doubleton. If you suspected anything in
particular, it is a proof that you are rather sharp, because they are very
careful about the way they behave in public. At least they think they are.
The result, perhaps, doesn't necessarily follow. If I have been in their
confidence you may say that I make a strange use of my privilege in
serving them up to feed the prejudices of an opinionated American.
You think English society very wicked, and my little story will

probably not correct the impression. Though, after all, I don't see why it
should minister to it; for what I said to you (it was all I did say) remains
the truth. They are treading together the path of duty. You would be
quite right about its being base in me to betray them. It is very true that
they have ceased to confide in me; even Joscelind has said nothing to
me for more than a year. That is doubtless a sign that the situation is
more serious than before, all round,--too serious to be talked about. It is
also true that you are remarkably discreet, and that even if you were not
it would not make much difference, inasmuch as if you were to repeat
my revelations in America, no one would know whom you were talking
about. But all the same, I should be base; and, therefore, after I have
written out my reminiscences for your delectation, I shall simply keep
them for my own. You must content yourself with the explanation I
have already given you of Sir Ambrose Tester and Lady Vandeleur:
they are following--hand in hand, as it were--the path of duty. This will
not prevent me
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