The House in Paris Read Online Free PDF

Mariette?'
    'Their maid. She wanted to help me dress.'
    'Do you think she is going to die?' said Henrietta.
    'I don't expect so. I shall be out, anyway.'
    'That would be awful,' said Henrietta, shocked.
    'I suppose it would. But I don't know Mme Fisher.'
    It is never natural for children to smile at each other: Henrietta and Leopold kept their natural formality. She said: 'You see, I'd been hoping Miss Fisher was going to take me out.'
    Leopold, looking about the salon, said: Yes, this must be a rather funny way to see Paris.' But he spoke with detachment; it did not matter to him.
    'I don't feel as if I was anywhere,' Henrietta complained.
    Leopold got up and strolled away to the window. With his back turned to Henrietta, looking out at the tree, he said in an off-hand voice; 'My mother's coming today, so she and I will go out.'
    'What will you do?'
    'Oh — have tea at a patisserie.'
    'My grandmother's gone to live at Mentone.'
    'Oh. Is that why you're going there?'
    'Yes; did Miss Fisher tell you?' said Henrietta, gratified.
    'I suppose she did.' Turning round from the window he said with much more animation: 'Where does your mother live?'
    'Oh, she's dead,' said Henrietta, embarrassed.
    'Oh, is she?' said Leopold, taken aback. His manner became a little touchy and wary, as though she had been laying a trap for him. Picking Henrietta's monkey up by the ears he examined it distantly: its limp limbs and stitched felt paws hung down.
    'Don't!' exclaimed Henrietta. 'His ears may come off!'
    'They seem quite firm,' said Leopold, testing them. 'Why do you say "don't"? Do you think it feels?'
    'Well, I like to think he notices. Otherwise there'd be no point in taking him everywhere ... Have you been in Paris often, Leopold?'
    Does it squeak?' he went on, absorbed, digging at Charles's belly.
    'No. Please put him down. Have you been in Paris often?'
    'No. I live near Spezia. Italy's better than France.'
    'Why?' said she, nettled.
    'It's hotter,' he said, raising his eyebrows, 'and not nearly so shabby. Besides, it has got a king still. Mentone used to be Italy till France took it away. Nobody goes to France when they can go to Italy.'
    'Then why doesn't your mother go and see you in Italy?'
    'Because it's too far,' said Leopold loftily. Silhouetted against the unsunny muslin blind he began rocking backwards and forwards, from his toes to his heels. Creak — creak went his shoes on the parquet. Intent on balance, he sometimes bowed right forward or jerked hastily back: his hands stayed in his pockets the whole time. He became his own rocking toy whose equilibrium flattered him; meanwhile showing Henrietta that he had no thoughts. She, however, refused to watch. Gazing up at the cornice picked out in grey and yellow, she thought: All he wants is somebody who will notice.
    Leopold said, off-hand: 'What did Miss Fisher say about my mother and me?'
    Henrietta, still with her feet up on the sofa, looked down from the cornice only to stare at the toe-caps of her brown shoes. Then, peering forward earnestly, she read two or three French words on the sheet of Le Matin under her feet. Too well she recollected Miss Fisher's taboo. But this was the subject he seemed determined to pitch on, and she found herself burning to know how he felt. 'Oh,' she said, 'she just said your mother lived somewhere else.'
    'Somewhere else from where?'
    'From you.'
    Leopold stopped rocking, bumped down on his heels and stood disconcertingly still, his big-pupilled eyes, set close in, transfixing her so intently that she thought for a moment he had a cast in them. He said: 'So you thought that was funny?'
    'Yes, I did,' she said boldly. 'I did think that was funny.'
    'If you told that to other people, would they think it was funny?'
    'Well, they wouldn't laugh, if that's what you mean by funny. I suppose they might think it was rather sort of peculiar. But then I promised not to.'
    'Tell other people?'
    'Mmm.'
    'It's not a secret,' said Leopold haughtily.
    'Oh,