"
"Something? What sort of thing?" I asked as if I myself could
have no idea.
"Oh, she has never told me," Miss Tita answered; and I was sure
she was speaking the truth.
Her extreme limpidity was almost provoking, and I felt for the moment
that she would have been more satisfactory if she had been less ingenuous.
"Do you suppose it's something to which Jeffrey Aspern's letters and papers--
I mean the things in her possession--have reference?"
"I daresay it is!" my companion exclaimed as if this were a very
happy suggestion. "I have never looked at any of those things."
"None of them? Then how do you know what they are?"
"I don't," said Miss Tita placidly. "I have never had them in my hands.
But I have seen them when she has had them out."
"Does she have them out often?"
"Not now, but she used to. She is very fond of them."
"In spite of their being compromising?"
"Compromising?" Miss Tita repeated as if she was ignorant of the meaning
of the word. I felt almost as one who corrupts the innocence of youth.
"I mean their containing painful memories."
"Oh, I don't think they are painful."
"You mean you don't think they affect her reputation?"
At this a singular look came into the face of Miss
Bordereau's niece--a kind of confession of helplessness,
an appeal to me to deal fairly, generously with her.
I had brought her to the Piazza, placed her among charming
influences, paid her an attention she appreciated, and now I
seemed to let her perceive that all this had been a bribe--
a bribe to make her turn in some way against her aunt.
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