[Music] [Music] Roman fever a short story by Edith Wharton from the table at which they had been lunching two american ladies of ripe but well cared for middle age moved across the lofty Terrace of the Roman restaurant and leaning on its parapet looked first at each other and then down on the outspread glories of the Palatine and the Forum with the same expression of vague but benevolent approval as they leaned there a girlish voice echoed up gay from the stairs leading to the court below well come along then it cried not to them but to an invisible companion and let's leave the young things to their knitting and a voice as fresh laughed back oh look here Babs not actually knitting well I mean figuratively rejoined the first after all we haven't left our poor parents much else to do at that point the turn of the stairs engulfed the dialogue the two ladies looked at each other again this time with a tinge of smiling embarrassment and the smaller and paler one shook her head and colored slightly Barbara she murmured sending an unheard rebuke after the mocking voice in The Stairway the other lady who was Fuller and higher in color with a small determined nose supported by vigorous black eyebrows gave a good humored laugh that's what our daughters think of us her companion replied by a deprecating gesture not of us individually we must remember that it's just the collective modern idea of mothers and you see half guiltily she Drew from her handsomely mounted black handbag a Twist of crimson silk run through by Two Fine knitting needles one never knows she murmured the new system has certainly given us a good deal of time to kill and sometimes I get tired just looking even at this her gesture was now addressed to the stupendous scene at their feet the dark lady laughed again and they both relapsed upon the view contemplating it in Silence with a sort of diffused Serenity which might have been borrowed from the spring effulgence of the Roman Skies the luncheon hour was long past and the two had their end of the vast Terrace to themselves at its opposite extremity a few groups detained by a lingering look at the outspread city were gathering up guide books and fumbling for tips the last of them scattered and the two ladies were alone on the air washed height well I don't see why we shouldn't just stay here said Mrs Slade the lady of the high color and energetic brows to two deric basket chairs stood near and she pushed them into the angle of the parapet and settled herself in one her gaze upon the Palatine after all it's still the most beautiful view in the world it always will be to me assented her friend Mrs Ansley with so slight a stress on the me that Mrs Slade though she noticed it wondered if it were not merely accidental like the random underlinings of old-fashioned letter writers Grace Ansley was always old-fashioned she thought and added aloud with a retrospective smile it's a view we've both been familiar with for a good many years when we first met here we were younger than our girls are now you remember oh yes I remember murmured Mrs Ansley with the same undefinable stress there's that Headway to wondering she interpolated she was evidently far less sure than her companion of herself and of her rights in the world I'll cure him of wondering said Mrs Slade stretching her hand toward a bag as discreetly opulent looking as Mrs ansley's signing to the Head waiter she explained that she and her friend were old lovers of Rome and would like to spend the end of the afternoon looking down on The View that is if it did not disturb the service the head waiter bowing over her gratuity assured her that the ladies were most welcome and would be still more so if they would condescend to remain for dinner a full moon night they would remember Mrs Slade's black brows Drew together as though references to the moon were out of place and even unwelcome but she smiled away her frown as the head waiter retreated well why not we might do worse there's no knowing I suppose when the girls will be back do you even know back from where I don't Mrs Ansley again colored slightly I think those young Italian aviators we met at the embassy invited them to fly to T Quia for tea I suppose they'll want to wait and fly back by moonlight moonlight moonlight what a part it still plays do you suppose they're as sentimental as we were I have come to the conclusion that I don't in the least know what they are said Mrs Ansley and perhaps we didn't know much more about each other no perhaps we didn't her friend gave her a shy glance I never should have supposed you a Sentimental alider well perhaps I wasn't Mrs Slade Drew her Lids together in retrospect and for a few moments the two ladies who had been intimate since childhood reflected how little they knew each other each one of course had a label ready to attach to the other's name Mrs delin Slade for instance would have told herself or anyone who asked her that Mrs Horus Ansley 25 years ago had been exquisitly lovely no you wouldn't believe it would you though of course still Charming distinguished well as a girl she had been Exquisite far more beautiful than her daughter Barbara though certainly Babs according to the new standards at any rate was more effective had more Edge as they say funny where she got it with those two nullities as parents yes Horus Ansley was well just the duplicate of his wife Museum specimens of old New York good-looking approachable exemplary Mrs Slade and Mrs Ansley had lived opposite each other actually as well as figuratively for years when the drawing room curtains in numble 20 East 73rd Street were renewed numble 23 across the way was always aware of it and of all the movings buyings travels anniversaries illnesses the tame Chronicle of an estimable pair little of it escaped Mrs Slade but she had grown bored with it by the time her husband made his big coup in Wall Street and when they bought in Upper Park Avenue had already begun to think I'd rather live opposite a Speak Easy for a change at least one might see it raided the idea of seeing Grace raided was so amusing that before the move she launched it at a woman's lunch it made a hit and went the rounds she sometimes wondered if it had crossed the street and reached Mrs Ansley she hoped not but didn't much mind those were the days when respectability was at a discount and it did the irreproachable no harm to laugh at them a little a few years later and not many months apart both ladies lost their husbands there was an appropriate exchange of wreaths and condolences and a brief renewal of intimacy in the half shadow of their morning and now after another interval they had run across each other in Rome at the same Hotel each of them the modest appendage of of a Salient daughter the similarity of their lot had again drawn them together lending itself to mild jokes and the mutual confession that if in old days it must have been tiring to keep up with daughters it was now at times a little dull not to No Doubt Mrs Slade reflected she felt her unemployment more than poor Grace ever would it was a big drop from being the wife of delin slade to being his widow she had always always regarded herself with a certain conjugal Pride as his equal in Social gifts as contributing her full share to the making of the exceptional couple they were but the difference after his death was IR remediable as the wife of the famous Corporation lawyer always with an international Case or two on hand every day brought its exciting and unexpected obligation the impromptu entertaining of eminent colleagues from abroad the hrid dashes on legal business to London Paris or Rome where the entertaining was so handsomely reciprocated the amusement of hearing in her wakes what that handsome woman with the good clothes and the eyes is Mrs Slade the Slade's wife really generally the wives of celebrities are such frumps yes being the Slade's Widow was a dullish business after that in living up to such a husband all her faculties had been engaged now she had only her daughter to live up to for the son who seemed to have inherited his father's gifts had died suddenly in Boyhood she had fought through that Agony because her husband was there to be heled and to help now after the father's death the thought of the boy had become unbearable there was nothing left but to mother her daughter and dear Jenny was such a perfect daughter that she needed no excessive mothering now with bab anley I don't know that I should be so quiet Mrs Slade sometimes half enviously reflected but Jenny who was younger than her brilliant friend was that rare accident an extremely pretty girl who somehow made Youth and prettiness seem as safe as their absence it was all perplexing and to Mrs Slade a little boring she wished that Jenny would fall in love with the wrong man even that she might have to be watched outmaneuvered rescued and instead instead it was Jenny who watched her mother kept her out of drafts made sure that she had taken her tonic Mrs Ansley was much less articulate than her friend and her mental portrait of Mrs Slade was slighter and drawn with fainter touches Alid Slade's awfully brilliant but not as brilliant as she thinks would have summed it up though she would have added for the enlightenment of strangers that Mrs Slade had been an extremely dashing girl much more so than her daughter who was pretty of course and clever in a way but had none of her mother's well vividness someone had once called it Mrs Ansley would take up current words like this and cite them in quotation marks as unheard of audacities no Jenny was not like her mother sometimes Mrs Ansley thought Ela Slade was disappointed on the whole she had had a sad life full of failures and mistakes Mrs Ansley had always been rather sorry for her so these two ladies visualized each other each through the wrong end of her little telescope two for a long time they continued to sit side by side without speaking it seemed as though to both there was a relief in laying down their somewhat futile activities in the presence of the vast momento Mory which faced them Mrs Slade sat quite still her eyes fixed on the golden slope of the Palace of the the Caesars and after a while Mrs Ansley ceased to fidget with her bag and she too sank into meditation like many intimate friends the two ladies had never before had occasion to be silent together and Mrs Ansley was slightly embarrassed by what seemed after so many years a new stage in their intimacy and one with which she did not yet know how to deal suddenly the air was full of that deep clanger of bells which period periodically covers Rome with a roof of silver Mrs Slade glanced at her wristwatch 5:00 already she said as though surprised Mrs Ansley suggested interrogatively there's bridge at the embassy at 5 for a long time Mrs Slade did not answer she appeared to be lost in contemplation and Mrs Ansley thought the remark had escaped her but after a while she said as if speaking out of a dream Bridge did you say not unless you want to but I don't think I will you know oh no Mrs Ansley hastened to assure her I don't care to at all it's so lovely here and so full of old memories as you say she settled herself in her chair and almost furtively Drew forth her knitting Mrs Slade took sideways note of this activity but her own beautifully cared for hands remained motionless on her knee I was just thinking she said said slowly what different things Rome stands for to each generation of travelers to our grandmother's Roman fever to our mothers sentimental dangers how we used to be guarded to our daughters no more dangers than the middle of Main Street they don't know it but how much they're missing the long Golden Light was beginning to pale and Mrs Ansley lifted her knitting a little closer to her eyes yes how we were guarded I always used to think Mrs Slade continued that our mothers had a much more difficult job than our grandmothers when Roman fever stalked the streets it must have been comparatively easy to gather in the girls at the danger hour but when you and I were young with such beauty calling us and the spice of Disobedience thrown in and no worse risk than catching cold during the cool hour after Sunset the mothers used to be put to it to keep us in didn't they she turned again toward Mrs Ansley but the had reached a delicate point in her knitting 1 2 3 slip two yes they must have been she ascented without looking up Mrs Slade's eyes rested on her with a deepened attention she can knit in the face of this how like her Mrs Slade leaned back brooding her eyes ranging from the ruins which faced her to the long green Hollow of the Forum The Fading glow of the church fronts Beyond it and the outlying immensity of the the Coliseum suddenly she thought it's all very well to say that our girls have done away with sentiment and Moonlight but if bab's Ansley isn't out to catch that young Aviator the one who's a Mari then I don't know anything and Jenny has no chance beside her I know that too I wonder if that's why Grace Ansley likes the two girls to go everywhere together my poor Jenny as a foil Mrs Slade gave a hardly audible look laugh and at the sound Mrs Ansley dropped her knitting yes I oh nothing I was only thinking how your Babs carries everything before her that campieri boy is one of the best matches in Rome don't look so innocent my dear you know he is and I was wondering ever so respectfully you understand wondering how two such exemplary characters as you and Horus had managed to produce anything quite so dynamic Mrs Slade laughed again with a touch of asperity Mrs ansley's hands lay inert across her needles she looked straight out at the great accumulated wreckage of passion and Splendor at her feet but her small profile was almost expressionless at length she said I think you overrate Babs My Dear Mrs Slade's tone grew easier no I don't I appreciate her and perhaps Envy you oh my girl's perfect if I were a chronic invalid I'd well I think I'd rather be in Jenny's hands there must be times but there I always wanted a brilliant daughter and it never quite understood why I got an angel instead Mrs Ansley echoed her laugh in a faint murmur Babs is an angel too of course of course but she's got rainbow wings well they're wandering by the sea with their young men and here we sit and it all brings back the past a little too acutely Mrs Ansley had resumed her knitting one might almost have imagined if one had known her less well Mrs Slade reflected that for her also too many memories Rose from the lengthening Shadows of those August ruins but no she was simply absorbed in her work what was there for her to worry about she knew that Babs would almost certainly come back engaged to the extremely eligible campieri and she'll sell the New York house and settle down near them in Rome and never be in their way she's much too tactful but she'll have an excellent cook and just the right people in for bridge and Cocktails and a perfectly peace for UI old age among her grandchildren Mrs Slade broke off this prophetic flight with a recoil of self-disgust there was no one of whom she had less right to think unkindly than of Gracey would she never cure herself of envying her perhaps she had begun too long ago she stood up and leaned against the parpet filling her troubled eyes with the tranquilizing magic of the hour but instead of tranquilizing her the sight seemed to increase her exasperation her gaze turned toward the Coliseum already its golden flank was drowned in purple Shadow and above it the sky curved Crystal Clear without light or color it was the moment when afternoon and evening hang balanced in mid Heaven Mrs Slade turned back and laid her hand on her friend's arm the gesture was so abrupt that Mrs anley looked up startled the sun set you're not afraid my dear afraid of Roman fever or pneumonia I remember how ill you were that winter as a girl you had a very delicate throat hadn't you oh we're all right up here Down Below in the Forum it does get deathly cold all of a sudden but not here ah of course you know because you had to be so careful Mrs Slade turned back to the paret she thought I must make one more effort not to hate her aloud she said whenever I look at the Forum from up here I remember that story about a great aunt of yours wasn't she a dreadfully Wicked great aunt oh yes great aunt Harriet the one who was supposed to have sent her young sister out to the Forum after Sunset to gather a night blooming flower for her album all our great aunts and grandmothers used to have albums of dried flowers Mrs Slade nodded but she really sent her because they were in love with the same man well that was the family tradition they said Aunt Harriet confessed it years afterward at any rate the poor little sister caught the fever and died mother used to frighten us with the story when we were children and you frightened me with it that winter when you and I were here as girls the winter I was engaged to deline Mrs Ansley gave a faint laugh oh did I really frightened you I don't believe you're easily frightened not often but I was then I was easily frightened because I was too happy I wonder if you know what that means I yes Mrs Ansley faltered well I suppose that was why the story of your wicked aunt made such an impression on me and I thought there's no more Roman fever but the Forum is deathly cold after Sunset especially after a hot day and the coliseum's even colder and damper the Coliseum yes it wasn't easy to get in after the gates were locked for the night far from Easy still in those days it could be managed it was managed often lovers met there who couldn't meet elsewhere you knew that I I I dare say I don't remember you don't remember you don't remember going to visit some ruins or other one evening just after dark and catching a bad chill you were supposed to have gone to see the moonrise people always said that expedition was what caused your illness there was a moment's silence then Mrs Ansley rejoined did they it was all so long ago yes and you got well again so it didn't matter but I suppose it struck your friends the reason given for your illness I mean because everybody knew you were so prudent on account of your throat and your mother took such care of you you had been out late sightseeing hadn't you that night perhaps I had the most prudent girls aren't always prudent what made you think of it now Mrs Slade seemed to have no answer ready but after a moment she broke out because I simply can't bear it any longer Miss Mrs Ansley lifted her head quickly her eyes were wide and very pale can't bear what why you're not knowing that I've always known why you went why I went yes you think I'm bluffing don't you well you went to meet the man I was engaged to and I can repeat every word of the letter that took you there while Mrs Slade spoke Mrs Ansley had risen unsteadily to her feet her bag her knitting and gloves slid in a panic-stricken heap to the ground she looked at Mrs Slade as though she were looking at a ghost no no don't she foled out why not listen if you don't believe me my one darling things can't go on like this I must see you alone come to the Coliseum immediately after dark tomorrow there will be somebody to let you in no one whom you need fear will suspect but perhaps you've forgotten what the letter said Mrs Ansley met the challenge with an unexpected composure steadying herself against the chair she looked at her friend and replied no I know it by heart too and the signature only your DS was that it I'm right am I that was the letter that took you out that evening after dark Mrs Ansley was still looking at her it seemed to Mrs Slade that a slow struggle was going on behind the voluntarily controlled mask of her small quiet face I shouldn't have thought she had herself so well in hand Mrs Slade reflected almost resentfully but at this moment Mrs Ansley spoke I don't know how you knew I burned that letter at once yes you would naturally you're so prudent the sneer was open now and if you burn the letter you're wondering how on Earth I know what was in it that's it isn't it Mrs Slade waited but Mrs Ansley did not speak well my dear I know what was in that that letter because I wrote it you wrote it yes the two women stood for a minute staring at each other in the last Golden Light then Mrs Ansley dropped back into her chair oh she murmured and covered her face with her hands Mrs Slade waited nervously for another word or movement none came and at length she broke out I horrify you Mrs ansley's hands dropped to her knees the face they uncovered was streak with tears I wasn't thinking of you I was thinking it was the only letter I ever had from him and I wrote it yes I wrote it but I was the girl he was engaged to did you happen to remember that Mrs ansley's head drooped again I'm not trying to excuse myself I remembered and still you went still I went Mrs Slade stood looking down on the small bowed figure at her side the flame of her wroth had already sunk and she wondered why she had ever thought there would be any satisfaction in inflicting so purposeless a wound on her friend but she had to justify herself you do understand I'd found out and I hated you hated you I knew you were in love with deline and I was afraid afraid of you of your quiet ways your sweetness your well I wanted you out of the way that that's all just for a few weeks just till I was sure of him so in a Blind Fury I wrote that letter I don't know why I'm telling you now I suppose said Mrs Ansley slowly it's because you've always gone on hating me perhaps or because I wanted to get the whole thing off my mind she paused I'm glad you destroyed the letter of course I never thought you'd die Mrs ly relapsed into silence and Mrs Slade leaning above her was conscious of a strange sense of isolation of being cut off from the warm current of human communion you think me a monster I don't know it was the only letter I had and you say he didn't write it ah how you care for him still I cared for that memory said Mrs Ansley Mrs Slade continued to look down on her she seemed physically reduced by the blow as if when she got up the wind might scatter her like a puff of dust Mrs Slade's jealousy suddenly lapped up again at the sight all these years the woman had been living on that letter how she must have loved him to treasure the mere memory of its ashes the letter of the man her friend was engaged to wasn't it she who was the monster you tried your best to get him away from me didn't you but you failed and I kept him that's all yes that's all I wish now I hadn't told you I'd no idea you'd feel about it as you do I thought you'd be amused it all happened so long ago as you say and you must do me the Justice to remember that I had no reason to think you'd ever taken it seriously how could I when you were married to Horus Ansley 2 months afterward as soon as you could get out of bed your mother rushed you off to Florence and married you people were rather surprised they wondered that it's being done so quickly but I thought I knew I had an idea you did it out of peak to be able to say you'd got ahead of delin and me kids have such silly reasons for doing the most serious things and your marrying so soon convinced me that you'd never really cared yes I suppose it would Mrs Ansley ascented the clear Heaven overhead was emptied of all its gold dusk spread over it abruptly darkening the Seven Hills here and there lights began to twinkle through the foliage at their feet steps were coming and going on the deserted Terrace waiters looking out of the doorway at the head of the stairs then reappearing with trays and napkins and flasks of wine tables were moved chairs straightened a feeble string of electric lights flickered out a stout lady in a dust coat suddenly appeared asking in broken Italian if anyone had seen the elastic band which held together her tattered baka she poked with her stick under the table at which she had lunched the waiters assisting the corner where Mrs Slade and Mrs Ansley sat was still shadowy and deserted for a long time neither of them spoke at length Mrs Slade began again I suppose I did it as a sort of joke a joke well girls are ferocious sometimes you know girls in love especially and I remember laughing to myself all that evening at the idea that you were waiting around there in the dark dodging out of sight listening for every sound trying to get in of course I was upset when I heard you were so ill afterward Mrs Ansley had not moved for a long time but now she turned slowly toward her companion but I didn't wait he'd arranged everything he was there we were let in at once she said Mrs Slade sprang up from her leaning position delin there they let you in ah now you're lying she burst out with violence Mrs ansley's voice grew clearer and full of surprise but of course he was there naturally he came came how did he know he'd find you there you must be raving Mrs Ansley hesitated as though reflecting but I answered the letter I told him I'd be there so he came Mrs Slade flung her hands up to her face oh God you answered I never thought of your answering it's odd you never thought of it if you wrote the letter yes I was blind with rage Mrs Ansley Rose and Drew her fur scarf about her it is cold here we'd better go I'm sorry for you she said as she clasped the fur about her throat the unexpected words sent a Pang through Mrs Slade yes we'd better go she gathered up her bag and cloak I don't know why you should be sorry for me she muttered Mrs Ansley stood looking away from her towards the Dusky mass of the Coliseum well because I didn't have to wait that night Mrs Slade gave an unquiet laugh yes I was beaten there but I oughtn't to begrudge it to you I suppose at the end of all these years after all I had everything I had him for 25 years and you had nothing but that one letter that he didn't write Mrs Ansley was again silent at length she took a step toward the door of the Terrace and turned back facing her companion I had Barbara she said and began to move ahead of Mrs Slade toward the stairway [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]