satisfaction to me and a great honor; but all the same I should
like to ask what had made Miss Bordereau change so suddenly.
It was only the other day that she wouldn't suffer me near her.
Miss Tita was not embarrassed by my question; she had as many
little unexpected serenities as if she told fibs, but the odd
part of them was that they had on the contrary their source
in her truthfulness. "Oh, my aunt changes," she answered;
"it's so terribly dull--I suppose she's tired."

"But you told me that she wanted more and more to be alone."

Poor Miss Tita colored, as if she found me over-insistent. "Well,
if you don't believe she wants to see you--I haven't invented it!
I think people often are capricious when they are very old."

"That's perfectly true. I only wanted to be clear as to whether
you have repeated to her what I told you the other night."

"What you told me?"

"About Jeffrey Aspern--that I am looking for materials."

"If I had told her do you think she would have sent for you?"

"That's exactly what I want to know. If she wants to keep
him to herself she might have sent for me to tell me so."

"She won't speak of him," said Miss Tita. Then as she opened the door
she added in a lower tone, "I have told her nothing."