the author of beltraffio

The Author of Beltraffioby Henry JamesCHAPTER IMuch as I wished to see him I had kept my letter of introductionthree weeks in my pocket-book. I was nervous and timid aboutmeeting himconscious of youth and ignorance, convinced that he wastormented by strangers, and especially by my country-people, and notexempt from the suspicion that he had the irritability as well as thedignity of genius. Moreover, the pleasure, if it should occurforI could scarcely believe it was near at handwould be so great thatI wished to think of it in advance, to feel it there against mybreast, not to mix it with satisfactions more superficial and usual.In the little game of new sensations that I was playing with