The boy who knew i

And didn't know it.

Lily could have led you about, reciting: "These white-and-green chairs are from Venice; the chandelier, too. The tiles on the floor are Spanish. Where they're scuffed shows how antique they are. That painting's a Renoir. They bought it in New York, but it's French really.."

But the more polite way, her mother said, was just to let people notice things.














James Merrill (1926-1995)
The Seraglio (1957)
James Merrill
Collected Novels and Plays
J.D. McClatchy & Stephen Yenser, editors
The Literary Estate of
  James Merrill at
  Washington University
Knopf, 2002©