Classic Audiobook Collection - The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James ~ Full Audiobook [drama]

Starting point is 00:00:00 The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James Chapter 1 Under certain circumstances, there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea. There are circumstances in which, whether you partake of the tea or not, some people of course never do, the situation is in itself delightful. Those that I have in mind and beginning to unfold, this simple history, offered an admirable setting to an innocent pastime. The implements of the little feast had been disposed upon the lawn of an old English country house, in what I should

Starting point is 00:00:42 call the perfect middle of a splendid summer afternoon. Part of the afternoon had waned, but much of it was left, and what was left was of the finest and rarest quality. Real dusk would not arrive for many hours, but the flood of summer light had begun. to ebb. The air had grown mellow. The shadows were long upon the smooth, dense turf. They lengthened slowly, however, and the scene expressed that sense of leisure still to come, which is perhaps the chief source of one's enjoyment of such a scene at such an hour. From five o'clock to eight is on certain occasions a little eternity, but on such an occasion as this, the interval could be only an eternity of place.

Starting point is 00:01:30 pleasure. The persons concerned in it were taking their pleasure quietly, and they were not of the sex which is supposed to furnish the regular votaries of the ceremony I have mentioned. The shadows on the perfect lawn were straight and angular. They were the shadows of an old man sitting in a deep wicker chair near the low table on which the tea had been served, and of two younger men strolling to and fro in desultory talk in front of him. The old man, and a young man, and, and of two younger men strolling to and fro in desultory talk in front of him. The old man had his cup in his hand. It was an unusually large cup of a different pattern from the rest of the set and painted in brilliant colors. He disposed of its contents with much circumspection, holding it for a long time close to his chin, with his face

Starting point is 00:02:16 turned to the house. His companions had either finished their tea or were indifferent to their privilege. They smoked cigarettes as they continued to stroll. One of them, from time to time as he passed, looked with a certain attention at the elder man, who, unconscious of observation, rested his eyes upon the rich red front of his dwelling. The house that rose beyond the lawn was a structure to repay such consideration, and it was the most characteristic object in the peculiarly English picture I have attempted to sketch. It stood upon a low, hill above the river. The river being the Thames, at some 40 miles from London. A long gabled front of red brick, with the complexion of which time and the weather had played all sorts of

Starting point is 00:03:06 pictorial tricks, only, however, to improve and refine it, presented to the lawn its patches of ivy, its clustered chimneys, its windows smothered in creepers. The house had a name and a history. The old gentleman taking his tea would have been delighted to tell you these things. How it had been built under Edward the Sixth, had offered a knight's hospitality to the great Elizabeth, whose august person had extended itself upon a huge, magnificent, and terribly angular bed, which still formed the principal honour of the sleeping apartments, had been a good deal bruised and defaced in Cromwell's wars, and then, under the restoration, repaired and much enlarged, and how finally, after having been remodeled and disfigured in the 18th century,

Starting point is 00:03:57 it had passed into the careful keeping of a shrewd American banker, who had bought it originally because, owing to circumstances too complicated to set forth, it was offered at a great bargain, bought it with much grumbling at its ugliness, its antiquity, its incommodity, and who now, at the end of 20 years, had become conscious of a real aesthetic passion for it, so that he knew all its points, and would tell you just where to stand to see them in combination,

Starting point is 00:04:28 and just the hour when the shadows of its various protuberances, which fell so softly upon the warm, weary brickwork, were of the right measure. Besides this, as I have said, he could have counted off most of the successive owners and occupants, several of whom were known to general fame. Doing so, however, with an unlawful. undemonstrative conviction that the latest phase of its destiny was not the least honourable.

Starting point is 00:04:53 The front of the house, overlooking that portion of the lawn with which we are concerned, was not the entrance front. This was in quite another quarter. Privacy here reigned supreme, and the wide carpet of turf that covered the level hilltop seemed but the extension of a luxurious interior. The great still oaks and beaches flung down a shade as dense as that of velvet curtains. And the place was furnished, like a room, with cushioned seats, with rich-colored rugs, with the books and papers that lay upon the grass. The river was at some distance, where the ground began to slope the lawn, properly speaking, ceased. But it was nonetheless a charming walk down to the water.

Starting point is 00:05:38 The old gentleman at the tea-table, who had come from America thirty years before, had brought with him, at the top of his baggage, his American physiognomy. and he had not only brought it with him, but he had kept it in the best order, so that if necessary he might have taken it back to his own country with perfect confidence. At present, obviously, nevertheless, he was not likely to displace himself. His journeys were over, and he was taking the rest that precedes the great rest. He had a narrow, clean-shaven face, with features evenly distributed, and an expression of placid acuteness.

Starting point is 00:06:15 It was evidently a face in which the range of representation was not large, so that the air of contented shrewdness was all the more of a merit. It seemed to tell that he had been successful in life, yet it seemed to tell also that his success had not been exclusive and invidious, but it had much of the inoffensiveness of failure. He had certainly had a great experience of men, but there was an almost rustic simplicity in the faint smile that played upon his lean, spacious cheek, and lighted up his humorous eye, as he at last slowly and carefully deposited his big teacup upon the table. He was neatly dressed, in well-brushed black, but a shawl was folded upon his knees, and his feet were encased in thick, embroidered slippers. A beautiful collie dog

Starting point is 00:07:06 lay upon the grass near his chair, watching the master's face almost as tenderly as the master took in the still more magisterial physiognomy of the house, and a little bristling, bustling, terrier bestowed a desultory attendance upon the other gentleman. One of these was a remarkably well-made man of five and thirty, with a face as English as that of the old gentleman I have just sketched was something else. A noticeably handsome face, fresh-colored, fair, and frank, with firm, straight features, a lively gray eye, and the rich adornment of a chestnut beard. This person had a certain fortunate, brilliant, exceptional look, the air of a happy temperament fertilized by a high civilization, which would have made almost any observer envy him at a venture.

Starting point is 00:07:54 He was booted and spurred, as if he had dismounted from a long ride. He wore a white hat, which looked too large for him, he held his two hands behind him, and in one of them, a large white, well-shaped fist, was crumpled a pair of soiled dog-skin gloves. His companion, measuring the length of the lawn beside him, was a person of quite a different pattern, who, although he might have excited grave curiosity, would not, like the other, have provoked you to wish yourself almost blindly in his place. Tall, lean, loosely, and feebly put together, he had an ugly, sickly, witty, charming face, furnished, but by no means decorated, with a straggling moustache and whisker.

Starting point is 00:08:38 He looked clever and ill, a combination by no means felicitous, and he wore a brown velvet jacket. He carried his hands in his pockets, and there was something in the way he did it that showed the habit was inveterate. His gait had a shambling, wandering quality. He was not very firm on his legs. As I have said, whenever he passed the old man in the chair, he rested his eyes upon him. And at this moment, with their faces brought into relation, you would easily have seen they were father and son. The father caught his son's eye at last, and gave him a mild, responsive smile. I'm getting on very well, he said. Have you drunk your tea? asked the son.

Starting point is 00:09:22 Yes, and enjoyed it. Shall I give you some more? The old man considered placidly. Well, I guess I'll wait and see. He had in speaking the American tone. Are you cold? The son inquired. The father slowly rubbed his legs.

Starting point is 00:09:44 Well, I don't know, I can't tell till I feel. Perhaps someone might feel for you, said the younger man, laughing. Oh, I hope someone will always feel for me. Don't you feel for me, Lord Warburton? "'Oh, yes, immensely,' said the gentleman addressed as Lord Warburton promptly. "'I'm bound to say you look wonderfully comfortable.' "'Well, I suppose I am in most respects.' And the old man looked down at his green shawl and smoothed it over his knees.

Starting point is 00:10:20 "'The fact is, I've been comfortable so many years that I suppose I've got so used to it I don't know it.' "'Yes, that's the bore of comfort.' said Lord Warburton. We only know when we're uncomfortable. It strikes me we're rather particular, his companion remarked. Oh, yes, there's no doubt we're particular. Lord Warburton murmured.

Starting point is 00:10:47 And then the three men remained silent a while, the two younger ones standing looking down at the other, who presently asked for more tea. I should think you would be very unhappy with that shawl. Lord Warburton resumed while his companion filled the old man's cup again. Oh, no, he must have the shawl, cried the gentleman in the velvet coat. Don't put such ideas as that into his head. It belongs to my wife, said the old man simply.

Starting point is 00:11:19 Oh, if it's for sentimental reasons. And Lord Warburton made a gesture of apology. I suppose I must give it to her when she comes. the old man went on. You'll please to do nothing of the kind. You'll keep it to cover your poor old legs. Well, you mustn't abuse my legs, said the old man. I guess they are as good as yours.

Starting point is 00:11:46 Oh, you're perfectly free to abuse mine, his son replied, giving him his tea. Well, we're two lame ducks. I don't think there's much difference. I'm much obliged to you for, calling me a duck. How's your tea? Well, it's rather hot. That's intended to be a merit. Ah, there's a great deal of merit, murmured the old man kindly. These are very good nurse, Lord Warburton. Isn't he a bit clumsy? asked his lordship. Oh, no, he's not clumsy,

Starting point is 00:12:25 considering that he's an invalid himself. He's a very good nurse. "'For a sick nurse. I call him my sick nurse because he's sick himself.' "'Oh, come, Daddy,' the ugly young man exclaimed. "'Well, you are. I wish you weren't, but I suppose you can't help it.' "'I might try. That's an idea,' said the young man. "'Were you ever sick, Lord Warburton?' his father asked. "'Lord Warburton considered a moment. "'Yes, sir, once.

Starting point is 00:12:59 In the Persian Gulf. He's making light of you, Daddy, said the other young man. That's a sort of joke. Well, there seem to be so many sorts now, Daddy replied serenely. You don't look as if you had been sick anyway, Lord Warburton. He's sick of life, he was just telling me so, going on fearfully about it, said Lord Warburton's friend. Is that true, sir? asked the old man gravely.

Starting point is 00:13:30 If it is, your son gave me no consolation. He's a wretched fellow to talk to, a regular cynic. He doesn't seem to believe in anything. That's another sort of joke, said the person accused of cynicism. It's because his health is so poor, his father explained to Lord Warburton. It affects his mind and colours his way of looking at things. He seems to feel as if he had never had a doubt. chance. But it's almost entirely theoretical, you know. It doesn't seem to affect his spirits.

Starting point is 00:14:04 I've hardly ever seen him when he wasn't cheerful, about as he is at present. He often cheers me up. The young man so described looked at Lord Warburton and laughed. Is it a glowing eulogy or an accusation of levity? Should you like me to carry out my theories, Daddy? By Jove, we should see some queer things, cried Lord Warburton. I hope you haven't taken up that sort of tone, said the old man. Warburton's tone is worse than mine. He pretends to be bored. I'm not in the least bored. I find life only too interesting. Ah, too interesting. You shouldn't allow it to be that, you know. I'm never bored when I come here, said Lord Warburton. One gets such uncommonly good talk. "'Is that another sort of joke?' asked the old man.

Starting point is 00:14:59 "'You've no excuse for being bored anywhere. "'When I was your age, I had never heard of such a thing. "'You must have developed very late.' "'No, I developed very quick. "'That was just the reason. "'When I was twenty years old, I was very highly developed indeed. "'I was working tooth and nail. "'You wouldn't be bored if you had something to do,

Starting point is 00:15:22 "'but all you young men are too idle. You think too much of your pleasure. You're too fastidious and too indolent and too rich. Oh, I say, cried Lord Warburton. You're hardly the person to accuse a fellow creature of being too rich. You mean because I'm a banker? asked the old man. Because of that, if you like, and because you have, haven't you, such unlimited means? He isn't very rich. the other young man mercifully pleaded.

Starting point is 00:15:57 He is given away an immense deal of money. Well, I suppose it was his own, said Lord Warburton. And in that case, could there be a better proof of wealth? Let not a public benefactor talk of ones being too fond of pleasure. Daddy's very fond of pleasure, of other peoples. The old man shook his head. I don't pretend to have contributed anything to the amusement of my contemporary. My dear father, you're too modest.

Starting point is 00:16:28 That's a kind of joke, sir, said Lord Warburton. You young men have too many jokes. When there are no jokes, you've nothing left. Fortunately, there are always more jokes, the ugly young man remarked. I don't believe it. I believe things are getting more serious. You young men will find that out. The increasing seriousness of things

Starting point is 00:16:53 then that's the great opportunity of jokes. They'll have to be grim jokes, said the old man. I'm convinced there will be great changes, and not all for the better. I quite agree with you, sir, Lord Warburton declared. I'm very sure there will be great changes, and that all sorts of queer things will happen. That's why I find so much difficulty in applying your advice. You know you told me the other day that I ought to take hold. of something. One hesitates to take hold of a thing that may the next moment be knocked sky high.

Starting point is 00:17:30 You ought to take hold of a pretty woman, said his companion. He's trying hard to fall in love, he added, by way of explanation to his father. The pretty women themselves may be sent flying, Lord Warburton exclaimed. Oh, no, they'll be firm, the old man rejoined. They'll not be affected by the social and political changes I just referred to. You mean they won't be abolished? Very well, then I'll lay my hands on one as soon as possible and tie her round my neck as a life preserver. The ladies will save us, said the old man. That is, the best of them will, for I make a difference between them. Make up to a good one and marry her, and your life will become much more interesting. A momentary silence marked perhaps on the part of his auditors a sense of the

Starting point is 00:18:25 magnanimity of this speech, for it was a secret neither for his son nor for his visitor, that his own experiment in matrimony had not been a happy one. As he said, however, he made a difference, and these words may have been intended as a confession of personal error, though of course it was not in place for either of his companions to remark that apparently the lady of his choice had not been one of the best. If I marry an interesting woman, I shall be interested. Is that what you say? Lord Warburton asked.

Starting point is 00:18:58 I'm not at all keen about marrying. Your son misrepresented me, but there's no knowing what an interesting woman might do with me. I should like to see your idea of an interesting woman, said his friend. My dear fellow, you can't see ideas, especially such highly ethereal ones as mine. If I could only see it myself, that would be a great step in advance. Well, you may fall in love with whomever you please, but you mustn't fall in love with my niece, said the old man.

Starting point is 00:19:30 His son broke into a laugh. He'll think you mean that as a provocation. My dear father, you've lived with the English for 30 years and you've picked up a good many of the things they say, but you've never learned the things they don't say. I say, would I please, the old man returned with all his serenity. I haven't the honour of knowing your niece, Lord Warburton said. I think it's the first time I've heard of her. She's a niece of my wife's. Mrs. Touchett brings her to England.

Starting point is 00:20:02 Then young Mr. Touchett explained, My mother, you know, has been spending the winter in America, and we're expecting her back. She writes that she has discovered a niece, and that she has invited her to come out with her. I see. Very kind of her, said Lord Warburton. Is the young lady interesting? We hardly know more about her than you. My mother has not gone into details. She chiefly communicates with us by means of telegrams, and her telegrams are rather inscrutable. They say women don't know how to write them, but my mother has thoroughly mastered the art of condensation. Tired America, hot weather awful, return England with niece, first steamer decent cabins.

Starting point is 00:20:43 That's the sort of message we get from her. That was the last that came. But there had been another before, which I think contained the first mention of the niece. Changed hotel, very bad, impudent clerk, address here. Taken's sister's girl, died last year, go to Europe, two sisters, quite independent. Over that, my father and I have scarcely stopped puzzling. It seems to admit of so many interpretations. There's one thing very clear in it, said the old man. man. She is given the hotel clerk a dressing. I'm not even sure of that, since he has driven her from the field. We thought at first that the sister mentioned might be the sister of the clerk, but the subsequent mention of a niece seems to prove that the illusion is to one of my aunts.

Starting point is 00:21:30 Then there was a question as to whose the two other sisters were. They are probably two of my late aunt's daughters. But who's quite independent, and in what sense is the term used? That points not yet settled. Does the expression apply more particularly to the young lady my mother has adopted, or does it characterize her sisters equally? Is it used in a moral or in a financial sense? Does it mean that they've been left well off or that they wish to be under no obligations? Or does it simply mean that they're fond of their own way? Whatever else it means, it's pretty sure to mean that, Mr. Touchett remarked. You'll see for yourself, said Lord Warburton.

Starting point is 00:22:12 "'When does Mrs. Toucher arrive?' "'We're quite in the dark. "'As soon as she can find a decent cabin. "'She may be waiting for it yet. "'On the other hand, she may already have disembarked in England. "'In that case, she would probably have telegraphed to you.' "'She never telegraphs when you would expect it, only when you don't,' said the old man. "'She likes to drop on me suddenly.

Starting point is 00:22:36 "'She thinks she'll find me doing something wrong. "'She has never done so yet, but she's not discouraged.' It's her share in the family trait, the independence she speaks of. Her son's appreciation of the matter was more favourable. Whatever the high spirit of those young ladies may be, her own is a match for it. She likes to do everything for herself, and has no belief in anyone's power to help her. She thinks me of no more use than a postage stamp without gum, and she would never forgive me if I should presume to go to Liverpool to meet her.

Starting point is 00:23:10 Will you at least let me know when your cousin arrived? "'Lord Warburton asked. "'Only on the condition I've mentioned "'that you don't fall in love with her,' "'Mr. Touchett replied. "'That strikes me as hard. "'Don't you think me good enough?' "'I think you too good,

Starting point is 00:23:28 "'because I shouldn't like her to marry you. "'She hasn't come here to look for a husband, I hope. "'So many young ladies are doing that, "'as if there were no good ones at home. "'Then she's probably engaged. "'American girls are usually engaged. I believe. Moreover, I'm not sure, after all, that you'd be a remarkable husband. Very likely she's engaged. I've known a good many American girls, and they always were.

Starting point is 00:23:55 But I could never see that it made any difference upon my word. As for my being a good husband, Mr. Tatchett's visitor pursued. I'm not sure of that either. One can but try. Try as much as you please, but don't try on my niece. smiled the old man, whose opposition to the idea was broadly humorous. Ah, well, said Lord Warburton, with a humor broader still. Perhaps, after all, she's not worth trying on. End of Chapter 1. Chapter 2 of The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James.

Starting point is 00:24:38 This Librevox recording is in the public domain. While this exchange of pleasantries took place between the two, Ralph Touchett wandered away a little, with his usual slouching gait, his hands in his pockets, and his little rowdyish terrier at his heels. His face was turned toward the house, but his eyes were bent musingly on the lawn, so that he had been an object of observation to a person who had just made her appearance in the ample doorway for some moments before he perceived her. His attention was called to her by the conduct of his dog, who had suddenly darted forward with a little volley of shrill barks,

Starting point is 00:25:19 in which the note of welcome, however, was more sensible than that of defiance. The person in question was a young lady, who seemed immediately to interpret the greeting of the small beast. He advanced with great rapidity and stood at her feet, looking up and barking hard. Whereupon, without hesitation, she stooped and caught him in her hands, holding him face to face while he continued his quick chatter. His master now had had time to follow, and to see that Buncey's new friend was a tall girl in a black dress, who at first sight looked pretty. She was bareheaded, as if she were staying in the house, a fact which conveyed perplexity to the son of its master,

Starting point is 00:26:04 conscious of that immunity from visitors, which had for some time been rendered necessary by the latter's ill health. Meantime, the other two gentlemen had also taken note of the newcomer. Dear me, who's that strange woman? Mr. Touchett had asked. Perhaps it's Mrs. Touchett's niece, the independent young lady. Lord Warburton suggested, I think she must be, from the way she handles the dog. The collie, too, had now allowed his attention to be diverted, and he trotted toward the

Starting point is 00:26:40 young lady in the doorway, slowly setting his tail in motion as he went. "'But where's my wife, then?' murmured the old man. "'I suppose the young lady has left her somewhere. That's a part of the independence.' The girl spoke to Ralph, smiling, while she still held up the terrier. Is this your little dog, sir? He was mine a moment ago, but you've suddenly acquired a remarkable air of property in him. Couldn't we share him?

Starting point is 00:27:14 Asked the girl. He's such a perfect little darling. Ralph looked at her a moment. She was unexpectedly pretty. You may have him all together, he then replied. The young lady seemed to have a great deal of confidence, both in herself and in others. But this abrupt generosity made her blush.

Starting point is 00:27:37 I ought to tell you that I'm probably your cousin, she brought out, putting down the dog. And here's another, she added quickly, as the collie came up. Probably, the young man exclaimed, laughing. I suppose it was quite settled. Have you arrived with my mother? Yes, half an hour ago. And has she deposited you and departed again?

Starting point is 00:28:03 No, she went straight to her room, and she told me that if I should see you. I was to say to you that you must come to her there at a quarter to seven. The young man looked at his watch. Thank you very much, I shall be punctual. And then he looked at his cousin. You're very welcome here. I'm delighted to see you. She was looking at everything with an eye that denoted clear perception.

Starting point is 00:28:28 at her companion, at the two dogs, at the two gentlemen under the trees, at the beautiful scene that surrounded her. I've never seen anything so lovely as this place. I've been all over the house. It's too enchanting. I'm sorry you should have been here so long without our knowing it. Your mother told me that in England people arrived very quietly, so I thought it was all right. Is one of those gentlemen your father?

Starting point is 00:28:56 Yes, the elder one, the one sitting down, said Ralph. The girl gave a laugh. I don't suppose it's the other. Who is the other? He's a friend of ours, Lord Warburton. Oh, I hoped there would be a lord. It's just like a novel. And then,

Starting point is 00:29:18 Oh, you adorable creature! She suddenly cried, stooping down and picking up the small dog again. She remained standing. where they had met, making no offer to advance or to speak to Mr. Touchett, and while she lingered so near the threshold, slim and charming, her interlocutor wondered if she expected the old man to come and pay her his respects. American girls were used to a great deal of deference, and it had been intimated that this one had a high spirit. Indeed, Ralph could see that in her face. Won't you come and make acquaintance with my father? He nevertheless ventured.

Starting point is 00:29:56 to ask. He's old and infirm. He doesn't leave his chair. Oh, poor man, I'm very sorry, the girl exclaimed, immediately moving forward. I got the impression from your mother that he was rather intensely active. Ralph Touchett was silent a moment. She hasn't seen him for a year. Well, he has a lovely place to sit. Come along, little hound. It's a dear old place, said the young man, looking sidewise at his neighbor. What's his name? she asked, her attention having again reverted to the terrier. My father's name? Yes, said the young lady with amusement.

Starting point is 00:30:42 But don't tell him I asked you. They had come by this time to where old Mr. Touchett was sitting, and he slowly got up from his chair to introduce himself. My mother has arrived, said Ralph. And this is Miss Archer. The old man placed his two hands on her shoulders, looked at her a moment with extreme benevolence, and then gallantly kissed her. It's a great pleasure to me to see you here, but I wish you would give in us a chance to receive you. Oh, we were received, said the girl.

Starting point is 00:31:17 There were about a dozen servants in the hall, and there was an old woman curtseying at the gate. We can do better than that, if we have noticed. And the old man stood there smiling, rubbing his hands and slowly shaking his head at her. But Mrs. Touchett doesn't like receptions. She went straight to her room. Yes, and locked herself in. She always does that. Well, I suppose I shall see her next week. And Mrs. Touchett's husband slowly resumed his former posture.

Starting point is 00:31:52 Before that, said Miss Archer, She's coming down to dinner at eight o'clock. Don't you forget a quarter to seven, she added, turning with a smile to Ralph. What's to happen at a quarter to seven? I'm to see my mother, said Ralph. Ah, happy boy, the old man commented. You must sit down, you must have some tea, he observed to his wife's niece. They gave me some tea in my room the moment I got there.

Starting point is 00:32:25 This young lady answered, "'I'm sorry you're out of health,' she added, resting her eyes upon her venerable host. "'Oh, I'm an old man, my dear. It's time for me to be old. But I shall be the better for having you here.' She had been looking all around her again, at the lawn, the great trees,

Starting point is 00:32:47 the reedy, silvery Thames, the beautiful old house, and while engaged in this survey, she had made room in it for her companions. A comprehensiveness of observation easily conceivable on the part of a young woman who was evidently both intelligent and excited. She had seated herself and had put away the little dog. Her white hands in her lap were folded upon her black dress. Her head was erect, her eye lighted, her flexible figure turned itself easily this way and that,

Starting point is 00:33:18 in sympathy with the alertness with which she evidently caught impressions. Her impressions were numerous, and they were all reflected in a clear, still smile. I've never seen anything so beautiful as this. It's looking very well, said Mr. Touchett. I know the way it strikes you. I've been through all that. But you're very beautiful yourself, he added, with a politeness by no means crudely jocular, and with the happy consciousness that his advanced age gave him the privilege of saying, such things, even to young persons who might possibly take alarm at them. What degree of alarm this

Starting point is 00:33:59 young person took need not be exactly measured. She instantly rose, however, with a blush which was not a refutation. Oh, yes, of course, I'm lovely. She returned with a quick laugh. How old is your house? Is it Elizabethan? It's early Tudor, said Ralph Touchett. She turned toward him, watching his face. Early Tudor! How very delightful! And I suppose there are a great many others. There are many much better ones.

Starting point is 00:34:33 Don't say that, my son, the old man protested. There's nothing better than this. I've got a very good one. I think in some respects it's rather better, said Lord Warburton, who as yet had not spoken, but who had kept an attentive eye upon Miss Archer. He slightly inclined himself, smiling. He had an excellent manner with women.

Starting point is 00:34:57 The girl appreciated it in an instant. She had not forgotten that this was Lord Warburton. I should very much like to show it to you, he added. Don't believe him, cried the old man. Don't look at it. It's a wretched old barrack, not to be compared with this. I don't know. I can't judge, said the girl, smiling at Lord Warburton.

Starting point is 00:35:22 In this discussion Ralph Tuchett took no interest whatever. He stood with his hands in his pockets, looking greatly as if he should like to renew his conversation with his newfound cousin. Are you very fond of dogs? He inquired by way of beginning. He seemed to recognize that it was an awkward beginning for a clever man. Very fond of them indeed. You must keep the terrier you.

Starting point is 00:35:47 know, he went on, still awkwardly. I'll keep him while I'm here with pleasure. That will be for a long time, I hope. You're very kind. I hardly know. My aunt must settle that. I'll settle it with her, at a quarter to seven. And Ralph looked at his watch again.

Starting point is 00:36:10 I'm glad to be here at all, said the girl. I don't believe you allow things to be settled for you. Oh, yes, if they're settled as I like them. I shall settle this as I like it, said Ralph. It's most unaccountable that we should never have known you. I was there. You had only to come and see me. There, where do you mean? In the United States, in New York and Albany and other American places.

Starting point is 00:36:40 I've been there, all over, but I never saw you. I can't make it out. Miss Archer just hesitated. It was because there had been some disagreement between your mother and my father, after my mother's death, which took place when I was a child. In consequence of it, we never expected to see you. Ah, but I don't embrace all my mother's quarrels, heaven forbid, the young man cried. You've lately lost your father, he went on more gravely. Yes, more than a year ago.

Starting point is 00:37:16 After that, my aunt was very kind to me. She came to see me and proposed that I should come with her to Europe. I see, said Ralph, she has adopted you. Adopted me? The girl stared, and her blush came back to her, together with a momentary look of pain, which gave her interlocutor some alarm. He had underestimated the effect of his words.

Starting point is 00:37:40 Lord Warburton, who appeared constantly desirous of a nearer view of Miss Archer, strolled toward the two cousins at the moment, and as he did so, she rested her wider eyes on him. Oh, no, she has not adopted me. I'm not a candidate for adoption. I beg a thousand pardons, Ralph murmured. I meant—I meant—I meant—he hardly knew what he meant. You meant she has taken me up. Yes, she likes to take people up. She has been very kind to me, but...

Starting point is 00:38:16 She added, with a certain visible eagerness of desire to be explicit. I'm very fond of my liberty. Are you talking about Mrs. Touchett? The old man called out from his chair. Come here, my dear, and tell me about her. I'm always thankful for information. The girl hesitated again, smiling. She's really very benevolent, she answered, after which she went over to her uncle, whose

Starting point is 00:38:44 mirth was excited by her words. Lord Warburton was left standing with Ralph Touchett, to whom in a moment, he said, You wished a while ago to see my idea of an interesting woman. There it is. End of Chapter 2. Chapter 3 of The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Librivox recording is in the public domain. Mrs. Touchett was certainly a person of many oddities, of which her behavior on returning to her husband's house after many months was a noticeable specimen. She had her own way of doing all that she did, and this is the simplest description of a character, which, although by no means without liberal motions, rarely succeeded in giving an impression of suavity.

Starting point is 00:39:34 Mrs. Touchett might do a great deal of good, but she never pleased. This way of her own, of which she was so fond, was not intrinsically offensive. It was just unmistakably distinguished from the ways of others. The edges of her conduct were so very clear-cut that for susceptible persons, it sometimes had a knife-like effect. That hard fineness came out in her deportment during the first hours of her return from America, under circum in which it might have seemed that her first act would have been to exchange greetings with her husband and son. Mrs. Touchett, for reasons which she deemed excellent, always retired on such occasions into impenetrable seclusion, postponing the more sentimental ceremony until she had repaired the disorder of dress with a completeness, which had the less reason to be of high importance as neither beauty nor vanity were concerned in it. She was a plain-faced old woman, without grace. and without any great elegance, but with an extreme respect for her own motives. She was usually prepared to explain these, when the explanation was asked as a favor,

Starting point is 00:40:45 and in such a case they proved totally different from those that had been attributed to her. She was virtually separated from her husband, but she appeared to perceive nothing irregular in the situation. It had become clear, at an early stage of their community, that they should never desire the same thing at the same moment, and this appearance had prompted her to rescue disagreement from the vulgar realm of accident. She did what she could to erect it into a law, a much more edifying aspect of it, by going to live in Florence, where she bought a house and established herself, and by leaving her husband to take care of the English branch of his bank. This arrangement greatly pleased her.

Starting point is 00:41:27 It was so felicitously definite. It struck her husband in the same light, in a foggy square and light. London, where it was at times the most definite fact he discerned, but he would have preferred that such unnatural things should have a greater vagueness. To agree to disagree had cost him an effort. He was ready to agree to almost anything but that, and saw no reason why either ascent or dissent should be so terribly consistent. Mrs. Touch had indulged in no regrets nor speculations, and usually came once a year to spend a month with her husband, a period during which she apparently took pains to convince him. that she had adopted the right system.

Starting point is 00:42:07 She was not fond of the English style of life, and had three or four reasons for it to which she currently alluded. They bore upon minor points of that ancient order, but for Mrs. Touchett they amply justified non-residents. She detested bread sauce, which, as she said, looked like a poultice and tasted like soap. She objected to the consumption of beer by her maid-servants, and she affirmed that the British laundress

Starting point is 00:42:33 Mrs. Touchett was very particular about the appearance of her linen, was not a mistress of her art. At fixed intervals she paid a visit to her own country, but this last had been longer than any of its predecessors. She had taken up her niece. There was little doubt of that. One wet afternoon, some four months earlier than the occurrence lately narrated, this young lady had been seated alone with a book. To say she was so occupied is to say that her soluburned did not press upon her, for her love of knowledge had a fertilizing quality, and her imagination was strong. There was, at this time, however, a want of fresh taste in her situation, which the arrival of an unexpected visitor did much to correct. The visitor had not been announced. The girl heard her at last walking about the adjoining room. It was in an old

Starting point is 00:43:28 house at Albany, a large, square, double house, with a notice of sale in the windows of one of the lower apartments. There were two entrances, one of which had long been out of use, but had never been removed. They were exactly alike, large white doors with an arched frame and wide sidelights, perched upon little stoops of red stone, which descended sidewise to the brick pavement of the street. The two houses together formed a single dwelling, the party wall having been removed, and the rooms placed in communication. These rooms above stairs were extremely numerous, and were painted all over exactly alike, in a yellowish white, which had grown sallow with time.

Starting point is 00:44:10 On the third floor there was a sort of arched passage, connecting the two sides of the house, which Isabel and her sisters used in their childhood to call the tunnel, and which, though it was short and well-lighted, always seemed to the girl to be strange and lonely, especially on winter afternoons. She had been in the house at different periods as a child. In those days her grandmother lived there. Then there had been an absence of ten years, followed by a return to Albany before her father's death.

Starting point is 00:44:41 Her grandmother, old Mrs. Archer, had exercised, chiefly within the limits of the family, a large hospitality in the early period, and the little girls often spent weeks under her roof, weeks of which Isabel had the happiest memory. The manner of life was different from that of her own home, larger, more plentiful, practically more festal. The discipline of the nursery was delightfully vague,

Starting point is 00:45:07 and the opportunity of listening to the conversation of one's elders, which with Isabel was a highly valued pleasure, almost unbounded. There was a constant coming and going. Her grandmother's sons and daughters and their children appeared to be in the enjoyment of standing invitations to arrive and remain, so that the house offered to a certain extent the appearance of a bustling provincial inn, kept by a gentle old landlady who sighed a great deal and never presented a bill. Isabel, of course, knew nothing about bills, but even as a child she thought her grandmother's home romantic.

Starting point is 00:45:42 There was a covered piazza behind it, furnished with a swing which was a source of tremulous interest, and beyond this was a long garden, sloping down to the stable, and containing peach trees of barely credible familiarity. liberty. Isabel had stayed with her grandmother at various seasons, but somehow all her visits had a flavor of peaches. On the other side across the street was an old house that was called the Dutch house, a peculiar structure dating from the earliest colonial time, composed of bricks that had been painted yellow, crowned with a gable that was pointed out to strangers, defended by a rickety wooden paling and standing sideways to the street. It was occupied by a primacy, and a primacy, and standing sideways to the street. It was occupied by a primary school for children of both sexes, kept, or rather let go, by a demonstrative lady, of whom Isabel's chief recollection was that her hair was fastened with strange bedroomy combs at the temples, and that she was the widow of someone of consequence. The little girl had been offered the opportunity of laying a foundation of knowledge in this establishment, but having spent a single day in it, she had protested against its laws, and had had,

Starting point is 00:46:53 been allowed to stay at home, where, in the September days, when the windows of the Dutch house were open, she used to hear the hum of childish voices repeating the multiplication table, an incident in which the elation of liberty and the pain of exclusion were indistinguishably mingled. The foundation of her knowledge was really laid in the idleness of her grandmother's house, where, as most of the other inmates were not reading people, she had uncontrolled use of a library full of books with frontispieces pieces, which she used to climb upon a chair to take down. When she had found one to her taste, she was guided in the selection chiefly by the frontispiece, she carried it into a mysterious apartment, which lay beyond the library, and which was

Starting point is 00:47:37 called, traditionally, no one knew why, the office. Whose office it had been, and at what period it had flourished, she never learned. It was enough for her that it contained an echo and a pleasant, musty feel. smell, and that it was a chamber of disgrace for old pieces of furniture, whose infirmities were not always apparent, so that the disgrace seemed unmerited and rendered them victims of injustice. And with which, in the manner of children, she had established relations almost human, certainly dramatic. There was an old haircloth sofa in a special, to which she had confided a hundred childish sorrows. The place owed much of its mysterious melancholy to the fact that it was

Starting point is 00:48:21 properly entered from the second door of the house, the door that had been condemned, and that it was secured by bolts which a particularly slender little girl found it impossible to slide. She knew that this silent, motionless portal opened into the street. If the sidelights had not been filled with green paper, she might have looked out upon the little brown stoop and the well-worn brick pavement. But she had no wish to look out, for this would have interfered with her theory that there was a strange, unseen place on the other side, a place which became to the child's imagination, according to its different moods, a region of delight or of terror. It was in the office still that Isabel was sitting

Starting point is 00:49:05 on that melancholy afternoon of early spring, which I have just mentioned. At this time she might have had the whole house to choose from, and the room she had selected was the most depressed of its scenes. She had never opened the bolted door, nor removed the green paper, renewed by other hands, from its sidelines. She had never assured herself that the vulgar street lay beyond. A crude cold rain fell heavily. The springtime was indeed an appeal, and it seemed a cynical, insincere appeal, to patience.

Starting point is 00:49:38 Isabel, however, gave as little heed as possible to cosmic treacheries. She kept her eyes on her book, and tried to fix her mind. It had lately occurred to her that her mind was a good deal of a vagabond, and she had spent much ingenuity in training it to a military step and teaching it to advance, to halt, to retreat, to perform even more complicated maneuvers, at the word of command. Just now she had given it marching orders, and it had been trudging over the sandy plains of a history of German thought. Suddenly, she became aware of a step very different from her own intellectual pace. She listened a little and perceived that someone was moving in the library which communicated with the office.

Starting point is 00:50:20 It struck her first as the step of a person from whom she was looking for a visit, then almost immediately announced itself as the tread of a woman and a stranger, her possible visitor being neither. It had an inquisitive experimental quality, which suggested that it would not stop short of the threshold of the office, and in fact the doorway of this apartment was presently occupied by a lady who paused there and looked very hard at our heroine. She was a plain, elderly woman,

Starting point is 00:50:50 dressed in a comprehensive waterproof mantle. She had a face with a good deal of rather violent point. Oh, she began. Is that where you usually sit? She looked about at the heterogeneous chairs and tables. Not when I have visitors, said Isabel, getting up to receive the intruder. She directed their course back to the library, while the visitor continued to look about her. You seem to have plenty of it.

Starting point is 00:51:20 of other rooms. They're in rather better condition. But everything's immensely worn. Have you come to look at the house? Isabel asked. The servant will show it to you. Send her away. I don't want to buy it. She has probably gone to look for you and is wandering about upstairs. She didn't seem at all intelligent. You would better tell her it's no matter. And then, since the girl stood there hesitating and wondering, this unexpected critic said to her abruptly, I suppose you're one of the daughters. Isabel thought she had very strange manners. It depends upon whose daughters you mean.

Starting point is 00:52:00 The late Mr. Archer's, and my poor sisters. Ah, said Isabel slowly, You must be our crazy Aunt Lydia. Is that what your father told you to call me? I'm your Aunt Lydia, but I'm not at all crazy. I haven't a delusion. And which of the daughters are you? I'm the youngest of the three, and my name's Isabel.

Starting point is 00:52:26 Yes, the others are Lily and in Edith. And are you the prettiest? I haven't the least idea, said the girl. I think you must be. And in this way the aunt and the niece made friends. The aunt had quarreled years before with her brother-in-law after the death of her sister, taking him to task for the manner in which, he brought up his three girls. Being a high-tempered man he had requested her to mind her own

Starting point is 00:52:54 business, and she had taken him at his word. For many years she held no communication with him, and after his death had addressed not a word to his daughters, who had been bred in that disrespectful view of her which we have just seen Isabel betray. Mrs. Touchett's behavior was, as usual, perfectly deliberate. She intended to go to America to look after her investments, with which her husband, in spite of his great financial position, had nothing to do, and would take advantage of this opportunity to inquire into the condition of her nieces. There was no need of writing, for she should attach no importance to any account of them she should elicit by letter. She believed always in seeing for oneself. Isabel found, however, that she knew a good deal about

Starting point is 00:53:40 them, and knew about the marriage of the two elder girls, knew that their poor father had left very little money, but that the house in Albany, which had passed into his hands, was to be sold for their benefit. Knew, finally, that Edmund Ludlow, Lillian's husband, had taken upon himself to attend to this matter, in consideration of which the young couple, who had come to Albany during Mr. Archer's illness, were remaining there for the present, and, as well as Isabel herself, occupying the old place. "'How much money do you expect for it?'

Starting point is 00:54:13 Mrs. Touch had asked of her companion, who had brought her to sit in the front parlor, which she had inspected without enthusiasm. "'I haven't the least idea,' said the girl. "'That's the second time you have said that to me,' her aunt rejoined. "'And yet you don't look at all stupid.' "'I'm not stupid, but I don't know anything about money.' "'Yes, that's the way you were brought up, as if you were to inherit a million. What have you in point of fact inherited?

Starting point is 00:54:45 I really can't tell you. You must ask Edmund and Lillian. They'll be back in half an hour. In Florence, we should call it a very bad house, said Mrs. Touchett. But here, I dare say, it will bring a high price. It ought to make a considerable sum for each of you. In addition to that, you must have something else. It's most extraordinary you're not knowing.

Starting point is 00:55:08 The positions of value, and they'll probably pull it down and make a row of shops. I wonder you don't do that yourself. You might let the shops to great advantage." Isabel stared. The idea of letting shops was new to her. I hope they won't pull it down, she said. I'm extremely fond of it. I don't see what makes you fond of it. Your father died here. Yes, but I don't dislike it for that. The girl rather strangely returned. I like places in which things have happened, even if you're their sad things. A great many people have died here. The place has been full of life. Is that what you call being full of life? I mean full of experience, of people's feelings and sorrows, and not of

Starting point is 00:55:57 their sorrows only, for I've been very happy here as a child. You should go to Florence if you like houses in which things have happened, especially deaths. I live in an old palace, in which three people have been murdered. Three that were known, and I don't know how many more besides. In an old palace, Isabel repeated. Yes, my dear, a very different affair from this. This is very bourgeois. Isabel felt some emotion, for she had always thought highly of her grandmother's house. But the emotion was of a kind which led her to say, I should very much like to go to Florence. Well, if you'll be very good and do everything I tell you, I'll take you there, Mrs. Touchett declared.

Starting point is 00:56:46 Our young woman's emotion deepened. She flushed a little and smiled at her aunt in silence. Do everything you tell me. I don't think I can promise that. No, you don't look like a person of that sort. You're fond of your own way, but it's not for me to blame you. "'And yet to go to Florence,' the girl exclaimed in a moment, "'I'd promise almost anything.'

Starting point is 00:57:13 Edmund and Lillian were slow to return, and Mrs. Touchett had an hour's uninterrupted talk with her niece, who found her a strange and interesting figure, a figure essentially, almost the first she had ever met. She was as eccentric as Isabel had always supposed, and hitherto, whenever the girl had heard people described as eccentric, she had thought of them as offensive or alarming. The term had always suggested to her something grotesque and even sinister. But her aunt made it a matter of high but easy irony or comedy, and led her to ask herself if the common tone, which was all she had known, had ever been as interesting. No one certainly had on any occasion so held her as this little thin-lipped, bright-eyed, foreign-looking woman, who retrieved an insignificant appearance

Starting point is 00:58:03 by a distinguished manner, and sitting there in a well-worn waterproof, talked with striking familiarity of the courts of Europe. There was nothing flighty about Mrs. Touchett, but she recognized no social superiors, and judging the great ones of the earth in a way that spoke of this, enjoyed the consciousness of making an impression on a candid and susceptible mind. Isabel at first had answered a good many questions, and it was from her answers, apparently, that Mrs. Touchett derived a high opinion of her intelligence. But after this she had asked a good many, and her aunt's answers, whatever turn they took,

Starting point is 00:58:39 struck her as food for deep reflection. Mrs. Touchett waited for the return of her other niece as long as she thought reasonable, but as at six o'clock Mrs. Ludlow had not come in, she prepared to take her departure. "'Your sister must be a great gossip. Is she accustomed to staying out so many hours?' "'You've been out almost as long as she,' Isabel replied. "'She can have left the house but a short time before you came in.' Mrs. Touchett looked at the girl without resentment. She appeared to enjoy a bold retort, and to be disposed to be gracious.

Starting point is 00:59:15 Perhaps she hasn't had so good an excuse as I. Tell her at any rate she must come and see me this evening at that horrid hotel. She may bring her husband if she likes, but she needn't bring you. I shall see plenty of you later. End of Chapter 3. Chapter 4 of The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Mrs. Ludlow was the eldest of the three sisters, and was usually thought the most sensible.

Starting point is 00:59:53 The classification being in general that Lillian was the practical one, Edith the Beauty, and Isabel the intellectual superior. Mrs. Keyes, the second of the group, was the wife of the wife of the woman. an officer of the United States engineers. And as our history is not further concerned with her, it will suffice that she was indeed very pretty, and that she formed the ornament of those various military stations, chiefly in the unfashionable West, to which, to her deep chagrin, her husband was successively relegated. Lillian had married a New York lawyer, a young man with a loud voice and an enthusiasm for his profession. The match was not brilliant, any more than Edith's, but

Starting point is 01:00:34 Lillian had occasionally been spoken of as a young woman who might be thankful to marry at all. She was so much plainer than her sisters. She was, however, very happy, and now, as the mother of two peremptory little boys and the mistress of a wedge of brown stone violently driven into 53rd Street, seemed to exult in her condition as in a bold escape. She was short and solid, and her claim to figure was questioned, but she was conceded presence, though not majesty. She had, moreover, as people said, improved since her marriage. And the two things in life of which she was most distinctly conscious were her husband's force and argument, and her sister Isabelle's originality. I've never kept up with Isabelle, it would have taken all my time, she had often

Starting point is 01:01:21 remarked. In spite of which, however, she held her rather wistfully in sight, watching her as a motherly spaniel might watch a free greyhound. I want to see her safely married, that's what I want to see. She frequently noted to her husband. Well, I must say I should have no particular desire to marry her. Edmund Ludlow was accustomed to answer in an extremely audible tone. I know you say that for argument. You always take the opposite ground. I don't see what you've against her except that she's so original. Well, I don't like originals. I like translations.

Starting point is 01:01:58 Mr. Ludlow had more than once replied, "'Isabelle's written in a foreign tongue. I can't make her out. She ought to marry an Armenian or Portuguese.' "'That's just what I'm afraid she'll do,' cried Lillian, who thought Isabelle capable of anything.' She listened with great interest to the girl's account of Mrs. Touchett's appearance, and in the evening prepared to comply with their aunt's commands. Of what Isabel then said, no report has remained, but her sister's words had doubtless prompted a word. spoken to her husband as the two were making ready for their visit. I do hope immensely she'll do something handsome for Isabel.

Starting point is 01:02:39 She has evidently taken a great fancy to her. What is it you wish her to do? Edmund Ludlow asked. Make her a big present? No, indeed, nothing of the sort, but take an interest in her, sympathize with her. She's evidently just the sort of person to appreciate her. She has lived so much in foreign society.

Starting point is 01:02:59 She told Isabel all about it. You know you've always thought Isabel rather foreign. You want her to give her a little foreign sympathy, eh? Don't you think she gets enough at home? Well, she ought to go abroad, said Mrs. Ludlow. She's just the person to go abroad. And do you want the old lady to take her, is that it? She has offered to take her.

Starting point is 01:03:21 She's dying to have Isabel go. But what I want her to do when she gets her there is to give her all the advantages. I'm sure all we've got to do, said Mrs. Ludlow. is to give her a chance. A chance for what? A chance to develop. Oh, Moses! Edmund Ludlow exclaimed,

Starting point is 01:03:42 I hope she isn't going to develop any more. If I were not sure you only said that for argument, I should feel very badly. His wife replied, But do you know you love her? Do you know I love you? The young man said jocosely to Isabel a little later while he brushed his hat.

Starting point is 01:04:01 I'm sure I don't care whether you do or not, exclaimed the girl, whose voice and smile, however, were less haughty than her words. Oh, she feels so grand since Mrs. Touchett's visit, said her sister. But Isabel challenged this assertion with a good deal of seriousness. You must not say that, Lily, I don't feel grand at all. I'm sure there's no harm, said the conciliatory Lily. Oh, but there's nothing in Mrs. Touchett's visit to make one feel grand. Oh, exclaimed Ludlow, she's grander than ever.

Starting point is 01:04:38 Whenever I feel grand, said the girl, it will be for a better reason. Whether she felt grand or no, she at any rate felt different, as if something had happened to her. Left to herself for the evening, she sat a while under the lamp, her hands empty, her usual avocations unheeded. Then she rose and moved about the room, and from one room to another, preferring the places where the vague lamplight expired. She was restless, and even agitated. At moments she trembled a little. The importance of what had happened was out of proportion to its appearance. There had really been a change in her life. What it would bring with it was as yet extremely indefinite, but Isabel was in a situation that gave a value to any change.

Starting point is 01:05:27 She had a desire to leave the past behind her, and, as she said to herself, to begin afresh. This desire, indeed, was not a berth of the present occasion. It was as familiar as the sound of the rain upon the window, and it had led to her beginning afresh a great many times. She closed her eyes as she sat in one of the dusky corners of the quiet parlor, but it was not with a desire for dozing forgetfulness. It was, on the contrary, because she felt too wide-eyed, and wished to check the sense of seeing too many things at once. Her imagination was by habit ridiculously active. When the door was not open, it jumped out of the window.

Starting point is 01:06:08 She was not accustomed, indeed, to keep it behind bolts, and at important moments, when she would have been thankful to make use of her judgment alone, she paid the penalty of having given undue encouragement to the faculty of seeing without judging. At present, with her sense that the note of change had been struck, came gradually a host of images of the things she was leaving behind her. The years and hours of her life came back to her, and for a long time, in a stillness broken only by the ticking of the big bronze clock, she passed them in review. It had been a very happy life, and she had been a very fortunate person. This was the truth that seemed to emerge most vividly. She had had the best of everything,

Starting point is 01:06:50 and in a world in which the circumstances of so many people made them unenviable, it was an advantage never to have known anything particularly unpleasant. It appeared to Isabel that the unpleasant had been even too absent from her knowledge, for she had gathered from her acquaintance with literature that it was often a source of interest and even of instruction. Her father had kept it away from her, her handsome, much-loved father, who always had such an aversion to it. It was a great felicity to have been his daughter.

Starting point is 01:07:23 Isabel rose even to pride in her parentage. Since his death, she had seemed to see him as turning his braver side to his children, and not having managed to ignore the ugly quite so much in practice as an aspiration. But this only made her tenderness for him greater. It was scarcely even painful to have to suppose him too generous, too good-natured, too indifferent to sordid considerations. Many persons had held that he carried this indifference too far, especially the large number of those to whom he owed money. Of their opinions, Isabel was never very definitely informed. But it may interest the reader to know that, while they had recognized in the late Mr. Archer a remarkably handsome head and a very taking manner, indeed, as one of them had said, he was always taking something. They had declared that he was making a very poor use of his life. He had squandered a substantial fortune. He had been deplorably convivial. He was known to have gambled freely. A few very harsh critics went so far as to say that he had not even brought up his daughters. They had had no regular education and no permanent home. They had been at once spoiled and neglected. They had lived with nursemaids and governesses, usually very bad ones, or had been sent to superficial schools, kept by the French, from which at the end of a month they had been removed in tears.

Starting point is 01:08:45 This view of the matter would have excited Isabel's indignation, for to her own sense her opportunities had been large. Even when her father had left his daughters for three months at Nufchatel with a French bun who had eloped with a Russian nobleman staying at the same hotel, even in this a regular situation, an incident of the girl's 11th year, she had been neither frightened nor ashamed, but had thought it a romantic episode in a liberal education. Her father had a large way of looking at life, of which his restlessness and even his occasional incoherency of conduct had been only a proof. He wished his daughters, even as children, to see as much of the world as possible, and it was for this purpose that, before Isabel was fourteen, he had transported

Starting point is 01:09:32 them three times across the Atlantic, giving them on each occasion, however, but a few months' view of the subject proposed, a course which had whetted our heroine's curiosity without enabling her to satisfy it. She ought to have been a partisan of her father, for she was the member of his trio who most made up to him for the disagreeables he didn't mention. In his last days, his general willingness to take leave of a world in which the difficulty of doing as one liked appeared to increase, as one grew older, had been sensibly modified by the pain of separation from his clever, his superior, his remarkable girl. Later, when the journeys to Europe ceased, he still had shown his children all sorts of indulgence, and if he had been troubled about money matters,

Starting point is 01:10:17 nothing ever disturbed their irreflective consciousness of many possessions. Isabel, though she danced very well, had not the recollection of having been in New York a successful member of the choreographic circle. Her sister Edith was, as everyone said, so very much more fetching. Edith was so striking an example of success that Isabel could have no illusions as to what constituted this advantage, or as, as, as, and as, and as, you know, and she was so striking an example of success, to the limits of her own power to frisk and jump and shriek, above all with rightness of effect. Nineteen persons out of twenty, including the younger sister herself, pronounced Edith infinitely the prettier of the two. But the twentieth, besides reversing this judgment, had the

Starting point is 01:10:59 entertainment of thinking all the others aesthetic vulgarians. Isabel had in the depths of her nature an even more unquenchable desire to please than Edith. But the depths of this young lady's nature were a very out-of-the-way place, between which and the surface communication was interrupted by a dozen capricious forces. She saw the young men who came in large numbers to see her sister, but as a general thing they were afraid of her.

Starting point is 01:11:26 They had a belief that some special preparation was required for talking with her. Her reputation of reading a great deal hung about her, like the cloudy envelope of a goddess in an epic. It was supposed to engender difficult questions and to keep the conversation at a low temperature. The poor girl liked to be thought clever, but she hated to be thought bookish. She used to read in secret, and though her memory was excellent, to abstain from showy reference. She had a great desire for knowledge, but she really preferred almost any source of information to the printed page.

Starting point is 01:11:59 She had an immense curiosity about life and was constantly staring and wondering. She carried within herself a great fund of life, and her deepest enjoyment was to feel the continuity between the movements of her own soul and the agitations of the world. For this reason she was fond of seeing great crowds and large stretches of country, of reading about revolutions and wars,

Starting point is 01:12:23 of looking at historical pictures, a class of efforts as to which she had often committed the conscious solacism of forgiving them much bad painting for the sake of the subject. While the civil war went on, she was still a very young girl. But she passed months of this long period in a state of almost passionate excitement, in which she felt herself at times, to her extreme confusion, stirred almost indiscriminately by the valor of either army. Of course, the circumspection of suspicious swains

Starting point is 01:12:52 had never gone the length of making her a social proscript, for the number of those whose hearts, as they approached her, beat only just fast enough to remind them they had heads as well, had kept her unacquainted with the supreme disciplines of her sex and age. She had had everything a girl could have. Kindness, admiration, bonbons, bouquets, the sense of exclusion from none of the privileges of the world she lived in, abundant opportunity for dancing, plenty of new dresses, the London spectator, the latest publications,

Starting point is 01:13:24 the music of Gounod, the poetry of Browning, the prose of George Eliot. These things now, as memorabilms. played over them, resolved themselves into a multitude of scenes and figures. Forgotten things came back to her. Many others, which she had lately thought of great moment, dropped out of sight. The result was kaleidoscopic, but the movement of the instrument was checked at last by the servants coming in with the name of a gentleman. The name of the gentleman was Casper Goodwood. He was a straight young man from Boston, who had known Miss Archer for the last twelve-month, and who, thinking her the most beautiful young woman of her time, had pronounced the time, according to the rule I have hinted at,

Starting point is 01:14:07 a foolish period of history. He sometimes wrote to her, and had within a week or two written from New York. She had thought it very possible he would come in, had indeed all the rainy day been vaguely expecting him. Now that she learned he was there, nevertheless, she felt no eagerness to receive him. He was the finest young man she had ever seen, was indeed quite a splendid young man. He inspired her with a sentiment of high, of rare respect. She had never felt equally moved to it by any other person. He was supposed by the world in general to wish to marry her, but this, of course, was between themselves.

Starting point is 01:14:45 It at least may be affirmed that he had traveled from New York to Albany expressly to see her, having learned in the former city where he was spending a few days and where he had hoped to find her, that she was still at the state capital. Isabel delayed for some minutes to go to him. She moved about the room with a new sense of complications. But at last she presented herself and found him standing near the lamp. He was tall, strong, and somewhat stiff. He was also lean and brown.

Starting point is 01:15:15 He was not romantically, he was much rather obscurely handsome. But his physiognomy had an air of requesting your attention, which it rewarded according to the charm you found in blue eyes of remarkable fixedness, the eyes of a complexion other than his own, and a jaw of the somewhat angular mold, which is supposed to bespeak resolution. Isabel said to herself that it bespoke resolution tonight, in spite of which, in half an hour, Casper Goodwood, who had arrived hopeful as well as resolute, took his way back to his lodging with the feeling of a man defeated.

Starting point is 01:15:51 He was not, it may be added, a man weakly to accept defeat. End of Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Of the Portrait of a Lady by Henry James This Librovoc's recording is in the public domain Ralph Touchett was a philosopher but nevertheless he knocked at his mother's door

Starting point is 01:16:19 at a quarter to seven with a good deal of eagerness Even philosophers have their preferences and it must be admitted that of his progenitors his father ministered most to his sense of the sweetness of filial dependence. His father, as he had often said to himself, was the more motherly. His mother, on the other hand, was paternal, and even, according to the slang of the day,

Starting point is 01:16:44 gubernatorial. She was nevertheless very fond of her only child, and had always insisted on his spending three months of the year with her. Ralph rendered perfect justice to her affection, and knew that in her thoughts and her thoroughly arranged and servited life, his turn always came after the other nearest subjects of her solicitude, the various punctualities of performance of the workers of her will. He found her completely dressed for dinner, but she embraced her boy with her gloved hands and made him sit on the sofa beside her. She inquired scrupulously about her husband's health and about the

Starting point is 01:17:21 young man's own, and, receiving no very brilliant account of either, remarked that she was more than ever convinced of her wisdom and not exposing herself to the English climate. In this case, she also might have given way. Ralph smiled at the idea of his mother's giving way, but made no point of reminding her that his own infirmity was not the result of the English climate, from which he absented himself for a considerable part of each year. He had been a very small boy when his father, Daniel Tracy touch it, a native of Rutland in the state of Vermont, came to England as subordinate partner in the banking house, where some ten years later he gained preponderant control. Daniel Touchett saw before him a lifelong residence in his adopted country, of which from the first he took a simple, sane, and accommodating view.

Starting point is 01:18:10 But, as he said to himself, he had no intention of dis-Americanizing, nor had he a desire to teach his only son any such subtle art. It had been for himself so very soluble a problem to live in England assimilated, yet unconverted, that it seemed to him equally simple his lawful heir should after his death carry on the grey old bank in the white American light. He was at pains to intensify this light, however, by sending the boy home for his education. Ralph spent several terms at an American school and took a degree at an American university, after which, as he struck his father on his return as even redundantly native, he was placed for some three years in residence at Oxford. Oxford swallowed up Harvard, and Ralph became at last English enough. His outward conformity to the manners that surrounded him was nonetheless the

Starting point is 01:19:05 mask of a mind that greatly enjoyed its independence, on which nothing long imposed itself, and which, naturally inclined to adventure and irony, indulged in a boundless liberty of appreciation. He began with being a young man of promise. At Oxford, he distinguished himself to his father's ineffable satisfaction, and the people about him said it was a thousand pities so clever a fellow should be shut out from a career. He might have had a career by returning to his own country, though this point is shrouded in uncertainty, and even if Mr. Touchett had been willing to part with him, which was not the case, it would have gone hard with him to put a watery waste permanently between himself and the old man whom he regarded as his best friend. Ralph was not only fond of his

Starting point is 01:19:52 father, he admired him. He enjoyed the opportunity of observing him. Daniel touch it, to his perception, was a man of genius, and though he himself had no aptitude for the banking mystery, he made a point of learning enough of it to measure the great figure his father had played. It was not this, however, he mainly relished. It was the fine ivory surface, polished as by the English air, that the old man had opposed to possibilities of penetration. Daniel Touchett had been neither at Harvard nor at Oxford, and it was his own fault if he had placed in his son's hands the key to modern criticism. Ralph, whose head was full of ideas which his father had never guessed, had a high esteem for the latter's originality.

Starting point is 01:20:39 Americans, rightly or wrongly, are commended for the ease with which they adapt themselves to foreign conditions, but Mr. Touchett had made of the very limits of his pliancy half the ground of his general success. He had retained in their freshness most of his marks of primary pressure. His tone, as his son always noted with pleasure, was that of the more luxuriant parts of New England. At the end of his life he had, he had, he had, he, he was a had become, on his own ground, as mellow as he was rich. He combined consummate shrewdness with the disposition superficially to fraternize, and his social position, on which he had never wasted a care, had the firm perfection of an unthumbed fruit. It was, perhaps, his want of imagination,

Starting point is 01:21:25 and of what is called the historic consciousness, but to many of the impressions usually made by English life upon the cultivated stranger, his sense was completely closed. There were certain differences he had never perceived, certain habits he had never formed, certain obscurities he had never sounded. As regards these latter, on the day he had sounded them, his son would have thought less well of him. Ralph, on leaving Oxford, had spent a couple of years in traveling, after which he had found himself perched on a high stool in his father's bank.

Starting point is 01:21:58 The responsibility and honor of such positions is not, I believe, measured by the height of the stool, which depends upon other than. their considerations. Ralph, indeed, who had very long legs, was fond of standing and even of walking about at his work. To this exercise, however, he was obliged to devote but a limited period, for at the end of some 18 months he'd become aware of his being seriously out of health. He had caught a violent cold, which fixed itself on his lungs, and threw them into dire confusion. He had to give up work, and apply, to the letter, the sorry injunction to take care of himself. At first he slighted the task. It appeared to him it was not himself in the least he was taking care of,

Starting point is 01:22:42 but an uninteresting and uninterested person with whom he had nothing in common. This person, however, improved on acquaintance, and Ralph grew at last to have a certain grudging tolerance, even an undemonstrative respect for him. Misfortune makes strange bedfellows, and our young man, feeling that he had something at stake in the matter, it usually struck him as his reputation for ordinary wit, devoted to his graceless charge an amount of attention of which note was duly taken, and which had at least the effect of keeping the poor fellow alive. One of his lungs began to heal, the other promised to follow its example,

Starting point is 01:23:19 and he was assured he might outweather a dozen winters if he would be take himself to those climates in which consumptives chiefly congregate. As he had grown extremely fond of London, he cursed the flatness of exile. But at the same time that he cursed he conformed, and gradually, when he found his sensitive organ grateful even for grim favors, he converred them with a lighter hand. He wintered abroad, as the phrase is, basked in the sun, stopped at home when the wind blew, went to bed when it rained,

Starting point is 01:23:50 and once or twice, when it had snowed overnight, almost never got up again. A secret horde of indifference. Like a thick cake, a fond old nurse might have slipped into his first school outfit, came to his aid, and helped to reconcile him to sacrifice, since at the best he was too ill for aught but that arduous game. As he said to himself, there was really nothing he had wanted very much to do, so that he had at least not renounced the field of valor. At present, however, the fragrance of forbidden fruit seemed occasionally to float past him, and remind him that the finest of pleasures is the rush of action. Living as he now lived was like reading a good book

Starting point is 01:24:32 in a poor translation, a meager entertainment for a young man who felt that he might have been an excellent linguist. He had good winters and poor winters, and while the former lasted, he was sometimes the sport of a vision of virtual recovery. But this vision was dispelled some three years before the occurrence of the incidents with which this history opens. He had on that occasion remained later than usual in England, and had been overtaken by bad weather before reaching Algiers. He arrived more dead than alive, and lay there for several weeks between life and death. His convalescence was a miracle, but the first use he made of it was to assure himself that such miracles happen but once. He said to himself that his hour was in sight, and that it behooved

Starting point is 01:25:17 him to keep his eyes upon it, yet that it was also open to him to spend the interval as agreeably as might be consistent with such a preoccupation. With the prospect of losing them, the simple use of his faculties became an exquisite pleasure. It seemed to him the joys of contemplation had never been sounded. He was far from the time when he found it hard that he should be obliged to give up the idea of distinguishing himself, an idea nonetheless important for being vague, and nonetheless delightful for having had to struggle in the same breast with bursts of inspiring self-criticism. His friends at present judged him more cheerful, and attributed it to a theory, over which they shook their heads knowingly, that he would recover his health.

Starting point is 01:25:59 His serenity was but the array of wildflowers niched in his ruin. It was very probably this sweet-tasting property of the observed thing in itself that was mainly concerned in Ralph's quickly stirred interest in the advent of a young lady who was evidently not insipid. If he was considerably disposed, something told him, here was occupation enough for a succession of days, It may be added, in summary fashion, that the imagination of loving, as distinguished from that of being loved, had still a place in his reduced sketch. He had only forbidden himself the riot of expression.

Starting point is 01:26:38 However, he shouldn't inspire his cousin with a passion, nor would she be able, even should she try, to help him to one. And now tell me about the young lady, he said to his mother, what do you mean to do with her? Mrs. Touchett was prompt. I mean to ask your father to invite her to stay three or four weeks at Garden Court. You needn't stand on any such ceremony as that, said Ralph. My father will ask her as a matter of course. I don't know about that. She's my niece.

Starting point is 01:27:11 She's not his. Good Lord, dear mother, what a sense of property. That's all the more reason for his asking her. But after that, I mean after three months, for it's absurd asking the poor girl to remain but for three or four paltry weeks. What do you mean to do with her? I mean to take her to Paris. I mean to get her clothing.

Starting point is 01:27:34 Ah, yes, that's of course, but independently of that. I shall invite her to spend the autumn with me in Florence. You don't rise above detail, dear mother, said Ralph. I should like to know what you mean to do with her in a general way. "'My duty,' Mrs. Touchett declared. "'I suppose you pity her very much,' she added. "'No, I don't think I pity her. She doesn't strike me as inviting compassion.

Starting point is 01:28:05 I think I envy her. Before being sure, however, give me a hint of where you see your duty. In showing her four European countries, I shall leave her the choice of two of them, and giving her the opportunity of perfecting herself in French, which she already knows very well. Ralph frowned a little. That sounds rather dry, even allowing her the choice of two of the countries.

Starting point is 01:28:30 If it's dry, said his mother with a laugh, you can leave Isabel alone to water it. She is as good as the summer rain any day. Do you mean she's a gifted being? I don't know whether she's a gifted being, but she's a clever girl, with a strong will and a high temper,

Starting point is 01:28:49 She has no idea of being bored. I can imagine that, said Ralph. And then he added abruptly. How do you two get on? Do you mean by that that I'm a bore? I don't think she finds me one. Some girls might, I know, but Isabel's too clever for that. I think I greatly amuse her.

Starting point is 01:29:12 We get on because I understand her. I know the sort of girl she is. She's very frank, and I'm very frank. We know just what to expect of each other. Oh, dear mother, Ralph exclaimed. One always knows what to expect of you. You've never surprised me but once, and that's today, in presenting me with a pretty cousin whose existence I had never suspected.

Starting point is 01:29:37 Do you think her so very pretty? Very pretty indeed. But I don't insist upon that. It's her general air of being someone in particular that strikes me. Who is this rare creature? And what is she? Where did you find her, and how did you make her acquaintance? I found her in an old house at Albany, sitting in a dreary room on a rainy day, reading a heavy book and boring herself to death. She didn't know she was bored,

Starting point is 01:30:06 but when I left her, no doubt of it, she seemed very grateful for the service. You may say I shouldn't have enlightened her. I should have left her alone. There's a good deal in that, but I acted conscientiously. I thought she was meant for some. I thought she was meant for something better. It occurred to me that it would be a kindness to take her about and introduce her to the world. She thinks she knows a great deal of it, like most American girls. But like most American girls, she's ridiculously mistaken. If you want to know, I thought she would do me credit. I like to be well thought of, and for a woman of my age, there's no greater convenience in some ways than an attractive niece. You know I had seen nothing of my sister's children for years. I disapproved entirely

Starting point is 01:30:48 of the father. But I always meant to do something for them when he should have gone to his reward. I ascertained where they were to be found, and, without any preliminaries, went and introduced myself. There are two others of them, both of whom are married, but I saw only the elder, who has, by the way, a very uncivil husband. The wife, whose name is Lily, jumped at the idea of my taking an interest in Isabel. She said it was just what her sister needed, that someone should take an interest in her. She spoke of her as you might speak of some young person of genius, in want of encouragement and patronage. It may be that Isabel's a genius, but in that case I've not yet learned her special line. Mrs. Ludlow was especially keen about my taking her to Europe. They all regard

Starting point is 01:31:34 Europe over there as a land of emigration, of rescue, a refuge for their superfluous population. Isabel herself seemed very glad to come, and the thing was easily arranged. There was a little difficulty about the money question, as she seemed averse to being under pecuniary obligations, but she has a small income, and she supposes herself to be traveling at her own expense. Ralph had listened attentively to this judicious report, by which his interest in the subject of it was not impaired. Ah, if she's a genius, he said, we must find out her special line. Is it by any chance for flirting? I don't think so. You may suspect that at first, but you'll be wrong.

Starting point is 01:32:20 You won't, I think, in any way be easily right about her. Warburton's wrong, then, Ralph rejoicingly exclaimed. He flatters himself he has made that discovery. His mother shook her head. Lord Warburton won't understand her. He needn't try. He's very intelligent, said Ralph. But it's right he should be puzzled once in a while. "'Isabelle will enjoy puzzling a lord,' Mrs. Touchett remarked.

Starting point is 01:32:50 Her son frowned a little. What does she know about lords? Nothing at all. That will puzzle him all the more.' Ralph greeted these words with a laugh and looked out the window. Then, "'Are you not going down to see my father?' he asked. "'At a quarter to eight,' said Mrs. Touchett. her son looked at his watch. You've another quarter of an hour, then.

Starting point is 01:33:17 Tell me some more about Isabel. After which, as Mrs. Touchett declined his invitation, declaring that he must find out for himself, "'Well,' he pursued, "'she'll certainly do you credit. But won't she also give you trouble?' "'I hope not. But if she does, I shall not shrink from it.

Starting point is 01:33:36 I never do that.' "'She strikes me as very natural,' said Ralph. Natural people are not the most trouble. No, said Ralph. You yourself are a proof of that. You're extremely natural, and I'm sure you have never troubled anyone. It takes trouble to do that. But tell me this.

Starting point is 01:33:57 It just occurs to me. Is Isabel capable of making herself disagreeable? Oh, cried his mother. You ask too many questions. Find that out for yourself. His questions, however, were not exhausted. All this time, he said. You've not told me what you intend to do with her.

Starting point is 01:34:18 Do with her. You talk as if she were a yard of calico. I shall do absolutely nothing with her, and she herself will do everything she chooses. She gave me notice of that. What you meant then in your telegram was that her character's independent. I never know what I mean in my telegrams, especially those I send from America.

Starting point is 01:34:38 Clearness is too expensive. Come down to your fault. It's not yet a quarter to eight, said Ralph. I must allow for his impatience, Mrs. Touchett answered. Ralph knew what to think of his father's impatience, but making no rejoinder he offered his mother his arm. This put it in his power, as they descended together, to stop her a moment on the middle landing of the staircase, the broad, low, wide-armed staircase of time-blackened oak, which was one of the most striking features of Garden Court.

Starting point is 01:35:12 "'You've no plan of marrying her,' he smiled. "'Marrying her? I should be sorry to play her such a trick. But apart from that, she's perfectly able to marry herself. She has every facility. Do you mean to say she has a husband picked out? I don't know about a husband, but there's a young man in Boston.' Ralph went on. He had no desire to hear about the young man in Boston. As my father says, they're always in game.

Starting point is 01:35:42 His mother had told him that he must satisfy his curiosity at the source, and it soon became evident he should not want for occasion. He had a good deal of talk with his young kinswoman when the two had been left together in the drawing-room. Lord Warburton, who had ridden over from his own house some ten miles distant, remounted and took his departure before dinner, and an hour after this meal was ended, Mr. and Mrs. Touchett, who appeared to have quite emptied the measure of their forms, withdrew, under the valid pretext of fatigue, to their respective apartments. The young man spent an hour with his cousin. Though she had been traveling half the day, she appeared in no degree spent. She was really tired. She knew it, and knew she should

Starting point is 01:36:29 pay for it on the morrow. But it was her habit at this period to carry exhaustion to the furthest point, and confess to it only when dissimulation broke down. A fine hypocrisy was for the present possible. She was interested. She was, as she said to herself, floated. She asked Ralph to show her the pictures. There were a great many in the house, most of them of his own choosing. The best were arranged in an oaken gallery of charming proportions, which had a sitting

Starting point is 01:37:00 room at either end of it, and which in the evening was usually lighted. The light was insufficient to show the pictures to advantage, and the visit might have stood over to the morrow. This suggestion Ralph had ventured to make, but Isabel looked disappointed, smiling still, however, and said, If you please, I should like to see them just a little. She was eager, she knew she was eager, and now seemed so. She couldn't help it. She doesn't take suggestions, Ralph said to himself, but he said it without. irritation. Her pressure amused and even pleased him. The lamps were on brackets, at intervals, and if the light was imperfect, it was genial. It fell upon the vague squares of rich color,

Starting point is 01:37:47 and on the faded gilding of heavy frames. It made a sheen on the polished floor of the gallery. Ralph took a candlestick and moved about, pointing out the things he liked. Isabel, inclining to one picture after another, indulged in little exclamations and murmurs. She was evidently a judge. She had a natural taste. He was struck with that. She took a candlestick herself and held it slowly here and there. She lifted it high, and as she did so, he found himself pausing in the middle of the place and bending his eyes much less upon the pictures than on her presence. He lost nothing in truth by these wandering glances, for she was better worth looking at than most works of art. She was undeniably spare, and ponderably light,

Starting point is 01:38:36 and provably tall. When people had wished to distinguish her from the other two Miss Archers, they had always called her the willowy one. Her hair, which was dark, even to blackness, had been an object of envy to many women. Her light gray eyes, a little too firm, perhaps, in her graver moments, had an enchanting range of concession. They walked slowly, up one side of the gallery and down the other, and then she said, "'Well, now I know more than I did when I began.' "'You apparently have a great passion for knowledge,' her cousin returned. "'I think I have. Most girls are horridly ignorant.

Starting point is 01:39:17 You strike me as different from most girls.' "'Ah, some of them would—' "'But the way they're talked to,' murmured Isabel, who preferred not to delay it just yet on herself. Then in a moment to change the subject. Please tell me, isn't there a ghost? She went on. A ghost?

Starting point is 01:39:39 A castle specter, a thing that appears. We call them ghosts in America. So we do hear, when we see them. You do see them then. You ought to in this romantic old house. It's not a romantic. old house, said Ralph. You'll be disappointed if you count on that.

Starting point is 01:40:01 It's a dismally prosaic one. There's no romance here but what you may have brought with you. I've brought a great deal, but it seems to me I've brought it to the right place. To keep it out of harm, certainly, nothing will ever happen to it here between my father and me. Isabel looked at him a moment. Is there never anyone here but your father and you? My mother, of course. Oh, I know your mother.

Starting point is 01:40:28 She's not romantic. Haven't you other people? Very few. I'm sorry for that. I like so much to see people. Oh, we'll invite all the county to amuse you, said Ralph. Now you're making fun of me. The girl answered rather gravely.

Starting point is 01:40:49 Who was the gentleman on the lawn when I arrived? A county neighbor. He doesn't come very often. I'm sorry for that. I liked him, said Isabel. Why, it seemed to me, that you barely spoke to him, Ralph objected. Never mind, I like him all the same. I like your father, too, immensely.

Starting point is 01:41:11 You can't do better than that. He's the dearest of the dear. I'm so sorry he is ill, said Isabel. You must help me to nurse him. You ought to be a good nurse. I don't think I am. I've been told I'm not. I'm said to have too many theories.

Starting point is 01:41:31 But you haven't told me about the ghost, she added. Ralph, however, gave no heed to this observation. You like my father, and you like Lord Warburton. I infer also that you like my mother. I like your mother very much, because... Because... And Isabel found herself a... attempting to assign a reason for her affection for Mrs. Touchett.

Starting point is 01:41:56 Ha, ha, we never know why, said her companion, laughing. I always know why, the girl answered. It's because she doesn't expect one to like her. She doesn't care whether one does or not. So you adore her out of perversity? Well, I take greatly after my mother, said Ralph. I don't believe you do at all. You wish people to like you and you try to make me.

Starting point is 01:42:22 make them do it. Good heavens, how you see through one, he cried, with a dismay that was not altogether jocular. But I like you all the same, his cousin went on. The way to clinch the matter will be to show me the ghost. Ralph shook his head sadly. I might show it to you, but you'd never see it. The privilege isn't given to everyone. That's not enviable. It has never been seen by a young, happy, innocent person like you. You must have suffered first, have suffered greatly, have gained some miserable knowledge. In that way your eyes are opened to it. I saw it long ago, said Ralph.

Starting point is 01:43:08 I told you just now I'm very fond of knowledge, Isabel answered. Yes, of happy knowledge, of pleasant knowledge. But you haven't suffered, and you're not made to suffer. I hope you'll never see the ghost. She had listened to him attentively, with a smile on her lips, but with a certain gravity in her eyes. Charming as he found her, she had struck him as rather presumptuous. Indeed, it was part of her charm, and he wondered what she would say. I'm not afraid, you know, she said, which seemed quite presumptuous enough.

Starting point is 01:43:48 You are not afraid of suffering? Yes, I'm afraid of suffering. I'm afraid of suffering, but I'm not afraid of ghosts. And I think people suffer too easily, she added. I don't believe you do, said Ralph, looking at her with his hands in his pockets. I don't think that's a fault, she answered. It's not absolutely necessary to suffer. We were not made for that.

Starting point is 01:44:14 You were not, certainly. I'm not speaking of myself. And she wandered off a little. "'No, it isn't a fault,' said her cousin. "'It's a merit to be strong.' "'Only if you don't suffer, they call you hard,' Isabel remarked. They passed out of the smaller drawing-room, into which they had returned from the gallery, and paused in the hall at the foot of the staircase.

Starting point is 01:44:43 Here Ralph presented his companion with her bedroom candle, which he had taken from a niche. "'Never mind what they call you. When you do suffer, they call you an idiot. The great points to be as happy as possible. She looked at him a little. She had taken her candle and placed her foot on the oaken stair. Well, she said, that's what I came to Europe for, to be as happy as possible. Good night.

Starting point is 01:45:12 Good night. I wish you all success, and shall be very glad to contribute to it. She turned away. and he watched her as she slowly ascended. Then with his hands always in his pockets, he went back to the empty drawing room. End of Chapter 5. Chapter 6 of The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Librivox recording is in the public domain. Isabel Archer was a young person of many theories. Her imagination was remarkably active. It had been her fortune to possess a finer mind than most of the persons among whom her lot was cast, to have a

Starting point is 01:46:00 larger perception of surrounding facts, and to care for knowledge that was tinged with the unfamiliar. It is true that among her contemporaries she passed for a young woman of extraordinary profundity, for these excellent people never withheld their admiration from a reach of intellect of which they themselves were not conscious, and spoke of Isabel as a prodigy of learning. A creature reported to have read the classic authors, in translations. Her paternal aunt, Mrs. Varian, once spread the rumor that Isabel was writing a book, Mrs. Varian having a reverence for books, and averred that the girl would distinguish herself in print. Mrs. Varian thought highly of literature, for which she entertained that esteem that is connected with a sense of privation. Her own

Starting point is 01:46:47 large house, remarkable for its assortment of mosaic tables and decorated ceilings, was unfurnished with a library, and in the way of printed volumes contained nothing but half a dozen novels and paper on a shelf in the apartment of one of the Miss Varian's. Practically, Mrs. Varian's acquaintance with literature was confined to the New York interviewer, and as she very justly said, after you had read the interviewer, you had lost all faith in culture. Her tendency with this was rather to keep the interviewer out of the way of her daughters. She was determined to bring them up properly, and they read. read nothing at all. Her impression with regard to Isabel's labors was quite illusory.

Starting point is 01:47:28 The girl had never attempted to write a book, and had no desire for the laurels of authorship. She had no talent for expression, and too little of the consciousness of genius. She only had a general idea that people were right when they treated her as if she were rather superior. Whether or no she were superior, people were right in admiring her if they thought her so, for it seemed to her often that her mind moved more quickly than there. and this encouraged an impatience that might easily be confounded with superiority. It may be affirmed without delay that Isabel was probably very liable to the sin of self-esteem. She often surveyed with complacency the field of her own nature.

Starting point is 01:48:08 She was in the habit of taking for granted on scanty evidence that she was right. She treated herself to occasions of homage. Meanwhile, her errors and delusions were frequently such as a biographer interested in preserving the dignity of his subject must shrink. from specifying. Her thoughts were a tangle of vague outlines, which had never been corrected by the judgment of people speaking with authority. In matters of opinion, she had had her own way, and it had led her into a thousand ridiculous zigzags. At moments she discovered she was grotesquely wrong, and then she treated herself to a week of passionate humility. After this,

Starting point is 01:48:48 she held her head higher than ever again, for it was of no use. She had an unconsorpeer. She had an quenchable desire to think well of herself. She had a theory that it was only under this provision life was worth living, that one should be one of the best, should be conscious of a fine organization. She couldn't help knowing that her organization was fine, should move in a realm of light, of natural wisdom, of happy impulse, of inspiration gracefully chronic. It was almost as unnecessary to cultivate doubt of oneself as to cultivate doubt of one's best friend. One should try to be one's own best friend and to give oneself in this manner distinguished company. The girl had a certain nobleness of imagination which rendered her a good many services

Starting point is 01:49:32 and played her a great many tricks. She spent half her time in thinking of beauty and bravery and magnanimity. She had a fixed determination to regard the world as a place of brightness, a free expansion, of irresistible action. She held it must be detestable to be afraid or ashamed. She had an infinite hope that she should never do anything wrong. She had resented so strongly, after discovering them, her mere errors of feeling. The discovery always made her tremble as if she'd escaped from a trap which might have caught her and smothered her. That the chance of inflicting a sensible injury upon another person, presented only as a contingency, caused her at moments to hold her breath.

Starting point is 01:50:16 That always struck her as the worst thing that could happen to her. On the whole, reflectively, she was in no uncertainty about the things that were wrong. She had no love of their look, but when she fixed them hard, she recognized them. It was wrong to be mean, to be jealous, to be false, to be cruel. She had seen very little of the evil of the world, but she had seen women who lied and who tried to hurt each other. Seeing such things had quickened her high spirit. it seemed indecent not to scorn them. Of course the danger of a high spirit was the danger of inconsistency,

Starting point is 01:50:55 the danger of keeping up the flag after the place has surrendered, a sort of behavior so crooked as to be almost a dishonor to the flag. But Isabel, who knew little of the sorts of artillery to which young women are exposed, flattered herself that such contradictions would never be noted in her own conduct. Her life should always be in harmony with the most pleasing impression she should produce. She would be what she appeared, and she would appear what she was. Sometimes she went so far as to wish that she might find herself some day in a difficult position, so that she should have the pleasure of being as heroic as the occasion demanded.

Starting point is 01:51:33 Altogether with her meager knowledge, her inflated ideals, her confidence at once innocent and dogmatic, her temper at once exacting and indulgent, her mixture of curiosity and fastidiousness, of vivacity and indifacity. difference, her desire to look very well and to be, if possible, even better, her determination to see, to try, to know, her combination of the delicate, desultory, flame-like spirit, and the eager and personal creature of conditions. She would be an easy victim of scientific criticism, if she were not intended to awaken on the reader's part, an impulse more tender and more purely expectant. It was one of her theories that Isabel Archer was very fortunate

Starting point is 01:52:16 and being independent, and that she ought to make some very enlightened use of that state. She never called it the state of solitude, much less of singleness. She thought such descriptions weak, and besides her sister Lily constantly urged her to come and abide. She had a friend whose acquaintance she had made shortly before her father's death, who offered so high an example of useful activity that Isabel always thought of her as a model. Henrietta Stackpole had the advantage of an admired ability. She was thoroughly launched in journalism, and her letters to the interviewer from Washington, Newport, the White Mountains, and other places were universally quoted.

Starting point is 01:52:57 Isabel pronounced them with confidence, ephemeral. But she esteemed the courage, energy, and good humor of the writer, who, without parents and without property, had adopted three of the children of an infirm and widowed sister and was paying their school bills out of the proceeds of her literary labor. Henrietta was in the van of progress and had clear-cut views on most subjects. Her cherished desire had long been to come to Europe and write a series of letters to the interviewer from the radical point of view, an enterprise the less difficult as she knew perfectly in advance what her opinions would be and to how many objections most European institutions lay open.

Starting point is 01:53:36 When she heard that Isabel was coming, she wished to start at once. thinking naturally that it would be delightful the two should travel together. She had been obliged, however, to postpone this enterprise. She thought Isabel a glorious creature, and had spoken of her covertly in some of her letters, though she never mentioned the fact to her friend, who would not have taken pleasure in it and was not a regular student of the interviewer. Henrietta, for Isabel, was chiefly a proof that a woman might suffice to herself and be happy. Her resources were of the obvious kind.

Starting point is 01:54:09 But even if one had not the journalistic talent and a genius for guessing, as Henrietta had, what the public was going to want, one was not, therefore, to conclude that one had no vocation, no beneficent aptitude of any sort, and resign oneself to being frivolous and hollow. Isabel was stoutly determined not to be hollow. If one should wait with the right patience, one would find some happy work to one's hand. Of course, among her theories, this young lady was not without a collection of views on the subject of marriage. The first on the list was a conviction of the vulgarity of thinking too much of it. From lapsing into eagerness on this point, she earnestly prayed she might be delivered. She held that a woman ought to be able to live

Starting point is 01:54:53 to herself, in the absence of exceptional flimsyness, and that it was perfectly possible to be happy without the society of a more or less coarse-minded person of another sex. The girl's prayer was very sufficiently answered, something pure and proud that there was a woman. in her, something cold and dry and unappreciated suitor with a taste for analysis might have called it, had hitherto kept her from any great vanity of conjecture on the article of possible husbands. Few of the men she saw seemed worth a ruinous expenditure, and it made her smile to think that one of them should present himself as an incentive to hope and a reward of patience.

Starting point is 01:55:31 Deep in her soul, it was the deepest thing there, lay a belief that if a certain light should dawn, she could give herself completely. But this image on the whole was too formidable to be attractive. Isabel's thoughts hovered about it, but they seldom rested on it long. After a little it ended in alarms. It often seemed to her that she thought too much about herself. You could have made her color any day in the year by calling her a rank egoist. She was always planning out her development, desiring her perfection, observing her progress. Her nature, her had in her conceit a certain garden-like quality, a suggestion of perfume and murmuring boughs, of shady bowers and lengthening vistas, which made her feel that introspection was, after all,

Starting point is 01:56:17 an exercise in the open air, and that a visit to the recesses of one's spirit was harmless when one returned from it with a lapful of roses. But she was often reminded that there were other gardens in the world than those of her remarkable soul, and that there were, moreover a great many places which were not gardens at all, only dusky, pestiferous tracts, planted thick with ugliness and misery. In the current of that repaid curiosity on which she had lately been floating, which had conveyed her to this beautiful old England, and might carry her much further still, she often checked herself with the thought of the thousands of people who were less happy than herself, a thought which, for the moment, made her fine, full consciousness appear

Starting point is 01:57:01 kind of immodesty. What should one do with the misery of the world in a scheme of the agreeable for oneself? It must be confessed that this question never held her long. She was too young, too impatient to live, too unacquainted with pain. She always returned to her theory that a young woman whom, after all, everyone thought clever, should begin by getting a general impression of life. This impression was necessary to prevent mistakes, and after it should be so. secured, she might make the unfortunate condition of others a subject of special attention. England was a revelation to her, and she found herself as diverted as a child at a pantomime. In her infantine excursions to Europe she had seen only the continent, and seen it from the

Starting point is 01:57:47 nursery window. Paris, not London, was her father's mecca, and into many of his interests there, his children had naturally not entered. The images of that time, moreover, had grown faint and remote, and the old-world quality in everything that she now saw had all the charm of strangeness. Her uncle's house seemed a picture made real. No refinement of the agreeable was lost upon Isabel. The rich perfection of Garden Court had once revealed a world and gratified a need. The large low rooms with brown ceilings and dusky corners, the deep embrasures and curious casements, the quiet light on dark polished panels, the deep green-neuxed. The deep green outside that seemed always peeping in, the sense of well-ordered privacy in the center of a property,

Starting point is 01:58:36 a place where sounds were felicitously accidental, where the tread was muffled by the earth itself, and in the thick, mild air all friction dropped out of contact and all shrillness out of talk. These things were much to the taste of our young lady, whose taste played a considerable part in her emotions. She formed a fast friendship with her uncle, and often sat by his chair when he had had it moved out to the lawn. He passed hours in the open air, sitting with folded hands like a placid, homely household god, a god of service, who had done his work and received his wages, and was trying to grow used to weeks and months made up only of off days. Isabelum used him more than she suspected. The effect she produced upon people was often different from what she supposed,

Starting point is 01:59:24 and he frequently gave himself the pleasure of making her chatter. It was by this term that he qualified her conversation, which had much of the point observable in that of the young ladies of her country, to whom the ear of the world is more directly presented than to their sisters in other lands. Like the mass of American girls, Isabel had been encouraged to express herself. Her remarks had been attended to. She had been expected to have emotions and opinions. Many of her opinions had doubtless but a slender value. Many of her emotions passed away in the utterance, but they had left a trace in giving her the habit of seeming at least to feel and think, and in imparting, moreover, to her words when she was really moved, that prompt vividness,

Starting point is 02:00:06 which so many people had regarded as a sign of superiority. Mr. Touchett used to think that she reminded him of his wife when his wife was in her teens. It was because she was fresh and natural and quick to understand, to speak, so many characteristics of her niece, that he had fallen in love with Mrs. Touchett. He never expressed this analogy to the girl herself, however. For if Mrs. Touchett had once been like Isabel, Isabel was not at all like Mrs. Touchett. The old man was full of kindness for her. It was a long time, as he said, since they had had any young life in the house, and our rustling, quickly moving, clear-voiced heroin was as agreeable to his sense as the sound of flowing water. He wanted to do something for her and wished she would ask it of him.

Starting point is 02:00:55 She would ask nothing but questions. It is true that of these she asked a quantity. Her uncle had a great fund of answers, though her pressure sometimes came in forms that puzzled him. She questioned him immensely about England, about the British constitution, the English character, the state of politics,

Starting point is 02:01:15 the manners and customs of the royal family, the peculiarities of the aristocracy, the way of living and thinking of his neighbours, and in begging to be enlightened on these points, She usually inquired whether they corresponded with the descriptions in the books. The old man always looked at her a little with his fine, dry smile, while he smoothed down the shawl spread across his legs. The books, he once said. Well, I don't know much about the books.

Starting point is 02:01:44 You must ask Ralph about that. I've always ascertained for myself, got my information in the natural form. I never asked many questions, even. I just kept quiet and took notice. Of course I've had very good opportunities, better than what a young lady would naturally have. I'm of an inquisitive disposition, though you mightn't think it if you were to watch me. However much you might watch me, I should be watching you more. I've been watching these people for upwards of 35 years, and I don't hesitate to say that I've acquired considerable information. It's a very fine country on the whole, finer perhaps than we give it credit for. for on the other side. Several improvements I should like to see introduced. But the necessity of them doesn't seem to be generally felt as yet. When the necessity of a thing is generally felt, they usually manage to accomplish it. But they seem to feel pretty comfortable about waiting till then. I certainly feel more at home among them than I expected to when I first came over.

Starting point is 02:02:46 I suppose it's because I've had a considerable degree of success. When you're successful, you naturally feel more at home. Do you suppose that if I'm successful I shall feel at home? Isabel asked. I should think it very probable, and you certainly will be successful. They like American young ladies very much over here. They show them a great deal of kindness. But you mustn't feel too much at home, you know.

Starting point is 02:03:12 Oh, I'm by no means sure it will satisfy me. Isabel judicially emphasized, I like the place very much, but I'm not sure. I shall like the people. The people are very good people, especially if you like them. I've no doubt they're good, Isabel rejoined. But are they pleasant in society? They won't rob me nor beat me, but will they make themselves agreeable to me? That's what I like people to do. I don't hesitate to say so because I always appreciate it. I don't believe they're very nice to girls. They're not nice to them in the novels. I don't know about the novels,

Starting point is 02:03:49 said Mr. Touchett. I believe the novels have a great deal, but I don't suppose they're very accurate. We once had a lady who wrote novels staying here. She was a friend of Ralph's, and he asked her down. She was very positive, quite up to everything. But she was not the sort of person you could depend on for evidence. Too free of fancy.

Starting point is 02:04:10 I suppose that was it. She afterwards published a work of fiction in which she was understood to have given a representation, something in the nature of a caricature, as you might say, of my unworthy self. I didn't read it, but Ralph just handed me the book with the principal passages marked. It was understood to be a description of my conversation, American peculiarities, nasal twang, Yankee notions, stars, and stripes. Well, it was not at all accurate. She couldn't have listened very attentively. I had no objection to her giving a report of my conversation

Starting point is 02:04:44 if she liked, but I didn't like the idea that she hadn't taken the trouble to listen to it. Of course I talk like an American. I can't talk like a hottentot. However I talk, I've made them understand me pretty well over here. But I don't talk like the old gentleman in that lady's novel. He wasn't an American. We wouldn't have him over there at any price. I just mention that fact to show you that they're not always accurate.

Starting point is 02:05:10 Of course, as I've no daughters and as Mrs. Touchett resides in Florence, I haven't had much chance to notice about the young ladies. It sometimes appears as if the young women in the lower class were not very well treated, but I guess their position is better in the upper and even to some extent in the middle. Gracious, Isabel exclaimed. How many classes have they? About fifty, I suppose. Well, I don't know that I ever counted them.

Starting point is 02:05:38 I never took much notice of the classes. That's the advantage of being an American here. You don't belong to any class. I hope so, said Isabel. Imagine one's belonging to an English class. Well, I guess some of them are pretty comfortable, especially towards the top. But for me, there are only two classes of people. The people I trust and the people I don't.

Starting point is 02:06:02 Of those two, my dear Isabel, you belong to the first. I'm much obliged to you, said the girl quickly. Her way of taking compliments seemed sometimes rather dry. She got rid of them as rapidly as possible. But as regards this, she was sometimes misjudged. She was thought insensible to them, whereas in fact she was simply unwilling to show how infinitely they pleased her. To show that was to show too much.

Starting point is 02:06:31 I'm sure the English are very conventional, she added. They've got everything pretty well fixed, Mr. Touch had admitted. It's all settled beforehand. They don't leave it to the last moment. I don't like to have everything settled beforehand. said the girl. I like more unexpectedness. Her uncle seemed amused at her distinctness of preference.

Starting point is 02:06:56 Well, it's settled beforehand that you'll have great success. He rejoined. I suppose you'll like that. I shall not have success if they're too stupidly conventional. I'm not in the least stupidly conventional. I'm just the contrary. That's what they won't like. No, no, you're all wrong.

Starting point is 02:07:17 said the old man. You can't tell what they'll like. They're very inconsistent. That's their principal interest. Ah, well, said Isabel, standing before her uncle with her hands clasped about the belt of her black dress and looking up and down the lawn. That will suit me perfectly. End of Chapter 6.

Starting point is 02:07:45 Chapter 7 of The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. The two amused themselves time and again with talking of the attitude of the British public, as if the young lady had been in a position to appeal to it. But in fact the British public remained for the present profoundly indifferent to Miss Isabel Archer, whose fortune had dropped her, as her cousin said, into the dullest house in England. Her gouty uncle received very little company, and Mrs. Touchett, not having cultivated relations with her husband's neighbors, was not warranted in expecting visits from them. She had, however, a peculiar taste. She liked to receive cards.

Starting point is 02:08:33 For what is usually called social intercourse, she had very little relish. But nothing pleased her more than to find her hall table whitened with oblong morsels of symbolic pasteboard. She flattered herself that she was a very just woman, and had mastered the sovereign truth that nothing in this world is got for nothing. She had played no social part as mistress of Garden Court, and it was not to be supposed that, in the surrounding country, a minute account should be kept of her comings and goings. But it is by no means certain that she did not feel it to be wrong, that so little notice was taken of them, and that her failure, really very gratuitous, to make herself important in the neighborhood, had not much to do with the acrimony of her allusions

Starting point is 02:09:19 to her husband's adopted country. Isabel presently found herself in the singular situation of defending the British constitution against her aunt, Mrs. Touchett, having formed the habit of sticking pins into this venerable instrument. Isabel always felt an impulse to pull out the pins, not that she imagined they inflicted any damage on the tough old parchment, but because it seemed to her, Her aunt might make better use of her sharpness. She was very critical herself. It was incidental to her age, her sex, and her nationality. But she was very sentimental as well,

Starting point is 02:09:56 and there was something in Mrs. Touchett's dryness that set her own moral fountains flowing. Now what's your point of view? She asked of her aunt. When you criticize everything here, you should have a point of view. Yours doesn't seem to be American. You thought everything over there so disagreeable. When I criticize I have mine, it's thoroughly American.

Starting point is 02:10:19 My dear young lady, said Mrs. Touchett, there are as many points of view in the world as there are people of sense to take them. You may say that doesn't make them very numerous. American? Never in the world, that's shockingly narrow. My point of view, thank God, is personal. Isabel thought this a better answer than she admitted. It was a tolerable description of her own manner of. of judging, but it would not have sounded well for her to say so. On the lips of a person less

Starting point is 02:10:50 advanced in life and less enlightened by experience than Mrs. Touchett, such a declaration would save her of immodesty, even of arrogance. She risked it, nevertheless, in talking with Ralph, with whom she talked a great deal, and with whom her conversation was of a sort that gave a large license to extravagance. Her cousin used, as the phrases, to chaff her. He very soon established with her a reputation for treating everything as a joke, and he was not a man to neglect the privileges such a reputation conferred. She accused him of an odious want of seriousness, of laughing at all things, beginning with himself. Such slender faculty of reverence as he possessed centered wholly upon his father. For the rest, he exercised his wit indifferently upon his father's son,

Starting point is 02:11:39 this gentleman's weak lungs, his useless life, his fantastic mother, his friends, Lord Warburton and especial, his adopted and his native country, his charming, new-found cousin. I keep a band of music in my ante-room, he once said to her. It has orders to play without stopping. It renders me two excellent services. It keeps the sound. of the world from reaching the private apartments, and it makes the world think that dancing's going on within. It was dance music indeed that you usually heard when you came with an earshot of Ralph's band. The liveliest waltzes seemed to float upon the air. Isabel often found herself irritated by this perpetual fiddling. She would have liked to pass through

Starting point is 02:12:24 the ante-room, as her cousin called it, and enter the private apartments. It mattered little that he had assured her they were a very dismal place. She would have been glad to undertake to sweep them and set them in order. It was but half hospitality to let her remain outside, to punish him for which Isabel administered innumerable taps with the ferule of her straight young wit. It must be said that her wit was exercised to a large extent in self-defense, for her cousin amused himself with calling her, Columbia, and accusing her of a patriotism so heated that it scorched.

Starting point is 02:13:00 He drew a caricature of her in which she was represented as a very pretty young woman, dressed on the lines of the prevailing fashion, in the folds of the national banner. Isabelle's chief dread in life at this period of her development was that she should appear narrow-minded. What she feared next afterwards was that she should really be so. But she nevertheless made no scruple of abounding in her cousin's sense, and pretending to sigh for the charms of her native land. She would be as American as it pleased him to regard her, and if he chose to laugh at her, she would give him plenty of occupation.

Starting point is 02:13:35 She defended England against his mother, but when Ralph sang its praises on purpose, as she said, to work her up, she found herself able to differ from him on a variety of points. In fact, the quality of this small, ripe country seemed as sweet to her as the taste of an October pear, and her satisfaction was at the root of the good spirits, which enabled her to take her cousin's chaff and return it in kind. If her good humor flagged at moments, it was not because she thought herself ill-used, but because she suddenly felt sorry for Ralph. It seemed to her he was talking as a blind and had little heart in what he said. I don't know what's the matter with you, she observed to him once, but I suspect you're a great humbug.

Starting point is 02:14:21 That's your privilege, Ralph answered, who had not been used to being so crudely addressed. I don't know what you care for. I don't think you care for anything. You don't really care for England when you praise it. You don't care for America even when you pretend to abuse it. I care for nothing but you, dear cousin, said Ralph. If I could believe even that, I should be very glad. Ah, well, I should hope so, the young man exclaimed. Isabel might have believed it, and not have been far from the truth. He thought a great deal about her. She was constantly present to his mind. At a time when his thoughts had been a good deal of a burden to him, her sudden arrival, which promised nothing

Starting point is 02:15:09 and was an open-handed gift of fate, had refreshed and quickened them, given them wings and something to fly for. Poor Ralph had been for many weeks steeped in melancholy. His outlook, habitually somber, lay under the shadow of a deeper cloud. He had grown anxious about his father, whose gout, hitherto confined to his legs, had begun to ascend into regions more vital. The old man had been gravely ill in the spring, and the doctors had whispered to Ralph that another attack would be less easy to deal with. Just now he appeared disburdened of pain, but Ralph could not rid himself of a suspicion that

Starting point is 02:15:50 this was a subterfuge of the enemy, who was waiting to take him off his guard. If the manoeuvre should succeed, there would be little hope of any great resistance. Ralph had always taken for granted that his father would survive him, that his own name would be the first grimly called. The father and son had been close companions, and the idea of being left alone with the remnant of a tasteless life on his hands, was not gratifying to the young man, who had always and tacitly counted upon his elder's help in making the best of a poor business. the prospect of losing his great motive, Ralph lost indeed his one inspiration. If they might

Starting point is 02:16:31 die at the same time it would be all very well, but without the encouragement of his father's society, he should barely have patience to await his own turn. He had not the incentive of feeling that he was indispensable to his mother. It was a rule with his mother to have no regrets. He bethought himself, of course, that it had been a small kindness to his father to wish that, of the two, the active rather than the passive party, should know the felt wound. He remembered that the old man had always treated his own forecast of an early end as a clever fallacy, which he should be delighted to discredit so far as he might by dying first. But of the two triumphs, that of refuting a sophistical son and that of holding on a while

Starting point is 02:17:15 longer to a state of being which, with all abatements, he enjoyed, Ralph deemed it no sin to hope the latter might be vouchsafed to Mr. Touchett. These were nice questions, but Isabel's arrival put a stop to his puzzling over them. It even suggested there might be a compensation for the intolerable ennui of surviving his genial sire. He wondered whether he were harboring love for this spontaneous young woman from Albany, but he judged that on the whole he was not. After he had known her for a week, he quite made up his mind to this, and every day he felt a little more sure.

Starting point is 02:17:54 Lord Warburton had been right about her. She was a really interesting little figure. Ralph wondered how their neighbor had found it out so soon, and then he said it was only another proof of his friend's high abilities, which he had always greatly admired. If his cousin were to be nothing more than an entertainment to him, Ralph was conscious she was an entertainment of a high order. A character like that, he said to himself,

Starting point is 02:18:20 A real little, passionate force to see at play is the finest thing in nature. It's finer than the finest work of art, than a Greek bas-relief, than a great titian, than a Gothic cathedral. It's very pleasant to be so well-treated where one had least looked for it. I had never been more blue, more bored, than for a week before she came. I had never expected less than anything pleasant would happen. Suddenly I receive a titian by the post to hang on my wall, A Greek bas-relief to stick over my chimney-piece.

Starting point is 02:18:54 The key of a beautiful edifice is thrust into my hand, and I'm told to walk in and admire. My poor boy, you've been sadly ungrateful, and now you had better keep very quiet and never grumble again. The sentiment of these reflections was very just, but it was not exactly true that Ralph Touchett had had a key put into his hand. His cousin was a very brilliant girl, who would take, as he said, a good deal of knowing. But she needed the knowing, and his attitude with regard to her, though it was contemplative and critical, was not judicial. He surveyed the edifice from the outside and admired it greatly. He looked in at the windows and received an impression of proportions equally fair. But he felt that he saw it only by glimpses, and that he had not yet stood

Starting point is 02:19:43 under the roof. The door was fastened, and though he had keys in his pockets, he had a conviction that none of them would fit. She was intelligent and generous. It was a fine, free nature. But what was she going to do with herself? This question was irregular, for with most women one had no occasion to ask it. Most women did with themselves nothing at all. They waited, in attitudes more or less gracefully passive, for a man to come that way and furnish them with a destiny. Isabel's originality was that she gave one an impression of having intentions of her own. "'Whenever she executes them,' said Ralph, "'may I be there to see.'

Starting point is 02:20:25 "'It devolved upon him, of course, to do the honors of the place. Mr. Touchett was confined to his chair, and his wife's position was that of rather a grim visitor, so that in the line of conduct that opened itself to Ralph, duty and inclination were harmoniously mixed. He was not a great walker, but he strolled about the grounds with his cousin, a pastime for which the weather remained favorable, with a persistency not allowed for in Isabel's somewhat lugubrious prevision of the climate,

Starting point is 02:20:54 and in the long afternoons, of which the length was but the measure of her gratified eagerness, they took a boat on the river, the dear little river, as Isabel called it, where the opposite shore seemed still a part of the foreground of the landscape, or drove over the country in a phaeton, a low, capacious, thick-wheeled phaeton, formerly much used by Mr. Touchett, but which he had now ceased to ensure. joy. Isabel enjoyed it largely, and, handling the reins in a manner which approved itself to the groom as, knowing, was never weary of driving her uncle's capital horses through winding lanes and byways, full of the rural incidents she had confidently expected to find, past cottages

Starting point is 02:21:37 thatched and timbered, past alehouses latticed and sanded, past patches of ancient common and glimpses of empty parks, between hedgerows made thick by midsummer. When they reached home, they usually found tea had been served on the lawn, and that Mrs. Touchett had not shrunk from the extremity of handing her husband his cup. But the two, for the most part, sat silent. The old man, with his head back and his eyes closed, his wife occupied with her knitting, and wearing that appearance of rare profundity with which some ladies consider the movements of their needles. One day, however, a visitor had arrived. The two young persons, after spending an hour on the river,

Starting point is 02:22:20 strolled back to the house, and perceived Lord Warburton sitting under the trees and engaged in conversation, of which even at a distance, the desultory character was appreciable, with Mrs. Touchett. He had driven over from his own place with a portmanteau, and had asked, as the father and son often invited him to do, for dinner and a lodging. Isabelle, seeing him for half an hour on the day of her arrival, had discovered in this brief space that she liked him. He had indeed rather sharply registered himself on her fine sense,

Starting point is 02:22:52 and she had thought of him several times. She had hoped she should see him again, hoped too that she should see a few others. Garden Court was not dull, the place itself was sovereign, her uncle was more and more a sort of golden grandfather, and Ralph was unlike any cousin she had ever encountered, her idea of cousins having tended to gloom. Then her impressions were still so fresh and so quickly renewed that there was as yet hardly a hint of vacancy in the view. But Isabel had need to remind herself that she was interested in human nature, and that her foremost hope in coming abroad had been that she should see a great many people. When Ralph said to her, as he had done several times, I wonder you find this endurable,

Starting point is 02:23:35 You ought to see some of the neighbors and some of our friends, because we really have got a few, though you would never suppose it. When he offered to invite what he called a lot of people and make her acquainted with English society, she encouraged the hospitable impulse and promised in advance to hurl herself into the fray. Little, however, for the present had come of his offers, and it may be confided to the reader that if the young man delayed to carry them out, it was because he found the labor of providing for his companion by no means so severe as to require extraneous help. Isabel had spoken to him very often about specimens. It was a word that played a considerable part in her vocabulary. She had given him to understand that he wished to see English society illustrated by eminent cases.

Starting point is 02:24:22 Well now, there's a specimen, he said to her as they walked up from the riverside, and he recognized Lord Warburton. A specimen of what? asked the girl. A specimen of an English gentleman. Do you mean they're all like him? Oh, no, they're not all like him. He's a favourable specimen then, said Isabel,

Starting point is 02:24:43 because I'm sure he's nice. Yes, he's very nice, and he's very fortunate. The fortunate Lord Warburton exchanged a handshake with our heroine and hoped she was very well. But I needn't ask that, he said, since you've been handling the oars. "'I've been rowing a little,' Isabel answered. "'But how should you know it?'

Starting point is 02:25:06 "'Oh, I know he doesn't row. He's too lazy,' said his lordship, indicating Ralph touch it with a laugh. "'He has a good excuse for his laziness,' Isabel rejoined, lowering her voice a little. "'Ha! He has a good excuse for everything,' cried Lord Warburton, still with his sonorous mirth. "'My excuse for not rowing is that my cousin rose so well,' said Ralph. She does everything well. She touches nothing that she doesn't adorn. It makes one want to be touched, Miss Archer, Lord Warburton declared. Be touched in the right sense, and you'll never look the worse for it, said Isabel, who, if it pleased her to hear it, said that her accomplishments were numerous,

Starting point is 02:25:50 was happily able to reflect that such complacency was not the indication of a feeble mind, inasmuch as there were several things in which she excelled. Her desire to think well of herself had at least the element of humility that it always needed to be supported by proof. Lord Warburton not only spent the night at Garden Court, but he was persuaded to remain over the second day. And when the second day was ended, he determined to postpone his departure till the morrow. During this period he addressed many of his remarks to Isabel, who accepted this evidence of his esteem with a very good grace. She found herself liking him extremely. The first impression he had made on her had had weight,

Starting point is 02:26:29 but at the end of an evening spent in his society, she scarce fell short of seeing him, though quite without luridity, as a hero of romance. She retired to rest with a sense of good fortune, with a quickened consciousness of possible felicities. "'It's very nice to know two such charming people as those,' she said, meaning by those, her cousin and her cousin's friend. It must be added, moreover, that an incident had occurred, which might have seemed to put her

Starting point is 02:26:57 good humor to the test. Mr. Touchett went to bed at half-past nine o'clock, but his wife remained in the drawing-room, with the other members of the party. She prolonged her vigil for something less than an hour, and then rising, observed to Isabel that it was time they should bid the gentleman good-night. Isabel had as yet no desire to go to bed, the occasion wore, to her sense, a festive character, and feasts were not in the habit of terminating so early. So, without further thought, she replied very simply, "'Need I go, dear aunt? I'll come up in half an hour.'

Starting point is 02:27:31 "'It's impossible I should wait for you,' Mrs. Touchard answered. "'You needn't wait. Ralph will light my candle?' Isabel gaily engaged. "'I'll light your candle. Do let me light your candle, Miss Archer,' Lord Warburton exclaimed. "'Only I beg it shall not be before midnight.' Mrs. Touchett fixed her bright little eyes upon him a moment, and transferred them coldly to her niece. You can't stay alone with the gentleman. You're not—you're not at your blessed Albany, my dear. Isabelle rose, blushing. I wish I were, she said.

Starting point is 02:28:08 Oh, I say, mother, Ralph broke out. My dear Mrs. Touchett, Lord Warburton murmured. I didn't make your country, my lord, Mrs. Touchett said majestically. I must take it as I find it. Can't I stay with my own cousin? Isabel inquired. I'm not aware that Lord Warburton is your cousin. Perhaps I had better go to bed, the visitor suggested.

Starting point is 02:28:34 That will arrange it. Mrs. Touchett gave a little look of despair and sat down again. Oh, if it's necessary, I'll stay up till midnight. Ralph, meanwhile, handed Isabel her candlestick. He had been watching her. It had seemed to him her temper was involved, an accident that might be interesting. But if he had expected anything of a flare, he was disappointed, for the girl simply laughed a little, nodded good-night, and withdrew accompanied by her aunt. For himself he was annoyed at his mother, though he thought she was right.

Starting point is 02:29:08 Above stairs the two ladies separated at Mrs. Touchett's door. Isabel had said nothing on her way up. Of course you're vexed at my interfering with you, said Mrs. Touchett. it. Isabel considered, I'm not vexed, but I'm surprised, and a good deal mystified. Wasn't it proper I should remain in the drawing-room? Not at the least. Young girls here, indecent houses, don't sit alone with the gentlemen late at night.

Starting point is 02:29:36 You were very right to tell me, then, said Isabel. I don't understand it, but I'm very glad to know it. I shall always tell you, her aunt answered. whenever I see you taking what seems to me too much liberty. Pray do, but I don't say I shall always think you're a monstrance just. Very likely not. You're too fond of your own ways. Yes, I think I'm very fond of them, but I always want to know the things one shouldn't do. So as to do them, asked her aunt.

Starting point is 02:30:09 So as to choose, said Isabel. End of Chapter 7. Chapter 8 of the Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Librivox recording is in the public domain. As she was devoted to romantic effects, Lord Warburton ventured to express a hope that she would come someday and see his house, a very curious old place. He extracted from Mrs. Touchett a promise that she would bring her niece to Lockley,

Starting point is 02:30:43 and Ralph signified his willingness to attend the ladies if his father should be able to spare him. Lord Warburton assured our heroine that in the meantime his sisters would come and see her. She knew something about his sisters, having sounded him during the hours they spent together while he was at Garden Court, on many points connected with his family. When Isabel was interested, she asked a great many questions, and as her companion was a copious talker, she urged him on this occasion by no means in vain. He told her he had four sisters and two brothers, and had lost both his parents. The brothers and sisters were very good people.

Starting point is 02:31:21 Not particularly clever, you know, he said, but very decent and pleasant. And he was so good as to hope Miss Archer might know them well. One of the brothers was in the church, settled in the family living, that of Lockley, which was a heavy, sprawling parish, and he was an excellent fellow in spite of his thinking differently from himself on every conceivable topic. And then Lord Warburton mentioned some of the opinions held by his brother, which were opinions Isabel had often heard expressed, and that she supposed to be entertained by a considerable portion of the human family.

Starting point is 02:31:56 Many of them, indeed, she supposed she had held herself, till he assured her she was quite mistaken, that it was really impossible, that she had doubtless imagined she entertained them, but that she might depend that, if she thought them over a little, she would find there was nothing in them. When she answered that she had already thought several of the questions involved over very attentively, he declared that she was only another example of what he had often been struck with. The fact that, of all the people in the world, the Americans were the most grossly superstitious. They were rank Tories and bigots, every one of them. There were no conservatives like American conservatives.

Starting point is 02:32:34 Her uncle and her cousin were there to prove it. Nothing could be more medieval than many of their views. They had ideas that people in England nowadays were ashamed to confess to. And they had the impudence, moreover, said his lordship, laughing, to pretend they knew more about the needs and dangers of this poor, dear old, stupid England than he who was born in it, and owned a considerable slice of it, the more shame to him. From all of which Isabel gathered that Lord Warburton was a nobleman of the newest pattern, a reformer, a radical, a contemmer of ancient ways. His other brother, who was in the army in India, was rather wild and pig-headed, and had not been of much use as yet, but to make debts for Warburton to pay, one of the most precious privileges of an elder brother.

Starting point is 02:33:20 I don't think I shall pay any more, said her friend. He lives a monstrous deal better than I do, enjoys unheard of luxuries, and thinks himself a much finer gentleman than I. As I'm a consistent radical, I go in only for equality. I don't go in for the superiority of the younger brothers. Two of his four sisters, the second and fourth, were married, one of them having done very well, as they said, the other only so-so. The husband of the elder, Lord Haycock, was a very good fellow, but unfortunately a horrid Tory, and his wife, like all good English wives, was worse than her husband. The other had espoused a smallish squire in Norfolk, and, though married, but the other day, had already five children. This information and much more Lord Warburton imparted to his young

Starting point is 02:34:09 American listener, taking pains to make many things clear and to lay bare to her apprehension the peculiarities of English life. Isabel was often amused at his explicitness, and at the small allowance he seemed to make either for her own experience or for her imagination. He thinks I'm a barbarian, she said, and that I've never seen forks and spoons. And she used to ask him artless questions for the pleasure of hearing him answer seriously. Then, when he had fallen into the trap, it's a pity. you can't see me in my war paint and feathers, she remarked, if I had known how kind you are to the poor savages, I would have brought over my native costume. Lord Warburton had traveled through the

Starting point is 02:34:50 United States and knew much more about them than Isabel. He was so good as to say that America was the most charming country in the world, but his recollections of it appeared to encourage the idea that Americans in England would need to have a great many things explained to them. If I had only had you to explain things to me in America, he said, I was rather puzzled in your country. In fact, I was quite bewildered, and the trouble was that the explanations only puzzled me more. You know, I think they often gave me the wrong ones on purpose.

Starting point is 02:35:21 They're rather clever about that over there. But when I explain, you can trust me, about what I tell you, there's no mistake. There was no mistake, at least, about his being very intelligent and cultivated and knowing almost everything in the world. Although he gave the most interesting and thrilling glimpses, Isabel felt he never did it to exhibit himself, and though he had had rare chances and had

Starting point is 02:35:43 tumbled in, as she put it, for high prizes, he was as far as possible from making a merit of it. He had enjoyed the best things of life, but they had not spoiled his sense of proportion. His quality was a mixture of the effect of rich experience, oh, so easily come by, with a modesty at times almost boyish, the sweet and wholesome savour of which, it was as agreeable as something tasted, lost nothing from the addition of a tone of responsible kindness. I like your specimen English gentleman very much, Isabel said to Ralph, after Lord Warburton had gone. I like him too. I love him well, Ralph returned, but I pity him more. Isabel looked at him askance. Why, that seems to me his only fault, that one can't pity him

Starting point is 02:36:31 a little. He appears to have everything, to know everything, to be everything. though he's in a bad way, Ralph insisted. I suppose you don't mean in health. No, as to that, he's detestably sound. What I mean is that he's a man with a great position who's playing all sorts of tricks with it. He doesn't take himself seriously. Does he regard himself as a joke?

Starting point is 02:36:57 Much worse. He regards himself as an imposition, as an abuse. Well, perhaps he is, said Isabel. Perhaps he is. though on the whole I don't think so. But in that case, what's more pitiable than a sentient, self-conscious abuse planted by other hands,

Starting point is 02:37:15 deeply rooted, but aching with a sense of its injustice? For me, in his place, I could be as solemn as a statue of Buddha. He occupies a position that appeals to my imagination. Great responsibilities, great opportunities, great consideration, great wealth, great power, a natural share in the public affairs of a great country.

Starting point is 02:37:34 But he's all in a muddle about himself, his position, his power, and indeed about everything in the world. He is the victim of a critical age. He has ceased to believe in himself and he doesn't know what to believe in. When I attempt to tell him, because if I were he, I know very well what I should believe in, he calls me a pampered bigot. I believe he seriously thinks me an awful Philistine. He says I don't understand my time.

Starting point is 02:37:58 I understand it certainly better than he, who can neither abolish himself as a nuisance nor maintain himself as an institution. He doesn't look very wretched, Isabel observed. Possibly not. Though, being a man of a good deal of charming taste, I think he often has uncomfortable hours. But what is it to say of a being of his opportunities that he's not miserable? Besides, I believe he is. I don't, said Isabel.

Starting point is 02:38:25 Well, her cousin rejoined. If he isn't, he ought to be. In the afternoon she spent an hour with her uncle on the lawn, where the old man sat, as usual, with his shawl over his legs and his large cup of diluted tea in his hands. In the course of conversation, he asked her what she thought of their late visitor. Isabel was prompt. I think he's charming. He's a nice person, said Mr. Touchett, but I don't recommend you to fall in love with him.

Starting point is 02:38:55 I shall not do it then. I shall never fall in love but on your recommendation. Moreover, Isabel added, my cousin gives me a rather sad account of Lord Warburton. Oh, indeed. I don't know what there may be to say, but you must remember that Ralph must talk. He thinks your friend's too subversive. Or not subversive enough. I don't quite understand which, said Isabel. The old man shook his head slowly, smiled, and put down his cup. I don't know which either. He goes very far, but it's quite possible he doesn't go far enough. He seems to want to do away with the good many things, but he seems to want to remain himself. I suppose that's natural, but it's rather inconsistent.

Starting point is 02:39:40 Oh, I hope he'll remain himself, said Isabel. If he were to be done away with, his friends would miss him sadly. Well, said the old man, I guess he'll stay and amuse his friends. I should certainly miss him very much here at Garden Court. He always amuses me when he comes over, and I think he amuses himself as well. There's a considerable number like him, round in society. They're very fashionable just now. I don't know what they're trying to do, whether they're trying to get up a revolution.

Starting point is 02:40:09 I hope at any rate they'll put it off till after I'm gone. You see, they want to disestablish everything. But I'm a pretty big landowner here, and I don't want to be disestablished. It wouldn't have come over if I had thought they were going to behave like that. Mr. Touchett went on with expanding hilarity. I came over because I thought England was a safe country. I call it a regular fraud if they're going to introduce any considerable changes. There'll be a large number disappointed in that case.

Starting point is 02:40:38 Oh, I do hope they'll make a revolution, Isabel exclaimed. I should delight in seeing a revolution. Let me see, said her uncle, with a humorous intention. I forget whether you're on the side of the old or on the side of the new. I've heard you take such opposite views. I'm on the side of both. I guess I'm a little on the side of everything. In a revolution, after it was well begun, I think I should be a high,

Starting point is 02:41:04 proud loyalist. One sympathizes much more with them, and they've a chance to behave so exquisitely. I mean, so picturesquely. I don't know that I understand what you mean by behaving picturesquely, but it seems to me that you do that always, my dear. Oh, you lovely man, if I could believe that, the girl interrupted. I'm afraid, after all, you won't have the pleasure of going gracefully to the guillotine here just now. Mr. Touchett went on. If you want to see a big outbreak, you must pay us a long visit. You see, when you come to the point, it wouldn't suit them to be taken at their word. Of whom are you speaking? Well, I mean Lord Warburton and his friends, the radicals of the upper class. Of course, I only know the way it strikes me. They talk about the changes, but I don't think they

Starting point is 02:41:56 quite realize. You and I, you know, we know what it is to have lived under Democratic institutions. I always thought them very comfortable, but I was used to them from the first. And then I ain't a lord. You're a lady, my dear, but I ain't a lord. Now over here I don't think it quite comes home to them. It's a matter of every day and every hour, and I don't think many of them would find it as pleasant as what they've got. Of course, if they want to try, it's their own business. But I expect they won't try very hard. Don't you think they're sincere? Isabel asked. they want to feel earnest, Mr. Touchett aloud, but it seemed as if they took it out in theories mostly. Their radical views are a kind of amusement. They've got to have some amusement, and they might have

Starting point is 02:42:43 coarser tastes than that. You see, they're very luxurious, and these progressive ideas are about their biggest luxury. They make them feel moral, and yet don't damage their position. They think a great deal of their position. Don't let one of them ever persuade you that he doesn't, for if you were to proceed on that basis, you'd be pulled up very short." Isabel followed her uncle's argument, which he unfolded with his quaint distinctness, most attentively, and though she was unacquainted with the British aristocracy, she founded in harmony with her general impressions of human nature. But she felt moved to put in a protest on Lord Warburton's behalf. I don't believe Lord Warburton's a humbug. I don't care what the others are. I should like to see Lord

Starting point is 02:43:29 Warburton put to the test. "'Heaven, deliver me from my friends,' Mr. Touchett answered. "'Lord Warburton's a very amiable young man, a very fine young man. He has a hundred thousand a year. He owns fifty thousand acres of the soil of this little island and ever so many other things besides. He has half a dozen houses to live in. He has a seat in Parliament as I have one at my own dinner table. He has elegant tastes, cares for literature, for art, for science, for charming young ladies.

Starting point is 02:43:59 The most elegant is his taste for the new views. It affords him a great deal of pleasure. More perhaps than anything else, except the young ladies. His old house over there, what does he call it, Lockley, is very attractive, but I don't think it's as pleasant as this. That doesn't matter, however. He has so many others. His views don't hurt anyone as far as I can see.

Starting point is 02:44:21 They certainly don't hurt himself. And if there were to be a revolution, he would come off very easily. They wouldn't touch him. They'd leave him as he is. He's too much liked. Ah, he couldn't be a martyr even if he wished, Isabel sighed. That's a very poor position. He'll never be a martyr unless you make him one, said the old man. Isabel shook her head. There might have been something laughable in the fact that she did it with a touch of melancholy.

Starting point is 02:44:49 I shall never make anyone a martyr. You'll never be one, I hope. I hope not. But you don't pity, Lord Warbur, then, as Ralph does? Her uncle looked at her a while, with genial acuteness. Yes, I do, after all. End of Chapter 8. Chapter 9 of the Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Librovoc's recording is in the public domain. The two Mrs. Mullinia, this no-woman sisters, came presently to call upon her, and Isabel took a fancy to the young ladies, who appeared to her to show a most original stamp. It is true that when she described them to her cousin by that term, he

Starting point is 02:45:41 declared that no epithet could be less applicable than this to the two Mrs. Molinia, since there were fifty thousand young women in England who exactly resembled them. Deprived of this advantage, however, Isabel's visitors retained that of an extreme sweetness and shyness of demeanor, and of having, as she thought, eyes like the balanced basins, the circles of ornamental water, set in parterres among the geraniums. They're not morbid at any rate, whatever they are, our heroine said to herself, and she deemed this a great charm, for two or three of the friends of her girlhood had been regrettably open to the charge. They would have been so nice without it, to say nothing of Isabel's having occasionally suspected it as a tendency of her own.

Starting point is 02:46:31 The Mrs. Mollinier were not in their first youth, but they had bright, fresh complexions, and something of the smile of childhood. Yes, their eyes, which Isabel admired, were round, quiet and contented, and their figures, also of a generous roundness, were encased in sealskin jackets. Their friendliness was great, so great that they were almost embarrassed. to show it. They seemed somewhat afraid of the young lady from the other side of the world, and rather looked than spoke their good wishes. But they made it clear to her that they hoped she would come to luncheon at Lockley, where they lived with their brother, and then they might

Starting point is 02:47:11 see her very, very often. They wondered if she wouldn't come over some day and sleep. They were expecting some people on the 29th, so perhaps she would come while the people were there. I'm afraid it isn't anyone very remarkable, said the elder sister. But I dare say you'll take us as you find us. I shall find you delightful. I think you're enchanting just as you are, replied Isabel, who often praised profusely. Her visitors flushed, and her cousin told her, after they were gone, that if she said such things to those poor girls, they would think she was in some wild, free manner practicing

Starting point is 02:47:49 on them. He was sure it was the first time. they had been called enchanting. I can't help it, Isabel answered. I think it's lovely to be so quiet and reasonable and satisfied. I should like to be like that. Heaven forbid, cried Ralph with ardor. I mean to try and imitate them, said Isabel.

Starting point is 02:48:10 I want very much to see them at home. She had this pleasure a few days later, when, with Ralph and his mother, she drove over to Lockley. She found the Mrs. Molinier sitting in a vast drawing-room, she perceived afterwards it was one of several, in a wilderness of faded chintz. They were dressed on this occasion in black velveteen. Isabel liked them even better at home than she had done at Garden Court, and was more than ever struck with the fact that they were not morbid. It had seemed to her before that if they had a fault, it was a want of play of mind, but she presently saw they were capable of deep emotion. Before luncheon she was alone with them for some time, on one side of the room, while Lord Warburton, at a distance, talked to Mrs. Touchett. "'Is it true your brother such a great radical?' Isabel asked.

Starting point is 02:49:03 She knew it was true, but we have seen that her interest in human nature was keen, and she had a desire to draw the Mrs. Mollinger out. "'Oh, dear, yes, he's immensely advanced,' said Mildred, the younger sister. At the same time, Wolbeton's very reasonable, Miss Mollinia observed. Isabel watched him a moment at the other side of the room. He was clearly trying hard to make himself agreeable to Mrs. Touchett. Ralph had met the frank advances of one of the dogs before the fire that the temperature of an English August, in the ancient expanse, had not made an impertinence. Do you suppose your brother's sincere? Isabel inquired with a smile. "'Oh, he must be, you know,' Mildred exclaimed quickly,

Starting point is 02:49:51 "'while the elder's sister gazed at our heroine in silence. "'Do you think he would stand the test?' "'The test? "'I mean, for instance, having to give up all this.' "'Having to give up, Locely,' said Miss Mollinia, finding her voice. "'Yes, and the other places. What are they called?' The two sisters exchanged an almost frightened glance. Do you mean, do you mean on account of the expense?

Starting point is 02:50:20 The younger one asked. I dare say he might let one or two of his houses, said the other. Let them for nothing, Isabel demanded. I can't fancy his giving up his property, said Miss Molyneux. Ah, I'm afraid he is an imposter, Isabel returned. Don't you think it's a false position? Her companions, evidently, had lost themselves. "'My brother's position?' Miss Molyneux inquired.

Starting point is 02:50:51 "'It's thought a very good position,' said the younger sister. "'It's the first position in this part of the county.' "'I dare say you think me very irreverent,' Isabel took occasion to remark. "'I suppose you revere your brother and are rather afraid of him.' "'Of course one looks up to one's brother,' said Miss Molynear simply. "'If you do that, he must be very good.' because you evidently are beautifully good. He's most kind.

Starting point is 02:51:22 It will never be known, the good he does. His ability is known, Mildred added. Everyone thinks it's immense. Oh, I can see that, said Isabel. But if I were he, I should wish to fight to the death, I mean for the heritage of the past, I should hold it tight. I think one ought to be liberal.

Starting point is 02:51:45 Mildred argued gently. We've always been so, even from the earliest times. Ah, well, said Isabel, you've made a great success of it. I don't wonder you like it. I see you're very fond of crules. When Lord Warburton showed her the house after luncheon, it seemed to her a matter of course that it should be a noble picture. Within it had been a good deal modernized.

Starting point is 02:52:12 Some of its best points had lost their purity. But as they saw it from the gardens, a stout gray pile, of the softest, deepest, most weather-fretted hue, rising from a broad, still moat. It affected the young visitor as a castle in a legend. The day was cool and rather lustreless. The first note of autumn had been struck, and the watery sunshine rested on the walls in blurred and desultory gleams, washing them, as it were, in places tenderly chosen, where the ache of antiquity was. keenest. Her host's brother, the vicar, had come to luncheon, and Isabel had had five minutes talk with him, time enough to institute a search for a rich ecclesiasticism and give it up as vain.

Starting point is 02:52:59 The marks of the vicar of Lockley were a big athletic figure, a candid natural countenance, a capacious appetite, and a tendency to indiscriminate laughter. Isabel learned afterwards from her cousin that before taking orders he had been a mighty wrestler, and that he was still, on occasion, in the privacy of the family circle, as it were, quite capable of flooring his man. Isabel liked him. She was in the mood for liking everything, but her imagination was a good deal taxed to think of him as a source of spiritual aid.

Starting point is 02:53:34 The whole party on leaving lunch went to walk in the grounds, but Lord Warburton exercised some ingenuity in engaging his least familiar guest in a stroll apart from the others. "'I wish you to see the place properly, seriously,' he said. "'You can't do so if your attention is distracted by a relevant gossip.' His own conversation, though he told Isabel a good deal about the house, which had a very curious history, was not purely archaeological. He reverted at intervals to matters more personal, matters personal to the young lady as well as to himself.

Starting point is 02:54:11 But at last, after a pause of some duration, returning for a moment to their ostensible theme. Ah, well, he said, I'm very glad indeed you like the old barrack. I wish you could see more of it, that you could stay here a while. My sisters have taken an immense fancy to you, if that would be any inducement.

Starting point is 02:54:31 There's no want of inducements, Isabel answered. But I'm afraid I can't make engagements. I'm quiet in my aunt's hands. Pardon me if I say I don't exactly believe that. I'm pretty sure you can't. can do whatever you want. I'm sorry if I make that impression on you. I don't think it's a nice impression to make. It has the merit of permitting me to hope. And Lord Warburton paused a moment.

Starting point is 02:55:00 To hope what? That in future, I may see you often. Ah, said Isabel, to enjoy that pleasure I needn't be so terribly emancipated. Doubtless not, and yet at the same time I'm don't think your uncle likes me. You're very much mistaken. I've heard him speak very highly of you. I'm glad you have talked about me, said Lord Warburton. But I nevertheless don't think he'd like me to keep coming to Garden Court. I can't answer for my uncle's tastes, the girl rejoined,

Starting point is 02:55:35 though I ought as far as possible to take them into account, but for myself I shall be very glad to see you. Now that's what I like to hear you say. I'm charmed when you say that. You're easily charmed, my lord, said Isabel. No, I'm not easily charmed. And then he stopped a moment. But you've charmed me, Miss Archer.

Starting point is 02:56:02 These words were uttered with an indefinable sound, which startled the girl. It struck her as the prelude to something grave. She had heard the sound before, and she recognized it. She had no wish, however, that for the most. moment such a prelude should have a sequel, and she said, as gaily as possible, and as quickly as an appreciable degree of agitation would allow her, I'm afraid there's no prospect of my being able to come here again. Never, said Lord Warburton. I won't say never. I should feel very melodramatic. May I come and see you then some day next week? Most assuredly, what is there to

Starting point is 02:56:41 prevent it. Nothing tangible. But with you, I never feel safe. I have a sort of sense that you're always summing people up. You don't have necessity lose by that. It's very kind of you to say so, but even if I gain, stern justice is not what I most love. Is Mrs. Touchett going to take you abroad? I hope so. Is England not good enough for you? That's a very much. Machiavellian speech, it doesn't deserve an answer. I want to see as many countries as I can. Then you'll go on judging, I suppose. Enjoying, I hope, too. Yes, that's what you enjoy most. I can't make out what you're up to, said Lord Warburton. You strike me as having mysterious purposes, vast designs. You're so good as to have a theory about me which I don't

Starting point is 02:57:41 at all fill out. Is there anything mysterious in a purpose entertained and executed every year, in the most public manner by fifty thousand of my fellow countrymen, the purpose of improving one's mind by foreign travel? You can't improve your mind, Miss Archer, her companion declared. It's already a most formidable instrument. It looks down on us all. It despises us. Despises you. You're making fun of me. said Isabel seriously. Well, you think us quaint. That's the same thing.

Starting point is 02:58:18 I won't be thought quaint, to begin with. I'm not so in the least. I protest. That protest is one of the quaintest things I've ever heard. Isabel answered with a smile. Lord Warburton was briefly silent. You judge only from the outside. You don't care, he said presently.

Starting point is 02:58:41 You only care to amuse yourself. The note she had heard in his voice a moment before reappeared, and mixed with it now was an audible strain of bitterness, a bitterness so abrupt and inconsequent that the girl was afraid she had hurt him. She had often heard that the English are a highly eccentric people, and she had even read in some ingenious author that they are at bottom the most romantic of races. Was Lord Warburton suddenly turning romantic? Was he going to make her a scene, in his own house, only the third time they had met?

Starting point is 02:59:15 She was reassured quickly enough by her sense of his great good manners, which was not impaired by the fact that he had already touched the furthest limit of good taste in expressing his admiration of a young lady who had confided in his hospitality. She was right in trusting to his good manners, for he presently went on, laughing a little, and without a trace of the accent that had discomposed her. I don't mean, of course, that you amuse yourself with trifles. You select great materials, the foibles, the afflictions of human nature, the peculiarities of nations. As regards that, said Isabel, I should find in my own nation entertainment for a lifetime.

Starting point is 02:59:56 But we've a long drive, and my aunt will soon wish to start. She turned back toward the others, and Lord Warburton walked beside her in silence. but before they reached the others. I shall come and see you next week, he said. She had received an appreciable shock, but as it died away, she felt that she couldn't pretend to herself that it was altogether a painful one. Nevertheless, she made answer to his declaration, coldly enough. Just as you please?

Starting point is 03:00:29 And her coldness was not the calculation of her effect, a game she played in a much smaller degree than would have seemed probable. to many critics. It came from a certain fear. End of Chapter 9. Chapter 10 of The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Libervovon's recording is in the public domain. The day after her visit to Lockley, she received a note from her friend Miss Stackpole, a note of which the envelope, exhibiting in conjunction the postmark of Liverpool and the neat calligraphy of the quick-fingered Henrietta caused her some liveliness of emotion. "'Here I am, my lovely friend,' Miss Stackpole wrote.

Starting point is 03:01:16 "'I managed to get off at last. I decided only the night before I left New York, the interviewer having come round to my figure. I put a few things into a bag like a veteran journalist and came down to the steamer in a streetcar. Where are you, and where can we meet? I suppose you're visiting at some castle or other, and have already acquired the correct accent. Perhaps even you have married a lord. I almost hope you have, for I want some introductions to the first people, and shall count on you for a few. The interviewer want some light on the nobility. My first impressions, of the people at large, are not rose-colored, but I wish to talk them over with you, and you know that whatever I am I'm at least not superficial. I've also something

Starting point is 03:02:04 very particular to tell you. Do appoint a meeting as quickly as you can. Come to London. I should like so much to visit the sights with you, or else let me come to you, wherever you are. I will do so with pleasure, for you know everything interests me, and I wish to see as much as possible of the inner life. Isabel judged best not to show this letter to her uncle, but she acquainted him with its purport, and as she expected, he begged her instantly to assure Miss Stackpole in his name that he should be delighted to receive her at Garden Court. Though she's a literary lady, he said, I suppose that being an American, she won't show me up, as that other one did. She has seen others like me. She's seen no other so delightful,

Starting point is 03:02:51 Isabel answered, but she was not altogether at ease about Henrietta's reproductive instincts, which belonged to that side of her friend's character, which she regarded with least complacency. She wrote to Miss Stackpole, however, that she would be very welcome under Mr. Touchett's roof, and this alert young woman lost no time in announcing her prompt approach. She had gone up to London, and it was from that centre that she took the train for the nearest station to Garden Court, where Isabel and Ralph were in waiting to receive her. "'Shall I love her, or shall I hate her?' Ralph asked while they moved along the platform.

Starting point is 03:03:28 "'Whichever you do will matter very little to her,' said Isabel. "'She doesn't care a straw what men think of her.' "'As a man, I'm bound to dislike her, then. She must be a kind of monster. Is she very ugly?' "'No. She's decidedly pretty.' "'A female interviewer, a reporter in petticoats.

Starting point is 03:03:49 I'm very curious to see her,' Ralph conceded. "'It's very easy to laugh at her.' said her, but it is not easy to be as brave as she. I should think not. Crimes of violence and attacks on the person require more or less pluck. Do you suppose she'll interview me? Never in the world. She'll not think you of enough importance.

Starting point is 03:04:10 You'll see, said Ralph. She'll send a description of us all, including Bunchy, to her newspaper. I shall ask her not to, Isabel answered. You think she's capable of it, then? Perfectly. And yet you've made her your bosom friend. I've not made her my bosom friend, but I like her in spite of her faults. Ah, well, said Ralph, I'm afraid I shall dislike her in spite of her merits.

Starting point is 03:04:39 You'll probably fall in love with her at the end of three days. And have my love letters published in the interviewer, never, cried the young man. The train presently arrived, and Miss Stackpole, promptly descending, proved, as Isabel had promised, quite delicately, even though rather provincially, fair. She was a neat, plump person of medium stature, with a round face, a small mouth,

Starting point is 03:05:04 a delicate complexion, a bunch of light brown ringlets at the back of her head, and a peculiarly open, surprised-looking eye. The most striking point in her appearance was the remarkable fixedness of this organ, which rested without impudence or defiance, but as if incontientious exercise of a natural right, upon every object it happened to encounter. It rested in this manner upon Ralph himself,

Starting point is 03:05:29 a little arrested by Miss Stackpole's gracious and comfortable aspect, which hinted that it wouldn't be so easy as he had assumed to disapprove of her. She rustled, she shimmered, in fresh dove-colored draperies, and Ralph sought a glance that she was as crisp and new and comprehensive as a first issue before the folding. From top to toe, she probably had no misprint. She spoke in a clear high voice, a voice not rich but loud, yet after she had taken her place with her companions in Mr. Touchett's carriage, she struck him as not all in the large type, the type of horrid headings that he had expected. She answered the inquiries made of her by Isabel, however, and in which the young man ventured to join, with copious lucidity. And later,

Starting point is 03:06:14 in the library at Garden Court, when she had made the acquaintance of Mr. Touchett, his wife, not having thought it necessary to appear, did more to give the measure of her confidence in her powers. Well, I should like to know whether you consider yourselves American or English, she broke out. If once I knew I could talk to you accordingly. Talk to us anyhow, and we shall be thankful, Ralph liberally answered. She fixed her eyes on him, and there was something in their character that reminded him of large, polished buttons, buttons, buttons that might have fixed the elastic loops of some tense receptacle. He seemed to see the reflection of surrounding objects in the pupil.

Starting point is 03:06:56 The expression of a button is not usually deemed human, but there was something in Miss Stackpole's gaze that made him, as a very modest man, feel vaguely embarrassed, less inviolate, more dishonored than he liked. This sensation, it must be added, after he had spent a day or two in her company, sensibly diminished, though it never wholly lapsed. I don't suppose that you're going to undertake to persuade me that you're an American, she said. To please you, I'll be an Englishman. I'll be a Turk.

Starting point is 03:07:28 Well, if you can change about that way, you're very welcome, Miss Stackpole returned. I'm sure you understand everything, and that differences of nationality are no barrier to you. Ralph went on. Miss Stackpole gazed at him still. Do you mean the foreign languages? The languages are nothing. I mean the spirit, the genius. I'm not sure that I understand you, said the correspondent of the interviewer,

Starting point is 03:07:55 but I expect I shall before I leave. He's what's called a cosmopolite, Isabel suggested. That means he's a little of everything and not much of any. I must say I think patriotism is like charity. It begins at home. "'Ah, but where does home begin?' Miss Stackpole,' Ralph inquired. "'I don't know where it begins, but I know where it ends. It ended a long time before I got here.'

Starting point is 03:08:24 "'Don't you like it over here?' asked Mr. Touchett with his aged, innocent voice. "'Well, sir, I haven't quite made up my mind what ground I shall take. I feel a good deal cramped. I felt it on the journey from Liverpool to London. Perhaps you were in a crowded carriage, Ralph suggested. Yes, but it was crowded with friends, party of Americans whose acquaintance I had made upon the steamer, a lovely group from Little Rock, Arkansas. In spite of that, I felt cramped.

Starting point is 03:08:54 I felt something pressing upon me. I couldn't tell what it was. I felt at the very commencement as if I were not going to accord with the atmosphere. But I suppose I shall make my own atmosphere. That's the true way. Then you can breathe. your surroundings seem very attractive. Oh, we too are a lovely group, said Ralph.

Starting point is 03:09:16 Wait a little, and you'll see. Miss Stackpole showed every disposition to wait, and evidently was prepared to make a considerable stay at Garden Court. She occupied herself in the mornings with literary labor, but in spite of this, Isabel spent many hours with her friend, who, once her daily task performed, deprecated, in fact, defied isolation. Isabelle speedily found occasion to desire her to desist from celebrating the charms of their common sojourn in print, having discovered, on the second morning of Miss Stackpole's visit, that she was engaged on a letter to the interviewer,

Starting point is 03:09:50 of which the title, in her exquisitely neat and legible hand, exactly that of the copy-books which our heroine remembered at school, was Americans and Tudors, Glimpses of Garden Court. Miss Stackpole, with the best conscience in the world, offered to read her, her letter to Isabel, who immediately put in her protest. I don't think you ought to do that. I don't think you ought to describe the place. Henrietta gazed at her as usual. Why, it's just what the people want, and it's a lovely place. It's too lovely to be put in the newspapers, and it's not what my uncle wants. Don't you believe that? cried Henrietta. They're always delighted afterwards.

Starting point is 03:10:33 My uncle won't be delighted, nor my cousin either. They'll consider it a breach of hospitality. Miss Stackpole showed no sense of confusion. She simply wiped her pen, very neatly, upon an elegant little implement which she kept for the purpose, and put away her manuscript. Of course, if you don't approve, I won't do it, but I sacrifice a beautiful subject. There are plenty of other subjects. There are subjects all round you. We'll take some drives. I'll show you some charming scenery.

Starting point is 03:11:04 scenery is not my department. I always need a human interest. You know I'm deeply human, Isabel. I always was. Miss Stackpole rejoined. I was going to bring in your cousin, the alienated American. There's a great demand just now for the alienated American, and your cousin's a beautiful specimen. I should have handled him severely. He would have died of it, Isabel exclaimed. Not of the severity, but of the publicity. "'Well, I should have liked to kill him a little, and I should have delighted to do your uncle, who seems to be a much nobler type, the American faithful still. He's a grand old man. I don't see how he can object to my paying him honour.' Isabelle looked at her companion in much wonderment.

Starting point is 03:11:53 It struck her as strange that a nature in which she found so much to esteem should break down so in spots. "'My poor Henrietta,' she said, "'you've no sense of it. You've no sense of privacy." Henrietta colored deeply, and for a moment her brilliant eyes were suffused, while Isabel found her more than ever in consequence. "'You do me great injustice,' said Miss Stackpole with dignity. "'I've never written a word about myself.' "'I'm very sure of that, but it seems to me one should be modest for others also.'

Starting point is 03:12:27 "'Ah, that's very good,' cried Henrietta, seizing her pen again. "'Just let me make a note of it and I'll put it in some.' somewhere. She was a thoroughly good-natured woman, and half an hour later she was in as cheerful a mood as should have been looked for in a newspaper lady in want of matter. "'I've promised to do the social side,' she said to Isabel, "'and how can I do it unless I get ideas?' "'If I can't describe this place, don't you know some place I can describe?' Isabel promised she would bethink herself, and the next day, in conversation with her friend,

Starting point is 03:12:59 she happened to mention her visit to Lord Warburton's ancient house. "'Oh, you must take me there. That's just the place for me,' Miss Stackpole cried. "'I must get a glimpse of the nobility.' "'I can't take you,' said Isabel. "'But Lord Warburton's coming here, and you'll have a chance to see him and observe him. "'Only if you intend to repeat his conversation, I shall certainly give him warning.' "'Don't do that,' her companion pleaded. "'I want him to be natural.'

Starting point is 03:13:29 "'An Englishman's never so natural as when he's holding. his tongue, Isabel declared. It was not apparent at the end of three days that her cousin had, according to her prophecy, lost his heart to their visitor, though he had spent a good deal of time in her society. They strolled about the park together and sat under the trees, and in the afternoon, when it was delightful to float along the Thames, Miss Stackpole occupied a place in the boat in which hitherto Ralph had had but a single companion. Her presence proved somehow less irreducible to soft particles than Ralph had expected in the natural perturbation of his sense of the perfect

Starting point is 03:14:07 solubility of that of his cousin. For the correspondent of the interviewer prompted mirth in him, and he had long since decided that the crescendo of mirth should be the flower of his declining days. Henrietta, on her side, failed a little to justify Isabel's declaration with regard to her indifference to masculine opinion. For poor Ralph appeared to have presented himself to her as an irritating problem, which it would be almost immoral not to work out. "'What does he do for a living?' she asked of Isabel the evening of her arrival. "'Does he go round all day with his hands in his pockets?' "'He does nothing,' smiled Isabel.

Starting point is 03:14:44 "'He's a gentleman of large leisure.' "'Well, I call that a shame, when I have to work like a car conductor,' Miss Stackpole replied. "'I should like to show him up.' "'He's in wretched health. He's quite unfit for work,' Isabel urged. "'Pasha, don't you believe it, I work when I'm sick,' cried her friend. Later when she stepped into the boat on joining the water party, she remarked to Ralph that she supposed he hated her and would like to drown her.

Starting point is 03:15:14 "'Ah, no,' said Ralph. "'I keep my victims for a slower torture, and you'd be such an interesting one.' "'Well, you do torture me, I may say that, but I shock all your prejudices. That's one comfort.' "'My prejudices? I haven't a prejudice to bless myself with. There's intellectual poverty for you. The more shame to you, I have some delicious ones.

Starting point is 03:15:39 Of course, I spoil your flirtation, or whatever it is you call it, with your cousin, but I don't care for that, as I render her the service of drawing you out. She'll see how thin you are. Ah, do draw me out, Ralph exclaimed. So few people will take the trouble. Miss Stackpole in this undertaking appeared to shrink from no effort. resorting largely whenever the opportunity offered to the natural expedient of interrogation. On the following day the weather was bad, and in the afternoon the young man, by way of providing indoor amusement,

Starting point is 03:16:12 offered to show her the pictures. Henrietta strolled through the long gallery in his society while he pointed out its principal ornaments and mentioned the painters and subjects. Miss Stackpole looked at the pictures in perfect silence, committing herself to no opinion, and Ralph was gratified by the fact that she delivered herself of none of the little ready-made ejaculations of delight of which the visitors to Garden Court were so frequently lavish. This young lady, indeed, to do her justice, was but little addicted to the use of conventional terms. There was something earnest and inventive in her tone, which at times, in its

Starting point is 03:16:49 strained deliberation, suggested a person of high culture speaking a foreign language. Ralph Touchett subsequently learned that she had at one time officiated as an art critic to a journal of the other world, but she appeared, in spite of this fact, to carry in her pocket none of the small change of admiration. Suddenly, just after he had called her attention to a charming constable, she turned and looked at him as if he himself had been a picture. Do you always spend your time like this? she demanded. I seldom spend it so agreeably. "'Well, you know what I mean, without any regular occupation.'

Starting point is 03:17:28 "'Ah,' said Ralph, "'I'm the idlest man living.' Miss Stackpole directed her gaze to the constable again, and Ralph bespoke her attention for a small long cray hanging near it, which represented a gentleman in a pink doublet and a hose and rough, leaning against the pedestal of the statue of a nymph in a garden, and playing the guitar to two ladies seated on the grass. "'That's my ideal of a regular occupation,' he said.

Starting point is 03:17:56 Miss Stackpole turned to him again, and though her eyes had rested upon the picture, he saw she had missed the subject. She was thinking of something much more serious. "'I don't see how you can reconcile it to your conscience. My dear lady, I have no conscience. Well, I advise you to cultivate one. You'll need it the next time you go to America.

Starting point is 03:18:19 I shall probably never go again. Are you ashamed to show yourself? Ralph meditated with a mild smile. I suppose that if one has no conscience, one has no shame. Well, you've got plenty of assurance, Henrietta declared. Do you consider it right to give up your country? Ah, one doesn't give up one's country any more than one gives up one's grandmother. They're both antecedent to choice.

Starting point is 03:18:47 elements of one's composition that are not to be eliminated. I suppose that means you've tried and been worsted. What do they think of you over here? They delight in me. That's because you truckle to them. Ah, set it down a little to my natural charm, Ralph sighed. I don't know anything about your natural charm. If you've got any charm, it's quite unnatural.

Starting point is 03:19:12 It's wholly acquired, or at least you've tried hard to acquire it living over here. I don't say you've succeeded. It's a charm that I don't appreciate anyway. Make yourself useful in some way, and then we'll talk about it. Well, now tell me what I shall do, said Ralph. Go right home to begin with. Yes, I see. And then.

Starting point is 03:19:35 Take right hold of something. Well, now what sort of thing? Anything you please, so long as you take hold. Some new idea, some big work. "'Is it very difficult to take hold?' Ralph inquired. "'Not if you put your heart into it.' "'Ah, my heart,' said Ralph. "'If it depends upon my heart.'

Starting point is 03:19:58 "'Haven't you got a heart?' "'I had one a few days ago, but I've lost it since.' "'You're not serious,' Miss Stackpole remarked. "'That's what's the matter with you.' "'But for all this, in a day or two, "'she again permitted him to fix her attention. and on the later occasion assigned a different cause to her mysterious perversity. I know what's the matter with you, Mr. Touchett, she said.

Starting point is 03:20:25 You think you're too good to get married. I thought so till I knew you, Miss Stackpole, Ralph answered, and then I suddenly changed my mind. Oh, pshaw, Henrietta groaned. Then it seemed to me, said Ralph, that I was not good enough. It would improve you, besides. it's your duty. Ha, cried the young man.

Starting point is 03:20:50 One has so many duties. Is that a duty, too? Of course it is. Did you never know that before? It's everyone's duty to get married. Ralph meditated a moment. He was disappointed. There was something in Miss Stackpole he had begun to like.

Starting point is 03:21:07 It seemed to him that if she was not a charming woman, she was at least a very good sort. She was wanting in distinction, but, as Isabel had said, she was brave. She went into cages, she flourished lashes like a spangled lion-tamer. They are not supposed her to be capable of vulgar arts, but these last words struck him as a false note. When a marriageable young woman urges matrimony on an unencumbered young man, the most obvious explanation of her conduct is not the altruistic impulse.

Starting point is 03:21:39 Ah, well now, there's a good deal to be said about that, Ralph rejoined. There may be, but that's the principal thing. I must say, I think it looks very exclusive going round all alone, as if you thought no woman was good enough for you? Do you think you're better than anyone else in the world? In America, it's usual for people to marry. If it's my duty, Ralph asked, is it not, by analogy, yours as well?

Starting point is 03:22:05 Miss Stackpole's ocular surfaces unwinkingly caught the sun. Have you the fond hope of finding a flaw in my reasoning? Of course I have as good a right to marry as anyone else. Well, then, said Ralph, I won't say it vexes me to see you single. It delights me, rather. You're not serious yet. You never will be. Shall you not believe me to be so on the day I tell you I desire to give up the practice of going round alone? Miss Stackpole looked at him for a moment, in a manner which seemed to announce a reply that might technically be called encouraging.

Starting point is 03:22:41 But, to his great surprise, this expression suddenly resolved itself into an appearance of alarm and even of resentment. No, not even then, she answered dryly, after which she walked away. I've not conceived a passion for your friend, Ralph said that evening to Isabel, though we talked some time this morning about it. And you said something she didn't like, the girl replied. Ralph stared. Has she complained of me? She told me she thinks there's something very low in the tone of Europeans towards women. Does she call me a European?

Starting point is 03:23:21 One of the worst. She told me you had said something to her that an American never would have said, but she didn't repeat it. Ralph treated himself to a luxury of laughter. She's an extraordinary combination. Did she think I was making love to her? No. believe even Americans do that. But she apparently thought you mistook the intention of something she had

Starting point is 03:23:45 said and put an unkind construction on it. I thought she was proposing marriage to me, and I accepted her. Was that unkind? Isabel smiled. It was unkind to me. I don't want you to marry. My dear cousin, what's one to do among you all? Ralph demanded. Miss Stackpole tells me it's my bounden duty, and that it's hers in general, to see I do mine. She has a great sense of duty, said Isabel gravely. She has, indeed, and it's the motive of everything she says. That's what I like her for. She thinks it's unworthy of you to keep so many things to yourself.

Starting point is 03:24:26 That's what she wanted to express. If you thought she was trying to... To attract to you, you were very wrong. It's true, it was an odd way, but I don't. I did think she was trying to attract me. Forgive my depravity. You're very conceited. She had no interested views and never supposed you would think she had. One must be very modest, then, to talk with such women, Ralph said humbly. But it's a very strange type. She's too personal, considering that she expects other people not to be. She walks in without knocking

Starting point is 03:25:02 at the door. Yes, Isabel admitted. She doesn't sufficiently recognize the existence of knockers, and indeed I'm not sure that she doesn't think them a rather pretentious ornament. She thinks one's door should stand ajar. But I persist in liking her. I persist in thinking her too familiar, Ralph rejoined, naturally somewhat uncomfortable under the sense of having been doubly deceived in Miss Stackpole.

Starting point is 03:25:29 Well, said Isabel, smiling. I'm afraid it's because she's rather vulgar that I like her. She would be flattered by your reason. If I should tell her I wouldn't express it in that way. I should say it's because there's something of the people in her. What do you know about the people, and what does she, for that matter? She knows a great deal, and I know enough to feel that she's a kind of emanation of the great democracy,

Starting point is 03:25:57 of the continent, the country, the nation. I don't say that she sums it all up. That would be too much to ask of her. But she suggests it. She vividly figures it. You like her then for patriotic reasons. I'm afraid it is on those very grounds I object to her. Ah, said Isabel with a kind of joyous sigh. I like so many things. If a thing strikes me with a certain intensity, I accept it. I don't want to swagger, but I suppose I'm rather versatile. I like people to be totally different from Henrietta, in the style of Lord Warburton's sisters, for instance. So long as I look at the Mrs. Molinier, they seem to me to answer a kind of ideal. Then Henrietta presents herself, and I'm straightway convinced by her, not so much in

Starting point is 03:26:47 respect to herself as in respect to what mass is behind her. Ah, you mean the back view of her, Ralph suggested. What she says is true, his cousin answered. you'll never be serious. I like the great country stretching away beyond the rivers and across the prairies, blooming and smiling and spreading, till it stops at the green Pacific. A strong, sweet, fresh odor seems to rise from it, and Henrietta, pardon my simile, has something of that odor in her garments. Isabel blushed a little as she concluded this speech, and the blush, together with the momentary ardor she had thrown into it, was so becoming to her that Ralph stood smiling at her for a moment after she had ceased speaking.

Starting point is 03:27:38 "'I'm not sure the Pacific so green as that,' he said. "'But you're a young woman of imagination. Henrietta, however, does smell of the future. It almost knocks one down.' End of Chapter 10. Chapter 11 of The Portrait of a Lady by Henry J. James. This LeBrovoc's recording is in the public domain. He took a resolve after this not to misinterpret her words, even when Miss Stackpole appeared to strike the personal note most strongly.

Starting point is 03:28:17 He bethought himself that persons, in her view, were simple and homogeneous organisms, and that he, for his own part, was too perverted a representative of the nature of man to have a right to deal with her in strict reciprocity. He carried out his resolve with the great deal of tact, and the young lady found in renewed contact with him no obstacle to the exercise of her genius for unshrinking inquiry, the general application of her confidence. Her situation at Garden Court, therefore, appreciated as we have seen her to be by Isabel, and full of appreciation herself of that free play of intelligence, which, to her sense, rendered Isabelle's character a sister's spirit, and of the easy venerableness of Mr. Touchett, whose

Starting point is 03:29:01 noble tone, as she said, met with her full approval, her situation at Garden Court would have been perfectly comfortable had she not conceived an irresistible mistrust of the little lady for whom she had first supposed herself obligated to allow as mistress of the house. She presently discovered, in truth, that this obligation was of the lightest, and that Mrs. Touchett cared very little how Miss Stackpole behaved. Mrs. Touchett had defined her to Isabel as both an adventurous and a bore. Venturous as usually giving one more of a thrill. She'd expressed some surprise at her niece's having selected such a friend,

Starting point is 03:29:38 yet had immediately added that she knew Isabelle's friends were her own affair and that she had never undertaken to like them all, or to restrict the girl to those she liked. If you could see none but the people I like, my dear, you'd have a very small society, Mrs. Touchett frankly admitted. And I don't think I like any man or woman well enough to recommend them to you. When it comes to recommending, it's a serious affair.

Starting point is 03:30:01 I don't like Miss Stackpole. Everything about her displeases me. She talks so much too loud, and looks at one as if one wanted to look at her, which one doesn't. I'm sure she has lived all her life in a boarding-house, and I detest the manners and the liberties of such places. If you ask me if I prefer my own manners, which you doubtless think very bad, I'll tell you that I perver them immensely. Miss Stackpole knows I detest boarding-house civilization, and she detests me for detesting it. because she thinks it the highest in the world. She'd like Garden Court a great deal better if it were a boarding-house. For me, I find it almost too much of one. We shall never get on together, therefore, and there's no use in trying.

Starting point is 03:30:46 Mrs. Touchett was right in guessing that Henrietta disapproved of her, but she had not quite put her finger on the reason. A day or two after Miss Stackpole's arrival, she had made some invidious reflections on American hotels, which excited a vein of counter-argument on the part of the correspondent of the interviewer, who, in the exercise of her profession, had acquainted herself in the Western world with every form of caravansary. Henrietta expressed the opinion that American hotels were the best in the world, and Mrs. Touchett, fresh from a renewed struggle with them, recorded a conviction that they were the worst. Ralph, with his experimental geniality, suggested, by way of healing the breach, that the truth lay between the two extremes, and that the establishments in question ought to be

Starting point is 03:31:31 described as fair middling. This contribution to discussion, however, Ms. Stackpole rejected with scorn. Middling, indeed. If they were not the best in the world, they were the worst, but there was nothing middling about an American hotel. We judge from different points of view, evidently, said Mrs. Touchett. I like to be treated as an individual. You like to be treated as a party. I don't know what you mean, Henrietta replied. I like to be treated as an American lady. Boer American ladies, cried Mrs. Touched with a laugh. They're the slaves of slaves. They're the companions of free men, Henrietta retorted. They're the companions of their servants, the Irish Chambermaid and the Negro waiter. They share their work. Do you call the domestics

Starting point is 03:32:23 in American household slaves? Miss Stackpole inquired. If that's the way you desire to treat them, no wonder you don't like America. If you've not good servants, you're miserable, Mrs. Touchett serenely said. They're very bad in America, but I've five perfect ones in Florence.

Starting point is 03:32:42 I don't see what you want with five, Henrietta couldn't help observing. I don't think I should like to see five persons surrounding me in that menial position. I like them in that position better than in some others. proclaimed Mrs. Touchett with much meaning. "'Should you like me better if I were your butler, dear?' her husband asked. "'I don't think I should. You wouldn't at all have the tenue.'

Starting point is 03:33:09 "'The companions of free men. I like that, Miss Stackpole,' said Ralph. "'It's a beautiful description.' "'When I said free men, I didn't mean you, sir.' And this was the only reward that Ralph got for his compliment. Miss Stackpole was baffled. She evidently thought there was something treasonable in Mrs. Touchett's appreciation of a class which she privately judged to be a mysterious survival of feudalism. It was perhaps because her mind was oppressed with this image

Starting point is 03:33:38 that she suffered some days to elapse before she took any occasion to say to Isabel. My dear friend, I wonder if you're growing faithless. Faithless? Faithless to you, Henrietta? No, that would be a great pain, but it's not that. that? Faithless to my country, then? Ah, that I hope will never be. When I wrote to you from Liverpool, I said I had something particular to tell you. You've never asked me what it is. Is it because you've suspected? Suspected what? As a rule, I don't think I suspect, said Isabel.

Starting point is 03:34:14 I remember now that phrase in your letter, but I confess I had forgotten it. What have you to tell me? Henrietta looked disappointed, and her steady gaze betrayed it. You don't ask that right, as if you thought it important. You've changed. You're thinking of other things. Tell me what you mean, and I'll think of that. Will you really think of it? That's what I wish to be sure of.

Starting point is 03:34:40 I've not much control of my thoughts, but I'll do my best, said Isabel. Henrietta gazed at her in silence, for a period which tried to be. Isabelle's patience, so that our heroine added at last, "'Do you mean that you're going to be married?' "'Not till I've seen Europe,' said Miss Stackpole. "'What are you laughing at?' she went on. "'What I mean is that Mr. Goodwood came out in the steamer with me.' "'Ah,' Isabel responded.

Starting point is 03:35:11 "'You say that right. "'I had a good deal of talk with him. "'He has come after you.' "'Did he tell you so?' "'No, he told me nothing. That's how I knew it,' said Henrietta cleverly. "'He said very little about you, but I spoke of you a good deal.' Isabelle waited. At the mention of Mr. Goodwood's name she had turned a little pale. "'I'm very sorry you did that,' she observed at last.

Starting point is 03:35:40 "'It was a pleasure to me, and I liked the way he listened. I could have talked a long time to such a listener. He was so quiet, so intent. He drank it all in. What did you say about me? Isabel asked. I said you were on the whole the finest creature I knew. I'm very sorry for that. He thinks too well of me already.

Starting point is 03:36:03 He oughtn't to be encouraged. He's dying for a little encouragement. I see his face now, and his earnest absorbed look while I talked. I never saw an ugly man look so handsome. He's very simple-minded. said Isabel, that he's not so ugly. There's nothing so simplifying as a grand passion.

Starting point is 03:36:27 It's not a grand passion. I'm very sure it's not that. You don't say that as if you were sure. Isabel gave her a rather cold smile. I shall say it better to Mr. Goodwood himself. He'll soon give you a chance, said Henrietta. Isabel offered no answer to this assertion, which her companion made with an air of great confidence.

Starting point is 03:36:52 He'll find you changed, the latter pursued. You've been affected by your new surroundings. Very likely, I'm affected by everything. By everything but Mr. Goodwood, Miss Stackpole exclaimed with a slightly harsh hilarity. Isabel failed even to smile back, and in a moment she said, Did he ask you to speak to me? Not in so many words, but he.

Starting point is 03:37:18 his eyes asked it, and his handshake when he bade me goodbye. Thank you for doing so. And Isabel turned away. Yes, you're changed. You've got new ideas over here. Her friend continued. I hope so, said Isabel. One should get as many new ideas as possible.

Starting point is 03:37:40 Yes, but they shouldn't interfere with the old ones when the old ones have been the right ones. Isabel turned about again. If you mean that I had any idea with regard to Mr. Goodwood, but she faltered before her friend's implacable glitter. My dear child, you certainly encouraged him. Isabel made for the moment as if to deny this charge, instead of which, however, she presently answered, It's very true. I did encourage him. And then she asked if her companion had learned from Mr. Goodwood what he intended to do. It was a concession to her curiosity, for she disliked discussing the subject, and found Henrietta wanting and delicacy. I asked him, and he said he meant to do nothing, Miss Stackpole answered. But I don't believe that. He's not a man to do nothing. He is a man

Starting point is 03:38:32 of high, bold action. Whatever happens to him, he'll always do something, and whatever he does will always be right. I quite believe that. Henrietta might be wanting in delicacy, but it touched the girl all the same to hear this declaration. "'Ah, you do care for him,' her visitor rang out. "'Whatever he does will always be right,' Isabel repeated. "'When a man's of that infallible mould, what does it matter to him what one feels?' "'It may not matter to him, but it matters to oneself.' "'Ah, what it matters to me. That's not what we're not what we're

Starting point is 03:39:13 we're discussing, said Isabel, with a cold smile. This time her companion was grave. Well, I don't care. You have changed. You're not the girl you were a few short weeks ago, and Mr. Goodwood will see it. I expect him here any day. I hope he'll hate me then, said Isabel. I believe you hope it about as much as I believe him capable of it. To this observation, our heroine made no return. She was absorbed in the alarm given her by Henrietta's intimation that Casper Goodwood would present himself at Garden Court. She pretended to herself, however, that she thought the event impossible, and later she communicated her disbelief to her friend. For the next 48 hours, nevertheless, she stood prepared to hear

Starting point is 03:40:00 the young man's name announced. The feeling pressed upon her. It made the air sultry, as if there were to be a change of weather. And the weather, socially speaking, had been so agreeable during Isabel's stay at Garden Court that any change would be for the worse. Her suspense, indeed, was dissipated the second day. She had walked into the park in company with the sociable bunchy, and after strolling about for some time, in a manner at once listless and restless, had seated herself on a garden bench within sight of the house beneath a spreading beach, where, in a white dress ornamented with black ribbons, she formed among the flickering shadows a graceful and harmonious image. She entertained herself for some moments with talking to the

Starting point is 03:40:46 little terrier, as to whom the proposal of an ownership divided with her cousin had been applied as impartially as possible, as impartially as Buncey's own somewhat fickle and in constant sympathies would allow. But she was notified for the first time on this occasion of the finite character of Buncey's intellect. Hitherto she had been mainly struck with its extent. It seemed to her at last that she would do well to take a book. Formerly, when heavy-hearted, she had been able, with the help of some well-chosen volume, to transfer the seat of consciousness to the organ of pure reason. Of late, it was not to be denied, literature had seemed a fading light. And even after she had reminded herself that her uncle's library was provided with a complete set of those

Starting point is 03:41:31 authors which no gentleman's collection should be without, she sat motionless and empty-handed, her eyes bent on the cool green turf of the lawn. Her meditations were presently interrupted by the arrival of a servant who handed her a letter. The letter bore the London postmark and was addressed in a hand she knew. That came into her vision, already so held by him, with the vividness of the writer's voice or his face. This document proved short and may be given entire. My dear Miss Archer, I don't know whether you will have heard of my coming to England, but even if you have not, it will scarcely be a surprise to you. You will remember

Starting point is 03:42:12 that when you gave me my dismissal at Albany three months ago, I did not accept it. I protested against it. You, in fact, appeared to accept my protest, and to admit that I had right on my side. I had come to see you with the hope that you would let me bring you over to my conviction. My reasons for entertaining this hope had been of the best. But you disappointed it. I found you changed, and you were able to give me no reason for the change. You admitted that you were unreasonable, and it was the only concession you would make, but it was a very cheap one, because that's not your character. No, you are not, and you never will be arbitrary or capricious. Therefore it is that I believe you will let me see you again. You told me that I'm not

Starting point is 03:42:57 disagreeable to you, and I believe it, for I don't see why that should be. I shall always think of you. I shall never think of anyone else. I came to England simply because you were here. I couldn't stay at home after you had gone. I hated the country because you were not in it. If I like this country at present, it is only because it holds you. I have been to England before, but have never enjoyed it much. May I not come and see you for half an hour? This at present is the dearest wish of yours faithfully, Casper Goodwood. Isabel read to you. I said, this missive with such deep attention that she had not perceived an approaching tread on the soft grass. Looking up, however, as she mechanically folded it, she saw Lord Warburton standing before her.

Starting point is 03:43:48 End of Chapter 11 Chapter 12 of the Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. She put the letter into her pocket and offered her visitor a smile of welcome, exhibiting no trace of discomposure and half surprised at her coolness. They told me you were out here, said Lord Warburton, and as there was no one in the drawing-room and it's really you that I wish to see, I came out with no more ado. Isabel had got up.

Starting point is 03:44:26 She felt a wish for the moment that he should not sit down beside her. I was just going indoors. Please don't do that. It's much jollier here. I've ridden over from Lockley. It's a lovely day. His smile was peculiarly friendly and pleasing, and his whole person seemed to emit that radiance of good feeling and good fare,

Starting point is 03:44:48 which had formed the charm of the girl's first impression of him. It surrounded him, like a zone of fine June weather. "'We'll walk about a little, then,' said Isabel, who could not divest herself of the sense of an intention on the part of her visitor, and who wished both to elude the intention and to satisfy her curiosity. curiosity about it. It had flashed upon her vision once before, and it had given her on that occasion, as we know, a certain alarm. This alarm was composed of several elements, not all of which were disagreeable. She had indeed spent some days in analyzing them, and had succeeded in separating

Starting point is 03:45:28 the pleasant part of the idea of Lord Warburton's making up to her from the painful. It may appear to some readers that the young lady was both precipitate and unduly fastidious, but the latter of these facts, if the charge be true, may serve to exonerate her from the discredit of the former. She was not eager to convince herself that a territorial magnate, as she had heard Lord Warburton-called, was smitten with her charms, the fact of a declaration from such a source carrying with it more questions than it would answer. She had received a strong impression of his being a personage, and she had occupied herself in examining the image so conveyed. At the risk of adding to the evidence of her self-sufficiency,

Starting point is 03:46:13 it must be said that there had been moments when this possibility of admiration by a personage represented to her an aggression almost to the degree of an affront, quite to the degree of an inconvenience. She had never yet known a personage. There had been no personages in this sense in her life. there were probably none such at all in her native land. When she had thought of individual eminence,

Starting point is 03:46:38 she had thought of it on the basis of character and wit, of what one might like in a gentleman's mind and in his talk. She herself was a character. She couldn't help being aware of that, and hitherto her visions of a completed consciousness had concerned themselves largely with moral images, things as to which the question would be whether they pleased her sublime soul. Lord Warburton loomed up before her, largely and brightly, as a collection of attributes and powers,

Starting point is 03:47:07 which were not to be measured by this simple rule, but which demanded a different sort of appreciation, an appreciation that the girl, with her habit of judging freely and quickly, felt she lacked patience to bestow. He appeared to demand of her something that no one else, as it were, had presumed to do. What she felt was that a territory, a political, a social magnate had conceived the design of drawing her into the system, in which he rather invidiously lived and moved. A certain instinct, not imperious but persuasive, told her to resist, murmured to her that virtually she had a system and an orbit of her own. It told her other things besides, things which both contradicted and confirmed each other,

Starting point is 03:47:55 that a girl might do much worse than trust herself to such a man, and that it would be very interesting to see something of his system from his own point of view. That, on the other hand, however, there was evidently a great deal of it which she should regard only as a complication of every hour, and that even in the whole there was something stiff and stupid, which would make it a burden. Furthermore, there was a young man lately come from America who had no system at all, but who had a character of which it was useless for her to try to persuade herself that the impression on her mind had been light. The letters she carried in her pocket all sufficiently reminded her of the contrary. Smile not, however, I venture to repeat, at this simple young woman from Albany, who debated

Starting point is 03:48:41 whether she should accept an English peer before he had offered himself, and who was disposed to believe that on the whole she could do better. She was a person of great good faith, and if there was a great deal of folly in her wisdom, those who judge her severely may have the satisfaction of finding that, later, she became consistently wise only at the cost of an amount of folly, which will constitute almost a direct appeal to charity. Lord Warburton seemed quite ready to walk, to sit, or to do anything that Isabel should propose, and he gave her this assurance with his usual air of being particularly pleased

Starting point is 03:49:16 to exercise a social virtue. But he was, nevertheless, not in command of his emotions, and as he strolled beside her for a moment in silence, looking at her without letting her know it, there was something embarrassed in his glance and his misdirected laughter. Yes, assuredly, as we have touched on the point we may return to it again for a moment. The English are the most romantic people in the world, and Lord Warburton was about to give an example of it. He was about to take a step which would astonish all his friends and displease a great many of them, and which had superficially nothing to recommend it.

Starting point is 03:49:55 The young lady who trod the turf beside him had come from a quarter of a quarter of a queer country across the sea, which he knew a good deal about. Her antecedents, her associations were very vague to his mind, except insofar as they were generic, and in this sense they showed as distinct and unimportant. Miss Archer had neither a fortune, nor the sort of beauty that justifies a man to the multitude, and he calculated that he had spent about 26 hours in her company. He had summed up all this, the perversity of the impulse, which had declassed. to avail itself of the most liberal opportunities to subside, and the judgment of mankind, as exemplified particularly in the more quickly judging half of it. He had looked these things well in the

Starting point is 03:50:40 face, and then had dismissed them from his thoughts. He cared no more for them than for the rosebud in his buttonhole. It is the good fortune of a man who, for the greater part of a lifetime, has abstained without effort from making himself disagreeable to his friends, that when the need comes for such a course, it is not discredited. by irritating associations. I hope you had a pleasant ride, said Isabel, who observed her companion's hesitancy. It would have been pleasant, if for nothing else, than that it brought me here. Are you so fond of Garden Court?

Starting point is 03:51:14 The girl asked, more and more sure that he meant to make some appeal to her, wishing not to challenge him if he hesitated, and yet to keep all the quietness of her reason if he proceeded. It suddenly came upon her that her situation was one way, which a few weeks ago she would have deemed deeply romantic, the park of an old English country house, with the foreground embellished by a great, as she supposed, nobleman in the act of making love to a young lady, who, on careful inspection, should be found to present remarkable analogies with herself. But if she was now the heroine of the situation, she scarcely succeeded the less in looking at it from the outside.

Starting point is 03:51:54 "'I can nothing for God in court,' said her companion. I care only for you. You've known me too short a time to have a right to say that, and I can't believe you're serious. These words of Isabels were not perfectly sincere, for she had no doubt whatever that he himself was. They were simply a tribute to the fact, of which he was perfectly aware,

Starting point is 03:52:19 that those he had just uttered would have excited surprise on the part of a vulgar world. And moreover, if anything, besides the sense she had already acquired that Lord Warburton was not a loose thinker had been needed to convince her, the tone in which he replied would have quite served the purpose. "'One's right in such a matter is not measured by the time, Miss Archer. It's measured by the feeling itself. If I were to wait three months it would make no difference. I shall not be more sure of what I mean than I am today. Of course I've seen you very little, but my impression dates

Starting point is 03:52:54 from the very first hour we met. I lost no time. I fell in love with you then. It was at first sight, as the novels say. I now know that's not a fancy phrase, and I shall think better of novels forevermore. Those two days I spent here settled it. I don't know whether you suspected I was doing so.

Starting point is 03:53:17 But I paid, mentally speaking, I mean, the greatest possible attention to you. Nothing you said. nothing you did was lost upon me. When you came to Lockley the other day, or rather when you went away, I was perfectly sure. Nevertheless, I made up my mind to think it over

Starting point is 03:53:37 and to question myself narrowly. I've done so. All these days I've done nothing else. I don't make mistakes about such things. I'm a very judicious animal. I don't go off easily. But when I'm touched, It's for life.

Starting point is 03:53:56 It's for life, Miss Archer. It's for life. Lord Warburton repeated in the kindest, tenderest, pleasantest voice Isabel had ever heard, and looking at her with eyes charged with the light of a passion that had sifted itself clear of the baser parts of emotion, the heat, the violence, the unreason, and that burned as steadily as a lamp in a windless place. By tacit consent, as he talked, they had walked more and more slowly, and at last they stopped, and he took her hand.

Starting point is 03:54:33 Ah, Lord Warburton, how little you know me, Isabel said very gently. Gently too she drew her hand away. Don't taunt me with that. That I don't know you better makes me unhappy enough already. It's all my loss. But that's what I want. and it seems to me I'm taking the best way. If you'll be my wife, then I shall know you,

Starting point is 03:54:58 and when I tell you all the good I think of you, you'll not be able to say it's from ignorance. If you know me little, I know you even less, said Isabel. You mean that, unlike yourself, I may not improve on acquaintance. Of course, that's very possible. But think, to speak to you as I do, how determined I must be, to try and give satisfaction. You do like me rather, don't you?

Starting point is 03:55:27 I like you very much, Lord Warburton, she answered, and at this moment she liked him immensely. I thank you for saying that. It shows you don't regard me as a stranger. I really believe I've filled all the other relations of life very creditably, and I don't see why I shouldn't fill this one, in which I offer myself to you, seeing that I care so much more about. about it. Ask the people who know me well. I've friends who'll speak for me. I don't need the recommendation of your friends, said Isabel. Ah, now, that's delightful of you. You believe in me yourself. Completely, Isabel declared. She quite glowed there, inwardly, with the pleasure of feeling she did. The light in her companion's eyes turned into a smile, and he gave a long exhalation of joy.

Starting point is 03:56:22 "'If you're mistaken, Miss Archer, let me lose all I possess.' She wondered whether he meant this for a reminder that he was rich, and on the instant felt sure that he didn't. He was thinking that, as he would have said himself, and indeed he might safely leave it to the memory of any interlocutor, especially of one to whom he was offering his hand. Isabel had prayed that she might not be agitated, and her mind was tranquil enough, even while she listened, and asked herself what it was best she should say to indulge in this incidental criticism. What she should say had she asked herself. Her foremost wish was to say something if possible not less kind than what he had said to her. His words had carried perfect conviction with them.

Starting point is 03:57:11 She felt she did, all so mysteriously, matter to him. I thank you more than I can say for your offer, she returned at last. It does me great honour. Ah, don't say that, he broke out. I was afraid you'd say something like that. I don't see what you've to do with that sort of thing. I don't see why you should thank me. It's I who ought to thank you for listening to me.

Starting point is 03:57:37 A man you know so little coming down on you with such a thumper. Of course it's a great question. I must tell you that I'd rather ask it than have to answer it myself. But the way you've listened, or at least you're having listened, at all, gives me some hope. Don't hope too much, Isabel said. Oh, Miss Archer, her companion murmured, smiling again, in his seriousness, as if such a warning might perhaps be taken but as the play of high spirits, the exuberance

Starting point is 03:58:11 of elation. Should you be greatly surprised if I were to beg you not to hope at all? Isabel asked. Surprised? I don't know what you would. mean by surprise. It wouldn't be that. It would be a feeling very much worse. Isabelle walked on again. She was silent for some minutes. I'm very sure that, highly as I already think of you, my opinion of you, if I should know you well, would only rise.

Starting point is 03:58:41 But I'm by no means sure that you won't be disappointed. And I say that not in the least out of conventional modesty, it's perfectly sincere. I'm willing to risk it, Miss Archer, her companion replied. It's a great question, as you say. It's a very difficult question. I don't expect you, of course, to answer it outright. Think it over as long as may be necessary. If I can gain by waiting, I'll gladly wait a long time. Only remember that in the end, my dearest happiness depends on your answer. I should be very sorry to keep you in suspense, said Isabel.

Starting point is 03:59:23 Oh, don't mind. I'd much rather have a good answer six months hence than a bad one today. But it's very probable that even six months hence I shouldn't be able to give you one that you'd think good. Why not? Since you really like me. Oh, you must never doubt that, said Isabel. Well, then, I don't see what more you ask. It's not what I ask. It's what I can give. I don't think I should suit you.

Starting point is 03:59:52 I really don't think I should. You needn't worry about that. That's my affair. You needn't be a better royalist than the king. It's not only that, said Isabel. But I'm not sure I wish to marry anyone. Very likely you don't. I've no doubt a great many women begin that way, said his lordship.

Starting point is 04:00:13 Who, be it avert, did not in the least believe in the axiom he thus beguiled his anxiety by uttering. But they're frequently persuaded. Ah, that's because they want to be, and Isabel lightly laughed. Her suitor's countenance fell, and he looked at her for a while in silence. I'm afraid it's my being an Englishman that makes you hesitate, he said presently. I know your uncle thinks you ought to marry in your own country. Isabelle listened to this assertion with some interest. It had never occurred to her that Mr. Tuchett was likely to discuss her matrimonial prospects with Lord Warburton. Has he told you that?

Starting point is 04:00:55 I remember his making the remark. He spoke perhaps of Americans generally. He appears himself to have found it very pleasant to live in England. Isabel spoke in a manner that might have seemed a little perverse, but which expressed both her constant perception of her uncle's outward felicit. and her general disposition to elude any obligation to take a restricted view. It gave her companion hope, and he immediately cried with warmth. Ah, my dear Miss Archer, old England's a very good sort of country, you know,

Starting point is 04:01:27 and it will be still better when we've furbished it up a little. Oh, don't furbish it, Lord Warburton. Leave it alone. I like it this way. Well, then, if you like it, I'm more and more unable to see your objection to what I propose. I'm afraid I can't make you understand. You ought at least to try. I have a fair intelligence.

Starting point is 04:01:50 Are you afraid? Afraid of climate? We can easily live elsewhere, you know. You can pick out your climate the whole world over. These words were uttered with the breadth of candor that was like the embrace of strong arms, that was like the fragrance straight in her face, and by his clean, breathing lips,

Starting point is 04:02:10 of she knew not what strange gardens. what charged airs. She would have given her little finger at that moment to feel strongly and simply the impulse to answer. Lord Warburton, it's impossible for me to do better in this wonderful world, I think, than commit myself very gratefully to your loyalty. But though she was lost in admiration of her opportunity, she managed to move back into the deepest shade of it,

Starting point is 04:02:36 even as some wild-caught creature in a vast cage. The splendid security so oftened, her was not the greatest she could conceive. What she finally bethought herself of saying was something very different, something that deferred the need of really facing her crisis. Don't think me unkind if I ask you to say no more about this today. Certainly, certainly, her companion cried, I wouldn't bore you for the world. You've given me a great deal to think about, and I promise you to do it justice. That's all I ask of you, of course. and that you'll remember how absolutely my happiness is in your hands.

Starting point is 04:03:17 Isabelle listened with extreme respect to this admonition, but she said after a minute, I must tell you that what I think I shall think about is some way of letting you know that what you ask is impossible, letting you know it without making you miserable. There's no way to do that, Miss Archer. I won't say that if you refuse me you'll kill me. I shall not die of it.

Starting point is 04:03:40 But I shall do worse. I shall live to no purpose. You'll live to marry a better woman than I. Don't say that, please, said Lord Warburton very gravely. That's fair to neither of us. To marry a worse one, then. If there are better women than you, I prefer the bad ones. That's all I can say.

Starting point is 04:04:05 He went on with the same earnestness. There's no accounting for tastes. His gravity made her feel equally great. and she showed it by again requesting him to drop the subject for the present. I'll speak to you myself, very soon. Perhaps I shall write to you. At your convenience, yes, he replied. Whatever time you take, it must seem to me long,

Starting point is 04:04:29 and I suppose I must make the best of that. I shall not keep you in suspense. I only want to collect my mind a little. He gave a melancholy sigh and stood looking at her a moment. moment, with his hands behind him, giving short nervous shakes to his hunting crop. Do you know I'm very much afraid of it, of that remarkable mind of yours? Our heroine's biographer can scarcely tell why, but the question made her start, and brought a conscious blush to her cheek. She returned his look a moment, and then, with a note in her

Starting point is 04:05:07 voice that might almost have appealed to his compassion, so am I, my lord. she oddly exclaimed. His compassion was not stirred, however. All he possessed of the faculty of pity was needed at home. Ah, be merciful. Be merciful, he murmured. I think you had better go, said Isabel. I'll write to you.

Starting point is 04:05:33 Very good, but whatever you write I'll come and see you, you know. And then he stood reflecting, his eyes fixed on the observant countenance of bunches. who had the air of having understood all that had been said, and of pretending to carry off the indiscretion by a simulated fit of curiosity as to the roots of an ancient oak. There's one thing more, he went on. You know, if you don't like Lockley, if you think it's damp or anything of that sort,

Starting point is 04:06:01 you need never go within fifty miles of it. It's not damp, by the way. I've had the house thoroughly examined. It's perfectly safe and right. But if you shouldn't fancy it, you needn't dream of living in it. There's no difficulty, whatever about that. There are plenty of houses. I thought I'd just mention it.

Starting point is 04:06:19 Some people don't like a moat, you know. Goodbye. I adore a moat, said Isabel. Goodbye. He held out his hand, and she gave him hers a moment, a moment long enough for him to bend his handsome, bared head, and kiss it. Then, still agitating in his mastered emotion, his implement of the chase. He walked rapidly away.

Starting point is 04:06:45 He was evidently much upset. Isabelle herself was upset, but she had not been affected as she would have imagined. What she felt was not a great responsibility, a great difficulty of choice. It appeared to her there had been no choice in the question. She couldn't marry Lord Warburton. The idea failed to support any enlightened prejudice in favor of the free exploration of life that she had hitherto entertained, or was now capable of entertaining. She must write this to him, she must convince him, and that duty was comparatively simple. But what disturbed her, in the sense

Starting point is 04:07:23 that it struck her with wonderment, was this very fact that it cost her so little to refuse a magnificent chance. With whatever qualifications one would, Lord Warburton had offered her a great opportunity. The situation might have discomforts, might contain oppressive, might contain narrowing elements, might prove really but a stupefying anodyne. But she did her sex no injustice in believing that 19 women out of 20 would have accommodated themselves to it without a pang. Why then upon her also should it not irresistibly impose itself? Who was she? What was she? That she should hold herself superior? What view of life? What does? What does? design upon fate, what conception of happiness had she that pretended to be larger than these large,

Starting point is 04:08:12 these fabulous occasions? If she wouldn't do such a thing as that, then she must do great things. She must do something greater. Poor Isabel found ground to remind herself from time to time that she must not be too proud, and nothing could be more sincere than her prayer to be delivered from such a danger. The isolation and loneliness of pride had for her mind the horror of a desert place. If it had been pride that interfered with her accepting Lord Warburton, such a bettese was singularly misplaced, and she was so conscious of liking him that she ventured to assure herself it was the very softness and the fine intelligence of sympathy. She liked him too much to marry him. That was the truth. Something assured her there was a fallacy, something.

Starting point is 04:09:00 somewhere in the glowing logic of the proposition, as he saw it, even though she mightn't put her very finest finger-point on it. And to inflict upon a man who offered so much a wife with a tendency to criticize would be a peculiarly discreditable act. She had promised him she would consider his question, and when, after he had left her, she wandered back to the bench where he had found her and lost herself in meditation, it might have seemed that she was keeping her vow. But this was not the case. She was wondering if she were not a cold, hard, priggish person, and, on her at last getting up and going rather quickly back to the house, felt, as she had said to her friend, really frightened at herself. End of Chapter 12.

Starting point is 04:09:55 Chapter 13 of the Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. It was this feeling, and not the wish to ask advice, she had no desire whatever for that, that led her to speak to her uncle of what had taken place. She wished to speak to someone. She should feel more natural, more human, and her uncle, for this purpose, presented himself in a more attractive light than either her aunt or her friend Henrietta. Her cousin, of course, was a possible confidant, but she would have had to do herself violence

Starting point is 04:10:29 to air this special secret to Ralph. So the next day, after breakfast, she sought her occasion. Her uncle never left his apartment till the afternoon, but he received his cronies, as he said, in his dressing-room. Isabelle had quite taken her place in the class so designated, which, for the rest, included the old man's son, his physician, his personal servant, and even Miss Stackpole. Mrs. Touchett did not figure in the list, and this was an obstacle the less to Isabelle's finding her host. alone. He sat in a complicated mechanical chair, at the open window of his room, looking westward over the park and the river, with his newspapers and letters piled up beside him, his toilet freshly and minutely made, and his smooth, speculative face composed to benevolent expectation.

Starting point is 04:11:20 She approached her point directly. I think I ought to let you know that Lord Warburton has asked me to marry him. I suppose I ought to tell my aunt, but it seems best to tell you, first. The old man expressed no surprise, but thanked her for the confidence she showed him. "'Do you mind telling me whether you accepted him?' he then inquired. "'I've not answered him definitely yet. I've taken a little time to think of it because that seems more respectful. But I shall not accept him.' Mr. Touchett made no comment upon this. He had the air of thinking that, whatever interest he might take in the matter from the point of view of sociability, he had no active voice in it.

Starting point is 04:12:03 Well, I told you you'd be a success over here. Americans are highly appreciated. Very highly indeed, said Isabel. But at the cost of seeming both tasteless and ungrateful, I don't think I can marry Lord Warburton. Well, her uncle went on. Of course, an old man can't judge for a young lady. I'm glad you didn't ask me before you made up your mind.

Starting point is 04:12:29 "'I suppose I ought to tell you,' he added slowly, "'but as if it were not of much consequence, "'that I've known all about it these three days.' "'About Lord Warburton's state of mind?' "'About his intentions, as they say here. "'He wrote me a very pleasant letter telling me all about them. "'Should you like to see his letter?' "'The old man obligingly asked.

Starting point is 04:12:55 "'Thank you. I don't think I care about that. "'But I'm glad he wrote to. you, it was right that he should, and he would be certain to do what was right. Ah, well, I guess you do like him, Mr. Touchett declared. You needn't pretend you don't. I like him extremely. I'm very free to admit that, but I don't wish to marry anyone just now. You think someone may come along whom you may like better. Well, that's very likely, said Mr. touch it, who appeared to wish to show his kindness to the girl by easing off her decision, as it were, and finding cheerful reasons for it. I don't care if I don't meet anyone else. I like Lord Warburton

Starting point is 04:13:37 quite well enough. She fell into that appearance of a sudden change of point of view, with which she sometimes startled and even displeased her interlocutors. Her uncle, however, seemed proof against either of these impressions. He's a very fine man. He resumed in a tone which might be have passed for that of encouragement. His letter was one of the pleasantest I've received for some weeks. I suppose one of the reasons I liked it was that it was all about you. That is all, except the part that was about himself. I suppose he told you all that. He would have told me everything I wished to ask him, Isabel said. But you didn't feel curious? My curiosity would have been idle, once I had determined to decline his offer. You didn't find it sufficiently,

Starting point is 04:14:25 attractive, Mr. Touchett inquired. She was silent a little. I suppose it was that, she presently admitted, but I don't know why. Fortunately, ladies are not obliged to give reasons, said her uncle. There's a great deal that's attractive about such an idea, but I don't see why the English should want to entice us away from our native land. I know that we try to attract them over there, but that's because our population is insufficient. Here, you know, they're rather crowded. However, I presume there's room for charming young ladies everywhere. There seems to have been room here for you, said Isabel, whose eyes had been wandering over the large pleasure spaces of the park.

Starting point is 04:15:10 Mr. Touchett gave a shrewd, conscious smile. There's room everywhere, my dear, if you'll pay for it. I sometimes think I've paid too much for this. Perhaps you also might have to pay too much. Perhaps I might, the girl replied. The suggestion gave her something more definite to rest on than she had found in her own thoughts, and the fact of this association of her uncle's mild acuteness with her dilemma seemed to prove that she was concerned with the natural and reasonable emotions of life,

Starting point is 04:15:42 and not altogether a victim to intellectual eagerness and vague ambitions, ambitions reaching beyond Lord Warburton's beautiful appeal, reaching to something indefinable and possibly not commendable. Insofar as the indefinable had an influence upon Isabel's behavior at this juncture, it was not the conception, even unformulated, of a union with Casper Goodwood. For however she might have resisted the conquest at her English suitors' large, quiet hands, she was at least as far removed from the disposition to let the young man from Boston take positive possession of her.

Starting point is 04:16:16 The sentiment in which she sought refuge after reading his letter was a critical view of his having come abroad, for it was part of the influence he had upon her that he seemed to deprive her of the sense of freedom. There was a disagreeably strong push, a kind of hardness of presence in his way of rising before her. She had been haunted at moments by the image, by the danger of his disapproval, and had wondered, a consideration she had never paid an equal degree to anyone else, whether he would like what she did. The difficulty was that more than any man she had ever known, more than poor Lord, Warburton. She had begun now to give his lordship the benefit of this epithet. Casper Goodwood expressed for her an energy, and she had already felt it as a power that was of his

Starting point is 04:17:02 very nature. It was in no degree a matter of his advantages. It was a matter of the spirit that sat in his clear burning eyes, like some tireless watcher at a window. She might like it or not, but he insisted ever, with his whole weight and force, even in one's usual contact with him, one had to reckon with that. The idea of a diminished liberty was particularly disagreeable to her at present, since she had just given a sort of personal accent to her independence by looking so straight at Lord Warburton's big bribe, and yet turning away from it.

Starting point is 04:17:36 Sometimes Casper Goodwood had seemed to range himself on the side of her destiny, to be the stubbornest fact she knew. She said to herself at such moments that she might evade him for a time, but that she must make terms with him at last, terms which would be certain to be favourable to himself. Her impulse had been to avail herself of the things that helped her to resist such an obligation, and this impulse had been much concerned in her eager acceptance of her aunt's invitation, which had come to her at an hour when she expected from day to day to see Mr. Goodwood,

Starting point is 04:18:06 and when she was glad to have an answer ready for something she was sure he would say to her. When she had told him at Albany, on the evening of Mrs. Touchett's visit, that she couldn't then discuss difficult questions, dazzled as she was by the the great immediate opening of her aunt's offer of Europe, he declared that this was no answer at all, and it was now to obtain a better one that he was following her across the sea. To say to herself that he was a kind of grim fate was well enough for a fanciful young woman who was able to take much for granted in him, but the reader has a right to a nearer and a clearer view. He was the son of a proprietor of well-known cotton mills in Massachusetts, a gentleman who had accumulated a considerable fortune in the

Starting point is 04:18:47 exercise of this industry. Casper at present managed the works, and with a judgment and a temper which, in spite of keen competition and languid years, had kept their prosperity from dwindling. He had received the better part of his education at Harvard College, where, however, he had gained renown rather as a gymnast and an oarsman than as a gleaner of more dispersed knowledge. Later on he had learned that the finer intelligence too could vault and pull and strain, might even, breaking the record, treat itself to rare exploits. He had thus discovered in himself a sharp eye for the mystery of mechanics, and had invented an improvement at the cotton-spinning process, which was now largely used and was known by his name. You might have seen it in the newspapers in connection with this

Starting point is 04:19:31 fruitful contrivance, assurance of which he had given to Isabel by showing her in the columns of the New York interviewer an exhaustive article on the Goodwood patent, an article not prepared by Miss Stackpole, friendly as she had proved herself to his most. more sentimental interests. There were intricate, bristling things he rejoiced in. He liked to organize, to contend, to administer. He could make people work his will, believe in him, march before him, and justify him. This was the art, as they said, of managing men, which rested in him further on a bold, though brooding, ambition. It struck those who knew him well that he might do greater things than carry on a cotton factory. There was nothing cotton,

Starting point is 04:20:15 about Casper Goodwood, and his friends took for granted that he would somehow and somewhere write himself in bigger letters. But it was as if something large and confused, something dark and ugly, would have to call upon him. He was not, after all, in harmony with mere smug peace and greed and gain, an order of things of which the vital breath was ubiquitous advertisement. It pleased Isabel to believe that he might have ridden, on a plunging steed, the whirlwind of a great war, a war like the civil strife that had over-darkened her conscious childhood and his ripening youth. She liked, at any rate, this idea of his being by character, and in fact, a mover of men, liked it much better than some other points in his nature and aspect. She cared nothing for his

Starting point is 04:21:03 cotton mill. The Goodwood patent left her imagination absolutely cold. She wished him no ounce less of his manhood, but she sometimes thought he would be rather nicer if he looked, for instance, a little differently. His jaw was too square and set, and his figure too straight and stiff. These things suggested a want of easy consonants with the deeper rhythms of life. Then she viewed with reserve a habit he had of dressing always in the same manner. It was not apparently that he wore the same clothes continually, for on the contrary, his garments had a way of looking rather too new. But they all seemed of the same piece. The figure, the stuff, was so drearily usual. She had reminded herself more than once that this was a frivolous objection to a person of his importance,

Starting point is 04:21:48 and then she had amended the rebuke by saying that it would be a frivolous objection only if she were in love with him. She was not in love with him, and therefore might criticize his small defects as well as his great, which latter consisted in the collective reproach of his being too serious, or rather not of his being so, since one could never be, but certainly of his seeming so. He showed his appetites and designs too simply and artlessly. When one was alone with him, he talked too much about the same subject, and when other people were present, he talked too little about anything. And yet he was of supremely strong, clean make, which was so much he saw the different fitted parts of him as she had seen in museums and portraits the different fitted parts of armored warriors,

Starting point is 04:22:34 and plates of steel handsomely inlaid with gold. It was very strange, Where, ever, was any tangible link between her impression and her act? Casper Goodwood had never corresponded to her idea of a delightful person, and she supposed that this was why he left her so harshly critical. When, however, Lord Warburton, who not only did correspond with it, but gave an extension to the term, appealed to her approval, she found herself still unsatisfied. It was certainly strange. The sense of her incoherence was not a help to answering

Starting point is 04:23:10 Mr. Goodwood's letter, and Isabel determined to leave it a while unhonored. If he had determined to persecute her, he must take the consequences, foremost among which was his being left to perceive how little it charmed her that he should come down to Garden Court. She was already liable to the incursions of one suitor at this place, and though it might be pleasant to be appreciated in opposite quarters, there was a kind of grossness in entertaining two such passionate pleaders at once, even in a case where the entertainment should consist of dismissing them. She made no reply to Mr. Goodwood, but at the end of three days she wrote to Lord Warburton, and the letter belongs to our history. Dear Lord Warburton, a great deal of earnest thought has not led me to

Starting point is 04:23:51 change my mind about the suggestion you were so kind as to make to me the other day. I am not, I am really and truly not, able to regard you in the light of a companion for life, or to think of your home, your various homes, as the settled seat of my existence. These things cannot be reasoned about, and I very earnestly entreat you not to return to the subject we discussed so exhaustively. We see our lives from our own point of view. That is the privilege of the weakest and humblest of us, and I shall never be able to see mine in the manner you proposed. Kindly let this suffice you, and do me the justice to believe that I have given your proposal the deeply respectful consideration it deserves. It is with this very great regard that I remain sincerely yours, Isabel Archer.

Starting point is 04:24:38 While the author of this missive was making up her mind to dispatch it, Henrietta Stackpole formed a resolve which was accompanied by no demur. She invited Ralph Touchett to take a walk with her in the garden, and when he had assented with that alacrity which seemed constantly to testify to his high expectations, she informed him that she had a favor to ask of him. It may be admitted that at this information the young man flinched, for we know that Miss Stackpole had struck him as apt to push an advantage. The alarm was unreasoned, however, for he was clear,

Starting point is 04:25:08 clear about the area of her indiscretion, as little as advised of its vertical depth, and he made a very civil profession of the desire to serve her. He was afraid of her, and presently told her so. When you look at me in a certain way my knees knocked together, my faculties desert me. I'm filled with trepidation, and I ask only for strength to execute your commands. You've an address that I've never encountered in any woman. Well, Henrietta replied good-humoredly, If I had not known before that you were trying somehow to abash me, I should know it now.

Starting point is 04:25:41 Of course, I'm easy game. I was brought up with such different customs and ideas. I'm not used to your arbitrary standards, and I've never been spoken to in America as you have spoken to me. If a gentleman conversing with me over there was to speak to me like that, I shouldn't know what to make of it. We take everything more naturally over there, and after all, we're a great deal more simple. I admit that, I'm very simple myself. Of course, if you choose to laugh at me for it, you're very welcome. But I think on the whole I would rather be myself than you.

Starting point is 04:26:10 I'm quite content to be myself. I don't want to change. There are plenty of people that appreciate me just as I am. It's true, they're nice, fresh, free-born Americans. Henrietta had lately taken up the tone of helpless innocence and large concession. I want you to assist me a little. She went on. I don't care in the least whether I amuse you while you do so,

Starting point is 04:26:31 or rather I'm perfectly willing your amusement should be your reward. I want you to help me about Isabel. Has she injured you? Ralph asked. If she had, I shouldn't mind, and I should never tell you. What I'm afraid of is that she'll injure herself. I think that's very possible, said Ralph. His companion stopped in the garden walk, fixing on him perhaps the very gaze that unnerved him. That too would amuse you, I suppose. The way you do say things, I never heard anyone so indifferent. To Isabel? Ah, not that.

Starting point is 04:27:07 Well, you're not in love with her, I hope. How can that be when I'm in love with another? You're in love with yourself, that's the other, Miss Stackpole declared. Much good may it do you. But if you wish to be serious once in your life, here's a chance. And if you really care for your cousin, here's an opportunity to prove it. I don't expect you to understand her.

Starting point is 04:27:28 That's too much to ask. But you needn't do that to grant her. my favor. I'll supply the necessary intelligence. I shall enjoy that immensely, Ralph exclaimed. I'll be Caliban and you shall be Ariel. You're not at all like Caliban, because you're sophisticated and Caliban was not. But I'm not talking about imaginary characters. I'm talking about Isabelle. Isabel's intensely real. What I wish to tell you is that I find her fearfully changed. Since you came, do you mean? Since I came and before I came. She's not the same as she once so beautifully was. As she was in America.

Starting point is 04:28:07 Yes, in America. I suppose you know she comes from there. She can't help it, but she does. Do you want to change her back again? Of course I do, and I want you to help me. Ah, said Ralph. I'm only Caliban. I'm not prospero. You were prosperous enough to make her what she's become. You've acted on Isabel Archer since she came here, Mr. Touchett. I, my dear Miss Stackpole, never in the world. Isabel Archer has acted on me. Yes, she acts on everyone, but I've been absolutely passive. You're too passive, then. You had better stir yourself and be careful. Isabel's changing every day. She's drifting away, right out to sea. I've watched her, and I can see it. She's not the bright American girl she was. She's taking different views, a

Starting point is 04:28:58 different color and turning away from her old ideals. I want to save those ideals, Mr. Touchett, and that's where you come in. Not surely as an ideal. Well, I hope not, Henrietta replied promptly. I've got a fear in my heart that she's going to marry one of these fell Europeans, and I want to prevent it. Ah, I see, cried Ralph, and to prevent it you want me to step in and marry her? Not quite. That remedy would be as bad as the disease. for you're the typical, the fell European from whom I wish to rescue her. No, I wish you to take an interest in another person, a young man to whom she once gave great encouragement, and whom she now doesn't seem to think good enough. He's a thoroughly grand

Starting point is 04:29:42 man and a very dear friend of mine, and I wish very much she would invite him to pay a visit here. Ralph was much puzzled by this appeal, and it is perhaps not to the credit of his purity of mind that he failed to look at it in first in the simplest light. It wore, to his eyes, a torturous air, and his fault was that he was not quite sure that anything in the world could really be as candid as this request of Miss Stackpole's appeared. That a young woman should demand that a gentleman whom she described as her very dear friend should be furnished with an opportunity to make himself agreeable to another young woman, a young woman whose attention had wandered and whose charms were greater. This was an anomaly which for the moment challenged all his ingenuity

Starting point is 04:30:21 of interpretation. To read between the lines was easier than to follow the text, and to suppose that Miss Stackpole wished the gentleman invited to Garden Court on her own account was the sign not so much of a vulgar as of an embarrassed mind. Even from this venial act of vulgarity, however, Ralph was saved, and saved by a force that I can only speak of as inspiration. With no more outward light on the subject than he already possessed, he suddenly acquired the conviction that it would be a sovereign injustice to the correspondent of the interviewer to assign a dishonorable motive to any act of hers. This conviction passed into his mind with extreme rapidity. It was perhaps kindled by the pure radiance of the young lady's imperturbable gaze. He returned this challenge a moment, consciously, resisting an inclination to frown as one frowns

Starting point is 04:31:08 in the presence of larger luminaries. Who's the gentleman you speak of? Mr. Casper Goodwood, of Boston. He's been extremely attentive to Isabel, just as devoted to her as he can live. He has followed her out here, and he's at present in London. I don't know his address, but I guess I can obtain it. I've never heard of him, said Ralph. Well, I suppose you haven't heard of everyone. I don't believe he's ever heard of you, but that's no reason why Isabel shouldn't marry him.

Starting point is 04:31:36 Ralph gave a mild, ambiguous laugh. What a rage you have for marrying people. Do you remember how you wanted to marry me the other day? I've got over that. You don't know how to take such ideas. Mr. Goodwood does, however, and that's what I like about him. He's a splendid man and a perfect gentleman, and Isabel knows it?

Starting point is 04:31:57 Is she very fond of him? If she isn't, she ought to be. He's simply wrapped up in her. And you wish me to ask him here, said Ralph reflectively. It would be an act of true hospitality. Casper Goodwood, Ralph continued. It's a rather striking name. I don't care anything about his name.

Starting point is 04:32:19 It might be Ezekiel Jenkins and I should say the same. He's the only man I have ever. seen whom I think worthy of Isabel. You are a very devoted friend, said Ralph. Of course I am. If you say that to poor scorn on me, I don't care. I don't say it to pour scorn on you. I'm very much struck with it. You're more satiric than ever, but I advise you not to laugh at Mr. Goodwood. I assure you I'm very serious. You ought to understand that, said Ralph. In a moment his companion understood it. I believe you are. Now, now. I'm you're too serious.

Starting point is 04:32:56 You're difficult to please. Oh, you're very serious indeed. You won't invite Mr. Goodwood. I don't know, said Ralph. I'm capable of strange things. Tell me a little about Mr. Goodwood. What's he like? He's just the opposite of you.

Starting point is 04:33:13 He's at the head of a cotton factory, a very fine one. Has he pleasant manners? Asked Ralph. Splendid manners, in the American style. Would he be an agreeable member of our little circle? I don't think he'd care much about our little circle. He'd concentrate on Isabel. And how would my cousin like that?

Starting point is 04:33:33 Very possibly not at all, but it will be good for her. It will call back her thoughts. Call them back? From where? From foreign parts and other unnatural places. Three months ago she gave Mr. Goodwood every reason to suppose he was acceptable to her, and it's not worthy of Isabel to go back on a real friend simply because she has changed the scene. I've changed the scene, too, and the effect of it has been to make me care more for my old associations than ever.

Starting point is 04:33:59 It's my belief that the sooner Isabelle changes it back again the better. I know her well enough to know that she would never be truly happy over here, and I wish her to form some strong American tie that will act as a preservative. Aren't you perhaps a little too much in a hurry? Ralph inquired. Don't you think you ought to give her more of a chance in poor old England? A chance to ruin her bright young life? one's never too much in a hurry to save a precious human creature from drowning.

Starting point is 04:34:26 As I understand it, then, said Ralph, you wish me to push Mr. Goodwood overboard after her. Do you know, he added, that I've never heard her mention his name. Henrietta gave a brilliant smile. I'm delighted to hear that. It proves how much she thinks of him. Ralph appeared to allow that there was a good deal in this, and he surrendered a thought while his companion watched him askance. If I should invite Mr. Goodwood, he finally said,

Starting point is 04:34:56 it would be to quarrel with him. Don't do that. He'd prove the better man. You certainly are doing your best to make me hate him. I really don't think I can ask him. I should be afraid of being rude to him. It's just as you please, Henrietta returned. I had no idea you were in love with her yourself. Do you really believe that?

Starting point is 04:35:17 The young man asked with lifted eyebrows. That's the most natural speech I've ever heard you make. Of course I believe it, Miss Stackpole ingeniously said. Well, Ralph concluded, to prove to you that you're wrong, I'll invite him. It must be, of course, as a friend of yours. It will not be as a friend of mine that he'll come, and it will not be to prove to me that I'm wrong that you'll ask him, but to prove it to yourself.

Starting point is 04:35:44 These last words of Miss Stackpole's, on which the two presently separated, contained an amount of truth which Ralph Touchett was obliged to recognize, but it so far took the edge from too sharp a recognition that in spite of his suspecting it would be rather more indiscreet to keep than to break his promise, he wrote Mr. Goodwood a note of six lines, expressing the pleasure it would give Mr. Touchett the elder that he should join a little party at Garden Court, of which Miss Stackpole was a valued member. Having sent his letter, to the care of a banker whom Henrietta suggested, he waited in some suspense. He had heard heard this fresh, formidable figure named for the first time, for when his mother had mentioned

Starting point is 04:36:23 on her arrival that there was a story about the girls having an admirer at home, the idea had seemed deficient in reality, and he had taken no pains to ask questions, the answers to which would involve only the vague or the disagreeable. Now, however, the native admiration of which his cousin was the object had become more concrete. It took the form of a young man who had followed her to London, who was interested in a cotton mill, and had manners in the most splendid of the American styles. Ralph had two theories about this. Either his passion was a sentimental fiction of Miss Stackpoles. There was always a sort of tacit understanding among women, born of the solidarity of the sex, that they should discover or invent lovers for each other,

Starting point is 04:37:05 in which case he was not to be feared, and would probably not accept the invitation, or else he would accept the invitation, and in this event prove himself a creature too irrational to demand further consideration. The latter clause of Ralph's argument might have seemed incoherent, but it embodied his conviction, that if Mr. Goodwood were interested in Isabel in the serious manner described by Miss Stackpole, he would not care to present himself at Garden Court on a summons from the latter lady. On this supposition, said Ralph, he must regard her as a thorn on the stem of his rose. As an intercessor he must find her wanting and tact. Two days after he had sent his invitation, he received a very short note of the first of a

Starting point is 04:37:45 note from Casper Goodwood, thanking him for it, regretting that other engagements made a visit to Garden Court impossible, and presenting many compliments to Miss Stackpole. Ralph handed the note to Henrietta, who, when she had read it, exclaimed, Well, I never have heard of anything so stiff. I am afraid he doesn't care so much about my cousin as you suppose, Ralph observed. No, it's not that. It's some subtler motive. His nature's very deep. But I'm determined to fathom it, and I shall write to him to know what he means. His refusal of Ralph's overtures was vaguely disconcerting.

Starting point is 04:38:21 From the moment he declined to come to Garden Court, our friend began to think him of importance. He asked himself what it signified to him whether Isabel's admirers should be desperadoes or laggards. They were not rivals of his, and were perfectly welcome to act out their genius. Nevertheless, he felt much curiosity as to the result of Miss Stackpole's promised inquiry into the causes of Mr. Goodwood's stiffness. A curiosity for the present ungratified. Inasmuch as when he asked her three days later

Starting point is 04:38:49 if she had written to London, she was obliged to confess that she had written in vain. Mr. Goodwood had not replied. I suppose he's thinking it over, she said. He thinks everything over. He's not really at all impetuous. But I'm accustomed to having my letters answered the same day. She presently proposed to Isabel, at all events,

Starting point is 04:39:10 that they should make an excursion to London together. If I must tell the truth, she observed, I'm not seeing much at this place, and I shouldn't think you were either. I've not even seen that aristocrat. What's his name? Lord Washburton? He seems to let you severely alone. Lord Warburton's coming tomorrow, I happen to know, replied her friend, who'd received a note from the master of Lockley in answer to her own letter.

Starting point is 04:39:36 You'll have every opportunity of turning him inside out. Well, he may do for one letter, but what's one letter when you want to write 50? I've described all the scenery in this vicinity and raved about all the old women and donkeys. You may say what you please. Scenery doesn't make a vital letter. I must go back to London and get some impressions of real life. I was there but three days before I came away, and that's hardly time to get in touch. As Isabel, on her journey from New York to Garden Court, had seen even less of the British capital than this,

Starting point is 04:40:07 it appeared a happy suggestion of Henrietta's that the two should go thither on a visit of pleasure. The idea struck Isabelle as charming. She was curious of the thick detail of London, which had always loomed large and rich to her. They turned over their schemes together, and indulged in visions of romantic hours. They would stay at some picturesque old inn, one of the inns described by Dickens, and drive over the town in those delightful handsoms. Henrietta was a literary woman, and the great advantage of being a little bit of literary woman was that you could go everywhere and do anything. They would dine at a coffee house and go afterwards to the play. They would frequent the Abbey and the British Museum and find out

Starting point is 04:40:47 where Dr. Johnson had lived, and Goldsmith and Addison. Isabel grew eager and presently unveiled the bright vision to Ralph, who burst into a fit of laughter which scarce expressed the sympathy she had desired. It's a delightful plan, he said. I advise you to go to the Duke's head in Coven Garden, an easy, informal, old-fashioned place, and I'll have you put down at my club. Do you mean it's improper? Isabel asked. Dear me, isn't anything proper here? With Henrietta surely I may go anywhere. She isn't hampered in that way. She's traveled over the whole American continent and can at least find her way about this minute island. Ah, then, said Ralph, let me take advantage of her protection to go up to town as well. I may never have a chance to travel so safely.

Starting point is 04:41:34 End of Chapter 13. Chapter 14 of the Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Librovoc's recording is in the public domain. Miss Stackpole would have prepared to start immediately, but Isabel, as we have seen, had been notified that Lord Warburton would come again to Garden Court, and she believed it her duty to remain there and see him. For four or five days he had made no response to her letter. Then he had written very briefly to say he would come to come to him.

Starting point is 04:42:13 luncheon two days later. There was something in these delays and postponement that touched the girl, and renewed her sense of his desire to be considerate and patient, not to appear to urge her too grossly, a consideration the more studied that she was so sure he really liked her. Isabel told her uncle she had written to him, mentioning also his intention of coming, and the old man, in consequence, left his room earlier than usual and made his appearance at the two o'clock repast. This was by no means. means an act of vigilance on his part, but the fruit of a benevolent belief that his being of the company might help to cover any conjoined straying away in case Isabel should give their noble

Starting point is 04:42:54 visitor another hearing. That personage drove over from Lockley and brought the elder of his sisters with him, a measure presumably dictated by reflections of the same order as Mr. Touchets. The two visitors were introduced to Miss Stackpole, who, at luncheon, occupied a seat adjoining Lord Warburton's. Isabel, who was nervous and had no relish for the prospect of again arguing the question he had so prematurely opened, could not help admiring his good-humoured self-possession, which quite disguised the symptoms of that preoccupation with her presence it was natural she should suppose him to feel. He neither looked at her nor spoke to her, and the only sign of his emotion was that he avoided meeting her eyes. He had plenty of talk for the others, however, and he appeared to eat his luncheon with discrimination and appetite. Miss Mullinier, who had a smooth, nun-like forehead, and wore a large silver cross suspended from her neck, was evidently preoccupied with Henrietta Stackpole, upon whom her eyes constantly rested in a manner suggesting a conflict between deep alienation and yearning wonder. Of the two ladies from Lockley, she was the one Isabelle had liked best. There was such a world of hereditary quiet in her. Isabel was sure, moreover, that her mild forehead and silver cross referred to some weird,

Starting point is 04:44:11 Anglican mystery, some delightful re-institution, perhaps, of the quaint office of the canoness. She wondered what Miss Marligno would think of her if she knew Miss Archer had refused her brother, and then she felt sure that Miss Maligno would never know, that Lord Warburton never told her such things. He was fond of her, and kind to her, but on the whole he told her little. Such at least was Isabel's theory. When, at table, she was not occupied in conversation, she was usually occupied in forming theories about her neighbors. According to Isabel, if Miss Molyneux should ever learn what had passed between Miss Archer and Lord Warburton, she would probably be shocked at such a girl's failure to rise.

Starting point is 04:44:53 Or no, rather, this was our heroine's last position, she would impute to the young American but a due consciousness of inequality. Whatever Isabel might have made of her opportunities, at all events, Henry at a stackpole was by no means disposed, to neglect those in which she now found herself immersed. Do you know you're the first Lord I've ever seen? She said very promptly to her neighbor. I suppose you think I'm awfully benighted.

Starting point is 04:45:20 You've escaped seeing some very ugly men. Lord Warburton answered, looking a trifle absently about the table. Are they very ugly? They try to make us believe in America that they're all handsome and magnificent, and that they wear wonderful robes and crowns. "'Ah, the robes and crowns are gone out of fashion,' said Lord Warburton, "'like your tomahawks and revolvers.' "'I'm sorry for that. I think an aristocracy ought to be splendid,'

Starting point is 04:45:49 Henrietta declared. "'If it's not, what is it?' "'Oh, you know, it isn't much at the best.' Her neighbour allowed. "'Won't you have a potato?' "'I don't care much for these European potatoes. I shouldn't know you from an ordinary American gentleman. Do talk to me as if I were one, said Lord Warburton.

Starting point is 04:46:11 I don't see how you managed to get on without potatoes. You must find so few things to eat over here. Henrietta was silent a little. There was a chance he was not sincere. I've had hardly any appetite since I've been here. She went on at last, so it doesn't much matter. I don't approve of you, you know. I feel as if I ought to tell you that.

Starting point is 04:46:33 "'Don't approve of me?' "'Yes. I don't suppose anyone ever said such a thing to you before, did they? "'I don't approve of lords as an institution. "'I think the world has got beyond them, far beyond. "'Oh, so do I. I don't approve of myself in the least. "'Sometimes it comes over me. "'How I should object to myself if I were not myself, don't you know? "'But that's rather good, by the way, not to be vainglorious.

Starting point is 04:47:01 "'Why don't you give it up, then?' Miss Stackpole inquired. "'Give up—' "'Ah,' asked Lord Warburton, meeting her harsh inflection with a very mellow one. "'Give up, being a lord. "'Oh, I'm so little of one. "'One would really forget all about it if you wretched Americans were not constantly reminding one. "'However, I do think of giving it up. "'The little there is left of it, one of these days.

Starting point is 04:47:30 "'I should like to see you do it. it." Henrietta exclaimed rather grimly. "'I'll invite you to the ceremony. We'll have a supper and a dance.' "'Well,' said Miss Stackpole, "'I like to see all sides. I don't approve of a privileged class, but I like to hear what they have to say for themselves. Mighty little, as you see.' "'I should like to draw you out a little more,' Henrietta continued. "'But you're always looking away. You're afraid of meeting my eye. I see you want

Starting point is 04:48:01 to escape me. No, I'm only looking for those despised potatoes. Please explain about that young lady, your sister. I don't understand about her. Is she a lady? She's a capital, good girl. I don't like the way you say that, as if you wanted to change the subject. Is her position inferior to yours? We neither of us have any position to speak of, but she's better off than I, because she has none of the bother. Yes, she doesn't look as if she's. She doesn't look as if she had much bother. I wish I had as little bother as that. You do produce quiet people over here, whatever else you may do. Ah, you see one takes life easily on the whole, said Lord Warburton. And then you know we're very dull. Ah, we can be dull when we try. I should advise you to try

Starting point is 04:48:51 something else. I shouldn't know what to talk to your sister about. She looks so different. Is that Silver Cross a badge? A badge? A badge? A sign of rank. Lord Warburton's glance had wandered a good deal, but at this it met the gaze of his neighbour. Oh, yes, he answered in a moment. The women go in for those things. The silver cross is worn by the eldest daughters of Viscounts, which was his harmless

Starting point is 04:49:20 revenge for having occasionally had his credulity too easily engaged in America. After luncheon he proposed to Isabel to come into the gallery and look at the pictures, and though she knew he had seen the pictures to. twenty times, she complied without criticizing this pretext. Her conscience now was very easy. Ever since she had sent him her letter, she had felt particularly light of spirit. He walked slowly to the end of the gallery, staring at its contents and saying nothing, and then suddenly he broke out. I hoped you wouldn't write to me that way. It was the only way, Lord Warburton, said the girl. Do try and believe it.

Starting point is 04:49:59 If I could believe it, of course, I should let you alone. But we can't believe by willing it. And I confess I don't understand. I could understand your disliking me. That I could understand well. But that you should admit you do. What have I admitted? Isabel interrupted, turning slightly pale.

Starting point is 04:50:22 That you think me a good fellow. Isn't that it? She said nothing and he went on. You don't seem to have any. reason, and that gives me a sense of injustice. I have a reason, Lord Warburton. She said it in a tone that made his heart contract. I should like very much to know it.

Starting point is 04:50:43 I'll tell you some day when there's more to show for it. Excuse my saying that in the meantime I must doubt of it. You make me very unhappy, said Isabel. I'm not sorry for that. It may help you to know what I feel. Will you kindly answer me a question? Isabel made no audible assent, but he apparently saw in her eyes something that gave him courage to go on.

Starting point is 04:51:09 Do you prefer someone else? That's a question I'd rather not answer. Ah, you do, then. Her suitor murmured with bitterness. The bitterness touched her, and she cried out, You're mistaken, I don't. He sat down on a bench unceremoniously, doggedly. like a man in trouble, leaning his elbows on his knees and staring at the floor.

Starting point is 04:51:34 I can't even be glad of that, he said at last, throwing himself back against the wall, for that would be an excuse. She raised her eyebrows and surprise. An excuse? Must I excuse myself? He paid, however, no answer to the question. Another idea had come into his head. Is it my political opinions?

Starting point is 04:51:58 Do you think I go too far? I can't object to your political opinions because I don't understand them. You don't care what I think, he cried getting up. It's all the same to you. Isabel walked to the other side of the gallery and stood there showing him her charming back, her light slim figure,

Starting point is 04:52:18 the length of her white neck as she bent her head, and the density of her dark braids. She stopped in front of a small picture, as if for the purpose of examining it. And there was something so young and free in her movement that her very pliancy seemed to mock at him. Her eyes, however, saw nothing. They had been suddenly suffused with tears. In a moment he followed her, and by this time she had brushed her tears away, but when she turned round her face was pale, and the expression of her eyes strange. That reason that I wouldn't tell you. I'll tell it to you

Starting point is 04:52:53 after all. It's that I can't escape my fate. Your fate? I should try to escape it if I were to marry you. I don't understand. Why should not that be your fate as well as anything else? Because it's not, said Isabel femininely. I know it's not. It's not my fate to give up. I know it can't be. Poor Lord Warburton stared, an interrogative point in either eye. Do you call marrying me giving up? Not in the usual sense. It's getting... Getting...

Starting point is 04:53:32 Getting a great deal. But it's giving up other chances. Other chances for what? I don't mean chances to marry, said Isabel, her colour quickly coming back to her. And then she... she stopped, looking down with a deep frown, as if it were hopeless to attempt to make her meaning clear. "'I don't think it presumptuous in me to suggest that you'll gain more than you'll lose,' her companion observed. "'I can't escape unhappiness,' said Isabel. "'In marrying you I shall be trying to.'

Starting point is 04:54:08 "'I don't know whether you'd try to, but you certainly would. That I must in candor admit,' he exclaimed with an anxious laugh. I mustn't. I can't, cried the girl. Well, if you're bent on being miserable, I don't see why you should make me so. Whatever charms a life of misery may have for you, it has none for me. I'm not bent on a life of misery, said Isabel. I've always been intensely determined to be happy, and I've often believed I should be.

Starting point is 04:54:41 I've told people that. You can ask them. But it comes over me. every now and then that I can never be happy in any extraordinary way, not by turning away, by separating myself. By separating yourself from what? From life? From the usual chances and dangers, from what most people know and suffer. Lord Warburton broke into a smile that almost denoted hope. Why, my dear Miss Archer, he began to explain with the most considerate eagerness. I don't off you any exoneration from life or from any chances or dangers whatever. I wish I could. Depend upon

Starting point is 04:55:22 it I would. For what do you take me, pray? Heaven help me, I'm not the emperor of China. All I offer you is the chance of taking the common lot in a comfortable sort of way. The common lot? Why, I'm devoted to the common lot. Strike an alliance with me, and I promise you, you shall have plenty of it. You shall separate from nothing whatever, not even from your friend, Miss Stackpole. "'She'd never approve of it,' said Isabel, trying to smile and take advantage of his side issue, despising herself too not a little for doing so. "'Are we speaking of Miss Stackpole?' his lordship asked impatiently. "'I never saw a person judge things on such theoretic grounds.'

Starting point is 04:56:04 "'Now I suppose you're speaking of me,' said Isabel with humility, and she turned away again, for she saw Miss Mollinia entered the gallery, accompanied by Henrietta and by Ralph. Lord Warburton's sister addressed him with a certain timidity and reminded him she ought to return home in time for tea as she was expecting company to partake of it. He made no answer, apparently not having heard her. He was preoccupied and with good reason.

Starting point is 04:56:33 Miss Mollinia, as if he had been royalty, stood like a lady in waiting. "'Well, I never, Miss Mollinia,' said Henrietta Stackpole. "'If I wanted to go, he'd have to go. If I wanted my brother to do a thing, he'd have to do it. Oh, Walburton does everything one wants, Miss Marlonia answered with a quick, shy laugh. How very many pictures you have, she went on, turning to Ralph. They look a good many because they're all put together, said Ralph,

Starting point is 04:57:04 but it's really a bad way. Oh, I think it's so nice. I wish we had a gallery at Lockely. I'm so very fond of pictures. Miss Malignia went on persistently to, Ralph, as if she were afraid Miss Stackpole would address her again. Henrietta appeared at once to fascinate and to frighten her. Ah, yes, pictures are very convenient, said Ralph, who appeared to know better what style of

Starting point is 04:57:28 reflection was acceptable to her. They're so very pleasant when it rains, the young lady continued. It has rained of late so very often. I'm sorry you're going away, Lord Warburton, said Henrietta. I wanted to get a great deal more out of you. "'I'm not going away,' Lord Warburton answered. "'Your sister says you must. "'In America the gentlemen obey the ladies.'

Starting point is 04:57:54 "'I'm afraid we have some people to tea,' said Miss Molyneux, looking at her brother. "'Very good, my dear, we'll go.' "'I hoped you would resist,' Henrietta exclaimed. "'I wanted to see what Miss Molyneux would do.' "'I never do anything,' said this young lady. "'I suppose in your position it's sufficient for you to exist.' Miss Stackpole returned. I should like very much to see you at home.

Starting point is 04:58:20 You must come to Lockley again, said Miss Molyneuxley again, ignoring this remark of Isabelle's friend. Isabel looked into her quiet eyes a moment, and for that moment seemed to see in their grey depths the reflection of everything she had rejected in rejecting Lord Warburton. The peace, the kindness, the honour, the possessions, a deep security and a great exclusion. She kissed Miss Molynella and then,

Starting point is 04:58:45 she said. I'm afraid I can never come again. Never again? I'm afraid I'm going away. Oh, I'm so very sorry, said Miss Molyneux. I think that's so very wrong of you. Lord Warburton watched this little passage, then he turned away and stared at a picture. Ralph, leaning against the rail before the picture with his hands and his pockets, had for the moment been watching him. I should like to see you at home, said Henrietta. whom Lord Warburton found beside him. I should, like, an hour's talk with you. There are a great many questions I wish to ask you.

Starting point is 04:59:23 I shall be delighted to see you, the proprietor of Lockley answered. But I'm certain not to be able to answer many of your questions. When will you come? Whenever Miss Archer will take me? We're thinking of going to London, but we'll go and see you first. I'm determined to get some satisfaction out of you.

Starting point is 04:59:41 If it depends upon Miss Archer, I'm afraid you won't get much. She won't come to Lockley. She doesn't like the place. She told me it was lovely, said Henrietta. Lord Warburton hesitated. She won't come all the same. You had better come alone, he added.

Starting point is 05:00:00 Henrietta straightened herself and her large eyes expanded. Would you make that remark to an English lady? She inquired with soft disparity. Lord Warburton stared. Yes, if I liked her enough. You'd be careful not to like her enough. If Miss Archer won't visit your place again, it's because she doesn't want to take me.

Starting point is 05:00:21 I know what she thinks of me, and I suppose you think the same, that I oughtn't to bring in individuals. Lord Warburton was at a loss. He had not been made acquainted with Miss Stackpole's professional character and failed to catch her illusion. Miss Archer has been warning you, she therefore went on.

Starting point is 05:00:41 Warning me. Isn't that why, she came off alone with you here, to put you on your guard? Oh, dear no, said Lord Warburton brazenly. Our talk had no such solemn character as that. Well, you've been on your guard, intensely. I suppose it's natural to you. That's just what I wanted to observe.

Starting point is 05:01:01 And so, too, Miss Mollinia. She wouldn't commit herself. You have been warned, anyway. Henrietta continued, addressing this young lady. But for you, it wasn't necessary. I hope not. said Miss Molyneux-Mollinia vaguely. Miss Stackpole takes notes,

Starting point is 05:01:19 Ralph soothingly explained. She's a great satirist. She sees through us all, and she works us up. Well, I must say I have never had such a collection of bad material, Henrietta declared, looking from Isabel to Lord Warburton, and from this noblem to his sister and to Ralph, there's something the matter with you all. You're as dismal as if you got a bad cable.

Starting point is 05:01:42 You do see through us, Miss Stackpole. said Ralph in a low tone, giving her a little intelligent nod as he led the party out of the gallery. There's something the matter with us all. Isabel came behind these two. Miss Malignor, who decidedly liked her immensely, had taken her arm to walk beside her over the polished floor. Lord Warburton strolled on the other side with his hands behind him and his eyes lowered. For some moments he said nothing, and then, is it true you're going to London? he asked. I believe it has been been arranged. And when shall you come back? In a few days, but probably for a very short time, I'm going to Paris with my aunt. When then shall I see you again? Not for a good while,

Starting point is 05:02:28 said Isabel, but some day or other I hope. Do you really hope it? Very much. He went a few steps in silence, then he stopped and put out his hand. Goodbye. Goodbye. Goodbye. said Isabel. Miss Malignia kissed her again, and she let the two depart. After it, without rejoining Henrietta and Ralph, she retreated to her own room, in which apartment before dinner she was found by Mrs. Touchett, who had stopped on her way to the salon. "'I may as well tell you,' said that lady,

Starting point is 05:03:03 "'that your uncle has informed me of your relations with Lord Warburton.' Isabel considered, "'Relations. They're hardly relations. That's the strange part of it.' He has seen be but three or four times. Why did you tell your uncle rather than me? Mrs. Touchett dispassionately asked. Again, the girl hesitated.

Starting point is 05:03:25 Because he knows Lord Warburton better. Yes, but I know you better. I'm not sure of that, said Isabel, smiling. Neither am I, after all, especially when you give me that rather conceited look. One would think you were awfully pleased with yourself and had carried off a prize. I suppose that when you refuse an offer like Lord Warburton's,

Starting point is 05:03:47 it's because you expect to do something better. Ah, my uncle didn't say that, cried Isabel, smiling still. End of Chapter 14. Chapter 15 of The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. It had been arranged that the two young ladies should proceed to London under Ralph's escort. though Mrs. Touchett looked with little favor on the plan. It was just the sort of plan, she said, that Miss Stackpole would be sure to suggest,

Starting point is 05:04:29 and she inquired if the correspondent of the interviewer was to take the party to stay at her favorite boarding-house. I don't care where she takes us to stay, so long as there's local color, said Isabel. That's what we're going to London for. I suppose that after a girl has refused an English lord, she may do anything. Her aunt rejoined. After that, one needn't stand on trifles. Should you have liked me to marry Lord Warburton?

Starting point is 05:05:00 Isabel inquired. Of course I should. I thought you disliked the English so much. So I do, but it's all the greater reason for making use of them. Is that your idea of marriage? And Isabel ventured to add that her aunt appeared to her to have made very very, little use of Mr. Touchett. "'Your uncle's not an English nobleman,' said Mrs. Touchett,

Starting point is 05:05:26 though even if he had been, I should still probably have taken up my residence in Florence. "'Do you think Lord Warburton could make me any better than I am?' The girl asked with some animation. "'I don't mean I'm too good to improve. I mean that I don't love Lord Warburton enough to marry him.' "'You did right to refuse him, then?' said Mrs. touch it in her smallest, spareest voice. Only the next great offer you get, I hope you'll manage to come up to your standard. We had better wait till the offer comes before we talk about it.

Starting point is 05:06:02 I hope very much I may have no more offers for the present. They upset me completely. You probably won't be troubled with them if you adopt permanently the bohemian manner of life. However, I've promised Ralph not to criticize. I'll do whatever Ravis. I'll do whatever Ravis. says is right. Isabel returned, I've unbounded confidence in Ralph. His mother is much obliged to you. This lady dryly laughed. It seems to me indeed she ought to feel it. Isabel irrepressibly answered. Ralph had assured her that there would be no violation of decency in their paying a visit, the little party of three, to the sights of the metropolis. But Mrs. Touchett took a different view. Like many ladies of her country who had lived a long time in Europe,

Starting point is 05:06:54 she had completely lost her native tact on such points, and in her reaction, not in itself deplorable, against the liberty allowed to young persons beyond the seas, had fallen into gratuitous and exaggerated scruples. Ralph accompanied their visitors to town and established them at a quiet inn, in a street that ran at right angles to Piccadilly. His first idea had been take them to his father's house in Winchester Square, a large dull mansion, which at this period of the year was shrouded in silence and brown Holland. But he bethought himself that, the cook, being at Garden Court, there was no one in the house to get them their meals, and Pratt's Hotel accordingly became their resting place. Ralph, on his side, found quarters in Winchester

Starting point is 05:07:41 Square, having a den there, of which he was very fond, and being familiar with deeper fears than that of a cold kitchen. He availed himself largely indeed of the resources of Pratt's hotel, beginning his day with an early visit to his fellow-travelers, who had Mr. Pratt in person, in a large, bulging white waistcoat to remove their dish-covers. Ralph turned up, as he said, after breakfast, and the little party made out a scheme of entertainment for the day. As London wears in the month of September a face blank but for its smears of prior service, the young man, who occasionally took an apologetic tone, was obliged to remind his companion, to Miss Stackpole's high division, that there wasn't a creature in town.

Starting point is 05:08:28 I suppose you mean the aristocracy are absent, Henrietta answered, but I don't think you could have a better proof that if they were absent altogether, they wouldn't be missed. It seems to me the place is about as full as it can be. There's no one here, of course, but three or four millions of people. What is it you call them, the lower middle class? They're only the population of London, and that's of no consequence. Ralph declared that for him the aristocracy left no void that Miss Stackpole herself didn't fill, and that a more contented man was nowhere at that moment to be found.

Starting point is 05:09:05 In this he spoke the truth, for the stale September days in the huge, half-empty town, had a charm wrapped in them as a coloured gem might be wrapped in a dusty cloth. When he went home at night to the empty house in Winchester Square, after a chain of hours with his comparatively ardent friends, he wandered into the big, dusky dining-room, where the candle he took from the hall table after letting himself in, constituted the only illumination. The square was still, the house was still. When he raised one of the windows of the dining-room to let in the air, he heard the slow creak of the boots of a lone constable.

Starting point is 05:09:43 His own step in the empty place seemed loud and sonorous. Some of the carpets had been raised, and whenever he moved he roused a melancholy echo. He sat down one of the armchairs, the big dark dining table twinkled here and there in the small candlelight. The pictures on the wall, all of them very brown,

Starting point is 05:10:04 looked vague and incoherent. There was a ghostly presence, as of dinners long since digested, of table-talk that had lost its actuality. This hint of the supernatural perhaps had something to do with the fact that his imagination took a flight, and that he remained in his chair a long time beyond the hour at which he should have been in bed, doing nothing, not even reading the evening paper. I say he did nothing, and I maintain the phrase in the face of the fact that he thought

Starting point is 05:10:36 at these moments of Isabel. To think of Isabel could only be for him in idle pursuit, leading to nothing and profiting little to anyone. His cousin had not yet seemed to him so charming as during these days spent in sounding, tourist fashion, the deeps and shallows of the metropolitan element. Isabel was full of premises, conclusions, emotions. If she had come in search of local color, she found it everywhere. She asked more questions than he could answer, and launched brave theories as to historic cause and social effect that he was equally unable to accept or to refute. The party went more than once to the British Museum, and to that brighter palace of art which reclaims for antique variety so large an area of a monotonous suburb. They spent

Starting point is 05:11:27 a morning in the abbey and went on a penny steamer to the tower. They looked at pictures, both in public and private collections, and sat on various occasions beneath the great trees in Kensington Gardens. Henrietta proved an indestructible sightseer, and a more lenient judge than Ralph had ventured to hope. She had indeed many disappointments, and London at large suffered from her vivid remembrance of the strong points of the American civic idea. But she made the best of its dingy dignities, and only heaved an occasional sigh and

Starting point is 05:12:01 uttered a desultory, well, which led no further and lost itself in retrospect. The truth was that, as she said herself, she was not in her element. I've not a sympathy with inanimate objects, she remarked to Isabel at the National Gallery, and she continued to suffer from the meagerness of the glimpse that had as yet been vouchsafed to her of the inner life. Landscapes by Turner and Assyrian Bulls were a poor substitute for the literary dinner parties, at which she had hoped to meet the genius and renown of Great Britain. Where are your public men? Where are your men and women of intellect?

Starting point is 05:12:41 She inquired of Ralph, standing in the middle of Trafalgar Square, as if she had supposed this to be a place where she would naturally meet a few. That's one of them, on top of the column you say, Lord Nelson. Was he a lord too? Wasn't he high enough that they had to stick him a hundred feet in the air? That's the past. I don't care about the past. I want to see some of the leading minds of the world. the present. I won't say of the future, because I don't believe much in your future.

Starting point is 05:13:12 Poor Ralph had few leading minds among his acquaintance, and rarely enjoyed the pleasure of button-hulling a celebrity, a state of things which appeared to Miss Stackpole to indicate a deplorable want of enterprise. If I were on the other side, I should call, she said, and tell the gentleman, whoever he might be, that I had heard a great deal about him, and had come to see for myself. But I gather from what you say that this is not the custom here. You seem to have plenty of meaningless customs, but none of those that would help along. We are in advance, certainly. I suppose I shall have to give up the social side altogether.

Starting point is 05:13:49 And Henrietta, though she went about with her guidebook and pencil, and wrote a letter to the interviewer about the tower, in which she described the execution of Lady Jane Grey, had a sad sense of falling below her mission. The incident that had preceded Isabelle's departure from Garden Court left a painful trace in our young woman's mind. When she felt again in her face, as from a recurrent wave, the cold breath of her last suitors' surprise,

Starting point is 05:14:18 she could only muffle her head until the air cleared. She could not have done less than what she did. This was certainly true. But her necessity all the same had been as graceless as some physical act in a strained attitude, and she felt no desire to take credit for her conduct. Mixed with this imperfect pride, nevertheless, was a feeling of freedom, which in itself was sweet,

Starting point is 05:14:42 and which, as she wandered through the great city with her ill-matched companions, occasionally throbbed into odd demonstrations. When she walked in Kensington Gardens, she stopped the children, mainly of the poor sort, whom she saw playing in the grass. She asked them their names and gave them sixpence, and when they were pretty, kissed them.

Starting point is 05:15:05 Ralph noticed these quaint charities. He noticed everything she did. One afternoon that his companions might pass the time, he invited them to tea in Winchester Square, and he had the house set in order as much as possible for their visit. There was another guest to meet them, an amiable bachelor, an old friend of Ralph's who happened to be in town, and for whom prompt commerce with Miss Stackpole

Starting point is 05:15:28 appeared to have neither difficulty nor dread. Mr. Bantling, a stout, sleek, smiling man of forty, wonderfully dressed, universally informed and incoherently amused, laughed immoderately at everything Henrietta said, gave her several cups of tea, examined in her society the bric-a-brac, of which Ralph had a considerable collection, and afterwards, when the host proposed they should go out into the square and pretend it was a fetechampetre, walked round the limited enclosure several times with her, and, at a dozen turns of their talk, bounded responsive, as with a positive passion for argument, to her remarks upon the inner life. Oh, I see. I dare say you found it very quiet at Garden Court.

Starting point is 05:16:14 Naturally, there's not much going on there when there's such a lot of illness about. Touch it's very bad, you know. The doctors have forbidden his being in England at all, and he has only come back to take care of his father. The old man, I believe, has half a dozen things the matter with him. They call it gout, but to my certain knowledge he has organic disease so developed that you may depend upon it he'll go some day soon quite quickly. Of course, that sort of thing makes a dreadfully dull house. I wonder they have people when they can do so little for them. Then I believe Mr. Touchett's always squabbling with his wife. She lives away from her husband, you know, in that extraordinary American way of yours.

Starting point is 05:16:52 If you want a house where there's always something going on, I recommend you go down and stay with my sister, Lady Pencil. in Bedfordshire. I'll write to her tomorrow, and I'm sure she'll be delighted to ask you. I know just what you want. You want a house where they go in for theatricals and picnics and that sort of thing. My sister's just that sort of woman. She's always getting up something or other, and she's always glad to have the sort of people who help her. I'm sure she'll ask you down by by return of post. She's tremendously fond of distinguished people and writers. She writes herself, you know, but I haven't read everything she's written. It's usually poetry, and I don't go in much for poetry. Unless it's Byron. I suppose you think a great deal of Byron in America.

Starting point is 05:17:34 Mr. Bantling continued, expanding in the stimulating air of Miss Stackpole's attention, bringing up his sequences promptly and changing his topic with an easy turn of hand. Yet he nonetheless gracefully kept in sight of the idea, dazzling to Henrietta, of her going to stay with Lady Pencil in Bedfordshire. I understand what you want. You want to see some genuine English sport. The touchets aren't English at all, you know. They have their own habits, their own language, their own food, some odd religion even, I believe, of their own.

Starting point is 05:18:07 The old man thinks it's wicked to hunt, I'm told. You must get down to my sisters in time for the theatricals, and I'm sure she'll be glad to give you a part. I'm sure you act well. I know you're very clever. My sister's 40 years old and has seven children, but she's going to play the principal part. Plain as she is, she makes up awfully well.

Starting point is 05:18:27 I will say for her. Of course you needn't act if you don't want to. In this manner, Mr. Bantling delivered himself while they strolled over the grass in Winchester Square, which, although it had been peppered by the London soot, invited the tread to linger. Henrietta thought her blooming, easy-voiced bachelor, with his impressibility to feminine merit and his splendid range of suggestion, a very agreeable man, and she valued the opportunity he offered her. I don't know, but I would go if your sister should ask me. I think it would be my duty. What do you call her name?

Starting point is 05:19:04 Pencil. It's an odd name, but it isn't a bad one. I think one name's as good as another, but what's her rank? Oh, she's a baron's wife, a convenient sort of rank. You're fine enough, and you're not too fine. I don't know, but what she'd be too fine for me. What do you call the place she lives in? Bedfordshire?

Starting point is 05:19:25 She lives away in the northern corner of it. It's a tiresome county, but I dare say you won't mind. I'll try and run down while you're there. All of this was very pleasant to Miss Stackpole, and she was sorry to be obliged to separate from Lady Pencil's obliging brother. But it happened that she had met the day before, in Piccadilly, some friends whom she had not seen for a year, the Miss Climers, two ladies from Wilmington, Delaware,

Starting point is 05:19:51 who had been travelling on the continent and were now preparing to re-embark. Henrietta had had a long interview with them on the Piccadilly pavement, and though the three ladies all talked at once, they had not exhausted their store. It had been agreed, therefore, that Henrietta should come and dine with them in their lodgings in German Street at six o'clock on the morrow, and she now bethought herself of this engagement. She prepared to start for German Street, taking leave first of Ralph Touchett and Isabel, who, seated on garden chairs in another part of the enclosure, were occupied, if the term may be used. with an exchange of amenities less pointed than the practical colloquy of Miss Stackpole and Mr. Bantling. When it had been settled between Isabel and her friend that they should be reunited at some reputable hour at Pratt's Hotel, Ralph remarked that the latter must have a cab. She couldn't walk all the way to German Street. I suppose you mean it's improper for me to walk alone, Henrietta exclaimed.

Starting point is 05:20:49 Merciful powers, have I come to this? There's not the slightest need of your walk. alone?" Mr. Bantling gaily interposed. I should be greatly pleased to go with you. I simply mean that you'd be late for dinner, Ralph returned. Those poor ladies may easily believe that we refuse at the last to spare you. You had better have a handsome, Henrietta, said Isabel. I'll get you a handsome if you'll trust me. Mr. Bantling went on.

Starting point is 05:21:18 We might walk a little till we meet one. I don't see why I shouldn't trust him, do you? Henrietta inquired of Isabel. I don't see what Mr. Bantling could do to you, Isabel obligingly answered. But if you like, we'll walk with you till you'll find your cab. Never mind, we'll go alone. Come on, Mr. Bantling, and take care you get me a good one. Mr. Bantling promised to do his best, and the two took their departure,

Starting point is 05:21:46 leaving the girl and her cousin together in the square, over which a clear September twilight had now begun to gather. It was perfectly still. The wide quadrangle of dusky houses showed lights and none of the windows, where the shutters and blinds were closed. The pavements were a vacant expanse, and putting aside two small children from a neighboring slum, who, attracted by symptoms of abnormal animation in the interior, poked their faces between the rusty rails of the enclosure, the most vivid object within sight was the big

Starting point is 05:22:18 red pillar post on the southeast corner. Henrietta will ask him to get into the cab and go with her to German Street. Ralph observed. He always spoke of Miss Stackpole as Henrietta. Very possibly, said his companion. Or rather, no, she won't, he went on. But Bantling will ask leave to get in. Very likely again, I'm very glad they're such good friends.

Starting point is 05:22:46 She has made a conquest. He thinks her a brilliant woman. "'It may go far,' said Ralph. "'Isabel was briefly silent. "'I call Henrietta a very brilliant woman, "'but I don't think it will go far. "'They would never really know each other. "'He has not the least idea what she really is,

Starting point is 05:23:06 "'and she has no just comprehension of Mr. Bantling. "'There's no more usual basis of union than a mutual misunderstanding, "'but it ought not to be so difficult to understand Bob Bantling,' Ralph added. He is a very simple organism. Yes, but Henriette is a simpler one still. And pray, what am I to do? Isabel asked, looking about her through the fading light,

Starting point is 05:23:32 in which the limited landscape gardening of the square took on a large and effective appearance. I don't imagine that you'll propose that you and I, for our amusement, shall drive about London and a handsome. There's no reason we shouldn't stay here, if you don't dislike it. It's very warm. There will be half an hour yet before dark, and if you permit it, I'll light a cigarette.

Starting point is 05:23:54 You may do what you please, said Isabel, if you'll amuse me till seven o'clock. I propose at that hour to go back and partake of a simple and solitary repast, two poached eggs and a muffin, at Pratt's Hotel. May and I dine with you? Ralph asked. No, you'll dine at your club. They had wandered back to their chairs in the center of the school. again, and Ralph had lighted his cigarette. It would have given him extreme pleasure to be present in person at the modest little feast she had sketched, but in default of this he liked

Starting point is 05:24:30 even being forbidden. For the moment, however, he liked immensely being alone with her, in the thickening dusk, in the centre of the multitudinous town. It made her seem to depend upon him, and to be in his power. This power he could exert but vaguely, the best exercise of it was to accept her decision submissively, which indeed there was already an emotion in doing. Why won't you let me dine with you? He demanded after a pause. Because I don't care for it. I suppose you're tired of me. I shall be an hour hence. You see, I have the gift of fore knowledge. Oh, I shall be delightful meanwhile, said Ralph. But he said nothing more, and as she made no rejoinder, they sat some time in a stillness which seemed to contradict his promise

Starting point is 05:25:21 of entertainment. It seemed to him she was preoccupied, and he wondered what she was thinking about. There were two or three very possible subjects. At last he spoke again. Is your objection to my society this evening caused by her expectation of another visitor? She turned her head with a glance of her clear, fair eyes. Another visitor? What visitor should I have? He had none to suggest, which made his question seem to himself silly,

Starting point is 05:25:54 as well as brutal. You've a great many friends that I don't know. You've a whole past from which I was perversely excluded. You were reserved for my future. You must remember that my past is over there across the water. There's none of it here in London. Very good, then, since your future is seated beside you. Capital thing to have your future so handy.

Starting point is 05:26:18 And Ralph lighted another cigarette, and reflected that Isabel probably meant she had received news that Mr. Casper Goodwood had crossed to Paris. After he lighted his cigarette, he puffed it a while, and then he resumed. I promised, just now, to be very amusing, but you see I don't come up to the mark. And the fact is, there's a good deal of temerity in one's undertaking to. amuse a person like you. What do you care for my feeble attempts? You've grand ideas. You've a high standard in such matters. I ought at least to bring in a band of music or a company of mountebanks. One mountebanks enough, and you do very well. Pray go on, and in another ten minutes I shall begin to laugh. I assure you I'm very serious, said Ralph. You do really ask a great deal. I don't know what you

Starting point is 05:27:10 mean. I ask nothing. You accept nothing, said Ralph. She colored, and now suddenly it seemed to her that she guessed his meaning. But why should he speak to her of such things? He hesitated a little, and then he continued. There's something I should like very much to say to you. It's a question I wish to ask. It seems to me I've a right to ask it, because I have a kind of interest in the answer. Ask what you will, Isabel replied gently, and I'll try to satisfy you. Well, then, I hope you won't mind my saying that Warburton has told me of something that has passed between you. Isabel suppressed a start. She sat looking at her open fan. Very good. I suppose it was natural, he should tell you.

Starting point is 05:28:03 I have his leave to let you know he has done so. He has some hope still, said Ravis. still he had it a few days ago i don't believe he has any now said the girl i'm very sorry for him then he's such an honest man pray did he ask you to talk to me no not that but he told me because he couldn't help it were old friends and he was greatly disappointed he sent me a line asking me to come and see him and i drove over to lockley the before he and his sister lunched with us. He was very heavy-hearted. He had just got a letter from you. Did he show you the letter? asked Isabel with momentary loftiness. By no means, but he told me it was a neat refusal. I was very sorry for him. Ralph repeated. For some moments Isabel said nothing. Then at last, do you know how often he had seen me? She inquired. five or six times. That's to your glory. It's not for that, I say it. What then do you say it for? Not to prove that poor Warburton's state of mind superficial, because I'm pretty sure you don't think that.

Starting point is 05:29:26 Isabel certainly was unable to say she thought it, but presently she said something else. If you've not been requested by Lord Warburton to argue with me, then you're doing it disinterestedly, or for the love of argument. I have no wish to argue with you at all. I only wish to leave you alone. I'm simply greatly interested in your own sentiments. I'm greatly obliged to you, cried Isabel with a slightly nervous laugh. Of course you mean that I'm meddling in what doesn't concern me.

Starting point is 05:29:58 But why shouldn't I speak to you of this matter without annoying you or embarrassing myself? What's the use of being your cousin if I can't have a few privileges? What's the use of adoring you without hope of a reward if I can't have a few compensations? What's the use of being ill and disabled and restricted to mere spectatorship at the game of life if I really can't see the show when I've paid so much for my ticket? Tell me this. Ralph went on while she listened to him with quickened attention. What had you in mind when he refused Lord Warburton?

Starting point is 05:30:32 What had I in mind? What was the logic, the view of your situation, that dictated so remarkable an act? I didn't wish to marry him, if that's logic. No, that's not logic, and I knew that before. It's really nothing, you know. What was it you said to yourself? You certainly said more than that. Isabel reflected a moment, then answered with a question of her own.

Starting point is 05:31:01 Why do you call it a remarkable act? That's what your mother thinks, too. Warburton's such a thorough good sort. As a man, I consider he has hardly a fault. And then he's what they call here no end of a swell. He has immense possessions, and his wife would be thought a superior being. He unites the intrinsic and the extrinsic advantages. Isabel watched her cousin, as to see how far he would go.

Starting point is 05:31:30 I refused him because he was too perfect then. I'm not perfect myself, and he's too good for me. Beside, his perfection would irritate me. That's ingenious rather than candid, said Ralph. As a fact, you think nothing in the world too perfect for you. Do you think I'm so good? No, but you're exacting all the same, without the excuse of thinking yourself good. "'19 women out of twenty, however,

Starting point is 05:32:00 "'even of the most exacting sort, "'would have managed to do with Warburton. "'Perhaps you don't know how he has been stalked. "'I don't wish to know. "'But it seems to me,' said Isabel, "'that one day when we talked of him "'you mentioned odd things in him.' "'Ralph smokingly considered.

Starting point is 05:32:19 "'I hope that what I said then had no weight with you, "'for they were not false the things I spoke of. "'They were simply peculiarities of his position. If I had known he wished to marry you, I'd never have alluded to them. I think I said that as regards that position, he was rather a skeptic. It would have been in your power to make him a believer. I think not. I don't understand the matter, and I'm not conscious of any mission of that sort.

Starting point is 05:32:45 You're evidently disappointed, Isabel added, looking at her cousin with rueful gentleness. You'd have liked me to make such a marriage. Not in the least. I'm absolutely without a wish on the subject. I don't pretend to advise you, and I content myself with watching you, with the deepest interest. She gave rather a conscious sigh.

Starting point is 05:33:09 I wish I could be as interesting to myself as I am to you. There you're not candid again. You're extremely interesting to yourself. Do you know, however, said Ralph, that if you've really given Warburton his final answer, I'm rather glad it has been what it was. I don't mean I'm glad for you, and still less, of course, for him. I'm glad for myself.

Starting point is 05:33:32 Are you thinking of proposing to me? By no means. From the point of view I speak of, that would be fatal. I should kill the goose that supplies me with the material of my inimitable omelets. I use that animal as the symbol of my insane illusions. What I mean is that I shall have the thrill of seeing what a young lady does who won't marry Lord Warburton. That's what your mother counts upon, too, said Isabel. Ah, there will be plenty of spectators.

Starting point is 05:34:00 We shall hang on the rest of your career. I shall not see all of it, but I shall probably see the most interesting years. Of course, if you were to marry our friend, you'd still have a career, a very decent, in fact a very brilliant one. But relatively speaking, it would be a little prosaic. It would be definitely marked out in advance. It would be wanting in the unexpected. You know I'm extremely fine. of the unexpected, and now that you've kept the game in your hands, I depend on your giving us

Starting point is 05:34:27 some grand example of it. I don't understand you very well, said Isabel, but I do so well enough to be able to say that if you look for grand examples of anything from me, I shall disappoint you. You'll do so only by disappointing yourself, and that will go hard with you. To this she made no direct reply. There was an amount of truth in it that would bear consideration. At last, she said abruptly, "'I don't see what harm there is in my wishing not to tie myself. I don't want to begin life by marrying.

Starting point is 05:35:03 There are other things a woman can do.' "'There's nothing she can do so well. But you're, of course, so many-sided.' "'If one's two-sided, it's enough,' said Isabel. "'You're the most charming of polygons,' her companion broke out. At a glance from his companion, however, he became great. and to prove it went on. You want to see life.

Starting point is 05:35:27 You'll be hanged if you don't, as the young men say. I don't think I want to see it as the young men want to see it, but I do want to look about me. You want to drain the cup of experience. No, I don't wish to touch the cup of experience. It's a poisoned drink. I only want to see for myself. You want to see, but not to feel.

Starting point is 05:35:52 Ralph remarked. I don't think that if one's a sentient being, one can make the distinction. I'm a good deal like Henrietta. The other day when I asked her if she wished to marry, she said, Not till I've seen Europe. I too don't wish to marry till I've seen Europe. You evidently expect a crowned head will be struck with you. No, that would be worse than marrying Lord Warburton.

Starting point is 05:36:18 But it's getting very dark, Isabel continued, and I must go home. She rose from her place, but Ralph only sat still and looked at her. As he remained there, she stopped, and they exchanged a gaze that was full on either side, but especially on Ralph's, of utterances too vague for words. You've answered my question, he said at last. You've told me what I wanted. I'm greatly obliged to you.

Starting point is 05:36:47 It seems to me I've told you very little. You've told me the great thing, that the world interests you, and that you want to throw yourself into it. Her silvery eyes shone a moment in the dusk. I never said that. I think you meant it. Don't repudiate it. It's so fine. I don't know what you're trying to fasten upon me, for I'm not in the least an adventurous spirit.

Starting point is 05:37:14 Women are not like men. Ralph slowly rose from his seat, and they, They walked together to the gate of the square. No, he said. Women rarely boast of their courage. Men do so with a certain frequency. Men have it to boast of. Women have it, too.

Starting point is 05:37:34 You've a great deal. Enough to go home in a cab to Pratt's hotel, but not more. Ralph unlocked the gate, and after they had passed out, he fastened it. We'll find your cab, he said. And as they turned toward a neighboring street in which this quest might avail, he asked her again if he mightn't see her safely to the inn. By no means, she answered. You're very tired. You must go home and go to bed.

Starting point is 05:38:05 The cab was found, and he helped her into it, standing a moment at the door. When people forget I'm a poor creature, I'm often incommoded, he said. But it's worse when they remember it. End of Chapter 15. Chapter 16 of the Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. She had had no hidden motive in wishing him not to take her home. It simply struck her that for some days past she had consumed an inordinate quantity of his time. The independent spirit of the American girl, whom extravagance of aid places in an attitude that she ends by finding affected, had made her decide that for these few hours she must suffice to herself.

Starting point is 05:39:06 She had, moreover, a great fondness for intervals of solitude, which since her arrival in England had been but meagrely met. It was a luxury she could always command at home, and she had wittingly missed it. That evening, however, an incident occurred, which, had there been, been a critic to note it, would have taken all color from the theory that the wish to be by herself had caused her to dispense with her cousin's attendance. Seated toward nine o'clock in the dim illumination of Pratt's Hotel, and trying with the aid of two tall candles to lose herself in a volume she had brought from Garden Court, she succeeded only to the extent of reading other words than those

Starting point is 05:39:47 printed on the page, words that Ralph had spoken to her that afternoon. Suddenly the well-muffed knuckle of the waiter was applied to the door, which presently gave way to his exhibition, even as a glorious trophy, of the card of a visitor. When this memento had offered to her fixed sight the name of Mr. Casper Goodwood, she let the man stand before her without signifying her wishes. "'Shall I show the gentleman up, Mom?' he asked with a slightly encouraging inflection. Isabel hesitated still, and while she hesitated, glanced at the mirror. He may come in, she said at last, and waited for him not so much smoothing her hair

Starting point is 05:40:31 as girding her spirit. Casper Goodwood was accordingly the next moment shaking hands with her, but saying nothing till the servant had left the room. Why didn't you answer my letter? He then asked, in a quick, full, slightly peremptory tone, the tone of a man whose questions were habitually pointed and who was capable of much insistence. She answered by a ready question, How did you know I was here?

Starting point is 05:40:59 Miss Stackpole let me know, said Caspar Goodwood. She told me you would probably be at home alone this evening and would be willing to see me. Where did she see you to tell you that? She didn't see me. She wrote to me. Isabel was silent. neither had sat down. They stood there with an air of defiance, or at least of contention.

Starting point is 05:41:23 Henrietta never told me she was writing to you, she said at last. This is not kind of her. Is it so disagreeable to you to see me? asked the young man. I didn't expect it. I don't like such surprises. But you knew I was in town. It was natural we should meet.

Starting point is 05:41:44 Do you call this meeting? I hoped I shouldn't see you. In so big a place as London it seemed very possible. It was apparently repugnant to you even to write to me, her visitor went on. Isabel made no reply. The sense of Henrietta Stackpole's treachery, as she momentarily qualified it, was strong within her. Henrietta's certainly not a model of all the delicacies, she exclaimed with bitterness. It was a great liberty to take.

Starting point is 05:42:17 I suppose I am not a model either, of those virtues or of any others, the fault's mine as much as hers. As Isabel looked at him, it seemed to her that his jaw had never been more square. This might have displeased her, but he took a different turn. No, it's not your fault so much as hers. What you've done was inevitable, I suppose, for you. It was indeed, cried. Casper Goodwood with a voluntary laugh. And now that I've come at any rate, mayn't I stay? You may sit down, certainly. She went back to her chair again, while her visitor took the first

Starting point is 05:42:57 place that offered, in the manner of a man accustomed to pay little thought to that sort of furtherance. I've been hoping every day for an answer to my letter. You might have written me a few lines. It wasn't the trouble of writing that prevented me. I could as easily have written you four pages as one. But my silence was an intention, Isabel said. I thought it the best thing. He sat with his eyes fixed on hers while she spoke. Then he lowered them, and attached them to a spot in the carpet, as if he were making a strong effort to say nothing but what he ought. He was a strong man in the wrong, and he was acute enough to see that an uncompromising exhibition of his strength would only throw the falsity of his position into relief.

Starting point is 05:43:46 Isabel was not incapable of tasting any advantage of position over a person of this quality, and though little desirous to flaunt it in his face, she could enjoy being able to say, You know you oughtn't to have written to me yourself, and to say it with an air of triumph. Casper Goodwood raised his eyes to her own again. They seemed to shine through the the vizard of a helmet. He had a strong sense of justice, and was ready any day in the year, over and above this, to argue the question of his rights. You said you hoped never to hear from me again. I know that, but I never accepted any such rule as my own. I warned you that you should hear very soon. I didn't say I hoped never to hear from you, said Isabel. Not for five years,

Starting point is 05:44:34 then, for ten years, twenty years, it's the same thing. Do you find it so? It seems to me there's a great difference. I can imagine that at the end of ten years we might have a very pleasant correspondence. I shall have matured my epistolary style. She looked away while she spoke these words, knowing them of so much less earnest a cast than the countenance of her listener. Her eyes, however, at last came back to him. Just as he said, very irrelevantly. Are you enjoying your visit to your uncle? Very much indeed. She dropped, but then she broke out.

Starting point is 05:45:12 What good do you expect to get by insisting? The good of not losing you. You've no right to talk of losing what's not yours, and even from your own point of view, Isabel added, you ought to know when to let one alone. I disgust you very much, said Casper Goodwood gloomily, not as if to provoke her to compassion for a man conscious of this blighting fact, but as if to set it well before himself,

Starting point is 05:45:41 so that he might endeavour to act with his eyes on it. Yes, you don't at all delight me. You don't fit in, not in any way just now, and the worst is that you're putting it to the proof in this manner is quite unnecessary. It wasn't certainly as if his nature had been soft, so that pinpricks would draw blood from it, and from the first of her acquaintance with him, and of her having to defend herself against a certain air that he had, of knowing better what was good for her than she knew herself, she had recognized the fact that perfect frankness was her best weapon.

Starting point is 05:46:16 To attempt to spare his sensibility or to escape from him edgewise, as one might do from a man who had barred the way less sturdily, this in dealing with Casper Goodwood, who would grasp at everything of every sort that one might give him, was wasted agility. It was not that he had not susceptibilities, but his passive surface, as well as his active, was large and hard, and he might always be trusted to dress his wounds, so far as they required it, himself. She came back, even for her measure of possible pangs and aches in him, to her old sense that he was naturally plated and steeled, armed essentially for aggression. I can't reconcile myself to that, he simply said. There was a dangerous liberality about it, for she felt how open it was to him to make the point that he had not always disgusted her.

Starting point is 05:47:11 I can't reconcile myself to it either, and it's not the state of things that ought to exist between us. If you'd only try to banish me from your mind for a few months, we should be on good terms again. I see. If I should cease to think of you at all for a prescribed time, I should find I could keep it up indefinitely. "'Indefinitely is more than I ask. It's more even than I should like.' "'You know what you ask is impossible,' said the young man, taking his adjective for granted in a manner she found irritating. "'Aren't you capable of making a calculated effort?' she demanded. "'You're strong for everything else. Why shouldn't you be strong for that?'

Starting point is 05:47:55 "'An effort calculated for what?' And then, as she hung fire, I'm capable of nothing with regard to you, he went on, but just of being infernally in love with you. If one's strong, one loves only the more strongly. There's a good deal in that. And indeed, our young lady felt the force of it, felt it thrown off into the vast of truth and poetry, as practically abate to her imagination. But she promptly came round.

Starting point is 05:48:27 think of me or not as you find most possible, only leave me alone. Until when? Well, for a year or two. Which do you mean? Between one year and two there's all the difference in the world. Call it two, then, said Isabel, with a studied effect of eagerness. And what shall I gain by that? Her friend asked with no sign of wincing.

Starting point is 05:48:55 You'll have obliged me greatly. And what will be my reward? Do you need a reward for an act of generosity? Yes, when it involves a great sacrifice. There's no generosity without some sacrifice. Men don't understand such things. If you make the sacrifice, you'll have all my admiration. I don't care a cent for your admiration, not one straw, with nothing to show for it.

Starting point is 05:49:25 When will you marry me? That's the only question. Never. If you go on making me feel only as I feel at present. What do I gain, then, by not trying to make you feel otherwise? You'll gain quite as much as by worrying me to death. Casper Goodwood bent his eyes again, and gazed a while into the crown of his hat. A deep flush overspread his face. She could see her sharpness had at last penetrated. This immediately had a value.

Starting point is 05:49:58 Classic, romantic, redeeming. What did she know? For her? The strong man in pain was one of the categories of the human appeal, little charm as he might exert in the given case. Why do you make me say such things to you? She cried in a trembling voice. I only want to be gentle, to be thoroughly kind.

Starting point is 05:50:21 It's not delightful to me to feel people care for me and yet to have to try and reason them out of it. I think others also ought to be considerate. We have each to judge for ourselves. I know you're considerate as much as you can be. You've good reasons for what you do. But I really don't want to marry, or to talk about it at all now.

Starting point is 05:50:45 I shall probably never do it. No, never. I have a perfect right to feel that way, and it's no kindness to a woman to press her so hard, to urge her against her will. If I give you pain, I can only say I'm very sorry. It's not my fault. I can't marry you simply to please you.

Starting point is 05:51:05 I won't say that I shall always remain your friend, because when women say that in these situations, it passes, I believe, for a sort of mockery. But try me some day. Casper Goodwood, during this speech, had kept his eyes fixed upon the name his hatter, and it was not until some time after she had ceased speaking that he raised them. When he did so, the sight of a rosy, lovely eagerness in Isabel's face threw some confusion

Starting point is 05:51:35 into his attempt to analyze her words. "'I'll go home. I'll go tomorrow. I'll leave you alone.' He brought out at last. "'Only,' he heavily said, "'I hate to lose sight of you.' "'Never fear.

Starting point is 05:51:52 I shall do no heart.' You'll marry someone else, as sure as I sit here, Casper Goodwood declared. Do you think that a generous charge? Why not? Plenty of men will try to make you. I told you just now that I don't wish to marry, and that I almost certainly never shall. I know you did, and I like your almost certainly. I put no faith in what you say. Thank you very much.

Starting point is 05:52:22 Do you accuse me of lying to shake you off? You say very delicate things. Why should I not say that? You've given me no pledge of anything at all. No, that's all that would be wanting. You may perhaps even believe you're safe from wishing to be, but you're not. The young man went on, as if preparing himself for the worst. Very well, then.

Starting point is 05:52:47 We'll put it that I'm not safe. Have it as you please. I don't know, however. said Casper Goodwood, that my keeping you in sight would prevent it. Don't you, indeed? I'm after all very much afraid of you. Do you think I'm so very easily pleased? She asked suddenly, changing her tone. No, I don't. I shall try to console myself with that.

Starting point is 05:53:12 But there are a certain number of very dazzling men in the world, no doubt. And if there were only one, it would be enough. The most dazzling of all will make straight for you. You'll be sure to take no one who isn't dazzling. If you mean by dazzling, brilliantly clever, Isabel said, and I can't imagine what else you mean, I don't need the aid of a clever man to teach me how to live. I can find it out for myself. Find out how to live alone. I wish that when you have you'd teach me. She looked at him a moment. Then with a quick smile,

Starting point is 05:53:49 Oh, you ought to marry, she said. He might be pardoned if for an instant this exclamation seemed to him to sound the infernal note, and it is not on record that her motive for discharging such a shaft had been of the clearest. He oughtn't to stride about lean and hungry, however. She certainly felt that for him. God forgive you, he murmured between his teeth as he turned away. Her accent had put her slightly in the wrong, and after a moment she felt the need to write herself.

Starting point is 05:54:22 The easiest way to do it was to place him where she had been. You do me great injustice. You say what you don't know, she broke out. I shouldn't be an easy victim. I've proved it. Oh, to me, perfectly. I've proved it to others as well. And she paused a moment.

Starting point is 05:54:42 I refused a proposal of marriage last week, what they call, no doubt, a dazzling one. "'I'm very glad to hear it,' said the young man gravely. "'It was a proposal many girls would have accepted. "'It had everything to recommend it.' "'Isabel had not proposed to herself to tell this story, "'but now she had begun, "'the satisfaction of speaking it out

Starting point is 05:55:06 "'and doing herself justice took possession of her. "'I was offered a great position and a great fortune "'by a person whom I like extremely.' "'Casper watched her with intense interest. "'Is he an ink, Englishman. He's an English nobleman, said Isabel. Her visitor received this announcement at first in silence, but at last said, I'm glad he's disappointed. Well, then, as you have companions and misfortune, make the best of it. I don't call him a companion, said Casper grimly. Why not, since I

Starting point is 05:55:43 declined his offer absolutely. That doesn't make him my companion. Besides, he's an Englishman. And pray, isn't an Englishman a human being? Isabel asked. Oh, those people. They're not of my humanity, and I don't care what becomes of them. You're very angry, said the girl. We've discussed this matter quite enough. Oh, yes, I'm very angry. I plead guilty to that. She turned away from him, walked to the open window, and stood a moment looking into the dusky void of the street, where a turbid gaslight alone represented social animation. For some time neither of these young persons spoke. Casper lingered near the chimney-piece with eyes gloomily attached.

Starting point is 05:56:32 She had virtually requested him to go. He knew that. But at the risk of making himself odious, he kept his ground. She was far too dear to him to be easily renounced, and he had crossed the sea all to ring from her some scrap of a vow. Presently she left the window and stood again before him. You do me very little justice. After my telling you what I told you just now, I'm sorry I told you, since it matters so little to you. Ah, cried the young man, if you were thinking of me when you did it.

Starting point is 05:57:08 and then he paused with the fear that she might contradict so happy a thought. I was thinking of you, a little, said Isabel. A little? I don't understand. If the knowledge of what I feel for you had any weight with you at all, calling it a little is a poor account of it. Isabel shook her head as if to carry off a blunder. I've refused a most kind, noble gentleman. Make the most of that. "'I thank you, then,' said Casper Goodwood gravely. "'I thank you immensely.' "'And now you had better go home.'

Starting point is 05:57:47 "'May I not see you again?' he asked. "'I think it's better not. "'You'll be sure to talk of this, and you see it leads to nothing. "'I promise you not to say a word that will annoy you.' Isabelle reflected and then answered, "'I return in a day or two to my uncles, and I can't propose to you to come there. It would be too inconsistent.

Starting point is 05:58:12 Casper Goodwood on his side considered, You must do me justice, too. I received an invitation to your uncles more than a week ago, and I declined it. She betrayed surprise. From whom was your invitation? From Mr. Ralph Touchett, whom I supposed to be your cousin. I declined it because I had not your authorization to accept it,

Starting point is 05:58:36 The suggestion that Mr. Touchett should invite me appeared to have come from Miss Stackpole. It certainly never did from me. Henrietta really goes very far, Isabel added. Don't be too hard on her. That touches me. No. If you declined, you did quite right, and I thank you for it. And she gave a little shudder of dismay at the thought that Lord Warburton and Mr. Goodwood might have met at Garden Court. it would have been so awkward for Lord Warburton.

Starting point is 05:59:09 When you leave your uncle, where do you go? Her companion asked. I go abroad with my aunt, to Florence and other places. The serenity of this announcement struck a chill to the young man's heart. He seemed to see her world away into circles from which he was inexorably excluded. Nevertheless, he went on quickly with his questions. And when shall you come back to America? Perhaps not for a long time.

Starting point is 05:59:37 I'm very happy here. Do you mean to give up your country? Don't be an infant. Well, you'll be out of my sight indeed, said Casper Goodwood. I don't know, she answered rather grandly. The world, with all these places so arranged and so touching each other, comes to strike one as rather small. It's a sight too big for me.

Starting point is 06:00:04 "'Casper exclaimed, with a simplicity our young lady might have found touching, "'if her face had not been set against concessions. "'This attitude was part of a system, a theory that she had lately embraced, "'and to be thorough, she said after a moment, "'don't think me unkind if I say it's just that, "'being out of your sight, then I like. "'If you were in the same place, I should feel you were watching me, "'and I don't like that.

Starting point is 06:00:31 "'I like my liberty too much. "'If there's a thing in the world I'm fond of,' she went on with a slight recurrence of grandeur. "'It's my personal independence.' But whatever there might be of the two superior in this speech moved Casper Goodwood's admiration. There was nothing he winced at in the large air of it. He had never supposed she hadn't wings and the need of beautiful free movements. He wasn't, with his own long arms and strides, afraid of any force. force in her. Isabel's words, if they had been meant to shock him, failed of the mark, and only

Starting point is 06:01:11 made him smile with the sense that here was common ground. Who would wish less to curtail your liberty than I? What can give me greater pleasure than to see you perfectly independent, doing whatever you like? It's to make you independent that I want to marry you. That's a beautiful sophism, said the girl with a smile more beautiful still. An unmarried woman, a girl of your age, isn't independent. There are all sorts of things she can't do. She's hampered at every step. That's as she looks at the question.

Starting point is 06:01:45 Isabel answered with much spirit. I'm not in my first youth. I can do what I choose. I belong quite to the independent class. I've neither father nor mother. I'm poor and of a serious disposition. I'm not pretty. I therefore am not bound to be timid and conventional.

Starting point is 06:02:06 Indeed, I can't afford such luxuries. Besides, I try to judge things for myself. To judge wrong, I think, is more honourable than not to judge at all. I don't wish to be a mere sheep in the flock. I wish to choose my fate, and know something of human affairs beyond what other people think it compatible with propriety to tell me. She paused a moment, but not long enough for her companion to write. reply. He was apparently on the point of doing so when she went on. Let me say this to you,

Starting point is 06:02:37 Mr. Goodwood. You're so kind as to speak of being afraid of my marrying. If you should hear a rumor that I'm on the point of doing so, girls are liable to have such things said about them, remember what I have told you about my love of liberty, and venture to doubt it. There was something passionately positive in the tone in which she gave him this advice, and he saw a shining candor in her eyes that helped him to believe her. On the whole, he felt reassured, and you might have perceived it by the manner in which he said, quite eagerly. You want simply to travel for two years. I'm quite willing to wait two years, and you may do what you like in the interval. If that's all you want, pray say so. I don't want you to be conventional. Do I strike you as

Starting point is 06:03:25 conventional myself? Do you want to improve your mind? Your mind's quite good enough for me. But if it interests you to wander about a while and see different countries, I shall be delighted to help you in any way in my power. You're very generous. That's nothing new to me. The best way to help me will be to put as many hundred miles of sea between us as possible. One would think you were going to commit some atrocity, said Casper Goodwood. Perhaps I am. I wish to be free even to do that if the fancy takes me. Well then.

Starting point is 06:04:01 He said slowly, I'll go home. And he put out his hand, trying to look contented and confident. Isabelle's confidence in him, however, was greater than any he could feel in her. Not that he thought her capable of committing an atrocity, but turn it over as he would,

Starting point is 06:04:21 there was something ominous in the way she reserved her option. As she took his hand, she felt a great respect for him. She knew how much he cared for her, and she thought him magnanimous, They stood so for a moment, looking at each other, united by a hand clasp, which was not merely passive on her side. That's right, she said very kindly, almost tenderly. You'll lose nothing by being a reasonable man. But I'll come back, wherever you are, two years hence.

Starting point is 06:04:54 He returned with characteristic grimness. We have seen that our young lady was inconsequent, and at this she suddenly changed her tone. Ah, remember, I promise nothing, absolutely nothing! Then more softly, as if to help him leave her. And remember, too, that I shall not be an easy victim. You'll get very sick of your independence. Perhaps I shall.

Starting point is 06:05:23 It's even very probable. When that day comes, I shall be very glad to see you. She had laid her hand on the knob of the door that led into her room, and she waited a moment to see whether her visitor would not take his departure. But he appeared unable to move. There was still an immense unwillingness in his attitude and a sore remonstrance in his eyes. I must leave you now, said Isabel, and she opened the door and passed into the other room. The apartment was dark, but the darkness was tempered by a vague radiance sent up through the window from the court of the hotel, and Isabel could make out the masses of furniture, the dim shining of

Starting point is 06:06:06 the mirror, and the looming of the big four-posted bed. She stood still a moment, listening, and at last she heard Casper Goodwood walk out of the sitting-room and close the door behind him. She stood still a little longer, and then, by an irresistible impulse, dropped on her knees before her bed, and hid her face in her arms. End of Chapter 16. Chapter 17 of the Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. She was not praying. She was trembling, trembling all over. Vibration was easy to her, was in fact too constant with her, and she found herself now humming

Starting point is 06:06:59 like a smitten harp. She only asked, however, to put on the cover, to cave. To cave. herself again in Brown-Holland, but she wished to resist her excitement, and the attitude of devotion, which she kept for some time, seemed to help her to be still. She intensely rejoiced that Casper Goodwood was gone. There was something in having thus got rid of him that was like the payment, for a stamped receipt, of some debt too long on her mind. As she felt through glad relief, she bowed her head a little lower. The sense was there. throbbing in her heart. It was part of her emotion, but it was a thing to be ashamed of. It was profane and out of place. It was not for some ten minutes that she rose from her knees,

Starting point is 06:07:48 and even when she came back to the sitting-room her tremor had not quite subsided. It had had verily two causes. Part of it was to be accounted for by her long discussion with Mr. Goodwood, but it might be feared that the rest was simply the enjoyment she found in the exercise of her power. She sat down in the same chair again and took up her book, but without going through the form of opening the volume. She leaned back with that low, soft, aspiring murmur, with which she often uttered her response to accidents of which the brighter side was not superficially obvious, and yielded to the satisfaction of having refused two ardent suitors in a fortnight. That love of liberty of which she had given Casper Goodwood so bold a sketch,

Starting point is 06:08:34 was as yet almost exclusively theoretic. She had not been able to indulge it on a large scale. But it appeared to her she had done something. She had tasted of the delight, if not of battle, at least of victory. She had done what was truest to her plan. In the glow of this consciousness, the image of Mr. Goodwood taking his sad walk homeward through the dingy town, presented itself with a certain reproachful force, so that, as at the same moment, the door of the room was opened, she rose with an apprehension that he had come back. But it was only Henrietta Stackpole returning from her dinner. Miss Stackpole immediately saw that our young lady had been through something,

Starting point is 06:09:18 and indeed the discovery demanded no great penetration. She went straight up to her friend, who received her without a greeting. Isabel's elation in having sent Casper Goodwood back to America presupposed her being in a manner glad he had come to see her. but at the same time she perfectly remembered Henrietta had had no right to set a trap for her. Has he been here, dear? The latter yearningly asked. Isabel turned away, and for some moments answered nothing. You acted very wrongly, she declared at last.

Starting point is 06:09:53 I acted for the best. I only hope you acted as well. You're not the judge. I can't trust you, said Isabel. This declaration was unflattering, but Henrietta was much too unselfish to heed the charge it conveyed. She cared only for what it intimated with regard to her friend. Isabel Archer, she observed with equal abruptness and solemnity. If you marry one of these people, I'll never speak to you again. Before making so terrible a threat, you had better wait till I'm asked, Isabel replied. never having said a word to Miss Stackpole about Lord Warburton's overtures,

Starting point is 06:10:34 she had now no impulse whatever to justify herself to Henrietta by telling her that she had refused that nobleman. Oh, you'll be asked quick enough, once you get off on the continent. Annie Clymer was asked three times in Italy. Poor plain little Annie! Well, if Annie Clymer wasn't captured, why should I be? I don't believe Annie was pressed, but you'll be. That's a flattering conviction, said Isabel without alarm.

Starting point is 06:11:03 I don't flatter you, Isabel, I tell you the truth, cried her friend. I hope you don't mean to tell me that you didn't give Mr. Goodwood some hope. I don't see why I should tell you anything. As I said to you just now, I can't trust you. But since you're so much interested in Mr. Goodwood, I won't conceal from you that he returns immediately to America. You don't mean to say you've sent him off. Henrietta almost shrieked.

Starting point is 06:11:30 I asked him to leave me alone, and I ask you the same, Henrietta. Miss Stackpole glittered for an instant with dismay, and then passed to the mirror over the chimney-piece and took off her bonnet. I hope you've enjoyed your dinner, Isabel went on. But her companion was not to be diverted by frivolous propositions. Do you know where you're going, Isabel Archer? Just now I'm going to bed, said Isabel, with her. persistent travolity. Do you know where you're drifting?

Starting point is 06:12:03 Henrietta pursued, holding out her bonnet delicately. No, I haven't the least idea, and I find it very pleasant not to know. A swift carriage of a dark night, rattling with four horses over roads that one can't see. That's my idea of happiness. Mr. Goodwood certainly didn't teach you to say such things as that, like the heroine of an immoral novel, said Miss Stackpole. You're drifting to some great mistake. Isabel was irritated by her friend's interference, yet she still tried to think what truth this declaration could represent. She could think of nothing that diverted her from saying,

Starting point is 06:12:45 You must be very fond of me, Henrietta, to be willing to be so aggressive. I love you intensely, Isabel, said Miss Stackpole with feeling. Well, if you love me, me intensely, let me as intensely, alone. I asked that of Mr. Goodwood, and I must also ask it of you. Take care you're not let alone too much. That's what Mr. Goodwood said to me. I told him I must take the risks. You're a creature of risks. You make me shudder, cried Henrietta. When does Mr. Goodwood return to America? I don't know. He didn't tell me. Perhaps you didn't inquire. "'said Henrietta with the note of righteous irony. "'I gave him too little satisfaction to have the right to ask questions of him.'

Starting point is 06:13:36 "'This assertion seemed to Miss Stackpole for a moment to bid defiance to comment, "'but at last she exclaimed, "'Well, Isabel, if I didn't know you, I might think you were heartless.' "'Take care,' said Isabel. "'You're spoiling me.' "'I'm afraid I've done that already. "'I hope at least,' Miss Stottes. Sackpole added, that he may cross with any climber.

Starting point is 06:14:02 Isabel learned from her the next morning that she had determined not to return to Garden Court, where old Mr. Touchett had promised her a renewed welcome, but to await in London the arrival of the invitation that Mr. Bantling had promised her from his sister, Lady Pencil. Miss Stackpole related very freely her conversation with Ralph Touchett's sociable friend, and declared to Isabel that she really believed she had now got hold of something that would lead to something. On the receipt of Lady Pencil's letter, Mr. Bandling had virtually guaranteed the arrival of this document, she would immediately depart for Bedfordshire, and if Isabel

Starting point is 06:14:37 cared to look out for her impressions and the interviewer, she would certainly find them. Henrietta was evidently going to see something of the inner life this time. Do you know where you're drifting, Henrietta Stackpole? Isabel asked, imitating the tone in which her friend had spoken the night before. I'm drifting to a big position, that of the Queen of American Journalism. If my next letter isn't copied all over the West, I'll swallow my penwiper. She had arranged with her friend, Miss Annie Clymer, the young lady of the Continental Offers, that they should go together to make those purchases which were to constitute Miss Clymer's farewell to a hemisphere

Starting point is 06:15:15 in which she at least had been appreciated, and she presently repaired to German Street to pick up her companion. Shortly after her departure, Ralph Touchett was announced, and as soon as he came in, Isabelle saw he had something on his mind. He very soon took his cousin into his confidence. He had received from his mother a telegram to the effect that his father had had a sharp attack of his old malady, that she was much alarmed, and that she begged he would instantly return to Garden Court. On this occasion at least, Mrs. Touchett's devotion to the electric wire was not open to

Starting point is 06:15:51 criticism. I've judged it best to see the great doctor Sir Matthew Hope first. Ralph said, By great good luck he's in town. He's to see me at half-past twelve, and I shall make sure of his coming down to Garden Court, which he will do the more readily as he has already seen my father several times, both there and in London. There's an express at two forty-five, which I shall take, and you'll come back with me, or remain here a few days longer, exactly as you prefer. I shall certainly go with you, Isabel returned. I don't suppose I can be of any use to my uncle, but if he's ill, I shall like to be near him. I think you're fond of him, said Ralph with a certain shy pleasure in his face.

Starting point is 06:16:35 You appreciate him, which all the world hasn't done. The quality's too fine. I quite adore him, Isabel said after a moment. That's very well. after his son he's your greatest admirer she welcomed this assurance but she gave secretly a small sigh of relief at the thought that mr touchett was one of those admirers who couldn't propose to marry her this however was not what she spoke she went on to inform ralph that there were other reasons for her not remaining in london she was tired of it and wished to leave it and then henrietta was going away going to stay in bedfordshire in Bedfordshire, with Lady Pencil, the sister of Mr. Bantling, who has answered for an invitation. Ralph was feeling anxious, but at this he broke into a laugh. Suddenly, nonetheless, his gravity returned.

Starting point is 06:17:33 Bantling's a man of courage, but if the invitation should get lost on the way, I thought the British post office was impeccable. The good Homer sometimes nods, said Ralph. However, he went on more brightly, the good bantling never does, and whatever happens he'll take care of Henrietta. Ralph went to keep his appointment with Sir Matthew Hope, and Isabel made her arrangements for quitting Pratt's hotel. Her uncle's danger touched her nearly, and while she stood before her open trunk, looking about her vaguely for what she should put into it, the tears suddenly rose to her eyes. It was perhaps for this reason that when Ralph came back at two o'clock to take her to the station,

Starting point is 06:18:16 she was not yet ready. He found Miss Stackpole, however, in the sitting-room, where she had just risen from her luncheon, and this lady immediately expressed her regret at his father's illness. He's a grand old man, she said. He's faithful to the last. If it's really to be the last— Pardon my alluding to it, but you must often have thought of the possibility. I'm sorry that I shall not be at Garden Court.

Starting point is 06:18:42 You'll amuse yourself much more in Bedfordshire. I shall be sorry to amuse myself at such a time, said Henrietta with much propriety. But she immediately added, I should like so to commemorate the closing scene. My father may live a long time, said Ralph simply. Then, adverting to topics more cheerful, he interrogated Miss Stackpole as to her own future.

Starting point is 06:19:08 Now that Ralph was in trouble, she addressed him in a tone of larger reliance, and told him that she was much indebted to him for having made her acquainted with Mr. Bentley. He has told me just the things I want to know, she said. All the society items and all about the royal family? I can't make out that what he tells me about the royal family is much to their credit, but he says that's only my peculiar way of looking at it. Well, all I want is that he should give me the facts. I can put them together quick enough.

Starting point is 06:19:38 once I've got them. And she added that Mr. Bantling had been so good as to promise to come and take her out that afternoon. To take you where? Ralph ventured to inquire. To Buckingham Palace! He's going to show me over it, so that I may get some idea how they live. Ah, said Ralph, we leave you in good hands. The first thing we shall hear is that you're invited to Windsor Castle. If they ask me, I shall certainly go. Once I get started, I'm not afraid. But for all that, Henrietta added in a moment, I'm not satisfied. I'm not at peace about Isabel.

Starting point is 06:20:16 What is her last misdemeanor? Well, I've told you before, and I suppose there's no harm in my going on. I always finish a subject that I take up. Mr. Goodwood was here last night. Ralph opened his eyes. He even blushed a little, his blush being the sign of an emotion somewhat acute. He remembered that Isabel, in separating from him in Winchester Square, had repudiated his suggestion that her motive in doing so

Starting point is 06:20:44 was the expectation of a visitor at Pratt's Hotel, and it was a new pang to him to have to suspect her of duplicity. On the other hand, he quickly said to himself, what concern was it of his that she should have made such an appointment with a lover? Had it not been thought graceful in every age that young lady should make a mystery of such appointments? Ralph gave Miss Stackpole a diplomatic answer. I should have thought that, with the views you expressed me the other day, this would satisfy you perfectly. That he should come to see her. That was very well as far as it went.

Starting point is 06:21:18 It was a little plot of mine. I let him know that we were in London, and when it had been arranged that I should spend the evening out, I sent him a word, the word we just utter to the wise. I hoped he would find her alone. I won't pretend I didn't hope that you'd be out of the way. He came to see her, but he might as well have stayed away. Isabel was cruel. And Ralph's face lighted with the relief of his cousins not having shown duplicity.

Starting point is 06:21:44 I don't exactly know what passed between them, but she gave him no satisfaction. She sent him back to America. Poor Mr. Goodwood, Ralph sighed. Her only idea seems to be to get rid of him, Henrietta went on. Poor Mr. Goodwood! Ralph repeated. The exclamation it must be confessed was automatic. It failed exactly to express his thoughts, which were taking another line. You don't say that as if you felt it. I don't believe you care.

Starting point is 06:22:16 Ah, said Ralph, you must remember that I don't know this interesting young man, that I've never seen him. Well, I shall see him, and I shall tell him not to give up. If I didn't believe Isabel would come round, Miss Stackpole added, well, I'd give up myself. I mean I'd give her up. End of Chapter 17. Chapter 18 of the Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. It had occurred to Ralph that, in the conditions, Isabelle's parting with her friend might be of a slightly embarrassed nature, and he went down to the door of the hotel in advance of his cousin, who, after a slight delay, followed with the traces of an unexpected remonstrance, as he thought, in her.

Starting point is 06:23:10 her eyes. The two made the journey to Garden Court in almost unbroken silence, and the servant who met them at the station had no better news to give them of Mr. Touchett, a fact which caused Ralph to congratulate himself afresh on Sir Matthew Hopes, having promised to come down in the five o'clock train and spend the night. Mrs. Touchett, he learned on reaching home, had been constantly with the old man, and was with him at that moment, and this fact made Ralph say to himself that after all, what his mother wanted, was just easy occasion. The finer natures were those that shone at the larger times. Isabel went to her own room, noting throughout the house that perceptible hush which precedes a crisis. At the end of an hour, however, she came

Starting point is 06:23:58 downstairs in search of her aunt, whom she wished to ask about Mr. Touchett. She went into the library, but Mrs. Touchett was not there, and as the weather, which had been damped, and chill, was now altogether spoiled, it was not probable she had gone for her usual walk in the grounds. Isabel was on the point of ringing to send a question to her room, when this purpose quickly yielded to an unexpected sound, the sound of low music proceeding apparently from the saloon. She knew her aunt never touched the piano, and the musician was therefore probably Ralph, who played for his own amusement. That he should have resorted to this recreation at the time indicated apparently that his anxiety about his father had been relieved, so that the girl

Starting point is 06:24:46 took her way, almost with restored cheer, toward the source of the harmony. The drawing-room at Garden Court was an apartment of great distances, and as the piano was placed at the end of its furthest removed from the door at which she entered, her arrival was not noticed by the person seated before the instrument. This person was neither Ralph nor his mother. It was a lady, whom Isabel immediately saw to be a stranger to herself, though her back was presented to the door. This back, an ample and well-dressed one, Isabel viewed for some moments with surprise.

Starting point is 06:25:22 The lady was, of course, a visitor who had arrived during her absence, and who had not been mentioned by either of the servants, one of them her aunt's maid, of whom she had had speech since her return. Isabelle had already learned, however, with what treasures of reserve the function of receiving orders may be accompanied, and she was particularly the conscious of having been treated with dryness by her aunt's maid, through whose hands she had slipped perhaps a little too mistrustfully, and with an effect of plumage but the more lustrous. The advent of a guest was in itself far from disconcerting.

Starting point is 06:25:56 She had not yet divested herself of a young faith that each new acquaintance would exert some momentous influence on her life. By the time she had made these reflections, she became aware that the lady at the piano played remarkably well. She was playing something of Schubert's. Isabel knew not what, but recognized Schubert, and she touched the piano with a discretion of her own. It showed skill, it showed feeling. Isabel sat down noiselessly on the nearest chair and waited till the end of the piece.

Starting point is 06:26:29 When it was finished, she felt a strong desire to thank the player, and rose from her seat to do so, while at the same time the stranger turned quickly round, as if but just aware of her presence. "'That's very beautiful, and your playing makes it more beautiful still,' said Isabel, with all the young radiance with which she usually uttered a truthful rapture. "'You don't think I disturbed, Mr. Touchett, then?' The musician answered as sweetly as this compliment deserved. The house is so large and his room so far away that I thought I might venture.

Starting point is 06:27:04 especially as I played just, just Dubu de Duat. She's a French woman, Isabel said to herself. She says that as if she were French. And this supposition made the visitor more interesting to our speculative heroine. I hope my uncle's doing well, Isabel added. I should think that to hear such lovely music as that would really make him feel better. The lady smiled and discriminated. I'm afraid there are moments in life when even Schubert has nothing to say to us.

Starting point is 06:27:39 We must admit, however, that they are our worst. I'm not in that state now, then, said Isabel. On the contrary, I should be so glad if you would play something more. If it will give you pleasure, delighted. And this obliging person took her place again and struck a few chords, while Isabel sat down near the instrument. Suddenly the newcomer stopped with her hands on the keys, half-turning and looking over her shoulder. She was 40 years old, and not pretty, though her expression charmed.

Starting point is 06:28:14 Pardon me, she said, but are you the niece, the young American? I'm my aunt's niece, Isabel replied with simplicity. The lady at the piano sat still a moment longer, casting her air of interest over her shoulder. That's very well. We're compatriots. And then she began to play. Ah, then she's not French, Isabel murmured, and as the opposite supposition had made her romantic, it might have seemed that this revelation would have marked a drop. But such was not the fact. Rare even than to be French seemed it to be American on such interesting terms. The lady played in the same manner as before, softly in.

Starting point is 06:29:00 solemnly, and while she played, the shadows deepened in the room. The autumn twilight gathered in, and from her place Isabel could see the rain, which had now begun in earnest, washing the cold-looking lawn and the wind shaking the great trees. At last, when the music had ceased, her companion got up, and coming nearer with a smile before Isabel had time to thank her again, said, I'm very glad you've come back. I've heard a great deal about you. Isabel thought her a very attractive person, but nevertheless spoke with a certain abruptness in reply to this speech. From whom have you heard about me?

Starting point is 06:29:41 The stranger hesitated a single moment and then, "'From your uncle?' she answered. "'I've been here three days, and the first day he let me come and pay him a visit in his room. Then he talked constantly of you. As you didn't know me, that must have rather bored you. It made me want to know you, all the more that since then, your aunt being so much with Mr. Touchett, I've been quite alone and have got rather tired of my own society. I've not chosen a good moment for my visit.

Starting point is 06:30:15 A servant had come in with lamps and was presently followed by another bearing the tea-tray. On the appearance of this repast, Mrs. Touchett had apparently been notified, for she now arrived and addressed herself to the teapot. Her greeting to her niece did not differ materially from her manner of raising the lid of this receptacle in order to glance at the contents. In neither act was it becoming to make a show of avidity. Questioned about her husband, she was unable to say he was better, but the local doctor was with him, and much light was expected from this gentleman's consultation with Sir Matthew Hope. "'I suppose you two ladies have made acquaintance?' she pursued.

Starting point is 06:30:56 "'If you haven't, I recommend you to do so. for so long as we continue, Ralph and I, to cluster about Mr. Touchett's bed, you're not likely to have much society but each other. I know nothing about you, but that you are a great musician, Isabel said to the visitor. There's a good deal more than that to know, Mrs. Touchett affirmed in her little dry tone. A very little of it I am sure will content Miss Archer. The lady exclaimed with a light laugh, I'm an old friend of your aunt's. I've lived much in Florence.

Starting point is 06:31:29 I'm Madame Merle. She made this last announcement as if she were referring to a person of tolerably distinct identity. For Isabelle, however, it represented little. She could only continue to feel that Madame Merle had as charming a manner as any she had ever encountered. She's not a foreigner in spite of her name, said Mrs. Touchett. She was born— I always forget where you were born. It's hardly worthwhile, then, I should tell you.

Starting point is 06:31:58 On the contrary, said Mrs. Touchett, who rarely missed a logical point. If I remembered, you are telling me, would be quite superfluous. Madame Merle glanced at Isabel with a sort of worldwide smile, a thing that overreached frontiers. I was born under the shadow of the national banner. She's too fond of mystery, said Mrs. Touchett. That's her great fault. "'Ah!' exclaimed Madame Merle. "'I've great faults, but I don't think that's one of them.

Starting point is 06:32:30 "'It certainly isn't the greatest. "'I came into the world in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. "'My father was a high officer in the United States Navy, "'and had a post, a post of responsibility, "'in that establishment at the time. "'I suppose I ought to love the sea, but I hate it. "'That's why I don't return to America. "'I love the land.

Starting point is 06:32:52 the great thing is to love something. Isabel, as a dispassionate witness, had not been struck with the force of Mrs. Touchett's characterization of her visitor, who had an expressive, communicative, responsive face, by no means of the sort which, to Isabel's mind, suggested a secretive disposition. It was a face that told of an amplitude of nature, and of quick and free emotions, and, though it had no regular beauty, was in the highest degree engaging and attaching. Madame Merle was a tall, fair, smooth woman. Everything in her person was round and replete, though without those accumulations which

Starting point is 06:33:33 suggest heaviness. Her features were thick, but in perfect proportion and harmony, and her complexion had a healthy clearness. Her grey eyes were small but full of light and incapable of stupidity. incapable, according to some people, even of tears. She had a liberal, full-rimmed mouth, which, when she smiled, drew itself upward to the left side in a manner that most people thought very odd, some very affected, and a few very graceful. Isabel inclined to range herself in the last category.

Starting point is 06:34:07 Madame Merle had thick fair hair, arranged somehow classically, and as if she were a bust, Isabel judged, a Juno or an Iobi, and large white hands of a perfect shape, a shape so perfect that their possessor, preferring to leave them unadorned, wore no jeweled rings. Isabel had taken her at first, as we have seen, for a Frenchwoman, but extended observation might have ranked her as a German, a German of high degree, perhaps an Austrian, a Baroness, a countess, a princess. It would never have been supposed. she had come into the world in Brooklyn, though one could doubtless not have carried through any argument that the air of distinction marking her and so eminent a degree was inconsistent with such

Starting point is 06:34:53 a berth. It was true that the national banner had floated immediately over her cradle, and the breezy freedom of the stars and stripes might have shed an influence upon the attitude she there took towards life. And yet she had evidently nothing of the fluttered, flapping quality of a morsel of bunting in the wind. Her manner expressed the repose and confidence which comes from a large experience. Experience, however, had not quenched her youth. It had simply made her sympathetic and supple. She was, in a word, a woman of strong impulses kept in admirable order. This commended itself to Isabel as an ideal combination. The girl made these reflections while the three ladies sat at their tea, but that ceremony was interrupted before long

Starting point is 06:35:39 by the arrival of a great doctor from London, who had been immediately ushered into the drawing-room. Mrs. Touchett took him off to the library for a private talk, and then Madame Merle and Isabel parted to meet again at dinner. The idea of seeing more of this interesting woman did much to mitigate Isabel's sense of the sadness now settling on Garden Court. When she came into the drawing-room before dinner, she found the place empty. But in the course of a moment, Ralph arrived. His anxiety about his father had been lightened. Sir Matthew's view of his condition was less depressed than his own had been. The doctor recommended that the nurse alone should remain with the old man for the next three or four hours,

Starting point is 06:36:19 so that Ralph, his mother, and the great physician himself were free to dine at table. Mrs. Tachit and Sir Matthew appeared. Madame Merle was the last. Before she came, Isabel spoke of her to Ralph, who was standing before the fireplace. Pray, who is this, Madame Merle? The cleverest woman I know, not a woman. accepting yourself, said Ralph. I thought she seemed very pleasant. I was sure you'd think her very pleasant. Is that why you invited her? I didn't invite her, and when we came back from London I didn't know she was here. No one invited her. She's a friend of my mother's. And just after you and I

Starting point is 06:36:58 went to town, my mother got a note from her. She had arrived in England. She usually lives abroad, though she has first and last spent a good deal of time here, and asked leave to come down for a few days. She's a woman who can make such proposals with perfect confidence, so she's welcome wherever she goes. And with my mother, there could of course be no question of hesitating. She's the one person in the world whom my mother very much admires. If she were not herself, which she, after all, much prefers, she would like to be Madame Merle. It would indeed be a great change. Well, she's very charming, said Isabel, and she plays beautifully. She does everything beautifully. she's complete.

Starting point is 06:37:40 Isabel looked at her cousin a moment. You don't like her. On the contrary, I was once in love with her. And she didn't care for you, and that's why you don't like her. How can we have discussed such things? Monsieur Merle was then living. Is he dead now? So she says.

Starting point is 06:38:00 Don't you believe her? Yes, because the statement agrees with the probabilities, the husband of Madame Merle would be likely to pass away. Isabel gazed at her cousin again. I don't know what you mean. You mean something that you don't mean. What was, Monsieur Merle?

Starting point is 06:38:19 The husband of madame. Oh, you're very odious. Has she any children? Not the least little child, fortunately. Fortunately. I mean, fortunately for the child. She'd be sure to spoil it. Isabel was apparently on the point of assuring her cousin for the third time that he was odious,

Starting point is 06:38:41 but the discussion was interrupted by the arrival of the lady who was the topic of it. She came rustling in quickly, apologizing for being late, fastening a bracelet, dressed in dark blue satin, which exposed a white bosom that was ineffectually covered by a curious silver necklace. Ralph offered her his arm with the exaggerated alertness of a man who was no longer a lover. Even if this had still been his condition, however, Ralph had other things to think about. The great doctor spent the night at Garden Court, and returning to London on the morrow, after another consultation with Mr. Touchett's own medical advisor, concurred in Ralph's desire that he should see the patient again on the day following.

Starting point is 06:39:22 On the day following Sir Matthew Hope reappeared at Garden Court, and now took a less encouraging view of the old man, who had grown worse in the 24 hours. His feebleness was extreme, and to his son, who constantly sat by his bedside, it often seemed that his end must be at hand. The local doctor, a very sagacious man, in whom Ralph had secretly more confidence than in his distinguished colleague, was constantly in attendance, and Sir Matthew Hope came back several times. Mr. Touchett was much of the time unconscious. He slept a great deal.

Starting point is 06:39:58 He rarely spoke. Isabel had a great desire to be useful to him and was allowed to watch with him at hours when his other attendants of whom Mrs. Touchett was not the least regular went to take rest. He never seemed to know her, and she always said to herself, "'Suppose he should die while I'm sitting here?' An idea which excited her and kept her awake. Once he opened his eyes for a while and fixed them upon her intelligently,

Starting point is 06:40:26 but when she went to him, hoping he would recognize her, he closed them and relapsed into stupor. The day after this, however, he revived for a longer time, but on this occasion Ralph only was with him. The old man began to talk, much to his son's satisfaction, who assured him that they should presently have him sitting up. No, my boy, said Mr. Touchett. Not unless you bury me in a sitting posture, as some of the ancients.

Starting point is 06:40:56 Was it the ancients? used to do. Ah, Daddy, don't talk about that, Ralph murmured. You mustn't deny that you're getting better. There will be no need of my denying it if you don't say it, the old man answered. Why should we prevaricate just at the last? We never pervaricated before. I've got to die sometime, and it's better to die when one's sick than when one's well.

Starting point is 06:41:23 I'm very sick. As sick as I shall ever be. I hope you don't want to prove that I shall ever be worse than this. That would be too bad. You don't? Well, then. Having made this excellent point, he became quiet, but the next time that Ralph was with him, he again addressed himself to conversation.

Starting point is 06:41:45 The nurse had gone to her supper, and Ralph was alone in charge. Having just relieved Mrs. Touchett, who had been on guard since dinner. The room was lighted only by the flickering fire. which of late had become necessary, and Ralph's tall shadow was projected over wall and ceiling, with an outline constantly varying, but always grotesque. "'Who's that with me? Is it my son?' the old man asked. "'Yes, it's your son, Daddy.'

Starting point is 06:42:15 "'And is there no one else?' "'No one else.' Mr. Touchett said nothing for a while, and then, "'I want to talk a little,' he went on. "'Won't it tire you?' Ralph demurred. "'It won't matter if it does. I shall have a long rest. "'I want to talk about you.' Ralph had drawn nearer to the bed. He sat leaning forward with his hand on his father's.

Starting point is 06:42:43 He would better select a brighter topic. "'You were always bright. I used to be proud of your brightness. I should like so much to think you'd do something.' If you leave us, said Ralph, I shall do nothing but miss you. That's just what I don't want. It's what I want to talk about. You must get a new interest. I don't want a new interest, Daddy. I have more old ones than I know what to do with. The old man lay there looking at his son. His face was the face of the dying, but his eyes were the eyes of Daniel Touchett. He seemed to be reckoning over Ralph's interests.

Starting point is 06:43:26 Of course, you have your mother, he said at last. You'll take care of her. My mother will always take care of herself, Ralph returned. Well, said his father, perhaps as she grows older she'll need a little help. I shall not see that. She'll outlive me. Very likely she will. But that's no real. That's no real. reason. Mr. Touchett let his phrase die away in a helpless but not quite querulous sigh, and remained silent again. Don't trouble yourself about us, said his son. My mother and I get on very well together, you know. You get on by always being apart. That's not natural. If you leave us, we shall

Starting point is 06:44:14 probably see more of each other. Well, the old man observed with wandering irrelevance. It Can't be said that my death will make much difference in your mother's life. It will probably make more than you think. Well, she'll have more money, said Mr. Touchett. I've left her a good wife's portion, just as if she had been a good wife. She has been one, Daddy, according to her own theory. She has never troubled you. Ah, some troubles are pleasant, Mr. Touchett murmured.

Starting point is 06:44:49 Those you've given me for me for you. instance. But your mother has been less... Less... What shall I call it? Less out of the way since I've been ill. I presume she knows I've noticed it. I shall certainly tell her so. I'm so glad you mention it. It won't make any difference to her. She doesn't do it to please me. She does it to please... To please. And he lay a while trying to think why. she did it. She does it because it suits her. But that's not what I want to talk about, he added. It's about you. You'll be very well off. Yes, said Ralph. I know that. But I hope you've not forgotten the talk we had a year ago, when I told you exactly what money I should need and begged you to

Starting point is 06:45:43 make some good use of the rest. Yes, yes, I remember. I made a new will in a few days. I suppose it was the time such a thing had happened, a young man trying to get a will made against him. It is not against me, said Ralph. It would be against me to have a large property to take care of. It's impossible for a man in my state of health to spend much money, and enough is as good as a feast. Well, you'll have enough, and something over. There will be more than enough for one. There will be enough for two. That's too much, said Ralph. "'Ah, don't say that. The best thing you can do when I'm gone

Starting point is 06:46:25 will be to marry.' Ralph had foreseen what his father was coming to, and this suggestion was by no means fresh. It had long been Mr. Touchett's most ingenious way of taking the cheerful view of his son's possible duration. Ralph had usually treated it facetiously, but present circumstances proscribed the facetious. He simply fell back in his chair

Starting point is 06:46:48 and returned his father's appealing gaze. If I, with a wife who hasn't been very fond of me, have had a very happy life, said the old man, carrying his ingenuity further still, What a life mightn't you have if you should marry a person different from Mrs. Touchett. There are more different from her than there are like her. Ralph still said nothing, and after a pause his father resumed softly. What do you think of your cousin? At this, Ralph started, meeting the question with a strained smile.

Starting point is 06:47:26 Do I understand you to propose that I should marry Isabel? Well, that's what it comes to in the end. Don't you like, Isabel? Yes, very much. And Ralph got up from his chair and wandered over to the fire. He stood before it an instant, and then he stooped and stirred it mechanically. "'I like Isabel very much,' he repeated. "'Well,' said his father,

Starting point is 06:47:53 "'I know she likes you. "'She has told me how much she likes you.' "'Did she remark that she would like to marry me?' "'No, but she can't have anything against you, "'and she's the most charming young lady I've ever seen, "'and she would be good to you. "'I've thought a great deal about it.' "'So have I,' said Ralph,

Starting point is 06:48:14 "'coming back to the bedside again. I don't mind telling you that. You are in love with her, then. I should think you would be. It's as if she came over on purpose. No, I'm not in love with her. But I should be if... If certain things were different.

Starting point is 06:48:32 Ah, things are always different from what they might be, said the old man. If you wait for them to change, you'll never do anything. I don't know whether you know, he went on. But I suppose there's no harm in. my alluding to it at such an hour as this. There was someone wanted to marry Isabel the other day, and she wouldn't have him. I know she refused Warburton. He told me himself.

Starting point is 06:48:58 Well, that proves there's a chance for somebody else. Somebody else took his chance the other day in London and got nothing by it. Was it you? Mr. Touchett eagerly asked. No, it was an older friend, a poor gentleman who came over from America to see about it. Well, I'm sorry for him, whoever he was, but it only proves what I say that the way's open to you. If it is, dear father, it's all the greater pity that I'm unable to tread it. I haven't many convictions, but I have three or four that I hold strongly.

Starting point is 06:49:32 One is that people on the whole had better not marry their cousins. Another is that people in an advanced stage of pulmonary disorder had better not marry at all. The old man raised his weak hand and moved it to and fro, before his face. What do you mean by that? You look at things in a way that would make everything wrong. What sort of a cousin is a cousin that you would never seen for more than 20 years of her life? We're all each other's cousins, and if we stopped at that, the human race would die out. It's just the same with your bad lung. You're a great deal better than you used to be. All you want is to lead a natural life. It is a great deal more natural to marry a pretty young lady that you're in

Starting point is 06:50:15 love with, than it is to remain single on false principles. I'm not in love with Isabel, said Ralph. You said just now that you would be if you didn't think it wrong. I want to prove to you that it isn't wrong. It will only tire you, dear daddy, said Ralph, who marveled at his father's tenacity and at his finding strength to insist. Then where shall we all be? Where shall you be if I don't provide for you?

Starting point is 06:50:44 You won't have anything to do with the bank, and you won't have me to take care of. You say you've so many interests, but I can't make them out.' Ralph leaned back in his chair with folded arms. His eyes were fixed for some time in meditation. At last with the air of a man fairly mustering courage, I'd take a great interest in my cousin, he said, but not the sort of interest you desire. I shall not live many years.

Starting point is 06:51:13 but I hope I shall live long enough to see what she does with herself. She's entirely independent of me. I can exercise very little influence upon her life. But I should like to do something for her. What should you like to do? I should like to put a little wind in her sails. What do you mean by that? I should like to put it into her power to do some of the things she wants.

Starting point is 06:51:40 She wants to see the world, for instance. I should like to put money in her purse. Ah, I'm glad you've thought of that, said the old man. But I've thought of it, too. I've left her a legacy. Five thousand pounds. Oh, that's capital. It's very kind of you.

Starting point is 06:51:58 But I should like to do a little more. Something of that veiled acuteness with which it had been on Daniel Touchett's part, the habit of a lifetime to listen to a financial proposition, still lingered in the face in which the invalid had not obliterated. the man of business. I shall be happy to consider it, he said softly. Isabelle's poor, then. My mother tells me that she has but a few hundred dollars a year.

Starting point is 06:52:24 I should like to make her rich. What do you mean by rich? I call people rich when they're able to meet the requirements of their imagination. Isabel has a great deal of imagination. So have you, my son, said Mr. Touchett, listening very attentively but a little confusedly. You tell me I shall have money enough for two. What I want is that you should kindly relieve me of my superfluity

Starting point is 06:52:51 and make it over to Isabel. Divide my inheritance into two equal halves and give her the second. To do what she likes with? Absolutely what she likes. And without an equivalent? What equivalent could there be? The one I've already mentioned. her marrying someone or other?

Starting point is 06:53:13 It's just to do away with anything of that sort that I make my suggestion. If she has an easy income, she'll never have to marry for her support. That's what I want cannily to prevent. She wishes to be free, and your request will make her free. Well, you seem to have thought it out, said Mr. Touchett. But I don't see why you appeal to me. The money will be yours, and you can easily give it to her yourself. Ralph openly stared.

Starting point is 06:53:42 Oh, dear father, I can't offer Isabel money. The old man gave a groan. Don't tell me you're not in love with her. Do you want me to have the credit of it? Entirely. I should like it simply to be a clause in your will without the slightest reference to me. Do you want me to make a new will, then? A few words will do it.

Starting point is 06:54:04 You can attend to it the next time you feel a little lively. You must telegraph to you. Mr. Hillary, then. I'll do nothing without my solicitor. You shall see Mr. Hillary tomorrow. They'll think we've quarreled you and I, said the old man. Very probably, I shall like him to think it, said Ralph, smiling. And to carry out the idea, I give you notice that I shall be very sharp, quite horrid, and strange with you. The humor of this appeared to touch his father, who lay a little while taking it in. I'll do anything you like, Mr. Touch. said at last, but I'm not sure it's right. You say you want to put wind in her sails,

Starting point is 06:54:45 but aren't you afraid of putting too much? I should like to see her going before the breeze, Ralph answered. You speak as if it were for your mere amusement. So it is a good deal. Well, I don't think I understand, said Mr. Touchett with a sigh. Young men are very different from what I was. When I cared for a girl, when I was young, I wanted to do more than look at her. You've scruples that I shouldn't have had, and you've ideas that I shouldn't have had either. You say Isabel wants to be free, and that her being rich will keep her from marrying for money. Do you think that she's a girl to do that? By no means. But she has less money than she has ever had before.

Starting point is 06:55:32 Her father then gave her everything, because he used to spend his capital. She has nothing but the crumbs of that feast to live on, and she doesn't really know how meager they are. She has yet to learn it. My mother has told me all about it. Isabel will learn it when she's really thrown upon the world, and it would be very painful to me to think of her coming to the consciousness of a lot of wants that she should be unable to satisfy.

Starting point is 06:55:56 I've left her five thousand pounds. She can satisfy a good many wants with that. She can indeed, but she would probably spend it in two or three years. You think she'd be extravagant, then? Most certainly, said Ralph, smiling serenely. Poor Mr. Touch its acuteness was rapidly giving place to pure confusion. It would merely be a question of time, then, her spending the larger sum. No, though at first I think she'd plunge into that pretty freely.

Starting point is 06:56:29 She'd probably make over a part of it to each of her sisters. But after that, she'd come to her senses, remember she still has a lifetime before her, and live within her means. Well, you have worked it out, said the old man helplessly. You do take an interest in her, certainly. You can't consistently say I go too far. You wished me to go further. Well, I don't know, Mr. Touch had answered.

Starting point is 06:56:56 I don't think I enter into your spirit. It seems to me immoral. Immoral, dear daddy. Well, I don't know that it's right to make everything so easy. easy for a person? It surely depends upon the person. When the person's good, you're making things easy is all to the credit of virtue, to facilitate the execution of good impulses what can be a nobler act. This was a little difficult to follow, and Mr. Touch had considered it for a while. At last he said, Isabel's a sweet young thing, but do you think she's so good as that? She's as good as her best

Starting point is 06:57:35 opportunities, Ralph returned. Well, Mr. Touchett declared, she ought to get a great many opportunities for 60,000 pounds. I've no doubt she will. Of course, I'll do what you want, said the old man. I only want to understand it a little. Well, dear daddy, don't you understand it now? His son caressingly asked. If you don't, we won't take any more trouble about it.

Starting point is 06:58:02 We'll leave it alone. Mr. Touchett lay a long time still. Ralph supposed he had given up the attempt to follow. But at last quite lucidly he began again. Tell me this first. Doesn't it occur to you that a young lady with sixty thousand pounds may fall a victim to the fortune hunters? She'll hardly fall a victim to more than one.

Starting point is 06:58:28 Well, one's too many. Decidedly, that's a risk, and it has entered into my calculation. I think it's appreciable, but I think it's small, and I'm prepared to take it. Poor Mr. Touch's acuteness had passed into perplexity, and his perplexity now passed into admiration. Well, you have gone into it, he repeated, but I don't see what good you're to get out of it. Ralph leaned over his father's pillows and gently smoothed them. He was aware their talk had been unduly prolonged. I shall get just the good I said a few moments ago. I wished you to put into Isabel's reach,

Starting point is 06:59:10 that of having met the requirements of my imagination. But it's scandalous, the way I've taken advantage of you. End of Chapter 18. Chapter 19 of the Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. As Mrs. Touchett had foretold, Isabelle and Madame Merle were thrown much together during the illness of their host, so that if they had not become intimate, it would almost have been a breach of good manners. Their manners were of the best, but in addition to this they happened to please each other.

Starting point is 06:59:59 It is perhaps too much to say that they swore an eternal friendship, but tacitly at least they called the future to witness. Isabel did so with a perfectly good conscience, though she would have hesitated to admit that she was intimate with her new friend and the woman. the high sense she privately attached to this term. She often wondered indeed if she had ever been, or could ever be, intimate with anyone. She had an ideal of friendship as well as of several other sentiments, which had failed to seem to her in this case, it had not seemed to her in other cases, that the actual completely expressed. But she often reminded herself that there were essential reasons why one's ideal could never become concrete. It was a thing to believe in, not to see, a matter of faith, not of experience. Experience, however, might supply us with very creditable

Starting point is 07:00:50 imitations of it, and the part of wisdom was to make the best of these. Certainly on the whole, Isabelle had never encountered a more agreeable and interesting figure than Madame Merle. She had never met a person having less of that fault which is the principal obstacle to a friendship. The air of reproducing the more tiresome, the stale, the two familiar parts of one's own character. The gates of the girl's confidence were opened wider than they had ever been. She said things to this amiable auditress that she had not yet said to anyone. Sometimes she took alarm at her candor. It was as if she had given to a comparative stranger the key to her cabinet of jewels. These spiritual gems were the only ones of any magnitude that

Starting point is 07:01:34 Isabel possessed, but there was all the greater reason for their being carefully guarded. afterwards, however, she always remembered that one should never regret a generous error, and that if Madame Merle had not the merit she attributed to her, so much the worse for Madame Merle. There was no doubt she had great merits. She was charming, sympathetic, intelligent, cultivated. More than this, for it had not been Isabel's ill-fortune to go through life without meeting in her own sex several persons of whom no less could fairly be said. she was rare, superior, and preeminent.

Starting point is 07:02:11 There are many amiable people in the world, and Madame Merle was far from being vulgarly good-natured and restlessly witty. She knew how to think, an accomplishment rare in women, and she had thought to very good purpose. Of course, too, she knew how to feel. Isabel couldn't have spent a week with her without being sure of that. This was indeed Madame Merle's great talent, her most perfect gift. Life had told upon her. She had felt it strongly, and it was part of the

Starting point is 07:02:43 satisfaction to be taken in her society that when the girl talked of what she was pleased to call serious matters, this lady understood her so easily and quickly. Emotion, it is true, had become with her rather historic. She made no secret of the fact that the fount of passion, thanks to having been rather violently tapped at one period, didn't flow quite so freely as of yours. She proposed, moreover, as well as expected, to cease feeling. She freely admitted that of old she had been a little mad, and now she pretended to be perfectly sane. I judge more than I used to, she said to Isabel.

Starting point is 07:03:21 But it seems to me one has earned the right. One can't judge till one's forty. Before that we're too eager, too hard, too cruel, and in addition much too ignorant. I'm sorry for you. It'll be a long time before you're 40. But every gains a loss of some kind. I often think that after 40 one can't really feel.

Starting point is 07:03:45 The freshness, the quickness have certainly gone. You'll keep them longer than most people. It will be a great satisfaction to me to see you some years hence. I want to see what life makes of you. One thing's certain. It can't spoil you. It may pull you about horribly. but I defy it to break you up.

Starting point is 07:04:08 Isabel received this assurance as a young soldier, still panting from a slight skirmish in which she has come off with honour, might receive a pat on the shoulder from his colonel. Like such a recognition of merit, it seemed to come with authority. How could the lightest word do less on the part of a person who was prepared to say of almost everything Isabel told her, Oh, I've been in that, my dear. It passes, like a word. everything else. On many of her interlocutors, Madame Merle might have produced an irritating effect.

Starting point is 07:04:40 It was disconcertingly difficult to surprise her. But Isabel, though by no means incapable of desiring to be effective, had not at present this impulse. She was too sincere, too interested in her judicious companion. And then, moreover, Madame Merle never said such things in the tone of triumph or of boastfulness. They dropped from her like cold confession. A period of bad weather had settled upon Garden Court. The days grew shorter, and there was an end to the pretty tea parties on the lawn. But our young woman had long indoor conversations with her fellow visitor, and in spite of the rain, the two ladies often sallied forth for a walk, equipped with the defensive apparatus which the English climate and the English genius have between them brought to such perfection. Madame Merle liked almost everything, including the English. rain. There's always a little of it, and never too much at once, she said, and it never wets you, and it always smells good. She declared that in England the pleasures of smell were great, that in this inimitable island there was a certain mixture of fog and beer and soot, which,

Starting point is 07:05:54 however odd it might sound, was the national aroma, and was most agreeable to the nostril. And she used to lift the sleeve of her British overcoat and bury her nose, in it, inhaling the fine, clear scent of the wool. Poor Ralph touch it, as soon as the autumn had begun to define itself, became almost a prisoner. In bad weather he was unable to step out of the house, and he used sometimes to stand at one of the windows with his hands in his pockets, and from a countenance half rueful, half critical, watch Isabel and Madame Merle as they walked down the avenue under a pair of umbrellas. The roads about Garden Court were so firm, even in the weather, that the two ladies always came back with a healthy glow in their cheeks, looking at

Starting point is 07:06:39 the souls of their neat, stout boots, and declaring that their walk had done them inexpressible good. Before luncheon always Madame Merle was engaged, Isabelle admired and envied her rigid possession of her mourning. Our heroine had always passed for a person of resources, and had taken a certain pride in being one. But she wandered, as by the wrong side of the wall of a private garden, round the enclosed talents, accomplishments, aptitudes of Madame Merle. She found herself desiring to emulate them, and in twenty such ways this lady presented herself as a model. I should like awfully to be so.

Starting point is 07:07:19 Isabel secretly exclaimed, more than once, as one after another of her friend's fine aspects caught the light, then before long she knew that she had learned a lesson from a high authority. It took no great time indeed for her to feel herself, as the phrase is, under an influence. What's the harm? She wondered, so long as it's a good one. The more one's under a good influence, the better.

Starting point is 07:07:43 The only thing is to see our steps as we take them, to understand them as we go. That, no doubt, I shall always do. I needn't be afraid of becoming too pliable. Isn't it my fault that I'm not pliable enough? It is said that imitation is the sincerest flattery, and if Isabel was sometimes moved to gape at her friend aspiringly and despairingly, it was not so much because she desired herself to shine as because she wished to hold up the lamp for Madame Merle.

Starting point is 07:08:13 She liked her extremely, but was even more dazzled than attracted. She sometimes asked herself what Henrietta Stackpole would say to her thinking so much of this perverted product of their common soil, and had a conviction that it would be severely judged. Henrietta would not at all subscribe to Madame Merle, for reasons she could not have defined this truth came home to the girl. On the other hand, she was equally sure that, should the occasion offer, her new friend would strike off some happy view of her old. Madame Merle was too humorous, too observant, not to do justice to Henrietta, and on becoming

Starting point is 07:08:47 acquainted with her, would probably give the measure of a tact which Miss Stackpole couldn't hope to emulate. She appeared to have in her experience a touchstone for everything, and somewhere in the capacious pocket of her genial memory, she would find the key to Henrietta's value. That's the great thing, Isabel solemnly pondered. That's the supreme good fortune, to be in a better position for appreciating people than they are for appreciating you. And she added that such, when one considered it, was simply the essence of the aristocratic situation. In this light, if in none other, one should aim at the aristocratic situation.

Starting point is 07:09:28 I may not count over all the links in the chain which led Isabel to think of Madame Merle's situation as aristocratic, a view of it never expressed in any reference made to it by that lady herself. She had known great things and great people, but she had never played a great part. She was one of the small ones of the earth. She had not been born to honours. She knew the world too well to nourish fatuous allusions on the article of her own place in it. She had encountered many of the fortunate few, and was perfectly aware of those points at which their fortunes diverged from hers. But if, by her informed measure, she was no figure for a high scene, she had yet to Isabel's imagination a sort of greatness.

Starting point is 07:10:12 To be so cultivated and civilized, so wise and so easy, and still make so light of it, that was really to be a great lady, especially when one so carried and presented oneself. It was as if somehow she had all society under contribution, and all the arts and graces it practiced, or was the effect rather that of charming use is found for her, even from a distance, subtle service rendered by her to a clamorous world wherever she might be? After breakfast she wrote a succession of letters, as those arriving for her appeared innumerable. Her correspondence was a source of surprise to Isabel, when they sometimes walked together to the village post office, to do.

Starting point is 07:10:54 deposit Madame Merle's offering to the mail. She knew more people, as she told Isabelle, than she knew what to do with, and something was always turning up to be written about. Of painting she was devotedly fond, and made no more of brushing in a sketch than of pulling off her gloves. At Garden Court she was perpetually taking advantage of an hour sunshine to go out with a camp-stool and a box of watercolours. That she was a brave musician we have already perceived, and it was evidence of the fact

Starting point is 07:11:24 that when she seated herself at the piano, as she always did in the evening, her listeners resigned themselves without a murmur to losing the grace of her talk. Isabel, since she had known her, felt ashamed of her own facility, which she now looked upon as basely inferior, and indeed, though she had been thought rather a prodigy at home, the loss to society when, in taking her place upon the music-stool, she turned her back to the room, was usually deemed greater than the gain. when Madame Merle was neither writing nor painting nor touching the piano, she was usually employed upon wonderful tasks of rich embroidery, cushions, curtains, decorations for the chimney-piece,

Starting point is 07:12:05 an art in which her bold, free invention was as noted as the agility of her needle. She was never idle. For when engaged in none of the ways I have mentioned, she was either reading, she appeared to Isabel to read everything important, or walking out or playing patience with the cards or talking with her fellow inmates. And with all this she had always the social quality, was never rudely absent, yet never too seated. She laid down her pastimes as easily as she took them up.

Starting point is 07:12:35 She worked and talked at the same time, and appeared to impute scant worth to anything she did. She gave away her sketches and tapestries. She rose from the piano or remained there, according to the convenience of her auditors, which she always unerringly divined. She was, in short, the most comfortable, profitable, amenable person to live with. If, for Isabel, she had a fault, it was that she was not natural,

Starting point is 07:13:01 by which the girl meant, not that she was either affected or pretentious, since from these vulgar vices no woman could have been more exempt, but that her nature had been too much overlaid by custom, and her angles too much rubbed away. She had become too flexible, too useful, was too ripe and too final.

Starting point is 07:13:21 She was, in a word, too perfectly, the social animal that man and woman are supposed to have been intended to be, and she had rid herself of every remnant of that tonic wildness, which we may assume to have belonged even to the most amiable persons in the ages before country-house life was the fashion. Isabel found it difficult to think of her in any detachment or privacy. She existed only in her relations, direct or indirect, with her fellow mortals. one might wonder what commerce she could possibly hold with her own spirit. One always ended, however, by feeling that a charming surface doesn't necessarily prove one superficial. This was an illusion in which, in one's youth, one had but just escaped being nourished.

Starting point is 07:14:04 Madame Merle was not superficial. Not she. She was deep, and her nature spoke nonetheless in her behavior because it spoke a conventional tongue. What's language at all but a convention? said Isabel. She has the good taste not to pretend, like some people I've met, to express herself by original signs. I'm afraid you've suffered much. She once found occasion to say to her friend in response to some illusion that appeared to reach far. What makes you think that? Madame Merle asked, with the amused smile of a person seated at a game of guesses. I hope I haven't

Starting point is 07:14:44 too much the droop of the misunderstood. No, but you sometimes say things that I think people who have always been happy wouldn't have found out. I haven't always been happy, said Madame Merle, smiling still, but with a mock gravity, as if she were telling a child a secret. Such a wonderful thing. But Isabel rose to the irony. A great many people give me the impression of never having for a moment felt anything. It's very true. There are many more iron pots, certainly, than porcelain.

Starting point is 07:15:19 But you may depend upon it that everyone bears some mark. Even the hardest iron pots have a little bruise, a little hole somewhere. I flatter myself that I'm rather stout. But if I must tell you the truth, I've been shockingly chipped and cracked. I do very well for service yet, because I've been cleverly mended, and I try to remain in the cupboard, the quiet, dusky cupboard where there's an odor of stale spices, as much as I can. But when I have to come out and into a strong light,

Starting point is 07:15:51 then, my dear, I'm a horror. I know not whether it was on this occasion or on some other, that the conversation had taken the turn I have just indicated she said to Isabel that she would someday a tale unfold. Isabel assured her that she should delight to listen to one, and reminded her more than once of this engagement. Madame Merle, however, begged repeatedly for a respite, and at last frankly told her young companion that they must wait till they knew each other better.

Starting point is 07:16:21 This would be sure to happen, a long friendship so visibly lay before them. Isabelle assented, but at the same time inquired if she mightn't be trusted, if she appeared capable of a betrayal of confidence. It's not that I'm afraid of your repeating what I say, her fellow visitor answered. I'm afraid, on the contrary, of your taking it too much to yourself. You judge me too harshly. You're of the cruel age. She preferred for the present to talk to Isabel of Isabel, and exhibited the greatest interest in our heroine's history,

Starting point is 07:16:55 sentiments, opinions, prospects. She made her chatter and listened to her chatter with infinite good nature. This flattered and quickened the girl, who was struck with all the distinguished people her friend had known, and with her having lived, as Mrs. Touchett said, in the best company in your own. Europe. Isabel thought the better of herself for enjoying the favour of a person who had so large a field of comparison, and it was perhaps partly to gratify the sense of profiting by comparison

Starting point is 07:17:24 that she so often appealed to these stores of reminiscence. Madame Merle had been a dweller in many lands and had social ties in a dozen different countries. I don't pretend to be educated, she would say, but I think I know my Europe. And she spoke one day of going to Sweden to stay with an old friend, and another of proceeding to Malta to follow up a new acquaintance. With England, where she had often dwelt, she was thoroughly familiar, and for Isabel's benefit through a great deal of light upon the customs of the country and the character of the people, who, after all, as she was fond of saying, were the most convenient in the world to live with. You mustn't think it's strange her remaining here at such a time as this, when Mr. Touchett's

Starting point is 07:18:10 passing away. That gentleman's wife remarked to her niece. She is incapable of a mistake. She's the most tactful woman I know. It's a favor to me that she stays. She's putting off a lot of visits at great houses, said Mrs. Touchett, who never forgot that when she herself was in England, her social value sank two or three degrees in the scale. She has her pick of places. She's not in want of a shelter. But I've asked her to put in this time because I wish you to know her. I think it will be a good thing for you. you. Serena Merle hasn't a fault. If I didn't already like her very much, that description might alarm me. Isabel returned. She's never the least little bit off. I've brought you out here, and I wish to do the best for you. Your sister Lily told me she hoped I would give you plenty of

Starting point is 07:18:57 opportunities. I give you one in putting you in relation with Madame Merle. She's one of the most brilliant women in Europe. I like her better than I like your description of her. Isabel persisted in saying, do you flatter yourself that you'll ever feel her open to criticism? I hope you'll let me know when you do. That will be cruel, to you, said Isabel. You needn't mind me. You won't discover a fault in her. Perhaps not, but I dare say I shan't miss it. She knows absolutely everything on earth there is to know, said Mrs. Touchett. Isabel, after this, observed to their companion that she hoped she knew Mrs. Touchett considered she hadn't a speck on her perfection.

Starting point is 07:19:40 On which, I'm obliged to you, Madame Merle replied, but I'm afraid your aunt imagines, or at least alludes to, no aberrations that the clock face doesn't register. So that you mean you have a wild side that's unknown to her? Ah, no, I fear my darkest sides are my tamest.

Starting point is 07:20:00 I mean that having no faults for your aunt means that one's never late for dinner. That is for her dinner. I was not late, by the way, the other day when you came back from London. The clock was just at eight when I came into the drawing room. It was the rest of you that were before the time. It means that one answers a letter the day one gets it, and that when one comes to stay with her, one doesn't bring too much luggage, and is careful not to be taken ill. For Mrs. Touchett, those things constitute virtue. It's a blessing to be able to reduce it to its elements. madame merle's own conversation it will be perceived was enriched with bold free touches of criticism which even when they had a restrictive effect never struck isabel as ill-natured

Starting point is 07:20:46 it couldn't occur to the girl for instance that mrs touchett's accomplished guest was abusing her and this for very good reasons in the first place isabel rose eagerly to the sense of her shades in the second madame merle implied that there was a great deal more to say and it was clear in the third that for a person to speak to one without ceremony of one's near relations was an agreeable sign of that person's intimacy with oneself. These signs of deep communion multiplied as the days elapsed, and there was none of which Isabel was more sensible than of her companion's preference for making Miss Archer herself a topic. Though she referred frequently to the incidents of her own career, she never lingered upon them. She was as little of a gross egotist as she was of a flat gossip. I'm old and stale and faded, she said more than once. I'm of no more interest than last week's newspaper. You're young and fresh and of today.

Starting point is 07:21:45 You've the great thing. You've actuality. I once had it. We all have it for an hour. You, however, will have it for longer. Let us talk about you, then. You can say nothing I shall not care to hear. It's a sign that I'm growing old, that I like to talk with younger people.

Starting point is 07:22:05 I think it's a very pretty compensation. If we can't have youth within us, we can have it outside. And I really think we see it and feel it better that way. Of course, we must be in sympathy with it. That I shall always be. I don't know that I shall ever be ill-natured with old people. I hope not. There are certainly some old people I adore.

Starting point is 07:22:28 But I shall never be any. anything but abject with the young. They touch me and appeal to me too much. I give you carte blanche, then. You can even be impertinent if you like. I shall let it pass and horribly spoil you. I speak as if I were a hundred years old, you say. Well, I am, if you please. I was born before the French Revolution. Ah, my dear, je vie an de loins. I belong to the old, old world. But it's not of that I want to talk. I want to talk about the new. You must tell me more about America.

Starting point is 07:23:05 You never tell me enough. Here I've been since I was brought here as a helpless child, and it's ridiculous, or rather it's scandalous, how little I know about that splendid, dreadful, funny country, surely the greatest and drollest of them all. There are a great many of us like that in these parts, and I must say I think we're a wretched set of people. You should live in your own land.

Starting point is 07:23:27 Whatever it may be, you have your natural place there. If we're not good Americans, we're certainly poor Europeans. We've no natural place here. We're mere parasites, crawling over the surface. We haven't our feet in the soil. At least one can know it and not have illusions. A woman, perhaps, can get on. A woman, it seems to me, has no natural place anywhere.

Starting point is 07:23:51 Wherever she finds herself, she has to remain on the surface and, more or less, to crawl. You protest, my dear, you're horrified, you declare you'll never crawl. It's very true that I don't see you crawling. You stand more upright than a good many poor creatures. Very good. On the whole, I don't think you'll crawl. But the men, the Americans, what do they make of it over here?

Starting point is 07:24:19 I don't envy them trying to arrange themselves. Look at poor Ralph Touchet. What sort of a figure? do you call that? Fortunately, he has a consumption. I say fortunately, because it gives him something to do. His consumption's his career. It's a kind of position.

Starting point is 07:24:37 You can say, oh, Mr. Touchett, he takes care of his lungs. He knows a great deal about climates. But without that, who would he be? What would he represent? Mr. Ralph Touchett, an American who lives in Europe. That signifies absolutely nothing. It's impossible anything should signify. less. He's very

Starting point is 07:24:58 cultivated, they say. He has a very pretty collection of old snuff-boxes. The collection is all that's wanted to make it pitiful. I'm tired of the sound of the word. I think it's grotesque. But the poor old father, it's different. He has

Starting point is 07:25:14 his identity, and it's rather a massive one. He represents a great financial house, and that in our days is as good as anything else. For an American, at any rate, that will do very well. But I persist in thinking your cousin very lucky to have a chronic malady so long as he doesn't die of it. It's much better than the snuff-boxes.

Starting point is 07:25:34 If he weren't ill, you say, he'd do something? He'd take his father's place in the house. My poor child, I doubt it. I don't think he's at all fond of the house. However you know him better than I, though I used to know him rather well, and he may have the benefit of the doubt. The worst case, I think, is a friend of mine,

Starting point is 07:25:54 a countryman of ours, who lives in Italy, where he also was brought before he knew better, and who is one of the most delightful men I know. Someday you must know him. I'll bring you together, and then you'll see what I mean. He's Gilbert Osmond. He lives in Italy. That's all one can say about him or make of him. He's exceedingly clever, a man made to be distinguished.

Starting point is 07:26:20 But, as I tell you, you exhaust the description when you say he's Mr. Osmond, who lives to Bethmont in Italy. No career, no name, no position, no fortune, no past, no future, no anything. Oh, yes, he paints, if you please. Paints in watercolours like me, only better than I. His painting's pretty bad. On the whole, I'm rather glad of that. Fortunately, he's very indolent, so indolent that it amounts to a sort of position.

Starting point is 07:26:51 He can say, oh, I do nothing, I'm too deadly lazy. you can do nothing today unless you get up at five o'clock in the morning. In that way he becomes a sort of exception. You feel he might do something if he'd only rise early. He never speaks of his painting to people at large. He's too clever for that. But he has a little girl, a dear little girl. He does speak of her.

Starting point is 07:27:15 He's devoted to her, and if it were a career to be an excellent father, he'd be very distinguished. But I'm afraid that's no better than the snuff-boxes. perhaps not even so good. Tell me what they do in America, pursued Madame Merle, who, it must be observed parenthetically, did not deliver herself all at once of these reflections, which are presented in a cluster for the convenience of the reader.

Starting point is 07:27:40 She talked of Florence, where Mr. Osmond lived, and where Mrs. Touchett occupied a medieval palace. She talked of Rome, where she herself had a little Pied d'Ater with some rather good old Damasque. She talked of places, of peace, people, and even, as the phrase is, of subjects, and from time to time she talked of their kind old host and of the prospect of his recovery. From the first she had thought this prospect small, and Isabel had been struck with the positive, discriminating, competent way in which she took

Starting point is 07:28:11 the measure of his remainder of life. One evening she announced definitively that he wouldn't live. Sir Matthew Hope told me so plainly as was proper, she said, standing there near the fire before dinner. He makes himself very agreeable, the great doctor. I don't mean his saying that has anything to do with it, but he says such things with great tact. I had told him I felt ill at my ease, staying here at such a time. It seemed to me so indiscreet. It wasn't as if I could nurse. You must remain, you must remain, he answered. Your office will come later. Wasn't that a very delicate way of saying both that poor Mr. Touchett would go, and that I might be of some use as a consoler? In fact, however, I shall not be of the slightest use. Your aunt will console

Starting point is 07:29:01 herself. She, and she alone, knows just how much consolation she'll require. It would be a very delicate matter for another person to undertake to administer the dose. With your cousin it will be different. He'll miss his father immensely. But I should never presume to condole with Mr. Ralph. We're not on those terms. Madame Merle had alluded more than once to some undefined incongruity in her relations with Ralph Touchett, so Isabel took this occasion of asking her if they were not good friends. Perfectly, but he doesn't like me. What have you done to him?

Starting point is 07:29:35 Nothing whatever, but one has no need of a reason for that. For not liking you? I think one has need of a very good reason. You're very kind. Be sure you have one ready for the day you begin. "'Begin to dislike you. I shall never begin.' "'I hope not, because if you do, you'll never end. "'That's the way with your cousin. He doesn't get over it.

Starting point is 07:30:01 "'It's an antipathy of nature. "'If I can call it that, when it's all on his side, "'I've nothing whatever against him, "'and don't bear him the least little grudge for not doing me justice. "'Justice is all I want. "'However, one feels that he's a gentleman "'and would never say anything underhand about one. "'Cartesertable,' Madame Merle subjoined in a moment.

Starting point is 07:30:24 "'I'm not afraid of him.' "'I hope not, indeed,' said Isabel, who added something about his being the kindest creature living. She remembered, however, that on her first asking him about Madame Merle, he had answered her in a manner which this lady might have thought injurious, without being explicit. There was something between them,' Isabel said to herself, but she said nothing more than this. If it were something of importance, it should inspire respect. If it were not, it was not worth her curiosity.

Starting point is 07:30:57 With all her love of knowledge she had a natural shrinking from raising curtains and looking into unlighted corners. The love of knowledge coexisted in her mind with the finest capacity for ignorance. But Madame Merle sometimes said things that startled her, made her raise her clear eyebrows at the time, and think of the words afterwards. I'd give a great deal to be your age again. She broke out once with a bitterness which, though diluted in her customary amplitude of ease,

Starting point is 07:31:27 was imperfectly disguised by it. If I could only begin again, if I could have my life before me. Your life's before you yet, Isabel answered gently, for she was vaguely awestruck. No, the best part's gone. and gone for nothing. Surely not for nothing, said Isabel. Why not? What have I got? Neither husband, nor child, nor fortune, nor position,

Starting point is 07:31:58 nor the traces of a beauty that I never had. You have so many friends, dear lady. I'm not so sure, cried Madame Merle. Oh, you're wrong. You have memories, graces, talents. But Madame Merle interrupted her. What of my talents brought me? Nothing but the need of using them still to get through the hours, the years, to cheat myself with some pretence of movement, of unconsciousness. As for my graces and memories, the less said about them the better. You'll be my friend till you find a better use

Starting point is 07:32:34 for your friendship. It will be for you to see that I don't then, said Isabel. Yes, I would make an effort to keep you. And her companion looked at her gravely. When I say I should like to be your age, I mean with your qualities, frank, generous, sincere like you. In that case I should have made something better of my life. What should you have liked to do that you've not done? Madame Merle took a sheet of music. She was seated at the piano, and had abruptly wheeled about on the stool when she first spoke, and mechanically turned the leaves. I'm very ambitious, she at last replied. And your ambitions have not been satisfied?

Starting point is 07:33:21 They must have been great. They were great. I should make myself ridiculous by talking of them. Isabel wondered what they could have been, whether Madame Merle had aspired to wear a crown. I don't know what your idea of success may be, but you seem to me to have been successful. To me, indeed, you're a vivid image of success. Madame Merle tossed away the music with a smile. What's your idea of success? You evidently think it must be a very tame one.

Starting point is 07:33:54 It's to see some dream of one's youth come true. Ah, Madame Merle exclaimed, that I've never seen. But my dreams were so great, so preposterous. Heaven forgive me, I'm dreaming now. And she turned back to the piano and began grandly to play. On the morrow she said to Isabel that her definition of success had been very pretty, yet frightfully sad. Measured in that way, who had ever succeeded? The dreams of one's youth. Why they were enchanting.

Starting point is 07:34:29 They were divine. Who had ever seen such things come to pass? I myself. A few of them? Isabel ventured to answer. Already. They must have been dreams of yesterday. I began to dream very young, Isabel smiled. Ah, if you mean the aspirations of your childhood,

Starting point is 07:34:52 that of having a pink sash and a doll that could close her eyes. No, I don't mean that. Or a young man with a fine moustache going down on his knees to you? No, nor that either, Isabelle declared with still more emphasis. Madame Merle appeared to note this eagerness. I suspect that's what you do mean. We've all had the young man with the moustache.

Starting point is 07:35:19 He's the inevitable young man. He doesn't count. Isabel was silent a little, but then spoke with extreme and characteristic in consequence. Why shouldn't he count? There are young men and young men. And yours was a paragon. Is that what you mean? asked her friend with a laugh.

Starting point is 07:35:38 "'If you've had the identical young man you dreamed of, then that was success, and I congratulate you with all my heart. Only in that case, why didn't you fly with him to his castle in the Apennines?' "'He has no castle in the Apennines.' "'What has he? An ugly brick house in Fortieth Street. Don't tell me that. I refuse to recognize that as an ideal.' "'I don't care anything about his house,' said Isabel.

Starting point is 07:36:06 That's very crude of you. When you've lived as long as I, you'll see that every human being has his shell, and that you must take the shell into account. By the shell, I mean the whole envelope of circumstances. There's no such thing as an isolated man or woman, where each of us made up of some cluster of appurtenances. What shall we call ourself? Where does it begin? Where does it end? It overflows into everything that belongs to us, and that's the world.

Starting point is 07:36:36 and that it flows back again. I know a large part of myself is in the clothes I choose to wear, of a great respect for things. One's self, for other people, is one's expression of oneself. And one's house, one's furniture, one's garments, the books one reads, the company one keeps. These things are all expressive. This was very metaphysical. Not more so, however, than several observations Madame Merle had all

Starting point is 07:37:06 already made. Isabel was fond of metaphysics, but was unable to accompany her friend into this bold analysis of the human personality. I don't agree with you. I think just the other way. I don't know whether I succeed in expressing myself, but I know that nothing else expresses me. Nothing that belongs to me is any measure of me. Everything's on the contrary a limit, a barrier, and a perfectly arbitrary one. Certainly the clothes, which, as a very matter of the matter of the way, certainly the clothes which, As you say, I choose to wear, don't express me, and heaven forbid they should. You dress very well, Madame Merle lightly interposed. Possibly, but I don't care to be judged by that.

Starting point is 07:37:49 My clothes may express the dressmaker, but they don't express me. To begin with, it's not my own choice that I wear them. They're imposed upon me by society. Should you prefer to go without them? Madame Merle inquired in a tone which virtually terminated the disarmes. I am bound to confess, though it may cast some discredit on the sketch I have given of the youthful loyalty practised by our heroine toward this accomplished woman, that Isabel had said nothing whatever to her about Lord Warburton, and had been equally reticent on the subject of Casper

Starting point is 07:38:23 Goodwood. She had not, however, concealed the fact that she had had had opportunities of marrying, and had even let her friend know of how advantageous a kind they had been. Lord Warburton had left Lockley and was gone to Scotland, taking his sisters with him. And though he had written to Ralph more than once to ask about Mr. Touchett's health, the girl was not liable to the embarrassment of such inquiries, as, had he still been in the neighborhood, he would probably have felt bound to make in person. He had excellent ways, but she felt sure that if he come to Garden Court, he would have seen Madame Merle, and that if he had seen her, he would have liked her, and betrayed to her

Starting point is 07:39:02 her that he was in love with her young friend. It so happened that during this lady's previous visit to Garden Court, each of them much shorter than the present, he had either not been at Lockley or had not called at Mr. Touchett's. Therefore, though she knew him by name as a great man of that county, she had no cause to suspect him as a suitor of Mrs. Touchett's freshly imported niece. You've plenty of time. She had said to Isabel in return for the mutilated confidences, which star young woman made her, and which didn't pretend to be perfect, though we have seen that at moments the girl had compunctions at having said so much. I'm glad you've done nothing yet, that you have it still to do.

Starting point is 07:39:43 It's a very good thing for a girl to have refused a few good offers, so long, of course, as they are not the best she's likely to have. Pardon me if my tone seems horribly corrupt, one must take the worldly view sometimes. Only don't keep on refusing for the sake of refusing. It's a pleasant exercise of power, but acceptings, after all, an exercise of power as well. There's always the danger of refusing once too often. It was not the one I fell into. I didn't refuse often enough.

Starting point is 07:40:15 You're an exquisite creature, and I should like to see you married to a prime minister. But strictly speaking, you know, you're not what is technically called a party. You're extremely good-looking and extremely clever. In yourself, you're quite exceptional. You appear to have the vaguest ideas about your earthly possessions, but from what I can make out you're not embarrassed with an income. I wish you had a little money. I wish I had, said Isabel, simply, apparently forgetting for the moment that her poverty had been a venial fault for two gallant gentlemen. In spite of Sir Matthew Hope's benevolent recommendation, Madame Merle did not remain to the end,

Starting point is 07:40:53 as the issue of poor Mr. Touchett's malady had now come frankly to be designated. She was under pledges to other people, which had at last to be redeemed, and she left Garden Court with the understanding that she should in any event see Mrs. Touchett there again, or else in town, before quitting England. Her parting with Isabel was even more like the beginning of a friendship than their meeting had been. I'm going to six places in succession, but I shall see no one I shall like as well as you. They'll all be old friends, however. One doesn't make new friends at my age.

Starting point is 07:41:26 I've made a great exception for you. You must remember that and think as well of me as possible. You must reward me by believing in me. By way of answer, Isabel kissed her. And, though some women kiss with facility, there are kisses and kisses, and this embrace was satisfactory to Madame Merle. Our young lady after this was much alone.

Starting point is 07:41:48 She saw her aunt and cousin only at meals, and discovered that of the hours during which Mrs. Touchett was invisible, only a minor portion was now devoted to nursing her husband. She spent the rest in her own apartments, to which access was not allowed even to her niece, apparently occupied there with mysterious and inscrutable exercises. At table she was grave and silent, but her solemnity was not an attitude. Isabel could see it was a conviction. She wondered if her aunt repented of having taken her own way so much, but there was no visible evidence of this.

Starting point is 07:42:23 No tears, no sighs, no exaggeration of zeal always to its own sense adequate. Mrs. Touchett seemed simply to feel the need of thinking things over and summing them up. She had a little moral account book, with columns unerringly ruled and a sharp steel clasp, which she kept with exemplary neatness. Uttered reflection had with her ever, at any rate, a practical ring. "'If I had foreseen this, I'd not have proposed your coming abroad now,' she said to Isabel, after Madame Merle had left the house. "'I'd have waited and sent for you next year.' So that perhaps I should never have known my uncle?

Starting point is 07:43:01 It's a great happiness to me to have come now. That's very well, but it was not that you might know your uncle that I brought you to Europe. A perfectly voracious speech, but as Isabel thought, not as perfectly timed. She had leisure to think of this and other matters. She took a solitary walk every day and spent vague hours in turning over books in the library. Among the subjects that engaged her attention were the adventures of her friend Miss Stackpole, with whom she was in regular correspondence. Isabel liked her friend's private epistolary style better than her public.

Starting point is 07:43:38 That is, she felt her public letters would have been excellent if they had not been printed. Henrietta's career, however, was not so successful as might have been wished, even in the interest of her private felicity. That view of the inner life of Great Britain which she was so eager to take appeared to dance before her like an ignis fatuous. The invitation from Lady Pencil, for mysterious reasons, had never arrived, and poor Mr. Bantling himself, with all his friendly ingenuity, had been unable to explain so grave a dereliction on the part of a missive that had obviously been sent. He had evidently taken Henrietta's affair as much to heart, and believed that he owed her a set-off

Starting point is 07:44:18 to this illusory visit to Bedfordshire. He says he should think I would go to the continent. Henrietta wrote, "'And as he thinks of going there himself, "'I suppose his advice is sincere. "'He wants to know why I don't take a view of French life, "'and it's a fact that I want very much to see the new Republic. "'Mr. Bantling doesn't care much about the Republic, "'but he thinks of going over to Paris anyway.

Starting point is 07:44:40 "'I must say he's quite as attentive as I could wish, "'and at least I shall have seen one polite Englishman. "'I keep telling Mr. Bantling that he ought to have been an American, "'and you should see how that pleases him. "'Whenever I say so he breaks him, out with the same exclamation. Ah, but really, come now. A few days later, she wrote that she had decided to go to Paris at the end of the week, and that Mr. Bandling had promised to see her off, perhaps even would go so far as Dover with her. She would wait in Paris till Isabel should arrive,

Starting point is 07:45:11 Henrietta added, speaking quiet as if Isabel were to start on her continental journey alone, and making no allusion to Mrs. Touchett. Bearing in mind his interest in their late companion, our heroine communicated several passages from this correspondence to Ralph, who followed with an emotion akin to suspense the career of the representative of the interviewer. "'It seems to me she's doing very well,' he said. "'Going over to Paris with an ex-lancer. "'If she wants something to write about, she is only to describe that episode.' "'It's not conventional, certainly,' Isabel answered.

Starting point is 07:45:46 "'But if you mean that, as far as Henrietta is concerned, it's not perfectly innocent, you're very much mistaken. You'll never understand Henrietta. Pardon me, I understand her perfectly. I didn't at all at first, but now I've the point of view. I'm afraid, however, that Bantling hasn't. He may have some surprises. Oh, I understand Henrietta as well as if I had made her.

Starting point is 07:46:12 Isabel was by no means sure of this, but she abstained from expressing further doubt, for she was disposed in these days to account. extend a great charity to her cousin. One afternoon, less than a week after Madame Merle's departure, she was seated in the library with a volume to which her attention was not fastened. She had placed herself in a deep window bench, from which she looked out into the dull, damp park, and as the library stood at right angles to the entrance front of the house, she could see the doctor's broom, which had been waiting for the last two hours before the door.

Starting point is 07:46:45 She was struck with his remaining so long, but at last she saw him appear in the Portico, stand a moment slowly drawing on his gloves and looking at the knees of his horse, and then get into the vehicle and roll away. Isabel kept her place for half an hour. There was a great stillness in the house. It was so great that when she at last heard a soft, slow step on the deep carpet of the room, she was almost startled by the sound. She turned quickly away from the window and saw Ralph Touchett standing there with his hands still in his pockets,

Starting point is 07:47:16 but with a face absolutely void of its usual latent smile. She got up, and her movement and glance were a question. "'It's all over,' said Ralph. "'Do you mean that my uncle?' And Isabel stopped. "'My dear father died an hour ago.' "'Oh, my poor Ralph!' She gently wailed, putting out her two hands to him.

Starting point is 07:47:45 "'End of Chapter 19. Chapter 20 of the Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Libravox recording is in the public domain. Some fortnight after this, Madame Merle drove up in a handsome cab to the house in Winchester Square. As she descended from her vehicle, she observed, suspended between the dining-room windows, a large, neat wooden tablet, on whose fresh black ground were inscribed in white paint the words this noble freehold mansion to be sold, with the name of the agent to whom application should be made. They certainly lose no time, said the visitor, as after sounding the big brass knocker, she waited to be admitted.

Starting point is 07:48:44 It's a practical country. And within the house, as she ascended to the drawing-room, she perceived numerous signs of abdication, pictures removed from the walls and placed upon sofas, windows undraped, and floors laid bare. Mrs. Touchett presently received her, and intimated in a few words that condolences might be taken for granted. I know what you're going to say. He was a very good man, but I know it better than anyone, because I gave him more chance to show it. In that, I think I was a good wife. Mrs. Touchett added that at the end her husband apparently recognized this fact. He has treated me most liberally, she said.

Starting point is 07:49:30 I won't say more liberally than I expected, because I didn't expect. You know that as a general thing I don't expect. But he chose, I presume, to recognize the fact that though I lived much abroad and mingled, you may say freely, in foreign life, I never exhibited the smallest preference for anyone. else. For anyone but yourself? Madame Merle mentally observed, but the reflection was perfectly inaudible. I never sacrificed my husband to another. Mrs. Touch had continued with her stout curtness. Oh no, thought Madame Merle, you never did anything for another. There was a certain cynicism in these mute comments, which demands an explanation, the more so as they are

Starting point is 07:50:20 not in accord either with the view, somewhat superficial, perhaps, that we have hitherto enjoyed of Madame Merle's character, or with the literal facts of Mrs. Touchett's history. The more so, too, as Madame Merle had a well-founded conviction that her friend's last remark was not in the least to be construed as a side-thrust at herself. The truth is that the moment she had crossed the threshold, she received an impression that Mr. Touchett's death had had subtle consequences, and that these consequences had been profitable to a little circle of persons, among whom she was not numbered. Of course, it was an event which would naturally have consequences. Her imagination had more than once rested upon this fact during her stay at Garden Court.

Starting point is 07:51:07 But it had been one thing to foresee such a matter mentally, and another to stand among its massive records. The idea of a distribution of property, she would almost have said of spoils, Just now pressed upon her senses and irritated her with a sense of exclusion. I am far from wishing to picture her as one of the hungry mouths or envious hearts of the general herd, but we have already learned of her having desires that had never been satisfied. If she had been questioned, she would, of course, have admitted, with a fine, proud smile, that she had not the faintest claim to share in Mr. Touchett's relics. There was never anything in the world between us.

Starting point is 07:51:49 She would have said. There was never that, poor man, with a philip of her thumb and her third finger. I hasten to add, moreover, that if she couldn't at the present moment keep from quite perversely yearning, she was careful not to betray herself. She had, after all, as much sympathy for Mrs. Touchett's gains as for her losses. "'He has left me this house,' the newly-made widow said. "'But of course I shall not live in it. I have a much better one in Florence. The will was opened only three days since, but I've already offered the house for sale.

Starting point is 07:52:22 I've also a share in the bank, but I don't yet understand if I'm obliged to leave it there. If not, I shall certainly take it out. Ralph, of course, has Garden Court, but I'm not sure that he'll have means to keep up the place. He's naturally left very well off, but his father has given away an immense deal of money. There are bequests to a string of third cousins in Vermont. Ralph, however, is very fond of Garden Court, and would be quite capable of living there, in summer, with a maid of all work and a gardener's boy. There's one remarkable clause in my husband's will.

Starting point is 07:52:58 Mrs. Touchett added, he has left my niece a fortune. A fortune? Madame Merle softly repeated. Isabel steps into something like seventy thousand pounds. Madame Merle's hands were clasped in her. her lap. At this she raised them, still clasped, and held them a moment against her bosom, while her eyes, a little delighted, fixed themselves on those of her friend. Ah, she cried. The clever creature. Mrs. Touchett gave her a quick look. What do you mean by that? For an instant Madame Merle's colour rose, and she dropped her eyes. It certainly is clever to achieve

Starting point is 07:53:43 such results, without an effort. There assuredly was no effort. Don't call it an achievement. Madame Merle was seldom guilty of the awkwardness of retracting what she had said. Her wisdom was shown rather in maintaining it and placing it in a favorable light. My dear friend, Isabel would certainly not have had 70,000 pounds left her if she had not been the most charming girl in the world. Her charm includes great cleverness. She never dreamed, I'm sure, of my husband's doing anything for her, and I never dreamed of it either, for he never spoke to me of his intention. Mrs. Touchett said, she had no claim upon him whatever. It was no great recommendation to him that she was my niece. Whatever she achieved, she achieved unconsciously. Ah, rejoined Madame Merle,

Starting point is 07:54:35 those are the greatest strokes. Mrs. Touchett reserved her opinion. The girl's fortunate, I don't deny that, but for the present she simply stupefied. Do you mean that she doesn't know what to do with the money? That, I think, she has hardly considered. She doesn't know what to think about the matter at all. It has been as if a big gun were suddenly fired off behind her. She's feeling herself to see if she be hurt.

Starting point is 07:55:03 It's but three days since she received a visit from the principal executor, who came in person, very gallantly. to notify her. He told me afterwards that when he had made his little speech, she suddenly burst into tears, the money's to remain in the affairs of the bank, and she's to draw the interest. Madame Merle shook her head with a wise and now quite benignant smile. How very delicious. After she has done that two or three times, she'll get used to it. Then after a silence, what does your son think of it? she abruptly asked. He left England before the will was read, used up by his fatigue and anxiety, and hurrying off to the south.

Starting point is 07:55:46 He's on his way to the Riviera, and I've not yet heard from him. But it's not likely he'll ever object to anything done by his father. Didn't you say his own share had been cut down? Only at his wish. I know that he urged his father to do something for the people in America. He's not in the least addicted to looking after number one. It depends upon whom he regards. regards as number one, said Madame Merle. And she remained thoughtful a moment, her eyes bent on the

Starting point is 07:56:16 floor. Am I not to see your happy niece? She asked at last as she raised them. You may see her, but you'll not be struck with her being happy. She has looked as solemn these three days as a Chimabouet madonna. And Mrs. Touchett rang for a servant. Isabel came in shortly after the footman had been sent to call her, and Madame Merle thought as she appeared that Mrs. Touchett's comparison had its force. The girl was pale and grave, an effect not mitigated by her deeper mourning, but the smile of her brightest moments came into her face as she saw Madame Merle, who went forward, laid her hand on our heroine's shoulder, and after looking at her a moment, kissed her as if she were returning the kiss she had received from her at Garden Court. This was the only

Starting point is 07:57:07 illusion the visitor, in her great good taste, made for the present to her young friend's inheritance. Mrs. Touchett had no purpose of awaiting in London the sale of her house. After selecting from among its furniture the objects she wished to transport to her other abode, she left the rest of its contents to be disposed of by the auctioneer and took her departure for the continent. She was, of course, accompanied on this journey by her niece, who now had plenty of leisure to measure and weigh and otherwise handle the windfall on which Madame Merle had covertly congratulated

Starting point is 07:57:42 her. Isabelle thought very often of the fact of her accession of means, looking at it in a dozen different lights, but we shall not now attempt to follow her train of thought, or to explain exactly why her new consciousness was at first oppressive. This failure to rise to immediate joy was indeed but brief. The girl presently made up her mind that to be rich was a virtue. because it was to be able to do, and that to do could only be sweet. It was the graceful contrary of the stupid side of weakness, especially the feminine variety. To be weak was, for a delicate young person,

Starting point is 07:58:23 rather graceful, but, after all, as Isabel said to herself, there was a larger grace than that. Just now, it is true, there was not much to do, once she had sent off a check to Lily and another to poor Edith, but she was thankful for the quiet months which her morning robes and her aunt's fresh widowhood compelled them to spend together. The acquisition of power made her serious. She scrutinized her power with a kind of tender ferocity, but was not eager to exercise it. She began to do so during a stay of some weeks, which she eventually made with her aunt in Paris, though in ways that will inevitably present themselves as trivial. They were the ways most naturally imposed in a city in which the shops are the admiration of the world, and that were

Starting point is 07:59:10 prescribed unreservedly by the guidance of Mrs. Touchett, who took a rigidly practical view of the transformation of her niece from a poor girl to a rich one. Now that you're a young woman of fortune, you must know how to play the part. I mean to play it well, she said to Isabel once for all, and she added that the girl's first duty was to have everything handsome. You don't know how to take care of your things, but you must be must learn, she went on. This was Isabel's second duty. Isabel submitted, but for the present her imagination was not kindled. She longed for opportunities, but these were not the opportunities she meant. Mrs. Touchett rarely changed

Starting point is 07:59:54 her plans, and having intended before her husband's death to spend a part of the winter in Paris, saw no reason to deprive herself, still less to deprive her companion of this advantage. Though they would live in great retirement, she might still present her niece informally to the little circle of her fellow-countrymen dwelling upon the skirts of the Chans-A-Lise. With many of these amiable colonists Mrs. Touchett was intimate. She shared their expatriation, their convictions, their pastimes, their auntie. Isabel saw them arrive with a good deal of assiduity at her aunt's hotel, and pronounced on them with a trenchancy doubtless to be accounted for by the temporary exaltation of her sense of human duty.

Starting point is 08:00:39 She had made up her mind that their lives were, though luxurious, inane, and incurred some disfavor by expressing this view on a bright Sunday afternoon, when the American absentees were engaged in calling on each other. Though her listeners passed for people kept exemplarily genial by their cooks and dressmakers, two or three of them thought her cleverness, which was generally admitted, inferior to that of the new theatrical pieces. You all live here this way, but what does it lead to? She was pleased to ask. It doesn't seem to lead to anything, and I should think you'd get very tired of it. Mrs. Touchett thought the question worthy of Henrietta Stackpole. The two ladies had found Henrietta in Paris,

Starting point is 08:01:27 and Isabelle constantly saw her, so that Mrs. Touchett had some reason for saying to herself, that if her niece were not clever enough to originate almost anything, she might be suspected of having borrowed that style of remark from her journalistic friend. The first occasion on which Isabel had spoken was that of a visit paid by the two ladies to Mrs. Luce, an old friend of Mrs. Touchets, and the only person in Paris she now went to see. Mrs. Luce had been living in Paris since the days of Louis-Philippe. She used to say, jocosely, that she was one of the generation of 1830,

Starting point is 08:02:02 a joke of which the point was not always taken. When it failed, Mrs. Luce used to explain, Oh, yes, I'm one of the romantics. Her French had never become quite perfect. She was always at home on Sunday afternoons and surrounded by sympathetic compatriots, usually the same. In fact, she was at home at all times and reproduced with wondrous truth

Starting point is 08:02:26 in her well-cushioned little corner of the brilliant city the domestic tone of her native Baltimore. This reduced, Mr. Luce, her worthy husband, a tall, lean, grizzled, well-brushed gentleman, who wore a gold eye-glass and carried his hat a little too much on the back of his head, to mere platonic praise of the distractions of Paris. They were his great word, since you would never have guessed from what cares he escaped to them. One of them was that he went every day to the American bankers, where he found a post-office that was almost as sociable and colloquial an institution.

Starting point is 08:03:02 as in an American country town. He passed an hour, in fine weather, in a chair in the Chances-Aise, and he dined uncommonly well at his own table, seated above a waxed floor, which it was Mrs. Luce's happiness to believe had a finer polish than any other in the French capital. Occasionally he dined with a friend or two at the Café-Engle, where his talent for ordering a dinner was a source of felicity to his companions, and an object of admiration, even to the head-waiter of the establishment. These were his only known pastimes, but they had beguiled his hours for upwards of half a century, and they doubtless justified his frequent declaration that there was no place like Paris. In no other place on these terms could Mr. Luce flatter himself that he was enjoying life.

Starting point is 08:03:52 There was nothing like Paris, but it must be confessed that Mr. Luce thought less highly of this scene of his dissipations than in earlier days. In the list of his resources, his political reflections should not be omitted, for they were doubtless the animating principle of many hours that superficially seemed vacant. Like many of his fellow colonists, Mr. Luce was a high, or rather a deep, conservative, and gave no countenance to the government lately established in France. He had no faith in its duration, and would assure you from year to year that its end was close at hand. They want to be kept down, sir, to be kept down, sir, to.

Starting point is 08:04:31 be kept down, nothing but the strong hand, the iron heel, will do for them.' He would frequently say of the French people, and his ideal of a fine, showy, clever rule was that of the superseded empire. Paris is much less attractive than in the days of the Emperor. He knew how to make a city pleasant. Mr. Luce had often remarked to Mrs. Touchett, who was quite of his own way of thinking, and wished to know what one had crossed that odious Atlantic for, but to get away from republics. Why, madam, sitting in the Chans-A-Lis, opposite to the Palace of Industry,

Starting point is 08:05:07 I've seen the court carriages from the Twilery pass up and down as many as seven times a day. I remember one occasion when they went as high as nine. What do you see now? It's no use talking, the style's all gone. Napoleon knew what the French people want, and they'll be a dark cloud over Paris, our Paris, till they get the empire back again. Among Mrs. Loo, his visitors on Sunday afternoons, was a young man with whom Isabel had had a good deal of conversation, and whom she found full of valuable knowledge. Mr. Edward Rosier, Ned Rosier, as he was called, was native to New York and had been brought up in Paris, living there under the eye of his father, who, as it happened, had been an early and intimate friend of the late Mr. Archer.

Starting point is 08:05:55 Edward Rozier remembered Isabelle's a little girl. It had been his father who came to the rescue of the small archers at the inn at Nufchatel. He was traveling that way with the boy, and had stopped at the hotel by chance, after their bun had gone off with the Russian prince, and when Mr. Archer's whereabouts remained for some days a mystery. Isabel remembered perfectly the neat little male child, whose hair smelt of a delicious cosmetic, and who had a bun all his own, warranted to lose sight of him under no provocation. Isabel took a walk with the pair beside the lake, and thought little Edward as pretty as an angel.

Starting point is 08:06:33 A comparison by no means conventional in her mind, for she had a very definite conception of a type of features which she supposed to be angelic, and which her new friend perfectly illustrated. A small pink face surmounted by a blue velvet bonnet, and set off by a stiff embroidered collar, had become the countenance of her childish dreams, and she had firmly believed for some time afterwards that the heavenly hosts conversed among themselves in a queer little dialect of French English, expressing the properest sentiments, as when Edward told her that he was defended by his bun to go near the edge of the lake, and that one must always obey to one's bonn. Ned Rozier's English had improved, at least it exhibited in a less degree the French variation. His father was dead, and his bun dismissed, but the young man still conformed to the spirit of their teaching.

Starting point is 08:07:27 He never went to the edge of the lake. There was still something agreeable to the nostrils about him, and something not offensive to nobler organs. He was a very gentle and gracious youth, with what are called cultivated tastes, an acquaintance with old China, with good wine, with the bindings of books, with the almanac de Gotha, with the best shops, the best hotels, the hours of railway trains. He could order a dinner almost as well as Mr. Luce, and it was probable that as his experience accumulated, he would be a worthy successor to that gentleman, whose rather grim politics he also advocated in a soft and innocent voice. He had some charming rooms in Paris, decorated with old Spanish altar lace, the envy of his female friends,

Starting point is 08:08:15 who declared that his chimney-piece was better draped than the high shoulders of many a duchess. He usually, however, spent a part of every winter at Pau, and he had once passed a couple of months in the United States. He took a great interest in Isabel, and remembered perfectly the walk at Nufchatel, when she would persist in going so near the edge. He seemed to recognize this same tendency in the subversive inquiry that I quoted a moment ago, and set himself to answer our heroine's question with greater urbanity than it perhaps deserved. What does it lead to, Miss Archer? Why, Paris leads everywhere. You can't go anywhere unless you come here first. Everyone that comes to Europe has got to pass through. You don't mean it in that sense so much? You mean what good it does you? Well, how can

Starting point is 08:09:04 you penetrate futurity? How can you tell what lies ahead? If it's a pleasant road, I don't care where it leads. I like the road, Miss Archer. I like the dear old asphalt. You can't get tired of it. You can't if you try. You think you would, but you wouldn't. There's always something new and fresh.

Starting point is 08:09:23 Take the Hotel Drewo now. They sometimes have three and four sales a week. Where can you get such things as you can here? In spite of all they say, I maintain they're cheaper, too, if you know the right places. I know plenty of places, but I know plenty of places, but I keep them to myself. I'll tell you if you like, as a particular favor,

Starting point is 08:09:43 only you mustn't tell anyone else. Don't you go anywhere without asking me first. I want you to promise me that. As a general thing, avoid the boulevards. There's very little to be done in the boulevards. Speaking conscientiously, sans blog, I don't believe anyone knows Paris better than I. You and Mrs. Touchett must come and breakfast with me some day,

Starting point is 08:10:04 and I'll show you my things. I'll do that so. There has been a great deal of talk about London of late. It's the fashion to cry up London. But there's nothing in it. You can't do anything in London. No, Louis Kins? Nothing of the First Empire.

Starting point is 08:10:19 Nothing but their eternal Queen Anne. It's good for one's bedroom, Queen Anne, for one's washing room, but it isn't proper for a salon. Do I spend my life at the auctioneers? Mr. Rosier pursued an answer to another question of Isabelle's. Oh, no, I haven't the means. I wish I had. You think I'm a mere trifler. I can tell by the expression of your face. You've got a wonderfully expressive face. I hope you don't mind my saying that. I mean it is a kind of warning.

Starting point is 08:10:50 You think I ought to do something, and so do I, so long as you leave it vague. But when you come to the point, you see you have to stop. I can't go home and be a shopkeeper. You think I'm very well fitted? Ah, Miss Archer, you overrate me. I can buy very well, but I can't sell. You should see when I sometimes try to get rid of my things. It takes much more ability to make other people buy than to buy yourself. When I think how clever they must be, the people who make me buy. Ah, no, I couldn't be a shopkeeper. I can't be a doctor.

Starting point is 08:11:23 It's a repulsive business. I can't be a clergyman. I haven't got convictions. And then I can't pronounce the names right in the Bible. They're very difficult in the Old Testament particularly. I can't be a lawyer. I don't understand. How do you call it?

Starting point is 08:11:39 The American Procedure. Is there anything else? There's nothing for a gentleman in America. I should like to be a diplomatist, but American diplomacy, and that's not for gentlemen either. I'm sure if you had seen the last men. Henrietta Stackpole, who was often with her friend when Mr. Rosier, coming to pay his compliments late in the afternoon,

Starting point is 08:12:01 expressed himself after the fashion I have sketched, usually interrupted the young man at this point, and read him a lecture on the duties of the American citizen. She thought him most unnatural. He was worse than poor Ralph Touchett. Henrietta, however, was at this time more than ever addicted to fine criticism, for her conscience had been freshly alarmed as regards Isabelle. She had not congratulated this young lady on her augmentations, and begged to be excused from doing so. If Mr. Touchett had consulted me about leaving you the money, she frankly asserted,

Starting point is 08:12:35 I'd have said to him, never. I see, Isabel had answered. You think it will prove a curse in disguise. Perhaps it will. Leave it to someone you care less for. That's what I should have said. To yourself, for instance? Isabel suggested jocosely.

Starting point is 08:12:56 And then, Do you really believe it will ruin me? She asked in quite another tone. I hope it won't ruin you, but it will certainly confirm. your dangerous tendencies. Do you mean the love of luxury? Of extravagance?

Starting point is 08:13:12 No, no, said Henrietta. I mean your exposure on the moral side. I approve of luxury. I think we ought to be as elegant as possible. Look at the luxury of our western cities. I've seen nothing over here to compare with it. I hope you'll never become grossly sensual, but I'm not afraid of that.

Starting point is 08:13:30 The peril for you is that you live too much in the world of your own dreams. You're not enough in contact with reality, with the toiling, striving, suffering, I may even say sinning world that surrounds you. You're too fastidious. You've too many graceful illusions. Your newly acquired thousands will shut you up more and more to the society of a few selfish and heartless people who will be interested in keeping them up. Isabel's eyes expanded as she gazed at this lurid scene. What are my illusions? she asked.

Starting point is 08:14:04 I try so hard not to have any. Well, said Henrietta, you think you can lead a romantic life, that you can live by pleasing yourself and pleasing others. You'll find you're mistaken. Whatever life you lead, you must put your soul in it, to make any sort of success of it. And from the moment you do that,

Starting point is 08:14:23 it ceases to be romance, I assure you. It becomes grim reality. And you can't always please yourself. You must sometimes please other people. That, I admit, you're very ready to do, but there's another thing that's still more important. You must often displease others. You must always be ready for that. You must never shrink from it.

Starting point is 08:14:44 That doesn't suit you at all. You're too fond of admiration, you like to be thought well of. You think that we can escape disagreeable duties by taking romantic views. That's your great illusion, my dear. But we can't. You must be prepared on many occasions in life to please no one at all, not even yourself. Isabel shook her head sadly. She looked troubled and frightened. This for you, Henrietta, she said, must be one of those occasions.

Starting point is 08:15:15 It was certainly true that Miss Stackpole, during her visit to Paris, which had been professionally more remunerative than her English sojourn, had not been living in the world of dreams. Mr. Bantling, who had now returned to England, was her companion in the first four weeks of her stay, and about Mr. Bantling there was nothing dreamy. Isabel learned from her friend that the two had led a life of great personal intimacy, and that this had been a peculiar advantage to Henrietta, owing to the gentleman's remarkable knowledge of Paris. He had explained everything, shown her everything, been her constant guide and interpreter.

Starting point is 08:15:53 They had breakfasted together, dined together, gone to the theatre together, supped together, really in a manner quite lived together. He was a true friend. Henrietta more than once assured our heroine, and she had never supposed that she could like any Englishmen so well. Isabel could not have told you why, but she found something that ministered to mirth in the alliance the correspondent of the interviewer had struck with Lady Pencil's brother.

Starting point is 08:16:21 Her amusement, moreover, subsisted in face of the fact that she thought it a credit to each of them. Isabel couldn't rid herself of a suspicion that they were playing somehow at cross-purposes, that the simplicity of each had been entrapped. But this simplicity was on either side nonetheless honorable. It was as graceful on Henrietta's part to believe that Mr. Bentley took an interest in the diffusion of lively journalism and in consolidating the position of Lady Correspondence, as it was on the part of his companion to suppose

Starting point is 08:16:51 that the cause of the interviewer, a periodical of which he never formed a very definite conception, was, if subtly analyzed, a task to which Mr. Bantling felt him quite equal, but the cause of Miss Stackpole's need of demonstrative affection. Each of these groping celibates supplied at any rate a want of which the other was impatiently conscious. Mr. Bantling, who was of rather a slow and discursive habit, relished a prompt, keen, positive woman, who charmed him by the influence of a shining, challenging eye, and a kind of bandbox freshness, and who kind of a perception of raciness in a mind to which the usual fare of life, seemed unsalted. Henrietta, on the other hand, enjoyed the society of a gentleman who appeared

Starting point is 08:17:37 somehow, in his way, made by expensive, roundabout, almost quaint processes for her use, and whose leisure state, though generally indefensible, was a decided boon to a breathless mate, and who was furnished with an easy, traditional, though by no means exhaustive, answer, to almost any social or practical question that could come up. She often found Mr. Bantling's answers very convenient, and in the press of catching the American Post would largely and showily address them to publicity. It was to be feared that she was indeed drifting toward these abysses of sophistication as to which Isabel, wishing for a good-humoured retort, had warned her.

Starting point is 08:18:20 There might be danger in store for Isabel, but it was scarcely to be hoped that Miss Stackpole, on her side, would find permanent rest in any adoption of the views of a class pledged to all the old abuses. Isabel continued to warn her good-humoredly. Lady Pencil's obliging brother was sometimes, on our heroine's lips, an object of a reverent and facetious illusion. Nothing, however, could exceed Henrietta's amiability on this point. She used to abound in the sense of Isabel's irony, and to enumerate with elation the

Starting point is 08:18:53 hours she had spent with this perfect man of the world, a term that had ceased to make with her, as previously, for a probium. Then, a few moments later, she would forget that they had been talking jocosely, and would mention with impulsive earnestness some expedition she had enjoyed in his company. She would say, Oh, I know all about Versailles. I went there with Mr. Bantling. I was bound to see it thoroughly. I warned him when we went out there that I was thorough, so we spent three days at the hotel and wandered all over the place. It was lovely weather, a kind of Indian summer, only not so good. We just lived in that park.

Starting point is 08:19:35 Oh, yes, you can't tell me anything about Versailles. Henrietta appeared to have made arrangements to meet her gallant friend during the spring in Italy. End of Chapter 20. Chapter 21 of the Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Libravox recording is in the public domain. Mrs. Touchett, before arriving in Paris, had fixed the day for her departure, and by the middle of February had begun to travel southward. She interrupted her journey to pay a visit to her son, who, at San Remo, on the Italian shore of the Mediterranean, had been spending a dull, bright

Starting point is 08:20:25 winter beneath a slow-moving white umbrella. Isabel went with her aunt as a matter of course, though Mrs. Touchett, with homely, customary logic, had laid before her a pair of alternatives. Now, of course, you're completely your own mistress and are as free as the bird on the bow. I don't mean you were not so before, but you're at present on a different footing. Property erects a kind of barrier. You can do a great many things if you're rich, which would be severely criticized if you were poor. You can go and come, you can travel alone, you can have your own establishment. I mean, of course, if you'll take a companion, some decayed gentlewoman with a darned cashmere and dyed hair who paints on velvet.

Starting point is 08:21:08 You don't think you'd like that. Of course, you can do as you please. I only want you to understand how much you're at liberty. You might take Miss Stackpole as your dame de Compagnie. She'd keep people off very well. I think, however, that it's a great deal better you should remain with me, in spite of there being no obligation. It's better for several reasons, quite a point. from your liking it. I shouldn't think you'd like it, but I recommend you to make the sacrifice.

Starting point is 08:21:35 Of course, whatever novelty there may have been at first in my society is quite passed away, and you see me as I am, a dull, obstinate, narrow-minded old woman. I don't think you're at all dull, Isabel had replied to this. But you do think I'm obstinate and narrow-minded? I told you so, said Mrs. Touchett, with much elation at being justified. Isabel remained for the present with her aunt, because, in spite of eccentric impulses, she had a great regard for what was usually deemed decent, and a young gentlewoman without visible relations had always struck her as a flower without foliage.

Starting point is 08:22:14 It was true that Mrs. Touchett's conversation had never again appeared so brilliant as that first afternoon in Albany when she sat in her damp waterproof and sketched the opportunities that Europe would offer to a young person of taste. This, however, was in a great measure the girl's own fault. She had got a glimpse of her aunt's experience, and her imagination constantly anticipated the judgments and emotions of a woman who had very little of the same faculty. Apart from this, Mrs. Touchett had a great merit.

Starting point is 08:22:45 She was as honest as a pair of compasses. There was a comfort in her stiffness and firmness. You knew exactly where to find her, and were never liable to chance at counters and concussions. On her own ground she was perfectly present, but was never over-inquisitive as regards the territory of her neighbor. Isabel came at last to have a kind of undemonstrable pity for her. There seemed something so dreary in the condition of a person whose nature had, as it were,

Starting point is 08:23:13 so little surface, offered so limited a face to the accretions of human contact. Nothing tender, nothing sympathetic had ever had a chance to fasten upon it. no wind-sown blossom, no familiar softening moss. Her offered, her passive extent, in other words, was about that of a knife-edge. Isabel had reason to believe, nonetheless, that as she advanced in life, she made more of those concessions to the sense of something obscurely distinct from convenience, more of them than she independently exacted. She was learning to sacrifice consistency to considerations of that inferior order,

Starting point is 08:23:53 for which the excuse must be found in the particular case. It was not, to the credit of her absolute rectitude, that she should have gone the longest way round to Florence in order to spend a few weeks with her invalid son. Since in former years, it had been one of her most definite convictions that when Ralph wished to see her, he was at liberty to remember that Palazzo Crescentini contained a large apartment, known as the quarter of the signorino.

Starting point is 08:24:20 I want to ask you something. "'Isabelle said to this young man "'the day after her arrival at San Remo, "'something I've thought more than once "'of asking you by letter, "'but that I've hesitated on the whole to write about. "'Face to face, nevertheless, "'my question seems easy enough.

Starting point is 08:24:39 "'Did you know your father intended to leave me so much money?' "'Ralph stretched his legs a little further than usual "'and gazed a little more fixedly at the Mediterranean. "'What does it matter?' her, my dear Isabel, whether I knew. My father was very obstinate. So, said the girl, you did know. Yes, he told me. We even talked it over a little. What did he do it for? asked Isabel abruptly. Why is a kind of compliment? A compliment on what? On your so beautifully existing. He liked me too much, she presently declared.

Starting point is 08:25:21 And that's a way we all have. If I believed that, I should be very unhappy. Fortunately, I don't believe it. I want to be treated with justice. I want nothing but that. Very good. But you must remember that justice to a lovely being is, after all, a florid sort of sentiment.

Starting point is 08:25:43 I'm not a lovely being. How can you say that at the very moment when I'm asking such odious questions? I must seem to you delicate. You seem to me troubled, said Ralph. I am troubled. About what? For a moment she answered nothing.

Starting point is 08:26:04 Then she broke out. Do you think it's good for me suddenly to be made so rich? Henrietta doesn't. Oh, hang, Henrietta, said Ralph coarsely. If you ask me, I'm delighted at it. Is that why your father did it? it, for your amusement? I differ with Miss Stackpole. Ralph went on more gravely. I think it very good for you to have means. Isabel looked at him with serious eyes. I wonder whether you know what's good

Starting point is 08:26:36 for me, or whether you care. If I know, depend upon it, I care. Shall I tell you what it is? Not to torment yourself. Not to torment you, I suppose. you mean. You can't do that. I'm proof. Take things more easily. Don't ask yourself so much whether this or that is good for you. Don't question your conscience so much. It will get out of tune like a strummed piano. Keep it for great occasions. Don't try so much to form your character. It's like trying to pull open a tight, tender young rose. Live as you like best, and your character will take care of itself. Most things are good for you.

Starting point is 08:27:24 The exceptions are very rare, and a comfortable income's not one of them. Ralph paused, smiling. Isabel had listened quickly. You've too much power of thought. Above all, too much conscience, Ralph said. It's all out of reason,

Starting point is 08:27:42 the number of things you think wrong. Put back your watch, die at your fever, spread your wings, rise above the ground. It's never wrong to do that. She had listened eagerly, as I say, and it was her nature to understand quickly. I wonder if you appreciate what you say. If you do, you take a great responsibility. You frighten me a little, but I think I'm right, said Ralph, persisting in cheer. All the same, what you say is very true.

Starting point is 08:28:18 Isabel pursued, "'You could say nothing more true. "'I'm absorbed in myself. "'I look at life too much as a doctor's prescription. "'Why indeed should we perpetually be thinking "'whether things are good for us, "'as if we were patients lying in a hospital? "'Why should I be so afraid of not doing right?

Starting point is 08:28:39 "'As if it mattered to the world "'whether I do right or wrong?' "'You're a capital person to advise,' said Ralph. "'You take the wind out of my own.' my sails. She looked at him as if she had not heard him, though she was following out the train of reflection which he himself had kindled. I try to care more about the world than about myself, but I always come back to myself. It's because I'm afraid. She stopped. Her voice had trembled a little. Yes, I'm afraid. I can't tell you. A large, a large,

Starting point is 08:29:18 fortune means freedom, and I'm afraid of that. It's such a fine thing, and one should make such a good use of it. If one shouldn't, one would be ashamed. And one must keep thinking. It's a constant effort. I'm not sure it's not a greater happiness to be powerless. For weak people, I've no doubt it's a greater happiness. For weak people, the effort not to be contemptible must be great. And how do you know I'm not weak, Isabel asked. Ah, Ralph answered with a flush that the girl noticed. If you are, I'm awfully sold. The charm of the Mediterranean coast only deepened for our heroine on acquaintance, for it was the threshold of Italy, the gate of admirations. Italy, as yet imperfectly seen and felt, stretched before her as a land of promise, a land in which a love of the beautiful might be

Starting point is 08:30:18 comforted by endless knowledge. Whenever she strolled upon the shore with her cousin, and she was the companion of his daily walk, she looked across the sea with longing eyes to where she knew that Genoa lay. She was glad to pause, however, on the edge of this larger adventure. There was such a thrill even in the preliminary hovering. It affected her, moreover, as a peaceful interlude, as a hush of the drum and fife in a career which she had little warrant as yet for regarding as agitated, but which nevertheless she was constantly picturing to herself by the light of her hopes, her fears, her fancies, her ambitions, her predilections, and which reflected these subjective accidents in a manner sufficiently dramatic.

Starting point is 08:31:05 Madame Merle had predicted to Mrs. Touchett that after their young friend had put her hand into her pocket half a dozen times, she would be reconciled. to the idea that it had been filled by a munificent uncle, and the event justified, as it had so often justified before, that lady's perspicacity. Ralph Touchett had praised his cousin for being morally inflammable, that is for being quick to take a hint that was meant as good advice. His advice had perhaps helped the matter. She had, at any rate, before leaving San Remo, grown used to feeling rich. The consciousness in question found a proper place in rather a dense little group of ideas that she had about herself, and often it was by no means the least agreeable.

Starting point is 08:31:50 It took perpetually for granted a thousand good intentions. She lost herself in a maze of visions. The fine things to be done by a rich, independent, generous girl who took a large human view of occasions and obligations were sublime in the mass. Her fortune, therefore, became to her mind a part of her better self. It gave her importance, gave her even, to her own imagination, a certain ideal beauty. What it did for her in the imagination of others is another affair, and on this point we must also touch in time. The visions I have just spoken of were mixed with other debates. Isabel liked better to think of the future than of the past, but at times, as she listened to the

Starting point is 08:32:37 murmur of the Mediterranean waves, her glance took a backward flight. It rested upon two figures, which, in spite of increasing distance, were still sufficiently salient. They were recognizable without difficulty as those of Casper Goodwood and Lord Warburton. It was strange how quickly these images of energy had fallen into the world. the background of our young lady's life. It was in her disposition at all times to lose faith in the reality of absent things. She could summon back her faith in case of need with an effort, but the effort was often painful, even when the reality had been pleasant. The past was apt to

Starting point is 08:33:18 look dead, and its revival rather to show the livid light of a judgment day. The girl, moreover, was not prone to take for granted that she herself lived in the minds of others. She had not the fatuity to believe she left indelible traces. She was capable of being wounded by the discovery that she had been forgotten, but of all liberties the one she herself found sweetest was the liberty to forget. She had not given her last shilling, sentimentally speaking, either to Casper Goodwood or to Lord Warburton, and yet couldn't but feel them appreciably in debt to her. She had, of course, reminded herself that she was to hear from Mr. Goodwood again, but this was not to be for another

Starting point is 08:33:59 year and a half, and in that time a great many things might happen. She had indeed failed to say to herself that her American suitor might find some other girl more comfortable to woo, because, though it was certain many other girls would prove so, she had not the smallest belief that this merit would attract him. But she reflected that she herself might know the humiliation of change, might really, for that matter, come to the end of the things that were not Casper, even though there appeared so many of them, and find rest in those very elements of his presence, which struck her now as impediments to the finer respiration. It was conceivable that these impediments should someday prove a sort of blessing in disguise, a clear and quiet harbor enclosed by a brave

Starting point is 08:34:46 granite breakwater. But that day could only come in its order, and she couldn't wait for it with folded hands. That Lord Warburton should continue to cherish her image seemed to her more than a noble humility, or an enlightened pride ought to wish to reckon with. She had so definitely undertaken to preserve no record of what had passed between them that a corresponding effort on his own part would be eminently just. This was not, as it may seem, merely a theory tinged with sarcasm. Isabel candidly believed that his lordship would, in the usual phrase, get over his disappointment. He had been deeply affected. This she believed, and she was still capable of deriving pleasure from the belief.

Starting point is 08:35:34 But it was absurd that a man both so intelligent and so honourably dealt with should cultivate a scar out of proportion to any wound. Englishmen liked, moreover, to be comfortable, said Isabel, and there could be little comfort for Lord Warburton in the long run in brooding over a self-sufficient American girl who had been but a casual acquaintance. She flattered herself that, should she hear from one day, day, to another that he had married some young woman of his own country who had done more to deserve him, she should receive the news without a pang even of surprise. It would have proved that he

Starting point is 08:36:09 believed she was firm, which was what she wished to see to him. That alone was grateful to her pride. End of Chapter 21. Chapter 22 of The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. On one of the first days of May, some six months after old Mr. Touchett's death, a small group that might have been described by a painter as composing well, was gathered in one of the many rooms of an ancient villa, crowning an olive-muffled hill outside of the Roman gate of Florence. The villa was a long, rather blank-looking structure, with the far-projecting roof which Tuscany loves, and which, on the hills that encircle Florence, when considered from a distance, makes so harmonious a rectangle with the straight,

Starting point is 08:37:10 dark, definite cypresses that usually rise in groups of three or four beside it. The house had a front upon a little grassy, empty rural piazza, which occupied a part of the hilltop, and this front pierced with a few windows in irregular relations and furnished with a stone bench, lengthily adjusted to the base of the structure, and useful as a lounging place to one or two persons wearing more or less of that air of undervalued merit which in Italy, for some reason or other, always gracefully invests anyone who confidently assumes a perfectly passive attitude. This antique, solid, weather-worn, yet imposing front, had a somewhat incommunicative character. It was the mask, not the face, of the house. It had heavy lids but no eyes. The house in reality

Starting point is 08:38:02 looked another way. looked off behind, into splendid openness and the range of the afternoon light. In that quarter the villa overhung the slope of its hill and the long valley of the Arno, hazy with Italian color. It had a narrow garden, in the manner of a terrace, productive chiefly of tangles of wild roses and other old stone benches, mossy and sun-warmed. The parapet of the terrace was just the height to lean upon, and beneath it the ground declined into the vagueness of olive crops and vineyards.

Starting point is 08:38:39 It is not, however, with the outside of the place that we are concerned. On this bright morning of ripened spring, its tenants had reason to prefer the shady side of the wall. The windows of the ground floor, as you saw them from the piazza, were in their noble proportions extremely architectural, but their function seemed less to offer communication with the world than to defy, the world to look in. They were massively cross-barred, and placed at such a height that curiosity, even on tipto, expired before it reached them. In an apartment lighted by a row of three of these jealous apertures, one of the several distinct apartments into which the villa was divided, and which were mainly occupied by foreigners of random race long resident in Florence,

Starting point is 08:39:28 a gentleman was seated in company with the young girl and two good sisters from a religious house. The room was, however, less somber than our indications may have represented, for it had a wide, high door, which now stood open into the tangled garden behind, and the tall iron lattices admitted on occasion more than enough of the Italian sunshine. It was, moreover, a seat of ease, indeed of luxury, telling of arrangements subtly studied and refinements frankly proclaimed, and containing a variety of those faded hanging of damask and tapestry, those chests and cabinets of carved and time-polished oak, those angular specimens of pictorial art and frames as pedantically primitive, those perverse-looking

Starting point is 08:40:15 relics of medieval brass and pottery, of which Italy has long been the not quite exhausted storehouse. These things kept terms with articles of modern furniture, in which large allowance had been made for a lounging generation. It was to be noticed that all the chairs were deep and well padded, and that much space was occupied by a writing-table, of which the ingenious perfection bore the stamp of London and the 19th century. There were books and profusion, and magazines and newspapers, and a few small, odd, elaborate pictures, chiefly in watercolor. One of these productions stood on a drawing-room easel, before which, at the moment we begin to be concerned with her, the young girl I have mentioned had placed herself.

Starting point is 08:41:02 She was looking at the picture in silence. Silence, absolute silence, had not fallen upon her companions, but their talk had an appearance of embarrassed continuity. The two good sisters had not settled themselves in their respective chairs. Their attitude expressed a final reserve, and their faces showed the glaze of prudence. They were plain, ample, mild-featured women, with a kind of business-like modesty to which

Starting point is 08:41:32 the impersonal aspect of their stiffened linen and of the surge that draped them as if nailed on frames gave an advantage. One of them, a person of a certain age, in spectacles, with a fresh complexion and a full cheek, had a more discriminating manner than her colleague, as well as the responsibility of their errand, which apparently related to the young girl. This object of interest wore her hat, an ornament of extreme simplicity, and not at variance with her plain muslin gown, too short for her years, though it must already have been let out. The gentleman who might have been supposed to be entertaining the two nuns was perhaps conscious of the difficulties of his function, it being in its way as arduous to converse with the very meek as with the very

Starting point is 08:42:19 mighty. At the same time he was clearly much occupied with their quiet charge, and while she turned her back to him, his eyes rested gravely on her slim, small figure. He was a man of forty, with a high but well-shaped head, on which the hair, still dense, but prematurely grizzled, had been cropped close. He had a fine, narrow, extremely modelled and composed face, of which the only fault was just this effect of its running a trifle too much to points, an appearance to which the shape of the beard contributed not a little. This beard, cut in the manner of the portraits of the 16th century, and surmounted by a fair moustache, of which the ends had a romantic upward flourish,

Starting point is 08:43:05 gave its wearer a foreign, traditionary look, and suggested that he was a gentleman who studied style. His conscious, curious eyes, however, eyes at once vague and penetrating, intelligent and hard, expressive of the observer as well as of the dreamer would have assured you that he studied it only within well-chosen limits and that in so far as he sought it he found it you would have been much at a loss to determine his original clime and country

Starting point is 08:43:34 he had none of the superficial signs that usually render the answer to this question an insipidly easy one if he had English blood in his veins it had probably received some French or Italian commixture but he suggested fine gold coin as he was, no stamp or emblem of the common mintage that provides for general circulation. He was the elegant, complicated metal, struck off for a special occasion. He had a light, lean, rather languid-looking figure, and was apparently neither tall nor short. He was dressed as a man dresses who takes little trouble other about it than to have no vulgar things. Well, my dear, what do you think of it?

Starting point is 08:44:18 He asked of the young girl. He used the Italian tongue, and used it with perfect ease, but this would not have convinced you he was Italian. The child turned her head earnestly to one side and the other. It's very pretty, Papa. Did you make it yourself? Certainly I made it. Don't you think I'm clever? Yes, Papa, very clever. I also have learned to make pictures. And she turned round and showed a small, fair face,

Starting point is 08:44:48 painted with a fixed and intensely sweet smile. You should have brought me a specimen of your powers. I've brought a great many. They're in my trunk. She draws very, very carefully, the elder of the nuns remarked, speaking in French. I'm glad to hear it. Is it you who have instructed her?

Starting point is 08:45:10 Abelie, no, said the good sister, blushing a little. It's not my partie. I teach nothing. I leave that to those who are wiser. We've an excellent drawing-master, Mr.—Mr.—what is his name? She asked of her companion. Her companion looked about at the carpet. It's a German name, she said in Italian, as if it needed to be translated.

Starting point is 08:45:38 Yes, the other went on. He's a German, and we've had him many years. The young girl who was not heeding the conversation. had wandered away to the open door of the large room and stood looking into the garden. And you, my sister, are French, said the gentleman. Yes, sir, the visitor gently replied. I speak to the pupils in my own tongue. I know no other, but we have sisters of other countries, English, German, Irish.

Starting point is 08:46:10 They all speak their proper language. The gentleman gave a smile. Has my daughter been under the care of one of the Irish ladies? And then, as he saw that his visitors suspected a joke, though failing to understand it, You're very complete, he instantly added. Oh, yes, we're complete, with everything and everything's of the best. We have gymnastics, the Italian sister ventured to remark, but not dangerous. I hope not.

Starting point is 08:46:44 Is that your branch? A question which provoked much candid hilarity on the part of the two ladies, on the subsistence of which their entertainer, glancing at his daughter, remarked that she had grown. Yes, but I think she has finished. She'll remain not big, said the French sister. I'm not sorry. I prefer women like books.

Starting point is 08:47:10 Very good, and not too long. But I know, the gentleman said, no particular reason why my child should be short. The nun gave a temperate shrug, as if to intimate that such things might be beyond our knowledge. She's in very good health, that's the best thing? Yes, she looks sound. And the young girl's father watched her a moment.

Starting point is 08:47:37 What do you see in the garden? He asked in French. I see many flowers, she replied in a sweet small voice, and with an accent as good as his own. Yes, but not many good ones. However, such as they are, go out and gather some for Sedom. The child turned to him with her smile heightened by pleasure. May I? Truly? Ah, when I tell you, said her father.

Starting point is 08:48:08 The girl glanced at the elder of the nuns. May I truly, ma'amere? Obey Monsieur your father, my child, said the sister, blushing again. The child, satisfied with this authorization, descended from the threshold, and was presently lost to sight. You don't spoil them, said her father gaily. For everything they must ask leave, that's our system. Leave is freely granted, but they must ask it. Oh, I don't quarrel with your system. I've no doubt it's excellent. I sent you my daughter to see what you'd make of her. I had faith.

Starting point is 08:48:48 One must have faith. The sister blandly rejoined, gazing through her spectacles. Well, has my faith been rewarded? What have you made of her? The sister dropped her eyes a moment. A good Christian, monsieur. Her host dropped his eyes as well, but it was probable that that the movement had in each case a different spring. Yes, and what else? He watched the lady from the convent, probably thinking she would say that a good Christian was everything, but for all her simplicity she was not so crude as that.

Starting point is 08:49:26 A charming young lady, a real little woman, a daughter in whom you'll have nothing but contentment. She seems to me very gentey, said the father. she's really pretty. She's perfect. She has no faults. She never had any as a child, and I'm glad you have given her none.

Starting point is 08:49:48 We love her too much, said the spectacled sister with dignity. And as for faults, how can we give what we have not? Le Couveau ne'n't like the monde, monsieur. She's our daughter, as you say. We've had her since she was so small. Of all those we shall lose this year,

Starting point is 08:50:07 She's the one we shall miss most. The younger woman murmured deferentially. Ah, yes, we shall talk long of her, said the other. We shall hold her up to the new ones. And at this the good sister appeared to find her spectacles dim, while her companion, after fumbling a moment, presently drew forth a pocket-handkerchief of durable texture. It's not certain you'll lose her, nothing settled yet.

Starting point is 08:50:35 Their host rejoined quickly, not as if to anticipate their tears, but in the tone of a man saying what was most agreeable to himself. We should be very happy to believe that. Fifteen is very young to leave us. Oh, exclaimed the gentleman with more vivacity than he had yet used. It is not I who wish to take her away. I wish you could keep her always.

Starting point is 08:51:00 Ah, monsieur, said the elder sister, smiling and getting up. Good as she is, she's made for the world. Le monde he ganner. If all the good people were hidden away in convents, how would the world get on? Her companion softly inquired, rising also. This was a question of a wider bearing than the good woman apparently supposed,

Starting point is 08:51:25 and the lady in spectacles took a harmonizing view by saying comfortably, Fortunately, there are good people everywhere. If you're going, there will be too late. less here. Her host remarked gallantly. For this extravagant Sally, his simple visitors had no answer, and they simply looked at each other in decent deprecation. But their confusion was speedily covered by the return of the young girl with two large bunches of roses, one of them all white, the other red. "'I give you your choice, Mama Catherine,' said the child.

Starting point is 08:51:59 "'It's only the color that's different, Mama Justine. There are just as many roses in one bunch as in the other. The two sisters turned to each other, smiling and hesitating, with, which will you take? And, no, it's for you to choose. I'll take the red, thank you, said Catherine in the spectacles. I'm so red myself. They'll comfort us on our way back to Rome. Ah, they won't last, cried the young girl. I wish I could give you something that would last. You've given us a good memory of yourself, my daughter. that will last. I wish nuns could wear pretty things. I would give you my blue beads, the child went on.

Starting point is 08:52:44 And do you go back to Rome tonight? Her father inquired. Yes, we take the train again. We have so much to do, laba. Are you not tired? We are never tired. Ah, my sister, sometimes, murmured the junior voteress. Not today at any rate.

Starting point is 08:53:03 we have rested too well here. Could you you guard, my fine? Their host, while they exchanged kisses with his daughter, went forward to open the door through which they were to pass. But as he did so, he gave a slight exclamation and stood looking beyond. The door opened into a vaulted antechamber, as high as a chapel and paved with red tiles, and into this antechamber a lady had just been admitted by a servant,

Starting point is 08:53:32 a lad in shabby livery, who was now ushering her toward the apartment in which our friends were grouped. The gentleman at the door, after dropping his exclamation, remained silent. In silence, too, the lady advanced. He gave her no further audible greeting and offered her no hand, but stood aside to let her pass into the saloon. At the threshold she hesitated. Is there anyone? she asked. Someone you may see.

Starting point is 08:54:02 She went in and found herself confronted with the two nuns and their pupil, who was coming forward between them with a hand in the arm of each. At the sight of the new visitor they all paused, and the lady, who had also stopped, stood looking at them. The young girl gave a little soft cry. Ah, Madame Merle! The visitor had been slightly startled, but her manner in the next instant was nonetheless gracious. Yes, it's Madame Merle, come.

Starting point is 08:54:32 to welcome you home. And she held out two hands to the girl, who immediately came up to her, presenting her forehead to be kissed. Madame Merle saluted this portion of her charming little person, and then stood smiling at the two nuns. They acknowledged her smile with a decent obeisance, but permitted themselves no direct scrutiny of this imposing, brilliant woman, who seemed to bring in with her something of the radiance of the outer world. These ladies have brought my daughter her home, and now they return to the convent, the gentleman explained. Ah, you go back to Rome? I've lately come from there, it's very lovely now, said Madame Merle. The good sister, standing with their hands folded into their sleeves, accepted this statement

Starting point is 08:55:18 uncritically, and the master of the house asked his new visitor how long it was since she had left Rome. She came to see me at the convent, said the young girl, before the lady addressed, had time to reply. I've been more than once, Pansy, Madame Merle declared, am I not your great friend in Rome? I remember the last time best, said Pansy, because you told me I should come away. Did you tell her that?

Starting point is 08:55:48 The child's father asked. I hardly remember. I told her what I thought would please her. I've been in Florence a week. I hoped you would come to see me. I should have done so if I had known you were there. One doesn't know such things by inspiration, though I suppose one ought. You had better sit down.

Starting point is 08:56:10 These two speeches were made in a particular tone of voice, a tone half-lowered and carefully quiet, but as from habit rather than from any definite need. Madame Merle looked about her, choosing her seat. You're going to the door with these women? let me, of course, not interrupt the ceremony. Je vous salue, madame, she said in French to the nuns, as if to dismiss them. This lady's a great friend of ours. You will have seen her at the convent, said their entertainer.

Starting point is 08:56:42 We've much faith in her judgment, and she'll help me to decide whether my daughter shall return to you at the end of the holidays. I hope you'll decide in our favor, madame, the sister and spectacles ventured to remark. That's Mr. Osmond's pleasantry. I decide nothing, said Madame Merle, but also as in pleasantry. I believe you've a very good school. But Miss Osmond's friends must remember that she's very naturally meant for the world. That's what I've told monsieur, Sister Catherine answered.

Starting point is 08:57:17 It's precisely to fit her for the world, she murmured, glancing at Pansy, who stood at a little distance. attentive to Madame Merle's elegant apparel. Do you hear that, Pansy? You're very naturally meant for the world, said Pansy's father. The child fixed him an instant with her pure young eyes. Am I not meant for you, Papa? Papa gave a quick light laugh.

Starting point is 08:57:45 That doesn't prevent it. I'm of the world, Pansy. Kindly permit us to retire, said Sister Catherine. Be good and why, isn't happy in any case, my daughter. I shall certainly come back and see you, Pansy returned, recommencing her embraces, which were presently interrupted by Madame Merle. Stay with me, dear child, she said, while your father takes the good ladies to the door. Pansy stared, disappointed, yet not protesting. She was evidently impregnated with the idea of submission,

Starting point is 08:58:21 which was due to anyone who took the tone of authority, and she was a passive spectator in the operation of her fate. May I not see Mammaud Catherine get into the carriage? She nevertheless asked very gently. It would please me better if you'd remain with me, said Madame Merle, while Mr. Osmond and his companions, who had bowed low again to the other visitor, passed into the ante-chamber.

Starting point is 08:58:48 Oh, yes, I'll stay. "'Pansy answered, and she stood near Madame Merle, "'surrendering her little hand, which this lady took. "'She stared out of the window, her eyes had filled with tears. "'I'm glad they've taught you to obey,' said Madame Merle. "'That's what good little girls should do.' "'Oh, yes, I obey very well,' cried Pansy with a soft eagerness, "'almost with boastfulness, as if she had been speaking of her piano playing.

Starting point is 08:59:20 And then she gave a faint, just audible sigh. Madame Merle, holding her hand, drew it across her own fine palm and looked at it. The gaze was critical, but it found nothing to deprecate. The child's small hand was delicate and fair. I hope they always see that you wear gloves, she said in a moment. Little girls usually dislike them. I used to dislike them, but I like them now. the child made answer.

Starting point is 08:59:52 Very good. I'll make you a present of a dozen. I thank you very much. What colors will they be? Pansy demanded with interest. Madame Merle meditated. Useful colors. But very pretty?

Starting point is 09:00:09 Are you very fond of pretty things? Yes, but... But not too fond, said Pansy with a trace of asceticism. Well, they won't be too pretty. Madame Merle returned with a laugh. She took the child's other hand and drew her nearer, after which, looking at her a moment. Shall you miss Mother Catherine?

Starting point is 09:00:34 She went on. Yes, when I think of her. Try then not to think of her. Perhaps someday, added Madame Merle, you'll have another mother. I don't think that's necessary. Pansy said, repeating her soft little conciliatory sigh. I had more than 30 mothers at the convent.

Starting point is 09:00:58 Her father's step sounded again in the antechamber, and Madame Merle got up, releasing the child. Mr. Osmond came in and closed the door. Then, without looking at Madame Merle, he pushed one or two chairs back into their places. His visitor waited a moment for him to speak, watching him as he moved about. Then at last, she said, I hoped you'd have come to Rome. I thought it possible you'd have wished yourself to fetch Pansy away.

Starting point is 09:01:28 That was a natural supposition, but I'm afraid it's not the first time I've acted in defiance of your calculations. Yes, said Madame Merle. I think you very perverse. Mr. Osmond busied himself for a moment in the room. There is plenty of space in it to move about. in the fashion of a man mechanically seeking protects for not giving an attention which may be embarrassing. Presently, however, he had exhausted his protects. There is nothing left for him, unless he took up a book,

Starting point is 09:02:01 but to stand with his hands behind him looking at Pansy. Why didn't you come and see the last of Maud-Cathrin? He asked of her abruptly in French. Pansy hesitated a moment, glancing at Madame Merle. I asked her to stay with me, said this. lady, who had seated herself again in another place. Ah, that was better. Osmond conceded, with which he dropped into a chair and sat looking at Madame Merle, bent forward a little, his elbows on the edge of the arms, and his hands interlocked.

Starting point is 09:02:36 She's going to give me some gloves, said Pansy. You needn't tell that to everyone, my dear, Madame Merle observed. You're very kind to her, said Osmond. "'She's supposed to have everything she needs. "'I should think she had had enough of the nuns.' "'If we're going to discuss that matter, she had better go out of the room. "'Let her stay,' said Madame Merle. "'We'll talk of something else.'

Starting point is 09:03:03 "'If you like, I won't listen,' Pansy suggested, "'with an appearance of candor which imposed conviction. "'You may listen, a charming child, because you won't understand,' her father replied. The child sat down deferentially, near the open door within sight of the garden, into which she directed her innocent, wistful eyes. And Mr. Osmond went on irrelevantly, addressing himself to his other companion. "'You're looking particularly well?' "'I think I always look the same,' said Madame Merle. "'You always are the same. You don't vary. You're a wonderful woman.'

Starting point is 09:03:46 "'Yes, I think I am.' You sometimes change your mind, however. You told me on your return from England that you wouldn't leave Rome again for the present. I'm pleased that you remember so well what I say. That was my intention. But I've come to Florence to meet some friends who have lately arrived, and as to whose movements I was at that time uncertain. That reason's characteristic.

Starting point is 09:04:14 You're always doing something for your friends. Madame Merle smiled straight at her host. It's less characteristic than your comment upon it, which is perfectly insincere. I don't, however, make a crime of that, she added, because if you don't believe what you say, there's no reason why you should. I don't ruin myself for my friends. I don't deserve your praise. I care greatly for myself.

Starting point is 09:04:42 Exactly. But yourself include so many other selves. so much of everyone else and of everything. I never knew a person whose life touched so many other lives. What do you call one's life? asked Madame Merle. One's appearance, one's movements, one's engagements, one's society. I call your life, your ambitions, said Osmond.

Starting point is 09:05:11 Madame Merle looked a moment at Pansy. I wonder if she understands that. she murmured. You see, she can't stay with us. And Pansy's father gave a rather joyless smile. Go into the garden, Mignon, and pluck a flower or two for Madame Merle. He went on in French. That's just what I wanted to do, Pansy exclaimed, rising with promptness and

Starting point is 09:05:38 noiselessly departing. Her father followed her to the open door, stood a moment watching her, and then came back, but remained standing, or rather strolling to and fro, as if to cultivate a sense of freedom, which in another attitude might be wanting. My ambitions are principally for you, said Madame Merle, looking up at him with a certain courage. That comes back to what I say. I'm part of your life, I and a thousand others. You're not selfish.

Starting point is 09:06:12 I can't admit that. If you were selfish, what should I be? what epithet would properly describe me. You're indolent. For me, that's your worst fault. I'm afraid it's really my best. You don't care, said Madame Merle gravely. No, I don't think I care much.

Starting point is 09:06:35 What sort of a fault do you call that? My indolence, at any rate, was one of the reasons I didn't go to Rome, but it was only one of them. It's not of important. to me at least, that you didn't go, though I should have been glad to see you. I'm glad you're not in Rome now, which you might be,

Starting point is 09:06:55 would probably be, if you had gone there a month ago. There's something I should like you to do at present in Florence. Please remember my indolence, said Osmond. I do remember it, but I beg you to forget it. In that way you'll have both the virtue and the reward. This is not a great labor, and it may prove a real interest. How long is it since you made a new acquaintance?

Starting point is 09:07:24 I don't think I've made any since I made yours. It's time, then, you should make another. There's a friend of mine I want you to know. Mr. Osmond and his walk had gone back to the open door again and was looking at his daughter as she moved about in the intense sunshine. What good will it do me? He asked with a sort of genial crudity. Madame Merle waited.

Starting point is 09:07:49 It will amuse you. There was nothing crude in this rejoinder. It had been thoroughly well considered. If you say that, you know, I believe it, said Osmond coming toward her. There are some points in which my confidence in you is complete. I'm perfectly aware, for instance, that you know good society from bad. Society is all bad. Pardon me.

Starting point is 09:08:14 That isn't the knowledge I impute to you, a common sort of wisdom. You've gained it in the right way. Experimentally. You've compared an immense number of more or less impossible people with each other. Well, I invite you to profit by my knowledge. To profit? Are you very sure that I shall? It's what I hope.

Starting point is 09:08:40 It will depend on yourself. If I could only induce you. you to make an effort. Ah, there you are. I knew something tiresome was coming. What in the world that's likely to turn up here is worth an effort? Madame Merle flushed as with a wounded intention. Don't be foolish, Osmond. No one knows better than you what is worth an effort. Haven't I seen you in old days? I recognize some things, but they're none of them probable in this poor life. It's the effort that makes them probable, said Madame Merle. There's something in that.

Starting point is 09:09:22 Who then is your friend? The person I came to Florence to see. She's a niece of Mrs. Touchett, whom you'll not have forgotten. A niece. The word niece suggests youth and ignorance. I see what you're coming to. Yes, she's young, 23 years old. She's a great friend of mine.

Starting point is 09:09:44 I met her for the first time in England several months ago, and we struck up a grand alliance. I like her immensely, and I do what I don't do every day. I admire her. You'll do the same. Not if I can help it. Precisely, but you won't be able to help it. Is she beautiful, clever, rich, splendid, universally intelligent and unprecedentedly virtuous? It's only on those conditions that I care to make her acquaintance. You know I asked you some time ago never to speak to me of a creature who shouldn't correspond to that description. I know plenty of dingy people.

Starting point is 09:10:26 I don't want to know any more. Miss Archer isn't dingy. She's as bright as the morning. She corresponds to your description. It's for that I wish you to know her. She fills all your requirements. more or less, of course. No, quite literally.

Starting point is 09:10:48 She's beautiful, accomplished, generous, and for an American, well-born. She's also very clever and very amiable, and she has a handsome fortune. Mr. Osmond listened to this in silence, appearing to turn it over in his mind with his eyes on his informant. What do you want to do with her? he asked at last. What do you see? Put her in your way. Isn't she meant for something better than that?

Starting point is 09:11:19 I don't pretend to know what people are meant for, said Madame Merle. I only know what I can do with them. I'm sorry for Miss Archer, Osmond declared. Madame Merle got up. If that's a beginning of interest in her, I take note of it. The two stood there face to face. She settled her mantilla, looking down at it as she did so. You're looking very well, Osmond repeated, still less relevantly than before. You have some idea. You're never so well as when you've got an idea. They're always becoming to you.

Starting point is 09:12:02 In the manner and tone of these two persons, on first meeting at any juncture, and especially when they met in the presence of others, was something indirect and circumspect, as if they had approached each other obliquely, and addressed each other by implication. The effect of each appeared to be to intensify to an appreciable degree, the self-consciousness of the other. Madame Merle, of course, carried off any embarrassment better than her friend. But even Madame Merle had not on this occasion the form she would have liked to have, the perfect self-possession she would have wished to wear for her host. The point to be made is, is, however, that at a certain moment the element between them, whatever it was, always leveled itself, and left them more closely face to face than either ever was with anyone else.

Starting point is 09:12:52 This was what happened now. They stood there knowing each other well, and each on the whole willing to accept the satisfaction of knowing as a compensation for the inconvenience, whatever it might be, of being known. I wish very much you were not so hard. You were not so Heartless. Madame Merle quietly said, It has always been against you, and it will be against you now. I'm not so heartless as you think. Every now and then something touches me. As, for instance, you're saying just now that your ambitions are for me. I don't understand it. I don't see how or why they should be.

Starting point is 09:13:35 But it touches me, all the same. You'll probably understand it even less as time goes on. There are some things you'll never understand. There's no particular need you should. You, after all, are the most remarkable of women, said Asmond. You have more in you than almost anyone. I don't see why you think Mrs. Touchett's niece should matter very much to me when— When—but he paused a moment.

Starting point is 09:14:05 when I myself have mattered so little. That, of course, is not what I meant to say. When I've known and appreciated such a woman as you. Isabel Archer is better than I, said Madame Merle. Her companion gave a laugh. How little you must think of her to say that. Do you suppose I'm capable of jealousy? Please answer me that.

Starting point is 09:14:33 With regard to me, No, on the whole I don't. Come and see me then, two days hence. I'm staying at Mrs. Touchets, Palazzo Crescentini, and the girl will be there. Why didn't you ask me that at first simply without speaking of the girl? said Osmond. You could have had her there at any rate. Madame Merle looked at him in the manner of a woman whom no question he could ever put would find unprepared.

Starting point is 09:15:03 Do you wish to know why? Because I've spoken of you to her. Osmond frowned and turned away. I'd rather not know that. Then in a moment he pointed out the easel supporting the little watercolor drawing. Have you seen what's there? My last. Madame Merle drew near and considered.

Starting point is 09:15:26 Is it the Phoenician Alps? One of your last year's sketches? Yes, but how you guess everything? She looked a moment longer, then turned away. You know I don't care for your drawings. I know it, yet I'm always surprised at it. They're really so much better than most peoples. That may very well be, but as the only thing you do,

Starting point is 09:15:53 well, it's so little. I should have liked you to do so many other things. Those were my ambitions. Yes, you've told me many times. Things that were impossible. Things that were impossible, said Madame Merle. And then in a quite different tone. In itself, your little picture's very good.

Starting point is 09:16:18 She looked about the room, at the old cabinets, pictures, tapestries, surfaces of faded silk. Your rooms, at least, are perfect. I'm struck with that afresh whenever I come back. I know none better anywhere. You understand this sort of thing as nobody anywhere does. You've such adorable taste. I'm sick of my adorable taste, said Gilbert Osmond. You must nevertheless let Miss Archer come and see it.

Starting point is 09:16:48 I've told her about it. I don't object to showing my things, when people are not idiots. You do it delightfully. As Ciceroon of your museum, you appear to particular advantage. Mr. Osmond, in return for this compliment, simply looked at once colder and more attentive. Did you say she was rich? She has seventy thousand pounds. Only su bienco?

Starting point is 09:17:18 There's no doubt whatever about her fortune. I've seen it, as I may say. Satisfactory woman. I mean you. And if I go to see her, shall I see the mother? "'The mother? She has none, nor father either.' "'The aunt, then. Whom did you say? Mrs. Touchett. I can easily keep her out of the way.' "'I don't object to her,' said Osmond. "'I rather like Mrs. Touchett. She has a sort of old-fashioned

Starting point is 09:17:52 character that's passing away, a vivid identity. But that long jack-in-apes, the son, is he about the place?' "'He's there, but he won't trouble you. "'He's a good deal of a donkey. "'I think you're mistaken. "'He's a very clever man. "'But he's not fond of being about when I'm there, "'because he doesn't like me.

Starting point is 09:18:14 "'What could he be more asinine than that? "'Did you say she has looks?' "'Ozmond went on. "'Yes, but I won't say it again, "'lest you should be disappointed in them. "'Come and make a beginning. that's all I ask of you. A beginning of what?

Starting point is 09:18:35 Madame Merle was silent a little. I want you, of course, to marry her. The beginning of the end? Well, I'll see for myself. Have you told her that? For what do you take me? She's not so coarse a piece of machinery, nor am I. Really?

Starting point is 09:18:57 said Osmond after some meditation. I don't understand your ambitions. I think you'll understand this one after you've seen Miss Archer. Suspend your judgment. Madame Merle, as she spoke, had drawn near the open door of the garden, where she stood a moment looking out. Pansy has really grown pretty, she presently added. So it seemed to me.

Starting point is 09:19:24 But she has had enough of the convent. I don't know, said Asmond. I like what they've made of her. It's very charming. That's not the convent. It's the child's nature. It's the combination, I think. She's as pure as a pearl.

Starting point is 09:19:44 Why doesn't she come back with my flowers, then? Madame Merle asked. She's not in a hurry. We'll go and get them. She doesn't like me. The visitor murmured. as she raised her parasol, and they passed into the garden. End of Chapter 22.

Starting point is 09:20:15 Chapter 23 of the Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Librivox recording is in the public domain. Madame Merle, who had come to Florence on Mrs. Touchett's arrival at the invitation of this lady, Mrs. Touchett offering her for a month the hospitality of Palazzo Crescentini, the judicious Madame Merle spoke to Isabel afreshette, about Gilbert Osmond, and expressed the hope she might know him, making, however, no such point of the matter as we have seen her do in recommending the girl herself to Mr. Osmond's attention.

Starting point is 09:20:50 The reason of this was perhaps that Isabel offered no resistance whatever to Madame Merle's proposal. In Italy, as in England, the lady had a multitude of friends, both among the natives of the country and its heterogeneous visitors. She had mentioned to Isabel most of the people the girl would find it well to meet. Of course, she said, Isabel could know whomever in the wide world she would, and had placed Mr. Osmond near the top of the list. He was an old friend of her own.

Starting point is 09:21:20 She had known him these dozen years. He was one of the cleverest and most agreeable men, well, in Europe simply. He was altogether above the respectable average, quite another affair. He wasn't a professional charmer, far from him. it, and the effect he produced depended a good deal on the state of his nerves and his spirits. When not in the right mood, he could fall as low as anyone, saved only by his looking at such hours rather like a demoralized prince in exile. But if he cared or was interested or rightly challenged, just exactly rightly it had to be, then one felt his cleverness and his distinction.

Starting point is 09:22:00 Those qualities didn't depend in him, as in so many people, on his not committing or exposing himself. He had his perversities, which indeed Isabel would find to be the case with all the men really worth knowing, and didn't cause his light to shine equally for all persons. Madame Merle, however, thought she could undertake that for Isabel he would be brilliant. He was easily bored, too easily, and dull people always put him out. but a quick and cultivated girl like Isabel would give him a stimulus which was too absent from his life. At any rate, he was a person not to miss. One shouldn't attempt to live in Italy without making a friend of Gilbert Osmond,

Starting point is 09:22:43 who knew more about the country than anyone except two or three German professors. And if they had more knowledge than he, it was he who had most perception and taste, being artistic through and through. Isabel remembered that her friend had spoken of him during their plunge at Garden Court into the deeps of talk, and wondered a little what was the nature of the tie binding these superior spirits. She felt that Madame Merle's ties always somehow had histories, and such an impression was part of the interest created by this inordinate woman. As regards her relations with Mr. Osmond, however, she hinted at nothing but a long-established calm friendship.

Starting point is 09:23:23 "'Isabelle said she should be happy to know a person "'who had enjoyed so high a confidence for so many years. "'You ought to see a great many men,' Madame Merle remarked. "'You ought to see as many as possible, so as to get used to them.' "'Euse to them?' "'Isabel repeated with that solemn stare, "'which sometimes seemed to proclaim her deficient in the sense of comedy. "'Why, I'm not afraid of them.

Starting point is 09:23:50 "'I'm as used to them as the cook to the butcher boys.' used to them i mean so as to despise them that's what one comes to with most of them you'll pick out for your society the few whom you don't despise this was a note of cynicism that madame merle didn't often allow herself to sound but isabel was not alarmed for she had never supposed that as one saw more of the world the sentiment of respect became the most active of one's emotions it was excited none the less by the beautiful city of flor Lawrence, which pleased her not less than Madame Merle had promised. And if her unassisted perception had not been able to gauge its charms, she had clever companions as priests to the mystery. She was, in no wanton deed of aesthetic illumination, for Ralph founded a joy that renewed his own early passion to act as Ciceroen to his eager young kinswoman. Madame Merle remained at home. She had seen the treasures of Florence again and again, and had always something

Starting point is 09:24:52 else to do. But she talked of all things with remarkable vividness of memory. She recalled the right-hand corner of the large Perugino and the position of the hands of the St. Elizabeth in the picture next to it. She had her opinions as to the character of many famous works of art, differing often from Ralph with great sharpness and defending her interpretations with as much ingenuity as good humor. Isabel listened to the discussions taking place between the two with a sense that she might derive much benefit from them, and that they were among the advantages she couldn't have enjoyed, for instance, in Albany. In the clear May mornings before the formal breakfast, this repast at Mrs. Tatchits was served at 12 o'clock, she wandered with her cousin through the narrow and sombre

Starting point is 09:25:37 Florentine streets, resting a while in the thicker dusk of some historic church, or the vaulted chambers of some dispeopled convent. She went to the galleries and palaces, she looked at the pictures and statues that had hitherto been great names to her, and exchanged for a knowledge which was sometimes a limitation, a presentiment which proved usually to have been a blank. She performed all those acts of mental prostration, in which, on a first visit to Italy, youth and enthusiasm so freely indulge. She felt her heartbeat in the presence of immortal genius, and knew the sweetness of rising tears in eyes to which faded fresco and darkened marble grew dim. But the return, every day, was even pleasanter than the going forth.

Starting point is 09:26:25 The return into the wide, monumental court of the great house, in which Mrs. Touchett, many years before, had established herself, and into the high, cool rooms where the carven rafters and pompous frescoes of the 16th century looked down on the familiar commodities of the age of advertisement. Mrs. Touchett inhabited an historic building in a narrow street, whose very name recalled the strife of medieval factions, and found compensation for the darkness of her frontage in the modicity of her rent and the brightness of a garden, where nature itself looked as archaic as the rugged architecture of the palace, and which cleared and scented the rooms in regular use.

Starting point is 09:27:05 To live in such a place was for Isabel to hold to her ear all day a shell of the sea of the past. This vague eternal rumor kept her imagination awake. Gilbert Osmond came to see Madame Merle, who presented him to the young lady lurking at the other side of the room. Isabelle took on this occasion little part in the talk. She scarcely even smiled when the others turned to her invitingly. She sat there as if she had been at the play, and had paid even a large sum for her place. Mrs. Touchett was not present, and these two had it, for the effect of brilliancy, all their own way. They talked of the Florentine, the Roman, the cosmopolite world, and might have been distinguished performers figuring for a charity.

Starting point is 09:27:52 It all had the rich readiness that would have come from rehearsal. Madame Merle appealed to her as if she had been on the stage, but she could ignore any learnt cue without spoiling the scene, though of course she thus put dreadfully in the wrong the friend who had told Mr. Osmond she could be depended on. This was no matter for once. Even if more had been involved, she could have made no attempt to shine. There was something in the visitor that she had been,

Starting point is 09:28:18 checked her and held her in suspense, made it more important she should get an impression of him than that she should produce one herself. Besides, she had little skill in producing an impression which she knew to be expected. Nothing could be happier in general than to seem dazzling, but she had a perverse unwillingness to glitter by arrangement. Mr. Osmond, to do him justice, had a well-bred air of expecting nothing, a quiet ease that covered everything, even the first show of his own wit. This was the more grateful, as his face, his head, was sensitive. He was not handsome, but he was fine, as fine as one of the drawings in the long gallery above the bridge of the Uffizi. And his very voice was fine, the more strangely that, with its clearness, it yet somehow

Starting point is 09:29:07 wasn't sweet. This had had really to do with making her abstain from interference. His utterance was the vibration of glass, and if she had put out her finger, she might have changed the pitch and spoiled the concert. Yet before he went, she had to speak. Madame Merle, he said, consents to come up to my hilltop some day next week and drink tea in my garden. It would give me much pleasure if you would come with her. It's thought rather pretty. There's what they call a general view. My daughter, too, would be so glad, or rather, for she's too young to have have strong emotions, I should be so glad, so very glad." And Mr. Osmond paused with a slight air of embarrassment, leaving his sentence unfinished.

Starting point is 09:29:54 I should be so happy if you could know my daughter. He went on a moment afterwards. Isabel replied that she should be delighted to see Miss Osmond, and that if Madame Merle would show her the way to the hilltop, she should be very grateful. Upon this assurance the visitor took his leave, after which Isabel She said her friend would scold her for having been so stupid. But to her surprise, that lady, who indeed never fell into the mere matter of course, said to her in a few moments, You were charming, my dear. You were just as one would have wished you. You're never disappointing.

Starting point is 09:30:32 A rebuke might possibly have been irritating, though it is much more probable that Isabel would have taken it in good part. But strange to say, the words that Madame Merle actually used, caused her the first feeling of displeasure she had known this ally to excite. That's more than I intended, she answered coldly. I'm under no obligation that I know of to charm Mr. Osmond. Madame Merle perceptibly flushed, but we know it was not her habit to retract. My dear child, I didn't speak for him, poor man. I spoke for yourself. It's not, of course, a question as to his liking you. It matters little whether he likes.

Starting point is 09:31:13 likes you or not, but I thought you liked him. I did, said Isabel honestly, but I don't see what that matters either. Everything that concerns you matters to me. Madame Merle returned with her weary nobleness, especially when at the same time another old friends concerned. Whatever Isabelle's obligations may have been to Mr. Osmond, it must be admitted that she found them sufficient to lead her to put direct. Ralph's sundry questions about him. She thought Ralph's judgments distorted by his trials,

Starting point is 09:31:49 but she flattered herself that she had learned to make allowance for that. "'Do I know him?' said her cousin. "'Oh, yes, I know him. Not well, but on the whole enough. I've never cultivated his society, and he apparently has never found mine indispensable to his happiness. Who is he? What is he? He's a vague, unexplained American who has been living these thirty years, or less, in Italy. Why do I call him unexplained? Only is a cover for my ignorance. I don't know his antecedents, his family, his origin. For all I do know he may be a prince in disguise. He rather looks like one, by the way, like a prince who has abdicated in a fit of

Starting point is 09:32:33 fastidiousness, and has been in a state of disgust ever since. He used to live in Rome, but of late years he has taken up his abode here. I remember hearing him say that, Rome has grown vulgar. He has a great dread of vulgarity. That's his special line. He hasn't any other that I know of. He lives on his income, which I suspect of not being vulgarly large. He's a poor but honest gentleman. That's what he calls himself. He married young and lost his wife, and I believe he has a daughter. He also has a sister who's married to some small count or other of these parts. I remember meeting her of old. She's nicer than he, I should. you think, but rather impossible. I remember there used to be some stories about her. I don't think

Starting point is 09:33:19 I recommend you to know her. But why don't you ask Madame Merle about these people? She knows them all much better than I. I ask you because I want your opinion as well as hers, said Isabel. A fig for my opinion. If you fall in love with Mr. Osmond, what will you care for that? Not much, probably. But meanwhile, it has a certain importance. the more information one has about one's dangers, the better. I don't agree to that. It may make them dangers. We know too much about people in these days.

Starting point is 09:33:54 We hear too much. Our ears, our minds, our mouths are stuffed with personalities. Don't mind anything anyone tells you about anyone else. Judge everyone and everything for yourself. That's what I try to do, said Isabel. But when you do that, people call you conceited. You've not to mind them. That's precisely my argument. Not to mind what they say about yourself any more than what they say about your friend or your enemy. Isabel considered,

Starting point is 09:34:24 I think you're right, but there are some things I can't help minding. For instance, when my friends attacked, or when I myself am praised. Of course, you're always at liberty to judge the critic. Judge people as critics, however, Ralph added, and you'll condemn them all. "'I shall see Mr. Osmond for myself,' said Isabel. "'I've promised to pay him a visit.' "'To pay him a visit?' "'To go and see his view, his pictures, his daughter. "'I don't know exactly what.

Starting point is 09:34:58 "'Madame Merle's to take me.' "'She tells me a great many ladies call on him. "'Ah, with Madame Merle you may go anywhere, the confiance,' said Ralph. "'She knows none but the best people.' Isabel said no more about Mr. Osmond, but she presently remarked to her cousin that she was not satisfied with his tone about Madame Merle. It seems to me you insinuate things about her. I don't know what you mean, but if you've any grounds for disliking her, I think you should either mention them frankly, or else say nothing at all. Ralph, however, resented this charge with more apparent earnestness than he commonly used. I speak of Madame Merle exactly as I speak to her, with an easy,

Starting point is 09:35:41 even exaggerated respect. Exaggerated. Precisely. That's what I complain of. I do so because Madame Merle's merits are exaggerated. By whom, pray? By me? If so, I do her a poor service. No, no, by herself. Oh, I protest, Isabel earnestly cried. If ever there was a woman who made small claims. You put your finger on it. Ralph interrupted. Her modesty is exaggerated. She has no business with small claims. She has a

Starting point is 09:36:17 perfect right to make large ones. Her merits are large, then. You contradict yourself. Her merits are immense, said Ralph. She's indescribably blameless, a pathless desert of virtue, the only woman I know who never gives one a chance. A chance for what? Well, say to call her a fool. She's the only woman I know. who has but that one little fault. Isabel turned away with impatience. I don't understand you. You're too paradoxical for my plain mind.

Starting point is 09:36:50 Let me explain. When I say she exaggerates, I don't mean it in the vulgar sense, that she boasts, overstates, gives too fine an account of herself. I mean literally that she pushes the search for perfection too far, that her merits are in themselves overstrained. She's too good, too kind, too clever, too low. learned, to accomplished, to everything. She's too complete, in a word.

Starting point is 09:37:16 I confess to you that she acts on my nerves, and that I feel about her a good deal as that intensely human Athenian felt about Aristides the just. Isabel looked hard at her cousin, but the mocking spirit, if it lurked in his words, failed on this occasion to peep from his face. Do you wish Madame Merle to be banished? By no means, she's much too good company.

Starting point is 09:37:42 I delight in Madame Merle, said Ralph touch it simply. You're very odious, sir, Isabel exclaimed. And then she asked him if he knew anything that was not to the honour of her brilliant friend. Nothing whatever. Don't you see, that's just what I mean? On the character of everyone else you may find some little black speck. If I were to take half an hour to it some day, I've no doubt I should be able to find one on yours. For my own, of course, I'm spotted like a leopard.

Starting point is 09:38:11 But on Madame Merle's nothing, nothing, nothing. That's just what I think, said Isabel with a toss of her head. That is why I like her so much. She's a capital person for you to know. Since you wish to see the world, you couldn't have a better guide. I suppose you mean by that that she's worldly? Worldly? No, said Ralph. She's the great round world itself.

Starting point is 09:38:38 It had certainly not, as Isabel for the moment took it into her head to believe, been a refinement of malice in him to say that he delighted in Madame Merle. Ralph Touchett took his refreshment wherever he could find it, and he would not have forgiven himself if he had been left wholly unbeguiled by such a mistress of the social art. There are deep-lying sympathies and antipathies, and it may have been that. In spite of the administered justice she enjoyed at his hands, her absence from his mother's house would not have made life barren to him. But Ralph Touchett had learned more or less inscrutably to attend, and there could have been nothing so sustained to attend to as the general performance of Madame Merle.

Starting point is 09:39:17 He tasted her in sips, he let her stand, with an opportuneness she herself could not have surpassed. There were moments when he felt almost sorry for her. And these, oddly enough, were the moments when his kindness was least demonstrative. He was sure she had been yearningly ambitious, and that what she had visibly accomplished was far below her secret measure. She had got herself into perfect training, but had won none of the prizes.

Starting point is 09:39:46 She was always plain Madame Merle, the widow of a Swiss negotiant, with a small income and a large acquaintance, who stayed with people a great deal, and was almost as universally liked as some new volume of smooth twaddle. The contrast between this position and any one of some half-dozen others

Starting point is 09:40:04 that he supposed to have at various moments engaged her hope, had an element of the trotel. tragical. His mother thought he got on beautifully with their genial guest. To Mrs. Touchett's sense, two persons who dealt so largely in two ingenious theories of conduct, that is of their own, would have much in common. He had given due consideration to Isabel's intimacy with her eminent friend, having long since made up his mind that he could not, without opposition, keep his cousin to himself. And he made the best of it, as he had done of worse things. He believed it would take

Starting point is 09:40:38 of itself, it wouldn't last forever. Neither of these two superior persons knew the other as well as she supposed, and when each had made an important discovery or two, there would be, if not a rupture, at least a relaxation. Meanwhile, he was quite willing to admit that the conversation of the elder lady was an advantage to the younger, who had a great deal to learn, and would doubtless learn it better from Madame Merle than from some other instructors of the young. It was not probable that Isabel would be injured. End of Chapter 23. Chapter 24 of the Portrait of a Lady by Henry James.

Starting point is 09:41:22 This Librevox recording is in the public domain. It would certainly have been hard to see what injury could arise to her from the visit she presently paid to Mr. Osmond's hilltop. Nothing could have been more charming than this occasion, a soft afternoon in the full maturity of the Tuscan Spring. The companions drove out of the Roman gate, beneath the enormous blank superstructure which crowns the fine clear arch of that portal, and makes it nakedly impressive, and wound between high-walled lanes, into which the wealth of blossoming orchards overdruped and flung a fragrance, until they reached the small super-urban piazza of crooked shape, where the long brown wall of the villa occupied in part by Mr. Osmond formed a principal, or at least a very imposing, object. object. Isabel went with her friend through a wide, high court, where a clear shadow rested below, and a pair of light-arched galleries, facing each other above, caught the upper sunshine upon

Starting point is 09:42:24 their slim columns, and the flowering plants in which they were dressed. There was something grave and strong in the place. It looked somehow as if, once you were in, you would need an act of energy to get out. For Isabel, however, there was, of course, as yet no thought of getting out, but only of advancing. Mr. Osmond met her in the cold antechamber. It was cold even in the month of May, and ushered her with her conductress into the apartment to which we have already been introduced. Madame Merle was in front, and while Isabel lingered a little, talking with him, she went

Starting point is 09:43:02 forward familiarly and greeted two persons who were seated in the saloon. One of these was little pansy, on whom she bestowed a kiss. The other was a lady who Mr. Osmond indicated to Isabel as his sister, the Countess Gemini. "'And that's my little girl,' he said, who has just come out of her convent. Pansy had on a scant white dress, and her fair hair was neatly arranged in a net. She wore her small shoes, tied sandal fashion about her ankles. She made Isabel a little conventual curtsey, and then came to be kissed. The Countess Gemini simply nodded,

Starting point is 09:43:41 without getting up, Isabel could see she was a woman of high fashion. She was thin and dark and not at all pretty, having features that suggested some tropical bird, a long beak-like nose, small, quickly moving eyes, and a mouth and chin that receded extremely. Her expression, however, thanks to various intensities of emphasis and wonder, of horror and joy, was not inhuman, and as regards her appearance, it was plain she understood herself and made the most of her points. Her attire, voluminous and delicate, bristling with elegance, had the look of shimmering plumage, and her attitudes were as light and sudden as those of a creature who perched upon twigs. She had a great deal of manner.

Starting point is 09:44:29 Isabel, who had never known anyone with so much manner, immediately classed her as the most affected of women. She remembered that Ralph had not recommended her as an acquaintance, but she was ready to acknowledge that to a casual view, the Countess Gemini revealed no depths. Her demonstrations suggested the violent waving of some flag of general truce, white silk with fluttering streamers. You'll believe I'm glad to see you, and I tell you it's only because I knew you were to be here that I came myself.

Starting point is 09:44:59 I don't come and see my brother. I make him come and see me. This hill of his is impossible. I don't see what possesses him. Really, Osmond, you'll be the ruin of my horses someday, and if it hurts them, you'll have to give me another pair. I hurt them wheezing today. I assure you I did. It's very disagreeable to hear one's horses wheezing when one's sitting in the carriage. It sounds too as if they weren't what they should be. But I've always had good horses. Whatever else I may have lacked, I've always managed that. My husband doesn't know much. But I think. think he knows a horse. In general, Italians don't, but my husband goes in, according to his

Starting point is 09:45:39 poor light, for everything English. My horses are English. So it's all the greater pity that they should be ruined. I must tell you. She went on, directly addressing Isabel. That Osmond doesn't often invite me. I don't think he likes to have me. It was quite my own idea coming today. I like to see new people, and I'm sure you're very new. But don't sit there. That chair is not what it looks. There are some very good seats here, but there are also some horrors. These remarks were delivered with a series of little jerks and pecks, of rouleads of shrillness, and in an accent that was, as some fond recall of good English, or rather of good American, in adversity.

Starting point is 09:46:23 "'I don't like to have you, my dear,' said her brother. "'I'm sure you're invaluable.' "'I don't see horrors anywhere.' Isabel returned, looking about her. Everything seems to me beautiful and precious. I have a few good things, Mr. Osmond aloud. Indeed, I've nothing very bad. But I've not what I should have liked.

Starting point is 09:46:46 He stood there a little awkwardly, smiling and glancing about. His manner was an odd mixture of the detached and the involved. He seemed to hint that nothing but the right values was of any consequence. Isabel made a rapid induction. Perfect simplicity was not the badge of his family. Even the little girl from the convent, who, in her prim white dress, with her small, submissive face and her hands locked before her, stood there as if she were about to partake of her first communion. Even Mr. Osmond's diminutive daughter had a kind of finish, that was not entirely artless. You'd have liked a few things from the Uffizi and the Pitti, that's what you'd have liked, said Madame Merle.

Starting point is 09:47:29 "'Poor Osmond, with his old curtains and crucifixes!' The Countess Gemini exclaimed. "'She appeared to call her brother only by his family name. "'Her ejaculation had no particular object. "'She smiled at Isabella as she made it, "'and looked at her from head to foot. "'Her brother had not heard her. "'He seemed to be thinking what he could say to Isabel.

Starting point is 09:47:53 "'Won't you have some tea? "'You must be very tired.' "'He at last bethought himself of remarking. "'No, indeed. I'm not tired. What have I done to tire me?' Isabelle felt a certain need of being very direct, of pretending to nothing. There was something in the air, in her general impression of things. She could hardly have said what it was, that deprived her of all disposition to put herself forward. The place, the occasion, the combination of people, signified more than lay on the surface. She would try to understand,

Starting point is 09:48:27 she would not simply utter graceful platitudes. Poor Isabel was doubtless not aware that many women would have uttered graceful platitudes to cover the working of their observation. It must be confessed that her pride was a trifle alarmed. A man she had heard spoken of in terms that excited interest, and who was evidently capable of distinguishing himself, had invited her, a young lady not lavish of her favors, to come to his house. Now that she had done so, the burden of the entertainment rested naturally on his.

Starting point is 09:48:57 wit. Isabel was not rendered less observant, and for the moment we judge, she was not rendered more indulgent by perceiving that Mr. Osmond carried his burden less complacently than might have been expected. What a fool I was to have let myself so needlessly in. She could fancy his exclaiming to himself. You'll be tired when you go home, if he shows you all his bibelot and gives you a lecture on each, said the Countess Gemini. I'm not afraid of that. But if I'm tired, I shall at least have learned something. Very little, I suspect. But my sister is dreadfully afraid of learning anything, said Mr. Osmond.

Starting point is 09:49:38 Oh, I confess to that. I don't want to know anything more. I know too much already. The more you know, the more unhappy you are. You should not undervalue knowledge before Pansy, who has not finished her education. Madame Merle interposed with a smile. Pansy will never know any harm, said the child's father. Pansy's a little convent flower.

Starting point is 09:50:02 Oh, the convents, the convents, cried the countess with a flutter of her ruffles. Speak to me of the convents. You may learn anything there. I'm a convent flower myself. I don't pretend to be good, but the nuns do. Don't you see what I mean? She went on, appealing to Isabel. Isabel was not sure she saw, and she answered that she was very bad at following arguments.

Starting point is 09:50:28 The Countess then declared that she herself detested arguments, but that this was her brother's taste. He would always discuss. For me, she said, one should like a thing or one shouldn't. One can't like everything, of course, but one shouldn't attempt to reason it out. You never know where it may lead you. There are some very good feelings that may have bad reasons, don't you know? and then there are very bad feelings sometimes that have good reasons. Don't you see what I mean?

Starting point is 09:50:56 I don't care anything about reasons, but I know what I like. Ah, that's the great thing, said Isabel, smiling and suspecting that her acquaintance with this likely flitting personage would not lead to intellectual repose. If the Countess objected to argument, Isabel at this moment had as little taste for it, and she put out her hand to Pansy with a pleasant sense that such a gesture committed her to nothing that would admit of a divergence of views.

Starting point is 09:51:25 Gilbert Osmond apparently took a rather hopeless view of his sister's tone. He turned the conversation to another topic. He presently sat down on the other side of his daughter, who had shyly brushed Isabel's fingers with her own, but he ended by drawing her out of her chair and making her stand between his knees, leaning against him while he passed his arm round her slimness. The child fixed her eyes on Isabel with a still disinterested gaze, which seemed void of an intention, yet conscious of an attraction.

Starting point is 09:51:54 Mr. Osmond talked of many things. Madame Merle had said he could be agreeable when he chose, and today, after a little, he appeared not only to have chosen, but to have determined. Madame Merle and the Countess Gemini sat a little apart, conversing in the effortless manner of persons who knew each other well enough to take their ease. But every now and then Isabel heard the Countess, at something said by her companion,

Starting point is 09:52:18 plunge into the latter's lucidity as a poodle splashes after a thrown stick. It was as if Madame Merle were seeing how far she would go. Mr. Osmond talked of Florence, of Italy, of the pleasure of living in that country, and of the abatements to the pleasure. There were both satisfactions and drawbacks. The drawbacks were numerous. Strangers were too apt to see such a world as all romantic. It met the case soothingly for the human, for the social,

Starting point is 09:52:48 failure, by which he meant the people who couldn't realize, as they said, on their sensibility. They could keep it about them there, in their poverty, without ridicule, as you might keep an heirloom or an inconvenient entailed place that brought you in nothing. Thus, there were advantages to living in the country which contained the greatest sum of beauty. Certain impressions you could only get there. Others, favorable to life you never got, and you got some that were very bad. but from time to time you got one of a quality that made up for everything italy all the same had spoiled a good many people he was even fatuous enough to believe at times that he himself might have been a better man if he had spent less of his life there it made one idle and dilettantish and second rate it had no discipline for the character didn't cultivate in you otherwise expressed the successful social and other cheek that flourished in paris and london we're sweetly provincial said Mr. Osmond,

Starting point is 09:53:50 and I'm perfectly aware that I myself am as rusty as a key that has no lock to fit it. It polishes me up a little to talk with you. Not that I venture to pretend I can turn that very complicated lock, I suspect your intellect of being. But you'll be going away before I've seen you three times, and I shall perhaps never see you after that. That's what it is to live in a country that people come to.

Starting point is 09:54:14 When they're disagreeable here, it's bad enough. when they're agreeable it's still worse. As soon as you like them, they're off again. I've been deceived too often. I've ceased to form attachments, to permit myself to feel attractions. You mean to stay, to settle? That would be really comfortable.

Starting point is 09:54:35 Ah, yes, your aunt's a sort of guarantee. I believe she may be depended upon. Oh, she's an old Florentine. I mean literally an old one, not a modern outsider. She is a contemporary of the Medici. She must have been present at the burning of Savonarola, and I'm not sure she didn't throw a handful of chips into the flame.

Starting point is 09:54:56 Her face is very much like some faces in the early pictures. Little, dry, definite faces that must have had a good deal of expression, but almost always the same one. Indeed, I can show you her portrait at a fresco of Girlandios. I hope you don't object to my speaking that way of your aunt, eh? I have an idea you don't. Perhaps you think that's even worse. I assure you there's no want of respect in it, to either of you.

Starting point is 09:55:23 You know I'm a particular admirer of Mrs. Touchett. While Isabelle's host exerted himself to entertain her in this somewhat confidential fashion, she looked occasionally at Madame Merle, who met her eyes with an inattentive smile, in which, on this occasion, there was no infelicitous intimation that our heroine appeared to advantage. Madame Merle eventually proposed to the Countess Gemini that they should, go into the garden, and the countess, rising and shaking out her feathers, began to rustle toward the door. "'Poor, Miss Archer!' she exclaimed, surveying the other group with expressive compassion.

Starting point is 09:55:59 "'She has been brought quite into the family. Miss Archer can certainly have nothing but sympathy for a family to which you belong.' Mr. Osmond answered with a laugh, which, though it had something of a mocking-ring, had also a finer patience. I don't know what you mean by that. I'm sure she'll see no harm in me, but what you tell her. I'm better than he says, Miss Archer, the Countess went on. I'm only rather an idiot and a bore.

Starting point is 09:56:27 Is that all he has said? Nah, then, you keep him in good humour. Has he opened on one of his favourite subjects? I give you notice that there are two or three that he treats as fond. In that case, you would better take off your bonnet. I don't think I know what, Mr. O'Rourner. Osmond's favorite subjects are, said Isabel, who had risen to her feet. The Countess assumed for an instant an attitude of intense meditation, pressing one of her hands,

Starting point is 09:56:54 with the fingertips gathered together, to her forehead. I'll tell you in a moment. One's Machiavelli, the other is Victoria Colonna. The next is Medistacio. Ah, with me, said Madame Merle, passing her arm into the Countess Geminise, as if to guide her course into the garden. Mr. Osmond, men's never so historical. Oh, you! The Countess answered as they moved away. You yourself are Machiavelli. You yourself are Victoria Colonna.

Starting point is 09:57:25 We shall hear next that poor Madame Merle is metastasio. Gilbert Osmond resignedly sighed. Isabelle had got up on the assumption that they too were to go into the garden, but her host stood there with no apparent inclination to leave the room, his hands in the pockets of his jacket, and his daughter, who had to go into the garden. now locked her arm into one of his own, clinging to him and looking up, while her eyes moved from his own face to Isabelle's. Isabel waited with a certain unuttered contentedness to have her

Starting point is 09:57:54 movements directed. She liked Mr. Osmond's talk, his company. She had what always gave her a very private thrill, the consciousness of a new relation. Through the open doors of the great room, she saw Madame Merle and the Countess stroll across the fine grass of the garden. Then she turned, and her eyes wandered over the things scattered about her. The understanding had been that Mr. Osmond should show her his treasures. His pictures and cabinets all looked like treasures. Isabel, after a moment, went toward one of the pictures to see it better. But just as she had done so, he said to her abruptly,

Starting point is 09:58:32 Miss Archer, what do you think of my sister? She faced him with some surprise. Oh, don't ask me that. I've seen your sister too little. Yes, you've seen her very little. but he must have observed that there is not a great deal of her to see. What do you think of our family tone? He went on with his cool smile.

Starting point is 09:58:53 I should like to know how it strikes a fresh, unprejudiced mind. I know what you're going to say. You've had almost no observation of it. Of course, this is only a glimpse. But just take notice in future, if you have a chance. I sometimes think we've got into a rather bad way, living off here among things and people not our own, without responsibilities or attachments, with nothing to hold us together or keep us up, marrying foreigners, forming artificial tastes,

Starting point is 09:59:22 playing tricks with our natural mission. Let me add, though, that I say that much more for myself than for my sister. She's a very honest lady, more so than she seems. She's rather unhappy, and as she's not of a serious turn and doesn't tend to show it tragically, she shows it comically, instead. She has got a horrid husband, though I'm not sure she makes the best of him. Of course, however, a horrid husband's an awkward thing. Madame Merle gives her excellent advice, but it's a good deal like giving a child a dictionary to learn a language with. He can look out the words, but he can't put them together. My sister needs a grammar, but unfortunately she's not grammatical. Pardon my troubling you with these details. My sister was very right in saying

Starting point is 10:00:08 you've been taken into the family. Let me take down that picture. You want more light. He took down the picture, carried it to the window, related some curious facts about it. She looked at the other works of art, and he gave her such further information as might appear most acceptable to a young lady, making a call in a summer afternoon. His pictures, his medallions, and tapestries were interesting. But after a while, Isabel felt the owner much more so, and independently.

Starting point is 10:00:38 of them, thickly as they seemed to overhang him. He resembled no one she had ever seen. Most of the people she knew might be divided into groups of half a dozen specimens. There were one or two exceptions to this. She could think, for instance, of no group that would contain her Aunt Lydia. There were other people who were, relatively speaking, original. Original, as one might say, by courtesy such as Mr. Goodwood, as her cousin Ralph, as Henrietta Stackpole, as Lord Warburton, as Madame Merle. But in essentials, when one came to look at them, these individuals belonged to types already present to her mind.

Starting point is 10:01:16 Her mind contained no class offering a natural place to Mr. Osmond. He was a specimen apart. It was not that she recognized all these truths at the hour, but they were falling into order before her. For the moment she only said to herself that this new relation would perhaps prove her very most distinguished. Madame Merle had had that note of rarity, but what quite other power it immediately gained when sounded by a man. It was not so much what he said and did, but rather what he withheld that marked him for her as one of those signs of the highly curious that he was showing her on the underside of old plates and in the corner of 16th century drawings.

Starting point is 10:01:57 He indulged in no striking deflections from common usage. He was an original, without being an eccentric. She had never met a person of so fine a grain. The peculiarity was physical to begin with, and it extended to impalpabilities. His dense, delicate hair, his overdrawn retouched features, his clear complexion, ripe without being coarse, the very evenness of the growth of his beard, and that light, smooth, slenderness of structure, which made the movement of a single one of his fingers produced the effect of an expansive gesture. These personal points struck our sensitive young woman as signs of quality, of intensity,

Starting point is 10:02:37 somehow as promises of interest. He was certainly fastidious and critical. He was probably irritable. His sensibility had governed him, possibly governed him too much. It had made him impatient of vulgar troubles, and had led him to live by himself, in a sorted, sifted, arranged world, thinking about art and beauty and history. He had consulted his taste in everything, his taste alone, perhaps, as a sick man, consciously

Starting point is 10:03:06 and curable, consults at last only his lawyer. That was what made him so different from everyone else. Ralph had something of this same quality, this appearance of thinking that life was a matter of connoisseurship. But in Ralph it was an anomaly, a kind of humorous excrescence, whereas in Mr. Osmond it was the keynote, and everything was in harmony with it. She was certainly far from understanding him completely. His meaning was not at all times obvious.

Starting point is 10:03:35 It was hard to see what he meant, for instance, by speaking of his provincial side, which was exactly the side she would have taken him most to lack. Was it a harmless paradox, intended to puzzle her? Or was it the last refinement of high culture? She trusted she should learn in time. It would be very interesting to learn. If it was provincial to have that harmony, what then was the finish of the capital?

Starting point is 10:04:01 And she could put this question in spite of so feeling her host a shy personage, since such shyness is his, the shyness of ticklish nerves and fine perceptions, was so perfectly consistent with the best breeding. Indeed, it was almost a proof of standards and touchstones other than the vulgar. He must be so sure the vulgar would be first on the ground. He wasn't a man of easy assurance, who chatted and gossiped with the floges.

Starting point is 10:04:27 of a superficial nature. He was critical of himself as well as of others, and exacting a good deal of others to think them agreeable probably took a rather ironical view of what he himself offered, a proof into the bargain that he was not grossly conceited. If he had not been shy, he wouldn't have affected that gradual, subtle, successful conversion of it to which she owed both what pleased her in him and what mystified her. If he had suddenly asked her what she thought of the Countess Gemini, that was doubtless a proof that he was interested in her. It could scarcely be as a help to knowledge of his own sister, that he should be so interested showed an inquiring mind, but it was a little singular he should sacrifice his fraternal feeling to his curiosity.

Starting point is 10:05:11 This was the most eccentric thing he had done. There were two other rooms, beyond the one in which she had been received, equally full of romantic objects, and in these apartments Isabel spent a quarter of an hour. Everything was in the last degree curious and precious, and Mr. Osmond continued to be the kindest of Cicerooney as he led her from one fine piece to another, and still held his little girl by the hand. His kindness almost surprised our young friend, who wondered why he should take so much trouble for her, and she was oppressed at last with the accumulation of beauty and knowledge, to which she found herself introduced. There was enough for the present. She had ceased to attend to what he said, and she listened to him with attentive eyes.

Starting point is 10:05:53 but was not thinking of what he told her. He probably thought her quicker, cleverer in every way, more prepared than she was. Madame Merle would have pleasantly exaggerated, which was a pity, because in the end he would be sure to find out, and then perhaps even her real intelligence wouldn't reconcile him to his mistake.

Starting point is 10:06:12 A part of Isabel's fatigue came from the effort to appear as intelligent as she believed Madame Merle had described her, and from the fear, very unusual with her, of exposing not her ignorance, for that she cared comparatively little, but her possible grossness of perception. It would have annoyed her to express a liking for something he, in his superior enlightenment, would think she oughtn't to like, or to pass by something at which the truly initiated mind would arrest itself. She had no wish to fall into that grotesqueness, in which she had seen women, and it was a warning, serenely yet ignobly flounder. She was very

Starting point is 10:06:52 careful, therefore, as to what she said, as to what she noticed or failed to notice, more careful than she had ever been before. They came back into the first of the rooms, where the tea had been served. But as the two other ladies were still on the terrace, and as Isabel had not yet been made acquainted with the view, the paramount distinction of the place, Mr. Osmond directed her steps into the garden without more delay. Madame Merle and the Countess had had chairs brought out, and as the afternoon was lovely, the the Countess proposed they should take their tea in the open air.

Starting point is 10:07:24 Pansy, therefore, was sent to bid the servant bring out the preparations. The sun had got low, the golden light took a deeper tone, and on the mountains and the plain that stretched beneath them, the masses of purple shadow glowed as richly as the places that were still exposed. The scene had an extraordinary charm. The air was almost solemnly still, and the large expanse of the landscape, with its garden-like culture, and nobleness of outline, its teeming valley and delicately fretted hills, its peculiarly human-looking

Starting point is 10:07:57 touches of habitation, lay there in splendid harmony and classic grace. You seem so well pleased that I think you can be trusted to come back, Osmond said, as he led his companion to one of the angles of the terrace. I shall certainly come back, she returned. In spite of what you say about its being bad to live in Italy, What was that you said about one's natural mission? I wonder if I should forsake my natural mission if I were to settle in Florence.

Starting point is 10:08:27 A woman's natural mission is to be where she's most appreciated. The point to find out where that is. Very true. She often wastes a great deal of time in the inquiry. People ought to make it very plain to her. Such a matter would have to be made very plain to me, smiled Isabel. I'm glad at any sort of.

Starting point is 10:08:48 rate to hear you talk of settling. Madame Merle had given me an idea that you were rather of a roving disposition. I thought she spoke of your having some plan of going round the world. I'm rather ashamed of my plans. I make a new one every day. I don't see why you should be ashamed. It's the greatest of pleasures. It seems frivolous, I think, said Isabel. One ought to choose something very deliberately, and be faithful to that. By that rule, then, I've not been frivolous. Have you never made plans? Yes, I made one years ago, and I'm acting on it today. It must have been a very pleasant one.

Starting point is 10:09:27 Isabel permitted herself to observe. It was very simple. It was to be as quiet as possible. As quiet, the girl repeated. Not to worry, not to strive or struggle, to resign myself, to be content with little. He spoke these sentences slowly. with short pauses between, and his intelligent regard was fixed on his visitors with the conscious air of a man who has brought himself to confess something.

Starting point is 10:09:58 Do you call that simple? she asked with mild irony. Yes, because it's negative. Has your life been negative? Call it affirmative, if you like, only it has affirmed my indifference. Mind you, not my natural indifference, I had none. but my studied, my willful renunciation. She scarcely understood him. It seemed to question whether he were joking or not. Why should a man who struck her as having a great fund of reserve

Starting point is 10:10:31 suddenly bring himself to be so confidential? This was his affair, however, and his confidences were interesting. I don't see why you should have renounced, she said in a moment. Because I could do nothing. I had no prospects. I was poor, and I was not a man of genius. I had no talents even. I took my measure early in life.

Starting point is 10:10:55 I was simply the most fastidious young gentleman living. There were two or three people in the world I envied, the Emperor of Russia, for instance, and the Sultan of Turkey. There were even moments when I envied the Pope of Rome, for the consideration he enjoys. I should have been delighted to be considered to that extent. But since that couldn't be, I didn't care for anything less, and I made up my mind not to go in for honors.

Starting point is 10:11:20 The leanest gentleman can always consider himself, and fortunately I was, though lean, a gentleman. I could do nothing in Italy. I couldn't even be an Italian patriot. To do that I should have had to get out of the country, and I was too fond of it to leave it, to say nothing of my being too well satisfied with it on the whole, as it then was, to wish it altered.

Starting point is 10:11:43 So I've passed a great many years here on that quiet plan I spoke of, I've not been at all unhappy. I don't mean to say I've cared for nothing, but the things I've cared for have been definite, limited. The events of my life have been absolutely unperceived by anyone save myself. Getting an old silver crucifix at a bargain, I've never bought anything dear, of course, or discovering, as I once did,

Starting point is 10:12:08 a sketch by Correggio, on a panel dobed over by some inspired idiot. This would have been rather a dry account of Mr. Osmond, career, if Isabel had fully believed it. But her imagination supplied the human element which she was sure had not been wanting. His life had been mingled with other lives more than he admitted. Naturally she couldn't expect him to enter into this. For the present she abstained from provoking further revelations, to intimate that he had not told her everything would be more familiar and less considerate than she now desired to be, would in fact be uproariously vulgar.

Starting point is 10:12:44 He had certainly told her quite enough. It was her present inclination, however, to express a measured sympathy for the success with which she had preserved his independence. That's a very pleasant life, she said, to renounce everything but Correggio. Oh, I've made in my way a good thing of it. Don't imagine I'm whining about it. It's one's own fault if one isn't happy. This was large. She kept down to something smaller. Have you lived here always? No, not always. I lived a long time at Naples, and many years in Rome. But I've been here a good while. Perhaps I shall have to change, however, to do something else. I've no longer myself to think of. My daughter's growing up and may possibly not care so much for the Correggios and crucifixes is I. I shall have to do what's best for Pansy.

Starting point is 10:13:37 Yes, do that, said Isabel. She's such a dear little girl. Ah, cried Gilbert Osmond beautifully. She's a little saint of heaven. She is my great happiness. End of Chapter 24. Chapter 25 of the Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Librovoc's recording is in the public domain. While this sufficiently intimate colloquy, prolonged for some time after we ceased to follow it,

Starting point is 10:14:20 went forward Madame Merle and her companion, breaking a little bit of her companion, breaking a a silence of some duration, had begun to exchange remarks. They were sitting in an attitude of unexpressed expectancy, an attitude especially marked on the part of the Countess Gemini, who, being of a more nervous temperament than her friend, practiced with less success the art of disguising impatience. What these ladies were waiting for would not have been apparent and was perhaps not very definite to their own minds. Madame Merle waited for Osmond to release their young friend from her tete-a-tete, and the countess waited because Madame Merle did. The countess, moreover, by waiting, found the time ripe for one of her pretty perversities.

Starting point is 10:15:04 She might have desired for some minutes to place it. Her brother wandered with Isabel to the end of the garden, to which point her eyes followed them. "'My dear,' she then observed to her companion, "'you'll excuse me if I don't congratulate you.' Very willingly, for I don't in the least. know why you should. Haven't you a little plan that you think rather well of?

Starting point is 10:15:28 And the Countess nodded at the sequestered couple. Madame Merle's eyes took the same direction. Then she looked serenely at her neighbor. You know I never understand you very well, she smiled. No one can understand better than you when you wish. I see that just now you don't wish. You say things to me that no one else does. said Madame Merle gravely, yet without bitterness.

Starting point is 10:15:57 You mean things you don't like? Doesn't Osmond sometimes say such things? What your brother says has a point. Yes, a poisoned one sometimes. If you mean that I'm not so clever as he, you mustn't think I shall suffer from your sense of our difference, but it will be much better that you should understand me. Why so? asked Madame Merle.

Starting point is 10:16:21 To what will it continue? induce. If I don't approve of your plan, you ought to know it in order to appreciate the danger of my interfering with it. Madame Merle looked as if she were ready to admit that there might be something in this, but in a moment she said quietly, you think me more calculating than I am. It's not your calculating I think ill of, it's your calculating wrong. You've done so in this case. You must have made extensive calculations yourself to discover that. No, I've not had time. I've seen the girl but this once, said the Countess. And the conviction has suddenly come to me. I like her very much. So do I, Madame Merle mentioned.

Starting point is 10:17:08 You've a strange way of showing it. Surely I've given her the advantage of making your acquaintance. That indeed, piped the Countess, is perhaps the best thing that could happen to her. Madame Merle said nothing for a time. The Countess's manner was odious, was really low, but it was an old story, and with her eyes upon the violet slope of Montemorello, she gave herself up to reflection. My dear lady, she finally resumed, I advise you not to agitate yourself. The matter you allude to concerns three persons much stronger of purpose than yourself. Three persons? You and Osmond, of course, course, but is Miss Archer also very strong of purpose? Quite as much so as we.

Starting point is 10:17:56 Ah, then, said the Countess radiantly. If I convince her it's her interest to resist you, she'll do so successfully. Resist us? Why do you express yourself so coarsely? She's not exposed to compulsion or deception. I'm not sure of that. You're capable of anything, you a Dazmond. I don't mean Dazmond by himself, and I don't mean you by yourself, but together you're dangerous, like some chemical combination. You had better leave us alone then, smiled Madame Merle. I don't mean to touch you, but I shall talk to that girl. My poor Amy, Madame Merle murmured, I don't see what has got into your head. I take an interest in her. That's what has got into my head. I like her.

Starting point is 10:18:48 Madame Merle hesitated a moment. I don't think she likes you. The Countess's bright little eyes expanded, and her face was set in a grimace. Ah, you are dangerous, even by yourself. If you want her to like you, don't abuse your brother to her, said Madame Merle. I don't suppose you pretend she has fallen in love with him in two interviews. Madame Merle looked a moment at Isabel, and at the master of the house. He was leaning against the parapet facing her, his arms folded, and she at present

Starting point is 10:19:25 was evidently not lost in the mere impersonal view, persistently as she gazed at it. As Madame Merle watched her, she lowered her eyes. She was listening, possibly with a certain embarrassment, while she pressed the point of her parasol into the path. Madame Merle rose from her chair. Yes, I think so, she pronounced. The shabby footboy, summoned by Pansy, he might, tarnished as to livery and quaint as to type, have issued from some stray sketch of old-time manners, been put in by the brush of a longi or a goya, had come out with a small table and placed it on the grass, and then had gone back and fetched the tea-tray, after which he had again disappeared to return with a couple of chairs.

Starting point is 10:20:12 Pansy had watched these proceedings with the deepest interest, standing with her small hands folded together upon the front of her scanty frock, but she had not presumed to offer assistance. When the tea-table had been arranged, however, she gently approached her aunt. Do you think Papa would object to my making the tea? The Countess looked at her with a deliberately critical gaze and without answering her question. My poor niece, she said, is that your best frock? Oh, no, Pansy answered. It's just a little toilette for common occasions.

Starting point is 10:20:48 Do you call it a common occasion when I come to see you, to say nothing of Madame Merle and the pretty lady yonder? Hansy reflected a moment, turning gravely from one of the persons mentioned to the other. Then her face broke into its perfect smile. I have a pretty dress, but even that one's very simple. Why should I expose it beside your beautiful things? Because it's the prettiest you have. For me you must always wear the prettiest.

Starting point is 10:21:15 Please put it on next time. It seems to me they don't dress you so well as they might. The child sparingly stroked down her antiquated skirt. It's a good little dress to make tea, don't you think? Don't you believe Papa would allow me? Impossible for me to say my child, said the Countess. For me, your father's ideas are unfathomable. Madame Merle understands them better.

Starting point is 10:21:40 Ask her. Madame Merle smiled with her usual grace. It's a weighty question. Let me think. It seems to me it would please your father to see a careful little daughter making his tea. It's the proper duty of the daughter of the house, when she grows up. So it seems to me, Madame Merle, Pansy cried. You shall see how well I'll make it, a spoonful for each. And she began to busy herself at the table. Two spoonfuls for me, said the Countess, who with Madame Merle remained for some moments watching her.

Starting point is 10:22:12 Listen to me, Pansy, the Countess resumed at last. I should like to know what you think of your visitor. Oh, she's not mine. She's papa's. Pansy objected. Miss Archer came to see you as well, said Madame Merle. I'm very happy to hear that. She has been very polite to me.

Starting point is 10:22:31 Do you like her then? The Countess asked. She's charming. Charming. Pansy repeated in her neat little conversational tone. She pleases me thoroughly. And how do you think she pleases your father? "'Ah, really, Countess,' murmured Madame Merle dissuasively.

Starting point is 10:22:49 "'Go and call them to tea,' she went on to the child. "'You'll see if they don't like it,' Pansy declared, and departed to summon the others, who had still lingered at the end of the terrace. "'If Miss Archer's to become her mother, it's surely interesting to know if the child likes her,' said the Countess. "'If your brother marries again it won't be for Pansy's sake,' Madame Merle replied. She'll soon be sixteen, and after that she'll begin to need a husband rather than a stepmother. And will you provide the husband as well?

Starting point is 10:23:21 I shall certainly take an interest in her marrying fortunately. I imagine you'll do the same. Indeed I shan't, cried the Countess. Why should I, of all women, set such a price on a husband? You didn't marry fortunately. That's what I'm speaking of. When I say a husband, I mean a good one. There are no good ones.

Starting point is 10:23:43 Osmond won't be a good one. Madame Merle closed her eyes a moment. You're irritated just now. I don't know why, she presently said. I don't think you'll really object either to your brothers or to your nieces marrying when the time comes for them to do so. And as regards Pansy, I'm confident that we shall someday have the pleasure of looking for a husband for her together. Your large acquaintance will be a great help.

Starting point is 10:24:09 "'Yes, I'm irritated,' the Countess answered. "'You often irritate me. "'Your own coolness is fabulous. "'You're a strange woman.' "'It's much better that we should always act together.' "'Madame Merle went on. "'Do you mean that as a threat?' asked the Countess, rising. "'Madame Merle shook her head as for quiet amusement.

Starting point is 10:24:33 "'No, indeed, you've not my coolness.' Isabel and Mr. Osmond were now slowly coming toward them, and Isabel had taken pansy by the hand. Do you pretend to believe he'd make her happy? The Countess demanded. If he should marry Miss Archer, I suppose he'd behave like a gentleman? The Countess jerked herself into a succession of attitudes. Do you mean as most gentlemen behave? That would be much to be thankful for.

Starting point is 10:25:01 Of course, Osmond's a gentleman. His own sister needn't be reminded of that. But does he think he could. marry any girl he happens to pick out. Osmond's a gentleman, of course, but I must say I've never, no, no, never seen any one of Osmond's pretensions. What they're all founded on is more than I can say. I'm his own sister, I might be supposed to know. Who is he, if you please? What has he ever done? If there had been anything particularly grand in his origin, if he were made of some superior clay, I presume I should have got some inkling of it.

Starting point is 10:25:32 If there had been any great honours or splendours in the family, I should certainly have been made the most of them. They would have been quite in my line. But there's nothing, nothing, nothing. Once parents were charming people, of course, but so were yours, I've no doubt. Everyone's a charming person nowadays. Even I'm a charming person. Don't laugh. It has literally been said. As for Osmond, he has always appeared to believe that he's descended from the gods. You may say what you please, said Madame Merle, who had listened to this quick outbreak, nonetheless attentively, we may believe, because her eye wandered away from the speaker, and her hands busied themselves with adjusting the knots of ribbon on her dress.

Starting point is 10:26:13 You, Osmond's are a fine race. Your blood must flow from some very pure source. Your brother, like an intelligent man, has had the conviction of it if he has not had the proofs. You are modest about it, but you yourself are extremely distinguished. What do you say about your niece? The child's a little princess. Nevertheless, Madame Merle added, it won't be an easy matter for Osmond to marry Miss Archer. Yet he can try.

Starting point is 10:26:42 I hope she'll refuse him. It will take him down a little. We mustn't forget that he is one of the cleverest of men. I've heard you say that before, but I haven't yet discovered what he has done. What he has done? He has done nothing that has had to be undone, and he has known how to wait.

Starting point is 10:27:01 To wait for Miss Miss Miss Miss. Archer's money. How much of it is there?' "'That's not what I mean,' said Madame Merle. Miss Archer has seventy thousand pounds. "'Well, it's a pity she's so charming,' the Countess declared. "'To be sacrificed any girl would do. She needn't be superior. If she weren't superior, your brother would never look at her. He must have the best.' "'Yes,' returned the Countess as they went forward a little to meet the others.

Starting point is 10:27:32 He's very hard to satisfy. That makes me tremble for her happiness. End of Chapter 25. Chapter 26 of the Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Gilbert Osmond came to see Isabel again. That is, he came to Palazzo Cresciantini. He had other friends there as well. And to Mrs. Touchett and Madame Merle, he was always impartially civil. But the former of these ladies noted the fact that in the course of a fortnight he crawled five times, and compared it with another fact that she found no difficulty in remembering. Two visits a year had hitherto constituted his regular tribute to Mrs. Touchett's worth, and she had never observed him select for such visits those moments, of almost periodical recurrence, when Madame Merle was under her roof. It was not for Madame

Starting point is 10:28:33 Merle that he came. These two were old friends, and he never had. put himself out for her. He was not fond of Ralph, Ralph, Ralph had told her so, and it was not supposable that Mr. Osmond had suddenly taken a fancy to her son. Ralph was imperturbable. Ralph had a kind of loose-fitting urbanity that wrapped him about like an ill-made overcoat, but of which he never divested himself. He thought Mr. Osmond very good company, and was willing at any time to look at him in the light of hospitality. But he didn't flatter himself that the desire to repair a past injustice was the motive of their visitors' calls. He read the situation more clearly. Isabel was the attraction, and in all conscience a sufficient one. Osmond was a critic,

Starting point is 10:29:18 a student of the exquisite, and it was natural he should be curious of so rare an apparition. So, when his mother observed to him that it was plain what Mr. Osmond was thinking of, Ralph replied that he was quite of her opinion. Mrs. Touchett had, from far back, found a place on her scant list for this gentleman. Though wondering dimly by what art and what process, so negative and so wise as they were, he had everywhere effectively imposed himself. As he had never been an important visitor, he had had no chance to be offensive, and he was recommended to her by his appearance of being as well able to do without her

Starting point is 10:29:56 as she was to do without him. A quality that always, oddly enough, affected her as providing ground for relation with her. It gave her no satisfaction, however, to think that he had taken it into his head to marry her niece. Such an alliance on Isabel's part would have an air of almost morbid perversity. Mrs. Touchett easily remembered that the girl had refused an English peer, and that a young lady with whom Lord Warburton had not successfully wrestled, should contend herself with an obscure American dilettante, a middle-aged widower with an uncanny child, and an ambiguous income. This answered to nothing in Mrs. Touchett's conception of six.

Starting point is 10:30:34 success. She took, it will be observed, not the sentimental, but the political view of matrimony, a view which has always had much to recommend it. I trust she won't have the folly to listen to him, she said to her son, to which Ralph replied that Isabel's listening was one thing, and Isabel's answering quite another. He knew she had listened to several parties, as his father would have said, but had made them listen in return, and he found much entertainment in the idea that in these few months of his knowing her, he should observe a fresh suitor at her gate. She had wanted to see life, and fortune was serving her to her taste. A succession of fine gentlemen going down on their knees to her would do as well as anything else.

Starting point is 10:31:20 Ralph looked forward to a fourth, a fifth, a tenth procedure. He had no conviction she would stop at a third. She would keep the gate ajar and open a parley. She would certainly not allow number three to come in. He expressed this view, and somewhat after this fashion to his mother, who looked at him as if he had been dancing a jig. He had such a fanciful, pictorial way of saying things that he might as well address her in the deaf-mutes alphabet. "'I don't think I know what you mean,' she said.

Starting point is 10:31:49 "'You use too many figures of speech. I could never understand allegories. The two words in the language I most respect are yes and no. If Isabel wants to marry Mr. Osmond, she'll do so in spite of all your comparisons. Let her alone to find a fine one herself for anything she undertakes. I know very little about the young man in America. I don't think she spends much of her time in thinking of him, and I suspect he has got tired of waiting for her. There's nothing in life to prevent her marrying Mr. Osmond,

Starting point is 10:32:18 if she only looks at him in a certain way. That's all very well. No one approves more than I of one's pleasing oneself. But she takes her pleasure in such odd things. She's capable of marrying Mr. Osmond for the beauty of his opinions, or for his autograph of Michelangelo. She wants to be disinterested, as if she were the only person

Starting point is 10:32:38 who's in danger of not being so. Will he be so disinterested when he has the spending of her money? That was her idea before your father's death, and it has acquired new charms for her since. She ought to marry someone of whose disinterestedness she shall herself be sure, and there would be no such proof of that

Starting point is 10:32:55 as his having a fortune of his own. My dear mother, I'm not afraid, Ralph answered. She's making fools of us all. She'll please herself, of course, but she'll do so by studying human nature at close quarters and yet retaining her liberty. She has started on an exploring expedition,

Starting point is 10:33:13 but I don't think she'll change her course at the outset, at a signal from Gilbert Osmond. She may have slackened speed for an hour, but before we know it, she'll be steaming away again. Excuse another metaphor. Mrs. Touchett excused it perhaps, but was not so much reassured as to withhold from Madame Merle, the expression of her fears.

Starting point is 10:33:33 You who know everything, she said. You must know this, whether that curious creature is really making love to my niece. Gilbert Osmond? Madame Merle widened her clear eyes, and with a full intelligence. Heaven help us, she exclaimed, that's an idea. Hadn't it occurred to you? You make me feel like an idiot, but I confess it hadn't. I wonder, she added.

Starting point is 10:34:01 if it has occurred to Isabel. Oh, I shall now ask her, said Mrs. Touchett. Madame Merle reflected. Don't put it into her head. The thing would be to ask Mr. Osmond. I can't do that, said Mrs. Touchett. I won't have him inquire of me, as he perfectly may, with that air of his given Isabel's situation, what business it is of mine. I'll ask him myself, Madame Merle bravely declared.

Starting point is 10:34:29 But what business for him is. it of yours? It's being none whatever is just why I can afford to speak. It's so much less my business than anyone else's that he can put me off with anything he chooses. But it will be by the way he does this that I shall know. Pray, let me hear, then, said Mrs. Touchett, of the fruits of your penetration. If I can't speak to him, however, at least I can speak to Isabel. Her companion and sounded at this the note of warning. Don't be too quick with her. Don't inflame her imagination. I never did anything in life to anyone's imagination, but I'm always sure of her doing something. Well, not of my kind. No, you wouldn't like this. Madame Merle observed without the point of

Starting point is 10:35:14 interrogation. Why in the world should I pray? Mr. Osmond has nothing the least solid to offer. Again, Madame Merle was silent while her thoughtful smile drew up her mouth even more charmingly than usual toward the left corner. Let us distinguish. Gilbert Osmond certainly not the first comer. He's a man who in favorable conditions might very well make a great impression. He has made a great impression, to my knowledge, more than once. Don't tell me about his probably quite cold-blooded love affairs. They're nothing to me, Mrs. Touchett cried. What you say is precisely why I wish he would cease his visits. He has nothing in the world that I know of but a dozen or two of early masters and a more or less pert little daughter.

Starting point is 10:35:59 The early masters are now worth a good deal of money, said Madame Merle, and the daughter is a very young and very innocent and very harmless person. In other words, she's an insipid little chit. Is that what you mean? Having no fortune she can't hope to marry as they marry here. so that Isabel will have to furnish her either with a maintenance or with a dowry. Isabel probably wouldn't object to being kind to her. I think she likes the poor child.

Starting point is 10:36:27 Another reason, then, for Mr. Osmond's stopping at home. Otherwise, a week hence, we shall have my niece arriving at the conviction that her mission in life's to prove that a stepmother may sacrifice herself, and that to prove it she must first become one. She would make a charming stepmother, smiled Madame Merle. But I quite agree with you that she had better not decide upon her mission too hastily, changing the form of one's missions almost as difficult as changing the shape of one's nose. There they are, each in the middle of one's face and one's

Starting point is 10:36:57 character. One has to begin too far back. But I'll investigate and report to you. All this went on quite over Isabel's head. She had no suspicions that her relations with Mr. Osmond were being discussed. Madame Merle had said nothing to put her on her guard. She alluded no more pointedly to him than to the other gentleman of Florence, native and foreign, who now arrived in considerable numbers to pay their respect to Miss Archer's aunt. Isabel thought him interesting. She came back to that. She liked so to think of him.

Starting point is 10:37:29 She had carried away an image from her visit to his hilltop, which her subsequent knowledge of him did nothing to efface, and which put on for her a particular harmony with her other supposed and divine things, histories within histories, the image of a quiet, clever, sensitive, distinguished man, strolling on a moss-grown terrace above the sweet Val darno, and holding by the hand a little girl, whose bell-like clearness gave a new grace to childhood. The picture had no flourishes, but she liked its lowness of tone, and the atmosphere of summer twilight that pervaded it. It spoke of the kind of personal issue that touched her most nearly, of the choice between objects, subjects, contacts. What might she call them? Of the first of the kind of the

Starting point is 10:38:15 thin and those of a rich association, of a lonely, studious life in a lovely land, of an old sorrow that sometimes ached to-day, of a feeling of pride that was perhaps exaggerated, but that had an element of nobleness, of a care for beauty and perfection so natural and so cultivated together, that the career appeared to stretch beneath it in the disposed vistas, and with the range of steps and terraces and fountains of a formal Italian garden, allowing only for arid places refreshed by the natural dues of a quaint, half-anxious, half-helpless fatherhood. At Palazzo Cresciantini, Mr. Osmond's manner remained the same, diffident at first, oh, self-conscious, beyond doubt, and full of the effort, visible only to a sympathetic eye,

Starting point is 10:39:03 to overcome this disadvantage, an effort which usually resulted in a great deal of easy, lively, very positive, rather aggressive, always suggestive talk. Mr. Osmond's talk was not injured by the indication of an eagerness to shine. Isabel found no difficulty in believing that a person was sincere who had so many of the signs of strong conviction, as, for instance, an explicit and graceful appreciation of anything that might be said on his own side of the question, said perhaps by Miss Archer, in especial. What continued to please this young woman was that while he talked so for amusement, he didn't

Starting point is 10:39:40 talk, as she had heard people, for a fact. He uttered his ideas as if, odd as they often appeared, he were used to them, and had lived with them. Old, polished knobs and heads and handles of precious substance, that could be fitted if necessary to new walking-sticks, not switches plucked in destitution from the common tree, and then too elegantly waved about. One day he brought his small daughter with him, and she rejoiced to renew acquaintance with the child, who, as she presented her forehead to be kissed by every member of the circle, reminded her vividly of an engino in a French play. Isabel had never seen a little person of this pattern.

Starting point is 10:40:20 American girls were very different. Different, too, were the maidens of England. Pansy was so formed and finished for her tiny place in the world, and yet, in imagination, as one could see, so innocent and infantine. She sat on the sofa by Isabel. She wore a small grenadine mantle and a pair of the useful gloves that Madame Merle had given her, little grey gloves with a single button. She was like a sheet of blank paper, the ideal jeun-fie of foreign fiction.

Starting point is 10:40:52 Isabel hoped that so fair and smooth a page would be covered with an edifying text. The Countess Gemini also came to call upon her, but the Countess was quite another affair. She was by no means a blank sheet. She had been written over in a variety of hands, and Mrs. Touchett, who felt by no means honored by her visit, pronounced that a number of unmistakable blots were to be seen upon her surface. The Countess gave rise indeed to some discussion between the mistress of the house and the visitor from Rome, in which Madame Merle, who was not such a fool as to irritate people by

Starting point is 10:41:27 always agreeing with them, availed herself felicitously enough of that large license of descent, which her hostess permitted as freely as she practiced it. Mrs. Touchett had declared it a piece of audacity that this highly compromised character should have presented herself at such a time of day at the door of a house in which she was esteemed so little as she must long have known herself to be at Palazzo Crescentini. Isabel had been made acquainted with the estimate prevailing under that roof. It represented Mr. Osmond's sister as a lady who had so mismanaged her improprieties that they had ceased to hang together at all, which was at the least what one asked of such matters, and had become the mere floating fragments of erect renown,

Starting point is 10:42:07 incommoding social circulation. She had been married by her mother, a more administrative person, with an appreciation of foreign titles which the daughter, to do her justice, had probably by this time thrown off, to an Italian nobleman who had perhaps given her some excuse for attempting to quench the consciousness of outrage. The countess, however, had consoled herself outrageously, and the list of her excuses had now lost itself in the labyrinth of her adventures. Mrs. Touchett had never consented to receive her, though the Countess had made overtures of old. Florence was not an austere city, but, as Mrs. Touchett said, she had to draw the line somewhere. Madame Merle defended the luckless lady with a great deal of zeal and wit.

Starting point is 10:42:52 She couldn't see why Mrs. Touchett should make a scapegoat of a woman who had really done no harm, who had done only good in the wrong way. One must certainly draw the line, but while one was about it, one should draw it straight. It was a very crooked chalk mark that would exclude the Countess Gemini. In that case, Mrs. Touchett had better shut up her house. This perhaps would be the best course, so long as she remained in Florence. One must be fair and not make arbitrary differences. The Countess had doubtless been imprudent.

Starting point is 10:43:22 She had not been so clever as other women. She was a good creature, not clever at all. But since when had that been a ground of exclusion from the best society? For ever so long now one had heard nothing about her, and there could be no better proof of her having renounced the error of her ways than her desire to become a member of Mrs. Touchett's circle. Isabel could contribute nothing to this interesting dispute, not even a patient attention.

Starting point is 10:43:46 She contended herself with having given a friendly welcome to the unfortunate lady, who, whatever her defects, had at least the merit of being Mr. Osmond's sister. As she liked the brother, Isabel thought it proper to try and like the sister. In spite of the growing complexity of things, she was still capable of these primitive sequences. She had not received the happiest impression of the Countess on meeting her at the villa, but was thankful for an opportunity to repair the accident. Had not Mr. Osmond remarked that she was a respectable person?

Starting point is 10:44:17 To have proceeded from Gilbert Osmond, this was a crude proposition, but Madame Merle bestowed upon it a certain improving polish. She told Isabelle more about the poor countess than Mr. Osmond had done, and related the history of her marriage and its consequences. The Count was a member of an ancient Tuscan family, but of such small estate that he had been glad to accept Amy Osmond, in spite of the questionable beauty which had yet not hampered her career, and with the modest dowry her mother was able to offer, a sum about equivalent to that which had already formed her brother's share of their patrimony. Count Gemini since then, however, had inherited money, and now they were well off enough, as Italians went, though Amy was horribly extravagant. The Count was a low-lived brute. He had given his wife every pretext.

Starting point is 10:45:05 She had no children. She had lost three within a year of their birth. Her mother, who had bristled with pretensions to elegant learning and published descriptive poems and corresponded on Italian subjects with the English weekly journals, her mother had died three years after the countess's marriage. The father, lost in the grey American dawn of the situation, but reputed originally rich and wild, having died much earlier. One could see this in Gilbert Osmond, Madame Merle held,

Starting point is 10:45:34 see that he had been brought up by a woman. Though to do him justice, one would suppose it had been by a more sensible woman than the American Corinne, as Mrs. Osmond had liked to be called. She had brought her children to Italy after her husband's death, and Mrs. Touchett remembered her during the year that followed her arrival. She thought her a horrible snob, but this was an irregularity of judgment on Mrs. Touchett's part, for she, like Mrs. Osmond, approved of political marriages. The Countess was very good company, and not really the featherhead she seemed. All one had to do with her was to observe the simple condition of not believing a word, she said. Madame Merle had always made the best of her for her brother's sake.

Starting point is 10:46:18 He appreciated any kindness shown to Amy, because, if it had to be confessed for him, he rather felt she let down their common name. Naturally, he couldn't like her style, her shrillness, her egotism, her violations of taste and above all of truth. She acted badly on his nerves. She was not his sort of woman. What was his sort of woman? Oh, the very opposite of the countess of the countess.

Starting point is 10:46:44 a woman to whom the truth should be habitually sacred. Isabel was unable to estimate the number of times her visitor had, in half an hour, profaned it. The countess indeed had given her an impression of rather silly sincerity. She had talked almost exclusively about herself. How much she should like to know Miss Archer. How thankful she should be for a real friend. How base the people in Florence were. How tired she was of the place.

Starting point is 10:47:10 How much she should like to live somewhere else, in Paris, in London. in Washington, how impossible it was to get anything nice to wear in Italy, except a little old lace. How dear the world was growing everywhere! What a life of suffering and probation she had led. Madame Merle listened with interest to Isabel's account of this passage, but she had not needed it to feel exempt from anxiety. On the whole, she was not afraid of the countess, and she could afford to do what was altogether best, not to appear so. Isabel had, meanwhile, another visitor, whom it was not even behind her back, so easy a matter to patronize. Henrietta Stackpole, who had left Paris after Mrs. Touchett's departure for San Remo,

Starting point is 10:47:54 and had worked her way down, as she said, through the cities of North Italy, reached the banks of the Arno about the middle of May. Madame Merle surveyed her with a single glance, took her in from head to foot, and after a pang of despair, determined to endure her. She determined indeed to delight in her. She might be inhaled as a rose, but she might be grasped as a nettle. Madame Merle genially squeezed her into insignificance, and Isabel felt that in foreseeing this liberality,

Starting point is 10:48:25 she had done justice to her friend's intelligence. Henrietta's arrival had been announced by Mr. Bentley, who, coming down from Nice while she was at Venice, and expecting to find her in Florence, which she had not yet reached, called at Palazzo Cresciantini to express his disappointment. Henrietta's own advent occurred two days later, and produced in Mr. Bantling an emotion amply accounted for by the fact that he had not seen her since the termination of the episode at Versailles.

Starting point is 10:48:52 The humorous view of his situation was generally taken, but it was uttered only by Ralph Touchett, who, in the privacy of his own apartment, when Bantling smoked a cigar there, indulged in goodness knows what strong comedy on the subject of the all-judging one and her British backer. This gentleman took the joke in perfectly good part, and candidly confess that he regarded the affair

Starting point is 10:49:15 as a positive intellectual adventure. He liked Miss Stackpole extremely. He thought she had a wonderful head on her shoulders, and found great comfort in the society of a woman who was not perpetually thinking about what would be said and how what she did, how what they did, and they had done things, would look. Miss Stackpole never cared how anything looked, and if she didn't care, pray, why should he?

Starting point is 10:49:38 But his curiosity had been roused. He wanted awfully to see if she ever would care. He was prepared to go as far as she. He didn't see why he should break down first. Henrietta showed no signs of breaking down. Her prospects had brightened on her leaving England, and she was now in the full enjoyment of her copious resources. She had indeed been obliged to sacrifice her hopes with regard to the inner life.

Starting point is 10:50:01 The social question on the continent bristled with difficulties even more. numerous than those she had encountered in England. But on the continent there was the outer life, which was palpable and visible at every turn, and more easily convertible to literary uses than the customs of those opaque islanders. Out of doors and foreign lands, as she ingeniously remarked, one seemed to see the right side of the tapestry. Out of doors in England, one seemed to see the wrong side, which gave one no notion of the figure. The admission costs her history in a pang, but Henrietta, despairing of more occult things, was now paying much attention to the outer life. She had been studying it for two months at Venice, from which city she sent to

Starting point is 10:50:44 the interviewer a conscientious account of the gondolas, the piazza, the bridge of size, the pigeons, and the young boatman who chanted Tasso. The interviewer was perhaps disappointed, but Henrietta was at least seeing Europe. Her present purpose was to get down to Rome before the malaria should come on. She apparently supposed that it began on a fixed day, and with this design she was to spend it present but few days in Florence. Mr. Bantling was to go with her to Rome, and she pointed out to Isabel that as he had been there before, as he was a military man, and as he had had had a classical education, he had been bred at Eton, where they study nothing but Latin and white Melville, said Miss Stackpole. He would be a most useful companion in the city of the

Starting point is 10:51:27 Caesar's. At this juncture, Ralph had the happy idea of proposing to Isabel that she also, under his own escort, should make a pilgrimage to Rome. She expected to pass a portion of the next winter there. That was very well, but meantime there was no harm in surveying the field. There were ten days left of the beautiful month of May, the most precious month of all to the true Rome lover. Isabel would become a Rome lover. That was a foregone conclusion. She was provided with a trusty companion of her own sex, whose society, thanks to the fact of other calls on this lady's attention, would probably not be oppressive. Madame Merle would remain with Mrs. Touchett. She had left Rome for the summer and wouldn't care to return. She professed herself delighted

Starting point is 10:52:11 to be left at peace in Florence. She had locked up her apartment and sent her cook home to Palestrina. She urged Isabel, however, to assent to Ralph's proposal, and assured her that a good introduction to Rome was not a thing to be despised. Isabelle, in truth, needed no urging, and the party of four arranged its little journey. Mrs. Touchett, on this occasion, had resigned herself to the absence of a duena. We have seen that she was now inclined to believe that her niece should stand alone. One of Isabelle's preparations consisted of her seeing Gilbert Osmond before she started, and mentioning her intention to him.

Starting point is 10:52:47 "'I should like to be in Rome with you,' he commented. "'I should like to see you on that wonderful ground.' She scarcely faltered. You might come then. But you'll have a lot of people with you. Ah, Isabel admitted. Of course I shall not be alone. For a moment he said nothing more.

Starting point is 10:53:09 You'll like it, he went on at last. They've spoiled it, but you'll rave about it. Ought I to dislike it, because poor old dear, the naibe of nations, you know, it has been spoiled, she asked. No, I think not. It has been spoiled so often, he smiled. If I were to go, what should I do with my little girl? Can't you leave her at the villa?

Starting point is 10:53:38 I don't know that I like that, though there's a very good old woman who looks after her. I can't afford a governess. Bring her with you, then, said Isabel promptly. Mr. Osmond looked grave. She has been enrolled. all winter at her convent, and she's too young to make journeys of pleasure. You don't like bringing her forward, Isabel inquired. No, I think young girls should be kept out of the

Starting point is 10:54:04 world. I was brought up on a different system. You, though with you it succeeded, because you, you were exceptional. I don't see why, said Isabel, who, however, was not sure that there was not some truth in the speech. Mr. Osmond didn't explain. He simply went on. If I thought it would make her resemble you to join a social group in Rome, I take her there tomorrow. Don't make her resemble me, said Isabel.

Starting point is 10:54:35 Keep her like herself. I might send her to my sister, Mr. Osmond observed. He had almost the air of asking advice. He seemed to like to talk over his domestic matters from this archer. Yes, she concur. I think that wouldn't do much towards making her resemble me. After she had left Florence, Gilbert Osmond met Madame Merle at the Countess Geminise.

Starting point is 10:55:00 There were other people present. The Countess's drawing-room was usually well filled, and the talk had been general. But after a while, Osmond left his place and came and sat on an ottoman half behind, half beside Madame Merle's chair. She wants me to go to Rome with her. He remarked in a low voice. to go with her to be there while she's there she proposed it

Starting point is 10:55:24 i suppose you mean that you proposed it and she assented of course i gave her a chance but she's encouraging she's very encouraging i rejoice to hear it but don't cry victory too soon of course you'll go to rome ah said asmond it makes one work this idea of yours "'Don't pretend you don't enjoy it. You're very ungrateful. You've not been so well-occupied these many years.' "'The way you take it's beautiful,' said Asmond. I ought to be grateful for that.'

Starting point is 10:56:02 "'Not too much so, however,' Madame Merle answered. She talked with her usual smile, leaning back in her chair and looking round the room. "'You've made a very good impression, and I've seen for myself that you've received one. "'You've not come to Mrs. Touchett seven times to oblige me.' "'The girl's not disagreeable.' Osmond quietly conceded. Madame Merle dropped her eye on him a moment, during which her lips closed with a certain firmness. "'Is that all you can find to say about that fine creature?'

Starting point is 10:56:38 "'All? Isn't it enough? "'Of how many people have you heard me say more?' She made no answer to this, but still presented her talkative grace to the room. You're unfathomable, she murmured at last. I'm frightened at the abyss into which I shall have cast her. He took it almost gaily. You can't draw back. You've gone too far.

Starting point is 10:57:04 Very good, but you must do the rest yourself. I shall do it, said Gilbert Osmond. Madame Merle remained silent, and he changed his place again, but when she rose to go, he also took leave. Mrs. Touchett's Victoria was awaiting her guest in the court, and after he had helped his friend into it, he stood there detaining her. "'You're very indiscreet,' she said rather wearily. "'You shouldn't have moved when I did.' He had taken off his hat. He passed his hand over his forehead. "'I always forget. I'm out of the habit.'

Starting point is 10:57:43 "'You're quite unfathomable,' she repeated, glancing up at the windows of the house, a modern structure in the new part of the town. He paid no heed to this remark, but spoke in his own sense. She's really very charming. I've scarcely known anyone more graceful. "'It does me good to hear you say that. "'The better you like her, the better for me.' "'I like her very much. She's all you described her. and into the bargain capable, I feel, of great devotion.

Starting point is 10:58:17 She has only one fault. What's that? Too many ideas. I warned you she was clever. Fortunately, they're very bad ones, said Osmond. Why is that fortunate? Dham, if they must be sacrificed. Madame Merle leaned back, looking straight before her,

Starting point is 10:58:42 then she spoke to the coachman. But her friend again detained her. If I go to Rome, what shall I do with Pansy? I'll go and see her, said Madame Merle. End of Chapter 26. Chapter 27 of the Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. I may not attempt to report in its fullness

Starting point is 10:59:21 are young woman's response to the deep appeal of Rome, to analyze her feelings as she trod the pavement of the forum, or to number her pulsations as she crossed the threshold of St. Peter's. It is enough to say that her impression was such as might have been expected of a person of her freshness and her eagerness. She had always been fond of history, and here was history in the stones of the street and the atoms of the sunshine.

Starting point is 10:59:49 She had an imagination that kindled at the world, the mention of great deeds, and wherever she turned some great deed had been acted. These things strongly moved her, but moved her all inwardly. It seemed to her companions that she talked less than usual, and Ralph Touchett, when he appeared to be looking listlessly and awkwardly over her head, was really dropping on her an intensity of observation. By her own measure she was very happy. She would even have been willing to take these hours for the happiest she was ever

Starting point is 11:00:21 to know. The sense of the terrible human past was heavy to her, but that of something altogether contemporary would suddenly give it wings that it could wave in the blue. Her consciousness was so mixed that she scarcely knew where the different parts of it would lead her, and she went about in a repressed ecstasy of contemplation, seeing often in the things she looked at a great deal more than was there, and yet not seeing many of the items enumerated in her Murray. Rome, as Ralph said, confessed to the psychological moment. The herd of re-echoing tourists had departed, and most of the solemn places had relapsed into solemnity. The sky was a blaze of blue, and the plash of the fountains in their mossy niches had lost its chill and doubled its music.

Starting point is 11:01:09 On the corners of the warm, bright streets, one stumbled on bundles of flowers. Our friends had gone one afternoon, it was the third of their stay, to look at the latest excavations in the forum, these labors, having been for some time previous largely extended. They had descended from the modern street to the level of the sacred way, along which they wandered with a reverence of step which was not the same on the part of each. Henrietta Stackpole was struck with the fact that ancient Rome had been paved a good deal like New York, and even found an analogy between the deep chariot ruts traceable in the antique street

Starting point is 11:01:45 and the over-jangled iron grooves which expressed the intensity of America. in life. The sun had begun to sink. The air was a golden haze, and the long shadows of broken column and vague pedestal leaned across the field of ruin. Henrietta wandered away with Mr. Bantling, whom it was apparently delightful to her to hear speak of Julius Caesar as a cheeky old boy, and Ralph addressed such elucidations as he was prepared to offer to the attentive ear of our heroine. One of the humble archaeologists who hover about the place had put himself at the disposal of the two, and repeated his lesson with a fluency which the decline of the season had done nothing to impair. A process of digging was on view in a remote corner of the forum,

Starting point is 11:02:33 and he presently remarked that if it should please the signori to go and watch it a little, they might see something of interest. The proposal commended itself more to Ralph than to Isabel, weary with much wandering, so that she admonished her companion to satisfy his curiosity, while she patiently awaited his return. The hour and the place were much to her taste. She should enjoy being briefly alone. Ralph accordingly went off with the Ciceroene, while Isabel sat down on a prostrate column near the foundations of the capital. She wanted a short solitude, but she was not long to enjoy it. Keene as was her interest in the rugged relics of the Roman past that scattered about her, and in which the corrosion of centuries had still left so much of individual

Starting point is 11:03:17 life, her thoughts, after resting a while on these things, had wandered, by a concatenation of stages it might require some subtlety to trace, to regions and objects charged with a more active appeal. From the Roman past to Isabel Archer's future was a long stride, but her imagination had taken it in a single flight, and now hovered in slow circles over the nearer and richer field. She was so absorbed in her thoughts, as she bent her eyes upon a row of cracked but not dislocated slabs covering the ground at her feet, that she had not heard the sound of approaching footsteps before a shadow was thrown across the line of her vision. She looked up and saw a gentleman, a gentleman who was not Ralph come back to say that the excavations were abhor. This personage

Starting point is 11:04:05 was startled as she was startled. He stood there bearing his head to her perceptibly pale surprise. "'Lord Warburton!' Isabel exclaimed as she rose. "'I had no idea it was you. I turned that corner and came upon you.' She looked about her to explain. "'I'm alone, but my companions have just left me. My cousin's gone to look at the work over there.' "'Ah, yes, I see.' And Lord Warburton's eyes wandered vaguely in the direction she had indicated. He stood firmly before her now. He had recovered his business. He had recovered his

Starting point is 11:04:41 balance and seemed to wish to show it, though very kindly. Don't let me disturb you, he went on, looking at her dejected pillar. I'm afraid you're tired. Yes, I'm rather tired. She hesitated a moment, but sat down again. Don't let me interrupt you, she added. Oh dear, I'm quite alone. I've nothing on earth to do.

Starting point is 11:05:06 I had no idea you were in Rome. I've just come from the east. I'm only passing through. "'You've been making a long journey,' said Isabel, who had learned from Ralph that Lord Warburton was absent from England. "'Yes, I came abroad for six months, soon after I saw you last. I've been in Turkey and Asia Minor. I came the other day from Athens. He managed not to be awkward, but he wasn't easy, and after a longer look at the girl he came down to nature. Do you wish me to leave you, or will you let me stay a little?' She took it all humanely.

Starting point is 11:05:43 I don't wish you to leave me, Lord Warburton. I'm very glad to see you. Thank you for saying that. May I sit down? The fluted shaft on which she had taken her seat would have afforded a resting place to several persons, and there was plenty of room even for a highly developed Englishman. This fine specimen of that great class

Starting point is 11:06:05 seated himself near our young lady, and in the course of five minutes he had asked her several questions, taken rather at random, and to which, as he put some of them twice over, he apparently somewhat missed catching the answer, had given her too some information about himself which was not wasted upon her calmer feminine sense. He repeated more than once that he had not expected to meet her, and it was evident that the encounter touched him in a way that would have made preparation advisable. He began abruptly to pass from the impunity of things to their solemnity, and from their being delightful to their being imposter.

Starting point is 11:06:40 possible. He was splendidly sunburnt, even his multitudinous beard had been burnished by the fire of Asia. He was dressed in the loose-fitting, heterogeneous garments in which the English traveller in foreign lands is wont to consult his comfort and affirm his nationality. And with his pleasant, steady eyes, his bronzed complexion, fresh beneath its seasoning, his manly figure, his minimizing manner and his general air of being a gentleman and an explorer, he was such a representative of the British race, as need not in any climb have been disavowed by those who have a kindness for it. Isabel noted these things, and was glad she had always liked him.

Starting point is 11:07:20 He had kept, evidently, in spite of shocks, every one of his merits, properties these partaking of the essence of great decent houses, as one might put it, resembling their innermost fixtures and ornaments, not subject to vulgar shifting and removable only by some whole breakup. up. They talked of the matters naturally in order, her uncle's death, Ralph's state of health, the way she had passed her winter, her visit to Rome, her return to Florence, her plans for the summer, the hotel she was staying at, and then of Lord Warburton's own adventures, movements, intentions, impressions, and present domicile. At last there was a silence, and it said so much more than either had said that it scarce needed his final words.

Starting point is 11:08:06 I've written to you several times. Written to me. I've never had your letters. I never sent them. I burned them up. Ha, ha, laughed Isabel. It was better that you should do that than I. I thought you wouldn't care for them.

Starting point is 11:08:24 He went on with a simplicity that touched her. It seemed to me, after all, that I had no right to trouble you with letters. I should have been very glad to have news of you. You know how I hoped that— That... But she stopped. There would be such a flatness in the utterance of her thought. I know what you were going to say.

Starting point is 11:08:45 You hoped we should always remain good friends. This formula, as Lord Warburton uttered it, was certainly flat enough, but then he was interested in making it appear so. She found herself reduced simply to... Please don't talk of all that. A speech which hardly struck her as an improvement on the other. It's a small... consolation to allow me. Her companion exclaimed with force, I can't pretend to console you, said the girl, who, all still as she sat there,

Starting point is 11:09:17 threw herself back with a sort of inward triumph on the answer that had satisfied him so little six months before. He was pleasant. He was powerful. He was gallant. There was no better man than he. But her answer remained. It's very well you don't try to console me. It wouldn't be in your power. She heard him say through the medium of her strange elation. I hoped we should meet again, because I had no fear you would attempt to make me feel I had wronged you. But when you do that, the pain's greater than the pleasure. And she got up with a small, conscious majesty, looking for her companions. I don't want to make you feel that. Of course I can't say that. I only just want you to know one or two things, in fairness to myself,

Starting point is 11:10:03 as it were. I won't return to the subject again. I felt very strongly what I expressed to you last year. I couldn't think of anything else. I tried to forget, energetically, systematically. I tried to take an interest in somebody else. I tell you this because I want you to know I did my duty. It didn't succeed.

Starting point is 11:10:27 It was for the same purpose I went abroad, as far away as possible. They say travelling distracts the mind. But it didn't distract mine. I've thought of you perpetually, ever since I last saw you. I'm exactly the same. I love you just as much, and everything I said to you then is just as true. This instant at which I speak to you shows me again exactly how, to my great misfortune. You just insuperably charm me.

Starting point is 11:10:57 There, I can't say less. I don't, however, mean to insist. It's only for a moment. I may add that when I came upon you a few minutes since, without the smallest idea of seeing you, I was, upon my honour, in the very act of wishing I knew where you were. He had recovered his self-control, and while he spoke it became complete. He might have been addressing a small committee, making all quietly and clearly a statement of importance, aided by an occasional look at a paper of notes concealed in his hat, which he had not again put on.

Starting point is 11:11:31 And the committee, assuredly, would have felt the point. proved. I've often thought of you, Lord Warburton, Isabel answered, You may be sure I shall always do that. And she added, in a tone of which she tried to keep up the kindness and keep down the meaning, There's no harm in that on either side.

Starting point is 11:11:52 They walked along together, and she was prompt to ask about his sisters and request him to let them know she had done so. He made for the moment no further reference to their great question, but dipped again into shallower and safer waters. But he wished to know when she was to leave Rome, and on her mentioning the limit of her stay, declared he was glad it was still so distant.

Starting point is 11:12:15 Why do you say that, if you yourself are only passing through? She inquired with some anxiety. Ah, when I said I was passing through, I didn't mean that one would treat Rome as if it were Clapham Junction. To pass through Rome is to stop a week or two. Say frankly that you mean to stay as long as I do. His flushed smile for a little seemed to sound her. You won't like that. You're afraid you'll see too much of me. It doesn't matter what I like. I certainly can't expect you to leave this delightful

Starting point is 11:12:46 place on my account. But I confess, I'm afraid of you. Afraid I'll begin again. I promise to be very careful. They had gradually stopped, and they stood a moment face to face. "'Poor Lord Warburton,' she said with a compassion intended to be good for both of them. "'Poor Lord Warburton indeed. But I'll be careful. "'You may be unhappy, but you shall not make me so. That I can't allow. "'If I believed I could make you unhappy, I think I should try it.' "'At this, she walked in advance, and he also proceeded. "'I'll never say a word to displease you.'

Starting point is 11:13:28 "'Very good.' If you do, are friendships at an end. Perhaps some day. After a while, you'll give me leave. Give you leave to make me unhappy. He hesitated. To tell you again. But he checked himself.

Starting point is 11:13:46 I'll keep it down. I'll keep it down always. Ralph Touchett had been joined in his visit to the excavation by Miss Stackpole and her attendant, and these three now emerged from among the mounds of earth and stone collected round the aperture, and came into sight of Isabel and her companion. Poor Ralph hailed his friend with joy qualified by wonder, and Henrietta exclaimed in a high voice, Gracious, there's that Lord! Ralph and his English neighbor greeted with the austerity, with which, after long separations, English neighbors greet, and Miss Stackpole rested her

Starting point is 11:14:21 large intellectual gaze upon the sunburnt traveler. But she soon established her relation to the crisis. I don't suppose you remember me, sir. Indeed, I do remember you, said Lord Warburton. I asked you to come and see me, and you never came. I don't go everywhere I'm asked, Miss Stackpole answered coldly. Ah, well, I won't ask you again, laughed the master of Lockley. If you do, I'll go, so be sure.

Starting point is 11:14:50 Lord Warburton, for all his hilarity, seemed sure enough. Mr. Bantling had stood by without claiming a recognition, But he now took occasion to nod to his lordship, who answered him with a friendly, "'Oh, you hear, Bantling?' "'And a handshake.' "'Well,' said Henrietta, "'I didn't know you knew him.' "'I guess you don't know everyone I know,' Mr. Bantling rejoined facetiously.

Starting point is 11:15:14 "'I thought that when an Englishman knew a lord, he always told you.' "'Ah, I'm afraid Bantling was ashamed of me.' Lord Warburton laughed again. "'Isabel took pleasure in that note. she gave a small sigh of relief as they kept their course homeward. The next day was Sunday. She spent her morning over two long letters, one to her sister Lily, the other to Madame Merle.

Starting point is 11:15:38 But in neither of these epistles did she mention the fact that a rejected suitor had threatened her with another appeal. Of a Sunday afternoon, all good Romans, and the best Romans are often the northern barbarians, follow the custom of going to Vespers at St. Peter's, and it had been agreed among our friends that they would drive together to the great church. After lunch, an hour before the carriage came, Lord Warburton presented himself at the Hotel de Paris and paid a visit to the two ladies, Ralph Touchett and

Starting point is 11:16:06 Mr. Bantling having gone out together. The visitor seemed to have wished to give Isabel a proof of his intention to keep the promise made her the evening before. He was both discreet and frank, not even dumbly importunate or remotely intense. He thus left her to judge what a mere good friend he could be. He talked about his travels, about Persia, about Turkey, and when Ms. Stackpole asked him whether it would pay for her to visit those countries, assured her they offered a great field to female enterprise. Isabel did him justice, but she wondered what his purpose was, and what he expected to gain even by proving the superior strain of his sincerity. If he expected to melt her by showing what a good fellow he was, he might spare himself the trouble. She knew the superior

Starting point is 11:16:52 strain of everything about him, and nothing he could now do was required to light the view. Moreover, his being in Rome at all affected her as a complication of the wrong sort. She liked so complications of the right. Nevertheless, when, on bringing his call to a close, he said he too should be at St. Peter's, and should look out for her and her friends, she was obliged to reply that he must follow his convenience. In the church, as she strolled over its tessellated acres, he was the first of the first of first person she encountered. She had not been one of the superior tourists who are disappointed in

Starting point is 11:17:27 St. Peter's, and find it smaller than its fame. The first time she passed beneath the huge leathern curtain that strains and bangs at the entrance, the first time she found herself beneath the far-arching dome and saw the light drizzle down through the air thickened with incense, and with the reflections of marble and guilt, of mosaic and bronze. Her conception of greatness rose and dizzily rose. After this it never lacked space to soar. She gazed and wondered like a child, or a peasant. She paid her silent tribute to the seated sublime. Lord Warburton walked beside her, and talked of St. Sophia of Constantinople. She feared, for instance, that he would end by calling attention to his exemplary conduct. The service had not yet begun, but at St. Peter's,

Starting point is 11:18:15 there is much to observe, and as there is something almost profane in the vastness of the place, which seems meant as much for physical as for spiritual exercise, the different figures and groups, the mingled worshippers and spectators, may follow their various intentions without conflict or scandal. In that splendid immensity, individual and discretion carries but a short distance. Isabelle and her companions, however, were guilty of none. For though Henrietta was obliged in candor to declare that Michelangelo's dome suffered by comparison with that of the capital at Washington, she addressed her protest chiefly to Mr. Bantling's ear,

Starting point is 11:18:53 and reserved it in its more accentuated form for the columns of the interviewer. Isabelle made the circuit of the church with his lordship, and as they drew near the choir on the left of the entrance, the voices of the Pope's singers were born to them over the heads of the large number of persons clustered outside the doors. They paused a while on the skirts of this crowd, composed an equal measure of Roman cockneys and inquisitive strangers,

Starting point is 11:19:17 and while they stood there, the sacred concert went forward. Ralph, with Henrietta and Mr. Bentley, was apparently within, where Isabel, looking beyond the dense group in front of her, saw the afternoon light, silvered by clouds of incense that seemed to mingle with the splendid chant, slope through the embossed recesses of high windows. After a while the singing stopped, and then Lord Warburton seemed disposed to move off with her. Isabel could only accompany him, whereupon she found herself confronted with Gilbert Osmond, who appeared to have been standing at a short distance behind her.

Starting point is 11:19:53 He now approached with all the forms. He appeared to have multiplied them on this occasion to suit the place. So you decided to come, she said as she put out her hand. Yes, I came last night and called this afternoon at your hotel. They told me you would come here, and I looked about for you. The others are inside, she decided to say. I didn't come for the others. He promptly returned. She looked away. Lord Warburton was watching them.

Starting point is 11:20:23 Perhaps he had heard this. Suddenly she remembered it to be just what he had said to her the morning he came to Garden Court to ask her to marry him. Mr. Osmond's words had brought the color to her cheek, and this reminiscence had not the effect of dispelling it. She repaired any betrayal by mentioning to each companion the name of the other, and fortunately at this moment Mr. Bantle, emerged from the choir, cleaving the crowd with British valor, and followed by Miss Stackpole and

Starting point is 11:20:50 Ralph Touchett. I say, fortunately, but this is perhaps a superficial view of the matter. Since, on perceiving the gentleman from Florence, Ralph Touchett appeared to take the case as not committing him to joy. He didn't hang back, however, from civility, and presently observed to Isabel, with due benevolence, that she would soon have all her friends about her. Miss Stackpole had met Mr. Osmond in Florence, but she had already found occasion to say to Isabel that she liked him no better than her other admirers, then Mr. Touchett and Lord Warburton, and even than little Mr. Rosier in Paris. I don't know what it's in you, she had been pleased to remark, but for a nice girl you do attract the most unusual people. Mr. Goodwood's the only one of any respect for,

Starting point is 11:21:35 and he's just the one you don't appreciate. What's your opinion of St. Peter's? Mr. Osmond was meanwhile inquiring of our young lady. It's very large and very bright. She contended herself with replying. It's too large. It makes one feel like an atom. Isn't that the right way to feel in the greatest of human temples? She asked, with rather a liking for her phrase.

Starting point is 11:22:00 I suppose it's the right way to feel everywhere, when one is nobody. But I like it in a church as little as anywhere else. You ought indeed to be a pope. "'Isabel exclaimed, remembering something he had referred to in Florence. "'Ah, I should have enjoyed that,' said Gilbert Osmond. "'Lord Warburton, meanwhile, had joined Ralph Touchett, "'and the two strolled away together. "'Who's the fellow speaking to Miss Archer?' his lordship demanded.

Starting point is 11:22:29 "'His name's Gilbert Osmond. He lives in Florence,' Ralph said. "'What is he besides?' "'Nothing at all. "'Oh, yes, he's an American, but one forgets that.' He's so little of one. Has he known Miss Archalong? Three or four weeks. Does she like him?

Starting point is 11:22:48 She's trying to find out. And will she? Find out, Ralph asked. Will she like him? Do you mean will she accept him? Yes, said Lord Warburton after an instant. I suppose that's what I horribly mean. Perhaps not if one does nothing to prevent it.

Starting point is 11:23:10 Ralph replied. His lordship stared a moment, but apprehended. Then we must be perfectly quiet. As quiet as the grave, and only on the chance. Ralph added. The chance she may. The chance she may not. Lord Warburton took this at first in silence, but he spoke again.

Starting point is 11:23:32 Is he awfully clever? Offly, said Ralph. His companion thought, And what else? What more do you want? Ralph groaned. Do you mean what more does she? Ralph took him by the arm to turn him.

Starting point is 11:23:49 They had to rejoin the others. She wants nothing that we can give her. Ah, well, if she won't have you, said his lordship handsomely as they went. End of Chapter 27. Chapter 28 of the Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Librovoc's recording is in the public domain. On the morrow, in the evening, Lord Warburton went again to see his friends at their hotel,

Starting point is 11:24:24 and at this establishment he learned that they had gone to the opera. He drove to the opera with the idea of paying them a visit in their box after the easy Italian fashion, and when he had obtained his admittance, it was one of the secondary theatres, looked about the large bare ill-lighted house, An act had just terminated, and he was at liberty to pursue his quest. After scanning two or three tiers of boxes, he perceived in one of the largest of these receptacles,

Starting point is 11:24:54 a lady whom he easily recognized. Miss Archer was seated facing the stage, and partly screened by the curtain of the box, and beside her, leaning back in his chair, was Mr. Gilbert Osmond. They appeared to have the place to themselves, and Warburton supposed their companion, had taken advantage of the recess to enjoy the relative coolness of the lobby. He stood a while with his eyes on the interesting pair. He asked himself if he should go up and interrupt the harmony. At last he judged that Isabel had seen him, and this accident determined him. There should be no marked holding off. He took his way to the upper regions, and on the

Starting point is 11:25:35 staircase met Ralph Touchett slowly descending, his hat at the inclination of Onwee and his hands where they usually were. I saw you below a moment since and was going down to you. I feel lonely and want company, was Ralph's greeting. You've some that's very good, which you've yet deserted. Do you mean my cousin? Oh, she has a visitor and doesn't want me. Then Miss Stackpole and Bantling have gone out to a cafe to eat an ice.

Starting point is 11:26:05 Miss Stackpole delights in an ice. I didn't think they wanted me either. The opera's very bad. The women look like laundresses and sing like peacocks. I feel very low. You had better go home, Lord Warburton said without affectation. And leave, my young lady in this sad place? Ah, no, I must watch over her.

Starting point is 11:26:30 She seems to have plenty of friends. Yes, that's why I must watch, said Ralph with the same large mock melancholy. If she doesn't want to, it's probable she doesn't want to. me." No, you're different. Go to the box and stay there while I walk about." Lord Warburton went to the box, where Isabel's welcome was as to a friend so honourably old that he vaguely asked himself what queer temporal province she was annexing.

Starting point is 11:27:00 He exchanged greetings with Mr. Osmond, to whom he had been introduced the day before, and who, after he came in, sat blandly apart and silent, as if repudiating competence in the subjects of illusion now probable. It struck her second visitor that Miss Archer had, in operatic conditions, a radiance, even a slight exaltation. As she was, however, at all times a keenly glancing, quickly moving, completely animated young woman, he may have been mistaken on this point. Her talk with him, moreover, pointed to presence of mind. It expressed a kindness so ingenious and deliberate as to indicate that she was in undisturbed possession of her faculty. poor Lord Warburton had moments of bewilderment. She had discouraged him formally as much as a woman could.

Starting point is 11:27:50 What business had she then with such arts and such felicities? Above all with such tones of reparation, preparation. Her voice had tricks of sweetness, but why play them on him? The others came back. The bare, familiar, trivial opera began again. The box was large, and there was room for him to remain if he would sit a little behind and in the dark. He did so for half an hour, while Mr. Osmond remained in front, leaning forward, his elbows on his knees, just behind Isabel. Lord Warburton heard nothing, and from his gloomy corner saw nothing but the clear profile of this young lady to find against the dim illumination of the house. When there was another interval no one moved, Mr. Osmond talked to Isabel, and Lord Warburton kept his corner. He did so but for

Starting point is 11:28:41 a short time, however, after which he got up and bade good-night to the ladies. Isabel said nothing to detain him, but it didn't prevent his being puzzled again. Why should she mark so one of his values, quite the wrong one, when she would have nothing to do with another, which was quite the right? He was angry with himself for being puzzled, and then angry for being angry. Verdi's music did little to comfort him, and he left the theatre and walked homeward, without knowing his way, through the tortuous, tragic streets of Rome, where heavier sorrows than his had been carried under the stars. What's the character of that gentleman?

Starting point is 11:29:22 Osmond asked of Isabel after he had retired. Irreproachable, don't you see it? He owns about half England. That's his character. Henrietta remarked, that's what they call a free country. Ah, he's a great proprietor. "'Hapy man,' said Gilbert Osmond. "'Do you call that happiness, the ownership of wretched human beings?' cried Miss Stackpole. "'He owns his tenants and has thousands of them.

Starting point is 11:29:52 "'It's pleasant to own something, but inanimate objects are enough for me. "'I don't insist on flesh and blood and minds and consciences.' "'It seems to me you own a human being or too,' Mr. Bantling suggested jocosely. I wonder if Warburton orders his tenants about as you do me. Lord Warburton's a great radical, Isabel said. He has very advanced opinions. He has very advanced stone walls. His parks enclosed by a gigantic iron fence some 30 miles round.

Starting point is 11:30:25 Henrietta announced for the information of Mr. Osmond. I should like him to converse with a few of our Boston radicals. Don't they approve of iron fences? asked Mr. Bantling. Only to shut up wicked conservatives. I always feel as if I were talking to you over something with a neat top finish of broken glass. Do you know him well, this unreformed reformer? Osmond went on, questioning Isabel.

Starting point is 11:30:53 Well enough, for all the use I have for him. And how much of a use is that? Well, I like to like him. Liking to like, why it makes a passion, said Osmond. "'No,' she considered. "'Keep that for liking to dislike.' "'Do you wish to provoke me, then?' "'Ozman laughed, to a passion for him.'

Starting point is 11:31:18 She said nothing for a moment, but then met the light question with a disproportionate gravity. "'No, Mr. Osmond, I don't think I should ever dare to provoke you.' "'Lord Warburton at any rate,' she more easily added, "'is a very nice man.' "'Of great ability.' her friend inquired of excellent ability and as good as he looks as good as he's good-looking do you mean he's very good-looking how detestably fortunate to be a great english magnate to be clever and handsome into the bargain and by way of finishing off to enjoy your high favor that's a man i could envy isabel considered him with interest you seem to me to be always envying someone "'Yesterday it was the Pope.

Starting point is 11:32:08 "'Today it's poor Lord Warburton.' "'My envy's not dangerous. "'It wouldn't hurt a mouse. "'I don't want to destroy the people. "'I only want to be them. "'You see it would destroy only myself.' "'You'd like to be the Pope,' said Isabel. "'I should love it,

Starting point is 11:32:27 "'but I should have gone in for it earlier.' "'But why?' "'Ozmond reverted. "'Do you speak of your friend as poor?' "'Women, when they're they are very, very good, sometimes pity men after they've hurt them. That's their great way of showing kindness, said Ralph, joining in the conversation for the first time, and with a cynicism so transparently ingenious as to be virtually innocent. Pray, have I hurt Lord Warburton?

Starting point is 11:32:55 Isabel asked, raising her eyebrows, as if the idea were perfectly fresh. It serves him right if you have, said Henrietta, while the curtain rose for the ballet. Isabel saw no more of her attributive victim for the next 24 hours, but on the second day after the visit to the opera, she encountered him in the gallery of the capital, where he stood before the lion of the collection, the statue of the dying gladiator. She had come in with her companions, among whom on this occasion again Gilbert Osmond had his place, and the party, having ascended the staircase, entered the first and finest of the rooms. Lord Warburton addressed her alertly enough, but said in a moment that he was leaving the gallery.

Starting point is 11:33:40 And I'm leaving Rome, he added. I must bid you goodbye. Isabel, inconsequently enough, was now sorry to hear it. This was perhaps because she had ceased to be afraid of his renewing his suit. She was thinking of something else. She was on the point of naming her regret, but she checked herself and simply wished him a happy journey, which made him look at her rather unlightedly. I'm afraid you'll think me very volatile. I told you the other day I wanted so much to stop. Oh, no, you could easily change your mind. That's what I have done. Bon voyage, then. You're in a great hurry to get rid of me, said his lordship quite dismally. Not in the least, but I hate partings. You don't care what I do.

Starting point is 11:34:29 He went on pitifully. Isabel looked at him a moment. Ah, she said, you're in not keeping your promise. He colored like a boy of fifteen. If I'm not, then it's because I can't, and that's why I'm going. Goodbye, then. Goodbye. He lingered still, however. When shall I see you again? Isabel hesitated, but soon, as if she had had a happy inspiration. Someday, after you're married, that will never be. It will be after you all. It will be after you That will do as well, she smiled. Yes, quite as well. Goodbye.

Starting point is 11:35:14 They shook hands, and he left her alone in the glorious room, among the shining antique marbles. She sat down in the center of the circle of these presences, regarding them vaguely, resting her eyes on their beautiful blank faces, listening, as it were, to their eternal silence. It is impossible, in Rome, at least, to look long at a great place. company of Greek sculptures without feeling the effect of their noble quietude, which, as with a high door closed for the ceremony, slowly drops on the spirit the large white mantle of peace.

Starting point is 11:35:50 I say in Rome especially, because the Roman air is an exquisite medium for such impressions. The golden sunshine mingles with them, the deep stillness of the past, so vivid yet, though it is nothing but a void full of names, seems to throw a solemn spell upon them. The blinds were partly closed in the windows of the capital, and a clear, warm shadow rested on the figures and made them more mildly human. Isabel sat there a long time,

Starting point is 11:36:20 under the charm of their motionless grace, wondering to what, of their experience, their absent eyes were open, and how to our ears their alien lips would sound. The dark red walls of the room threw them into relief. The polished marble floor reflected their beauty. She had seen them all before, but her enjoyment repeated itself, and it was all the greater because she was glad again, for the time, to be alone.

Starting point is 11:36:50 At last, however, her attention lapsed, drawn off by a deeper tide of life. An occasional tourist came in, stopped and stared a moment at the dying gladiator, and then passed out of the other door, creaking over the smooth pavement. At the end of half an hour, Gilbert Osmond reappeared, apparently in advance of his companions. He strolled toward her slowly, with his hands behind him, and his usual inquiring, yet not quite appealing smile. "'I'm surprised to find you alone. I thought you had company.'

Starting point is 11:37:23 "'So I have. The best.' And she glanced at the antinous and the fawn. Do you call them better company than an English peer? Ah, my English peer left me some time ago. She got up, speaking with intention a little dryly. Mr. Osmond noted her dryness, which contributed for him to the interest of his question. I'm afraid that what I heard the other evening is true. You're rather cruel to that nobleman.

Starting point is 11:37:55 Isabelette. Isabel looked a moment at the vanquished gladiator. It's not true. I'm scrupulously kind. That's exactly what I meant. Gilbert Osmond returned, and with such happy hilarity that his joke needs to be explained. We know that he was fond of originals, of rarities, of the superior and the exquisite, and now that he had seen Lord Warburton, whom he thought a very fine example of his race and order,

Starting point is 11:38:23 he perceived a new attraction in the idea of taking to himself a young lady who had qualified herself to figure in his collection of choice objects by declining so noble a hand. Gilbert Osmond had a high appreciation of this particular patriciate, not so much for its distinction, which he thought easily surpassable, as for its solid actuality. He had never forgiven his star for not appointing him to an English dukedom, and he could measure the unexpectedness of such conduct as Isabelle's. It would be proper that the woman he might marry should have done some of the woman. something of that sort.

Starting point is 11:38:59 End of Chapter 28. Chapter 29 of the Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Librivox recording is in the public domain. Ralph Touchett, in talk with his excellent friend, had rather markedly qualified, as we know, his recognition of Gilbert Osmond's personal merits, but he might really have felt himself illiberal in the light of that gentleman's conduct during the rest of the visit to Rome. Osmond spent a portion of each day with Isabel and her companions, and ended by affecting them as the easiest of men to live with. Who wouldn't have seen that he could command, as it were,

Starting point is 11:39:47 both tact and gaiety? Which perhaps was exactly why Ralph had made his old-time look of superficial sociability a reproach to him. Even Isabel's invidious kinsman, was obliged to admit that he was just now a delightful associate. His good humor was imperturbable, his knowledge of the right fact, his production of the right word, as convenient as the friendly flicker of a match for your cigarette. Clearly, he was amused, as amused as a man could be who was so little ever surprised, and that made him almost applausive. It was not that his spirits were visibly high, he would never, in the concert of pleasure, touch the big drum by so much as a knuckle, he had a mortal dislike to the high, ragged note, to what he called random ravings.

Starting point is 11:40:38 He thought Miss Archer sometimes of too precipitate readiness. It was pity she had that fault, because if she had not had it, she would really have had none. She would have been as smooth to his general need of her as handled ivory to the palm. If he was not personally loud, however, he was deep, and during these closing days of the Roman May, he knew a complacency that matched with slow, irregular walks under the pines of the Villa Borgazi, among the small, sweet meadow flowers and the mossy marbles. He was pleased with everything. He had never before been pleased with so many things at once. Old impressions, old enjoyments renewed themselves. One evening, going home to his room at the inn, he wrote down a little

Starting point is 11:41:26 sonnet to which he prefixed the title of Rome revisited. A day or two later he showed this piece of correct and ingenious verse to Isabel, explaining to her that it was an Italian fashion to commemorate the occasions of life by a tribute to the muse. He took his pleasures in general singly. He was too often, he would have admitted that, too sorely aware of something wrong, something ugly, the fertilizing dew of a conceivable felicity too seldom descended on his spirit. But at present he was happy, happier than he had perhaps ever been in his life, and the feeling had a large foundation. This was simply the sense of success, the most agreeable emotion of the human heart. Osmond had never had too much of it. In this respect,

Starting point is 11:42:15 he had the irritation of satiety, as he knew perfectly well and often reminded himself. Ah, no, I've not been spoiled. Certainly, I've not been spoiled. He used inwardly to repeat. If I do succeed before I die, I shall thoroughly have earned it. He was too apt to reason as if earning this boon consisted above all of covertly aching for it, and might be confined to that exercise. Absolutely void of it also his career had not been. He might indeed have suggested to a spectator here and there that he was resting on vague laurels. But his triumphs were, some of them, now too old. Others had been too easy. The present one had been less arduous than might have been expected, but had been easy, that is, had been rapid, only because he had

Starting point is 11:43:08 made an altogether exceptional effort, a greater effort than he had believed it in him to make. The desire to have something or other to show for his parts, to show somehow or other, been the dream of his youth. But, as the years went on, the conditions attached to any marked proof of rarity had affected him more and more as gross and detestable, like the swallowing of mugs of beer to advertise what one could stand. If an anonymous drawing on a museum wall had been conscious and watchful, it might have known this peculiar pleasure of being at last and all of a sudden identified, as from the hand of a great master, by the so high and so unnoticed fact of style. His style was what the girl had discovered with a little help,

Starting point is 11:43:54 and now, beside herself enjoying it, she should publish it to the world without his having any of the trouble. She should do the thing for him, and he would not have waited in vain. Shortly before the time fixed in advance for her departure, this young lady received from Mrs. Touch at a telegram running as follows. Leave Florence 4th June for Bellagio, and take you if you have not other views, but can't wait if you dawdle in Rome. The dawdling in Rome was very pleasant, but Isabel had different views, and she let her aunt know she would immediately join her. She told Gilbert Osmond that she had done so, and he replied that, spending many of his summers as well as his winters in Italy, he himself would loiter

Starting point is 11:44:39 a little longer in the cool shadow of St. Peter's. He would not return to Florence for ten days more, and in that time she would have started for Bellagio. It might be months in this case before he should ever see her again. This exchange took place in the large, decorated sitting-room occupied by our friends at the hotel. It was late in the evening, and Ralph Touchett was to take his cousin back to Florence on the morrow. Osmond had found the girl alone. Miss Stackpole had contracted a friendship with a delightful American family on the fourth floor, and had mounted the interminable staircase to pay them a visit. Henrietta contracted friendships in traveling, with great freedom, and had formed in railway

Starting point is 11:45:21 carriages several that were among her most valued ties. Ralph was making arrangements for the morrow's journey, and Isabel sat alone in a wilderness of yellow upholstery. The chairs and sofas were orange, the walls and windows were draped in purple and gilt. The mirrors, the pictures, had great flamboyant frames, the ceiling was deeply vaulted and painted over with naked muses and cherubs. For Osmond the place was ugly to distress. The false colors, the sham's splendor were like vulgar, bragging, lying talk. Isabel had taken in hand a volume of Amper, presented on their arrival in Rome by Ralph, but though she held it in her lap with her finger vaguely kept in the place, she was not

Starting point is 11:46:05 impatient to pursue her study. A lamp covered with a drooping veil of pink tissue-pings. paper burned on the table beside her, and diffused a strange pale rosiness over the scene. You say you'll come back, but who knows? Gilbert Osmond said. I think you're much more likely to start on your voyage round the world. You're under no obligation to come back. You can do exactly what you choose. You can roam through space. Well, Italy's a part of space, Isabel answered. I can take it on the way. "'On the way around the world?' "'No, don't do that.

Starting point is 11:46:44 "'Don't put us in a parenthesis. "'Give us a chapter to ourselves. "'I don't want to see you on your travels. "'I'd rather see you when they're over. "'I should like to see you when you're tired and satiated.' "'Ozman added in a moment, "'I shall prefer you in that state.' "'Isabel, with her eyes bent,

Starting point is 11:47:06 "'fingered the pages of Monsieur Rampere. You turn things into ridicule without seeming to do it, though not, I think, without intending it. You've no respect for my travels. You think them ridiculous. Where do you find that? She went on in the same tone, fretting the edge of her book with the paper knife. You see my ignorance, my blunders, the way I wander about as if the world belonged to me, simply because, because it has been put into my power to do so. You don't think a woman ought to do that. You think it's bold and ungraceful.

Starting point is 11:47:44 I think it beautiful, said Asmond. You know my opinions. I've treated you to enough of them. Don't you remember my telling you that one ought to make one's life a work of art? You looked rather shocked at first, but then I told you that it was exactly what you seemed to me to be trying to do with your own. She looked up from her book. What you despise most in the world is.

Starting point is 11:48:09 bad, his stupid art. Possibly. But yours seemed to me very clear and very good. If I were to go to Japan next winter, you would laugh at me, she went on. Osmond gave a smile, a keen one, but not a laugh, for the tone of their conversation was not jocose. Isabel had, in fact, her solemnity. He had seen it before. You have one. That's exactly what I say. You think such an idea absurd. I would give my little finger to go to Japan. That's one of the countries I most want to see. Can't you believe that with my taste for old lacquer? I haven't a taste for old lacquer to excuse me, said Isabel.

Starting point is 11:48:59 You've a better excuse, the means of going. You're quite wrong in your theory that I laugh at you. I don't know what has put it into your head. It wouldn't be remarkable if you did think it ridiculous that I should have the means to travel when you've not, for you know everything and I know nothing. The more reason why you should travel and learn, smiled Osmond. Besides, he added as if it were a point to be made, I don't know everything. Isabel was not struck with the oddity of his saying this gravely. She was thinking that the pleasantest incident of her life, so it pleased her to qualify. by these two few days in Rome, which she might musingly have likened to the figure of some

Starting point is 11:49:42 small princess of one of the ages of dress over muffled in a mantle of state, and dragging a train that it took pages or historians to hold up, that this felicity was coming to an end. That most of the interest of the time had been owing to Mr. Osmond was a reflection she was not just now at pains to make. She had already done the point abundant justice. But she said to herself that if there were a danger they should never meet again, perhaps after all it would be as well. Happy things don't repeat themselves, and her adventure wore already the changed, the seaward face of some romantic island, from which, after feasting on purple grapes, she was putting off while the breeze rose. She might come back to Italy and find him different,

Starting point is 11:50:29 this strange man who pleased her just as he was, and it would be better not to come than run the risk of that. But if she was not to come, the greater pity that the chapter was closed, she felt for a moment a pang that touched the source of tears. The sensation kept her quiet, and Gilbert Osmond was silent, too. He was looking at her. Go everywhere, he said at last in a low, kind voice. Do everything, get everything out of life. Be happy. Be triumphant. What do you mean by being triumphant? Well, doing what you like. To triumph, then, it seems to me, is to fail.

Starting point is 11:51:16 Doing all the vain things one likes is often very tiresome. Exactly, said Osmond with his quiet quickness. As I intimated just now, you'll be tired someday. He paused a moment, and then he went on. I don't know whether I had better not wait till then for something I want to say to you. Ah, I can't advise you without knowing what it is. But I'm horrid when I'm tired.

Starting point is 11:51:43 Isabel added with due in consequence. I don't believe that. You're angry sometimes. That I can believe, though I've never seen it. But I'm sure you're never a cross. Not even when I lose my temper. You don't lose it. You find it.

Starting point is 11:52:00 And that must be beautiful. Asmund spoke with a noble earnestness. they must be great moments to see. If I could only find it now, Isabel nervously cried. I'm not afraid. I should fold my arms and admire you. I'm speaking very seriously. He leaned forward, a hand on each knee. For some moments he bent his eyes on the floor.

Starting point is 11:52:29 What I wish to say to you, he went on at last, looking up. is that I find I'm in love with you. She instantly rose. Ah, keep that till I am tired. Tired of hearing it from others. He sat there, raising his eyes to her. No. You may heed it now or never as you please.

Starting point is 11:52:53 But after all, I must say it now. She had turned away, but in the movement she had stopped herself and dropped her gaze upon him. The two remained a while in this situation. exchanging a long look, the large, conscious look of the critical hours of life. Then he got up and came near her, deeply respectful, as if he were afraid he had been too familiar. I'm absolutely in love with you. He had repeated the announcement in a tone of almost impersonal discretion, like a man

Starting point is 11:53:25 who expected very little from it, but who spoke for his own needed relief. The tears came into her eyes. This time they obeyed the sharpness of the pang that suggested to her somehow the slipping of a fine bolt. Backward, forward, she couldn't have said which. The words he had uttered made him, as he stood there, beautiful and generous, invested him as with the golden air of early autumn. But morally speaking, she retreated before them, facing him still, as she had retreated in the other cases before a like encounter. Oh, don't say that, please, she answered with an intensity that expressed the dread of having, in this case, too, to choose and decide. What made her dread great was precisely the force which,

Starting point is 11:54:15 as it would seem, ought to have banished all dread, the sense of something within herself, deep down, that she supposed to be inspired and trustful passion. It was there like a large sum stored in a bank, which there was a terror in having to begin to spend. If she touched it, it would all come out. I haven't the idea that it will matter much to you, said Asmund. I have too little to offer you. What I have, it's enough for me, but it's not enough for you. I've neither fortune, nor fame, nor extrinsic advantages of any kind. So I offer nothing. I only tell you because I think it can't offend you, and some day or other it may give you pleasure. It gives me pleasure, I assure you.

Starting point is 11:55:05 He went on, standing there before her, considerably inclined to her, turning his hat, which he had taken up, slowly round with a movement which had all the decent tremor of awkwardness and none of its oddity, and presenting to her his firm, refined, slightly ravaged face. It gives me no pain, because it's perfectly simple. For me, you'll always be the most important woman in the world. Isabel looked at herself in this character, looked intently, thinking she filled it with a certain grace. But what she said was not an expression of any such complacency. You don't offend me, but you ought to remember that.

Starting point is 11:55:48 Without being offended, one may be incommoded, troubled. "'Incommoded. "'She heard herself saying that, "'and it struck her as a ridiculous word. "'But it was what stupidly came to her. "'I remember perfectly. "'Of course you're surprised and startled, "'but if it's nothing but that, it will pass away,

Starting point is 11:56:11 "'and it will perhaps leave something "'that I may not be ashamed of. "'I don't know what it may leave. "'You see at all events that I'm not overwhelmed,' "'said Isabel with rather a pale, smile. I'm not too troubled to think, and I think that I'm glad I leave Rome tomorrow. Of course I don't agree with you there. I don't at all know you, she added abruptly, and then she colored as she heard herself

Starting point is 11:56:39 saying what she had said almost a year before to Lord Warburton. If you were not going away, you'd know me better. I shall do that some other time. I hope so. I'm very easy to know. "'No, no,' she emphatically answered. "'There you're not sincere. You're not easy to know. No one could be less so.' "'Well,' he laughed, "'I said that because I know myself. It may be a boast, but I do. "'Very likely, but you're very wise.' "'So are you, Miss Archer?'

Starting point is 11:57:17 "'Ozmond exclaimed. "'I don't feel so just now. "'Still I'm wise enough to. think you had better go. Good night. God bless you, said Gilbert Osmond, taking the hand which she failed to surrender. After which he added, If we meet again, you'll find me as you leave me. If we don't, I shall be so all the same. Thank you very much. Goodbye. There was something quietly firm about Isabel's visitor. He might go of his own movement, but wouldn't be dismissed. "'There's one thing more. I haven't asked anything of you, not even a thought in the future.

Starting point is 11:57:59 "'You must do me that justice. But there's a little service I should like to ask. "'I shall not return home for several days. Rome's delightful, and it's a good place for a man in my state of mind. "'Oh, I know you're sorry to leave it, but you're right to do what your aunt wishes.' "'She doesn't even wish it,' Isabel broke out strangely. Osmond was apparently on the point of saying something that would match these words, but he changed his mind and rejoined simply. Ah, well, it's proper you should go with her. Very proper. Do everything that's proper. I go in for that. Excuse my being so patronizing. You say you don't know me, but when you do, you'll discover what a worship I have for propriety. You're not conventional, Isabel gravely asked. I like the way you utter that word.

Starting point is 11:58:50 word. No, I'm not conventional. I'm convention itself. You don't understand that. And he paused a moment, smiling. I should like to explain it. Then with a sudden, quick, bright naturalness, do come back again, he pleaded. There's so many things we might talk about. She stood there with lowered eyes. What service did you speak of just now? Go and see my little daughter before you leave Florence. She's alone at the villa. I decided not to send her to my sister, who hasn't at all my ideas. Tell her she must love her poor father very much, said Gilbert Osmond gently. It'll be a great pleasure to go, Isabel answered. I'll tell her what you say. Once more, good-bye. On this he took a rapid, respectful leave. When he had gone, she stood a

Starting point is 11:59:48 moment looking about her, and seated herself slowly and with an air of deliberation. She sat there till her companions came back, with folded hands, gazing at the ugly carpet. Her agitation, for it had not diminished, was very still, very deep. What had happened was something that for a week passed her imagination had been going forward to meet. But here, when it came, she stopped. That sublime principle somehow broke down. The working of this young lady's spirit was strange, and I can only give it to you as I see it,

Starting point is 12:00:25 not hoping to make it seem altogether natural. Her imagination, as I say, now hung back. There was a last vague space it couldn't cross, a dusky, uncertain tract which looked ambiguous and even slightly treacherous, like a moorland seen in the winter twilight. But she was to cross it yet. End of Chapter 29. Chapter 30 of the Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Librovoc's recording is in the public domain.

Starting point is 12:01:03 She returned on the morrow to Florence, under her cousin's escort, and Ralph Touchett, though usually restive under railway discipline, thought very well of the successive hours passed in the train that hurried his companion away from the city, now distinguished by Gilbert Osmond's preference, hours that were to form the first stage in a larger scheme. of travel. Miss Stackpole had remained behind. She was planning a little trip to Naples, to be carried out with Mr. Bantling's aid. Isabel was to have three days in Florence before the 4th of June, the date of Mrs. Touchett's departure, and she determined to devote the last of these to her promise to call on Pansy Osmond. Her plan, however, seemed for a moment likely to

Starting point is 12:01:47 modify itself in deference to an idea of Madame Merle's. This lady was still at Casa Touchett, But she too was on the point of leaving Florence, her next station being an ancient castle in the mountains of Tuscany, the residence of a noble family of that country, whose acquaintance, she had known them, as she said, forever, seemed to Isabelle, in the light of certain photographs of their immense, crenellated dwelling which her friend was able to show her, a precious privilege. She mentioned to this fortunate woman that Mr. Osmond had asked her to take a look at his daughter, but didn't mention that he had also made her. a declaration of love. Ah, come Salas et truve, Madame Merle exclaimed, I myself have been thinking it would be a kindness to pay the child a little visit before I go off. We can go together, then,

Starting point is 12:02:39 Isabel reasonably said. Reasonably, because the proposal was not uttered in the spirit of enthusiasm, she had prefigured her small pilgrimage as made in solitude. She should like it better so. She was nevertheless prepared to sacrifice, this mystic sentiment to her great consideration for her friend.

Starting point is 12:02:59 That personage finally meditated. After all, why should we both go, having each of us so much to do during these last hours? Very good, I can easily go alone. I don't know about your going alone, to the house of a handsome bachelor. He has been married, but so long ago. Isabel stared. When Mr. Osmond's away, what does it matter? They don't know he's away, you see.

Starting point is 12:03:28 They? Whom do you mean? Everyone. But perhaps it doesn't signify. If you were going, why shouldn't I? Isabel asked. Because I am an old Frump, and you're a beautiful young woman. Granting all that you've not promised.

Starting point is 12:03:48 How much you think of your promises, said the elder woman in my own. mild mockery. I think a great deal of my promises. Does that surprise you? You're right. Madame Merle audibly reflected, I really think you wish to be kind to the child.

Starting point is 12:04:05 I wish very much to be kind to her. Go and see her, then. No one will be the wiser. And tell her I'd have come if you hadn't. Or rather, Madame Merle added, don't tell her. She won't care. As Isabel drove,

Starting point is 12:04:22 in the publicity of an open vehicle, along the winding way which led to Mr. Osmond's hilltop, she wondered what her friend had meant by no one's being the wiser. Once in a while, at large intervals, this lady, whose voyaging discretion as a general thing, was rather of the open sea than of the risky channel, dropped a remark of ambiguous quality, struck a note that sounded false. What cared Isabel Archer for the vulgar judgments of obscure people? and did Madame Merle suppose that she was capable of doing a thing at all if it had to be sneakingly done? Of course not.

Starting point is 12:04:58 She must have meant something else, something which in the press of the hours that preceded her departure she had not had time to explain. Isabel would return to this some day. There were sorts of things as to which she liked to be clear. She heard Pansy strumming at the piano in another place as she herself was ushered into Mr. Osmond's drawing-room. The little girl was practicing. and Isabel was pleased to think she performed this duty with rigor. She immediately came in, smoothing down her frock, and did the honors of her father's house with a wide-eyed earnestness of courtesy.

Starting point is 12:05:33 Isabel sat there half an hour, and Pansy rose to the occasion as the small, winged fairy in the pantomime soars by the aid of the dissimulated wire, not chattering, but conversing, and showing the same respectful interest in Isabel's affairs that Isabel was so good as to take in hers. Isabel wondered at her. She had never had so directly presented to her nose the white flower of cultivated sweetness. How well the child had been taught, said our admiring young woman,

Starting point is 12:06:03 how prettily she had been directed and fashioned, and yet how simple, how natural, how innocent she had been kept. Isabel was fond, ever, of the question of character and quality, of sounding, as who should say, the deep personal mystery. and it had pleased her up to this time to be in doubt as to whether this tender slip were not really all-knowing. Was the extremity of her candour but the perfection of self-consciousness? Was it put on to please her father's visitor? Or was it the direct expression of an unspotted nature?

Starting point is 12:06:38 The hour that Isabel spent in Mr. Osmond's beautiful, empty, dusky rooms, the windows had been half-darkened to keep out the heat, and here and there, through an easy crevice, the splendid summer day peeped in, lighting a gleam of faded color or tarnished guilt in the rich gloom. Her interview with the daughter of the house, I say, effectually settled this question. Pansy was really a blank page, a pure white surface, successfully kept so. She had neither art, nor guile, nor temper, nor talent, only two or three small, exquisite instincts. For knowing a friend, for avoiding a friend.

Starting point is 12:07:19 a mistake, for taking care of an old toy or a new frock. Yet to be so tender was to be touching with all, and she could be felt as an easy victim of fate. She would have no will, no power to resist, no sense of her own importance. She would be easily mystified, easily crushed. Her force would be all in knowing when and where to cling. She moved about the place with her visitor, who had asked leave to walk through the other rooms again, where Pansy gave her judgment on several works of art. She spoke of her prospects, her occupations, her father's intentions. She was not egotistical, but felt the propriety of supplying the information so distinguished a guest would naturally expect. "'Please tell me,' she said, "'did Papa in Rome go to see Madame Catherine? He told me he would

Starting point is 12:08:11 if he had time. Perhaps he had not time. Papa likes a great deal of time. He wished to speak about my education. It isn't finished yet, you know. I don't know what they can do with me more, but it appears it's far from finished. Papa told me one day he thought he would finish it himself. For the last year or two at the convent, the masters that teach the tall girls are so very dear.

Starting point is 12:08:34 Papa's not rich, and I should be very sorry if he were to pay much money for me, because I don't think I'm worth it. I don't learn quickly enough, and I have no memory. For what I'm told, yes, especially when it's pleasant, but not for what I learn in a book. There was a young girl who was my best friend, and they took her away from the convent when she was 14,

Starting point is 12:08:55 to make—how do you say it in English? To make a dot. You don't say it in English? I hope it isn't wrong. I only mean they wished to keep the money to marry her. I don't know whether it is for that Papa wishes to keep the money, to marry me. It costs so much to marry.

Starting point is 12:09:14 Pansy went on with a sigh. I think Papa might make that economy. At any rate, I'm too young to think about it yet, and I don't care for any gentleman. I mean for any but him. If he were not my Papa, I should like to marry him. I would rather be his daughter than the wife of some strange person. I miss him very much, but not so much as you might think,

Starting point is 12:09:38 for I've been so much away from him. Papa has always been principally for holidays. I miss Madame Catherine almost more, but you must not tell him that. You shall not see him again? I'm very sorry, and he'll be sorry, too. Of everyone who comes here I like you the best. That's not a great compliment, for there are not many people. It was very kind of you to come today, so far from your house,

Starting point is 12:10:03 for I'm really as yet only a child. Oh, yes, I've only the occupations of a child. When did you give them up the occupations of a child? I should like to know how old you are, but I don't know whether it's right to ask. At the convent they told us we must never ask the age. I don't like to do anything that's not expected. It looks as if one had not been properly taught. I myself, I should never like to be taken by surprise.

Starting point is 12:10:28 Papa left directions for everything. I go to bed very early. When the sun goes off that side, I go into the garden. Papa left strict orders that I was not to get scorched. I always enjoy the view. The mountains are so graceful. In Rome, from the convent, we saw nothing but roofs and bell towers. I practiced three hours.

Starting point is 12:10:49 I don't play very well. You play yourself? I wish very much you'd play something for me. Papa has the idea that I should hear good music. Madame Merle has played for me several times. That's what I like best about Madame Merle. She has great facility. I shall never have facility.

Starting point is 12:11:06 And I've no voice, just a small sound like the squeak of a slate pencil making flourishes. Isabel gratified this respectful wish, drew off her gloves, and sat down to the piano, while Pansy, standing beside her, watched her white hands move quickly over the keys. When she stopped, she kissed the child goodbye, held her close, looked at her long. Be very good, she said. Give pleasure to your father. I think that's what I live for, Pansy answered.

Starting point is 12:11:37 He has not much pleasure. he's rather a sad man. Isabel listened to this assertion with an interest which she felt it almost a torment to be obliged to conceal. It was her pride that obliged her, and a certain sense of decency. There were still other things in her head which she felt a strong impulse, instantly checked, to say to Pansy about her father. There were things it would have given her pleasure to hear the child, to make the child say. But she no sooner became conscious of these things,

Starting point is 12:12:08 then her imagination was hushed with horror at the idea of taking advantage of the little girl. It was of this she would have accused herself, and of exhaling into that air where he might still have a subtle sense for it, any breath of her charmed state. She had come. She had come, but she had stayed only an hour. She rose quickly from the music stool. Even then, however, she lingered a moment, still holding her small companion, drawing the child's sweet slimness closer, and looking down at her almost in envy. She was obliged to confess it to herself. She would have taken a passionate pleasure in talking of Gilbert Osmond to this innocent diminutive creature

Starting point is 12:12:48 who was so near him. But she said no other word. She only kissed Pansy once again. They went together through the vestibule to the door that opened on the court, and there her young hostess stopped, looking rather wistfully beyond. I may go no further.

Starting point is 12:13:07 I've promised me. papa not to pass this door. You're right to obey him. He'll never ask you anything unreasonable. I shall always obey him. But when will you come again? Not for a long time, I'm afraid. As soon as you can, I hope.

Starting point is 12:13:23 I'm only a little girl, said Pansy, but I shall always expect you. And the small figure stood in the high, dark doorway, watching Isabel cross the clear grey court and disappear into the brightness. beyond the big portone, which gave a wide dazzle as it opened. End of Chapter 30. Chapter 31 of the Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Librevox recording is in the public domain.

Starting point is 12:13:59 Isabel came back to Florence, but only after several months, an interval sufficiently replete with incident. It is not, however, during this interval that we are closely concerned with her. Our attention is engaged again on a certain day in the late springtime, shortly after her return to Palazzo Crescentini, and a year from the date of the incidents just narrated. She was alone on this occasion, in one of the smaller of the numerous rooms devoted by Mrs. Touchett to social uses, and there was that in her expression and attitude, which would have suggested that she was expecting a visitor. The tall window was open, and though its green shutters were partly drawn, the bright air of the garden had come in through a broad

Starting point is 12:14:40 interstice and filled the room with warmth and perfume. Our young woman stood near it for some time, her hands clasped behind her. She gazed abroad with the vagueness of unrest. Too troubled for attention, she moved in a vain circle. Yet it could not be in her thought to catch a glimpse of her visitor before he should pass into the house, since the entrance to the palace was not through the garden, in which stillness and privacy always reigned. She wished rather to forestall his arrival by a process of conjecture, and a judge by the expression of her face this attempt gave her plenty to do. Grave, she found herself, and positively more weighted, as by the experience of the lapse of

Starting point is 12:15:22 the year she had spent in seeing the world. She had ranged, she would have said, through space, and surveyed much of mankind, and was therefore now, in her own eyes, a very different person from the frivolous young woman from Albany who had begun to take the measure of Europe on the lawn at Garden Court, a couple of years before. She flattered herself she had harvested wisdom, and learned a great deal more of life than this light-minded creature had even suspected. If her thoughts just now had inclined themselves to retrospect, instead of fluttering their wings nervously about the present, they would have evoked a multitude of interesting pictures. These pictures would have been both

Starting point is 12:16:01 landscapes and figure pieces. The latter, however, would have been the more numerous. With several of the images that might have been projected on such a field, we are already acquainted. There would be, for instance, the conciliatory lily, our heroine sister and Edmund Ludlow's wife, who had come out from New York to spend five months with her relative. She had left her husband behind her, but had brought her children, to whom Isabel now played with equal munificence and tenderness, the part of maiden aunt. Mr. Ludlow, toward the last, had been able to snatch a few weeks from his forensic triumphs, and crossing the ocean, with extreme rapidity, had spent a month with the two ladies in Paris before taking his wife home.

Starting point is 12:16:43 The little Ludlow's had not yet, even from the American point of view, reached the proper tourist age, so that while her sister was with her, Isabel had confined her movements to a narrow circle. Lily and the babies had joined her in Switzerland in the month of July, and they had spent a summer of fine weather in the Alpine Valley, where the flowers were thick in the meadows, and the shade of great chestnuts made a resting place for such upward. wanderings as might be undertaken by ladies and children on warm afternoons. They had afterwards reached the French capital, which was worshipped and with costly ceremonies by Lily, but thought of as noisily vacant by Isabel, who in these days made use of her memory of Rome as she might have done, in a hot and crowded room, of a file of something pungent

Starting point is 12:17:28 hidden in her handkerchief. Mrs. Ludlow sacrificed, as I say, to Paris, yet had doubts and wonderments not allayed, at that altar. And after her husband had joined her, found further chagrin in his failure to throw himself into these speculations. They all had Isabel for subject, but Edmund Ludlow, as he had always done before, declined to be surprised, or distressed, or mystified, or elated, at anything his sister-in-law might have done or have failed to do. Mrs. Ludlow's mental motions were sufficiently various. At one moment she thought it would be so natural for that young woman to come home and take a house in New York, the Rosseters, for instance, which had an elegant conservatory

Starting point is 12:18:10 and was just round the corner from her own. At another, she couldn't conceal her surprise at the girls not marrying some member of one of the great aristocracies. On the whole, as I have said, she had fallen from high communion with the probabilities. She had taken more satisfaction in Isabelle's ascension of fortune than if the money had been left to herself. It had seemed to her to offer just the proper setting for her sister's slightly meager, but scarce the less eminent figure. Isabel had developed less, however, than Lily had thought likely, development to Lily's understanding being somehow mysteriously connected with morning calls and evening parties. Intellectually, doubtless, she had made immense strides, but she appeared to have achieved

Starting point is 12:18:51 few of those social conquests, of which Mrs. Ludlow had expected to admire the trophies. Lily's conception of such achievements was extremely vague, but this was exactly what she had expected of Isabel, to give it form and body. Isabel could have done as well as she had done in New York, and Mrs. Ludlow appealed to her husband to know whether there was any privilege she enjoyed in Europe which the society of that city might not offer her. We know ourselves that Isabel had made conquests, whether inferior or not to those she might have affected in her native land, it would be a delicate matter to decide.

Starting point is 12:19:26 And it is not altogether with a feeling of complacency that I again mention that she had not rendered these honorable victories public. She had not told her sister the history of Lord Warburton, nor had she given her a hint of Mr. Osmond's state of mind, and she had had no better reason for her silence than that she didn't wish to speak. It was more romantic to say nothing, and drinking deep, in secret of romance, she was as little disposed to ask poor Lily's advice as she would have been to close that rare volume forever. But Lily knew nothing of these discriminations, and could only pronounce her sister's career a strange anti-climax, an impression confirmed by the fact that Isabel's silence about Mr. Osmond, for instance, was in direct proportion to the frequency

Starting point is 12:20:10 with which he occupied her thoughts. As this happened very often, it sometimes appeared to Mrs. Ludlow that she had lost her courage. So uncanny a result of so exhilarating an incident as inheriting a fortune was of course perplexing to the cheerful Lily. It added to her general sense that Isabel was not at all like other people. Our young lady's courage, however, might have been taken as reaching its height after her relations had gone. She could imagine braver things than spending the winter in Paris. Paris had sides by which it so resembled New York.

Starting point is 12:20:44 Paris was like smart, neat prose, and her close correspondence with Madame Merle did much to stimulate such flights. She had never had a keener sense of freedom, of the absolute boldness and wantonness of liberty, then when she turned away from the platform at the Euston Station on one of the last days of November, after the departure of the train that was to convey poor Lily her husband and her children to their ship at Liverpool. It had been good for her to regale.

Starting point is 12:21:12 She was very conscious of that. She was very observant, as we know, of what was good for her, and her effort was constantly to find something that was good enough. To profit by the present advantage till the latest moment, she had made the journey from Paris with the unenvied travellers. She would have accompanied them to Liverpool as well, only Edmund Ludlow had asked her, as a favor, not to do so. It made Lily so fidgety, and she asked such impossible questions. Isabel watched the train move away. She kissed her hand to the elder of her small nephews, a demonstrative child, who leaned dangerously far out of the window of the carriage, and made separation an occasion of violent hilarity. And then she walked back into the foggy London Street. The world lay before her. She could do whatever she chose.

Starting point is 12:22:00 There was a deep thrill in it all. But for the present her choice was tolerably discreet. She chose simply to walk back from Euston Square to her hotel. The early dusk of a November afternoon had already closed in. The street lamps and the thick brown air looked weak and red. Our heroine was unattended, and Euston Square was a long way from Piccadilly. But Isabel performed the journey with a positive enjoyment of its dangers and lost her way almost on purpose in order to get more sensations,

Starting point is 12:22:32 so that she was disappointed when an obliging policeman easily set her right again. She was so fond of the spectacle of human life that she enjoyed even the aspect of gathering dusk in the London streets, the moving crowds, the hurrying cabs, the lighted shops, the flaring stalls, the dark, shining dampness of everything. That evening at her hotel, she wrote to Madame Merle that she should start in a day or two for Rome. She made her way down to Rome without touching at Florence, having gone first to Venice and then proceeded southward by Ancona. She accomplished this journey without other

Starting point is 12:23:08 assistance than that of her servant, for her natural protectors were not now on the ground. Ralph Touchett was spending the winter at Corfu, and Miss Stackpole, in the September previous, had been recalled to America by a telegram from the interviewer. This journal offered its brilliant correspondent a fresher field for her genius than the moldering cities of Europe, and Henrietta was cheered on her way by a promise from Mr. Bentley that he would soon come over to see her. Isabel wrote to Mrs. Touchett to apologize for not presenting herself just yet in Florence, and her aunt replied characteristically enough. Apologies, Mrs. Touchett intimated, were of no more use to her than bubbles, and she herself never dealt in such articles. One either did the thing or one

Starting point is 12:23:52 didn't, and what one would have done belonged to the sphere of the irrelevant, like the idea of a future life or of the origin of things. Her letter was frank, but, a rare case with Mrs. Touchett, not so frank as it pretended. She easily forgave her niece for not stopping at Florence, because she took it for a sign that Gilbert Osmond was less in question there than formerly. She watched, of course, to see if he would now find a pretext for going to Rome, and arrived some comfort from learning that he had not been guilty of an absence. Isabel, on her side, had not been a fortnight in Rome before she proposed to Madame Merle that they should make a little pilgrimage to the east. Madame Merle remarked that her friend was restless, but she added that she herself

Starting point is 12:24:37 had always been consumed with a desire to visit Athens and Constantinople. The two ladies accordingly embarked on this expedition, and spent three months in Greece, in Turkey, in Egypt. Isabel found much to interest her in these countries, though Madame Merle continued to remark that even among the most classic sights, the scenes most calculated to suggest repose and reflection, a certain incoherence prevailed in her. Isabel travelled rapidly and recklessly. She was like a thirsty person draining cup after cup. Madame Merle, meanwhile, as lady-in-waiting to a princess circulating incognita, panted a little in her rear. It was on Isabelle's invitation she was. had come, and she imparted all due dignity to the girl's uncountenanced state. She played her part with the tact that might have been expected of her, effacing herself and accepting the position of a companion whose expenses were profusely paid. The situation, however, had no hardships, and people

Starting point is 12:25:36 who met this reserved, though striking pair, on their travels, would not have been able to tell you which was patroness and which client. To say that Madame Merle improved on acquaintance, states meagrely the impression she made on her friend, who had found her from the first so ample and so easy. At the end of an intimacy of three months, Isabel felt she knew her better, her character had revealed itself, and the admirable woman had also at last redeemed her promise of relating her history from her own point of view, a consummation the more desirable as Isabel had already heard it related from the point of view of others. This history was so sad a one, Insofar as it concerned the late Monsieur Merle, a positive adventurer, she might say,

Starting point is 12:26:19 though originally so plausible, who would take an advantage years before of her youth, and of an inexperience in which doubtless those who knew her only now would find it difficult to believe. It abounded so in startling and lamentable incidents that her companion wondered a person so e prouvet could have kept so much of her freshness, her interest in life. Into this freshness of Madame Merle she obtained a considerable insight, She seemed to see it as professional, as slightly mechanical, carried about in its case like the fiddle of the virtuoso, or blanketed and bridled like the favorite of the jockey. She liked her as much as ever, but there was a corner of the curtain that never was lifted. It was as if she had remained, after all, something of a public performer, condemned to emerge only in character and in costume.

Starting point is 12:27:08 She had once said that she came from a distance, that she belonged to the old, old, old woman. world, and Isabel never lost the impression that she was the product of a different moral or social climb from her own, that she had grown up under other stars. She believed then that at bottom she had a different morality. Of course, the morality of civilized persons has always much in common, but our young woman had a sense in her of values gone wrong, or, as they said at the shops, marked down. She considered, with the presumption of youth, that a morality different than that a Morality differing from her own must be inferior to it, and this conviction was an aid to detecting an occasional flash of cruelty, an occasional lapse from candor, in the conversation of a person who had raised delicate kindness to an art, and whose pride was too high for the narrow ways of deception. Her conception of human motives might, in certain lights, have been acquired at the court of some kingdom in decadence, and there were several in her list of which our heroine had not even heard.

Starting point is 12:28:10 She had not heard of everything, that was very plain, and there were evidently things in the world of which it was not advantageous to hear. She had once or twice had a positive scare, since it so affected her to have to exclaim of her friend, Heaven forgive her, she doesn't understand me. Absurd as it may seem this discovery operated as a shock, left her with a vague dismay in which there was even an element of foreboding. The dismay, of course, subsided, in the light of some sudden proof of Madame Mauder, Merle's remarkable intelligence, but it stood for a high watermark in the ebb and flow of confidence. Madame Merle had once declared her belief that when a friendship ceases to grow, it immediately begins to decline, there being no point of equilibrium between liking more and liking less.

Starting point is 12:28:57 A stationary affection, in other words, was impossible. It must move one way or the other. However that might be, the girl had in these days a thousand uses for her sense of the romantic, which was more active than it had ever been. I do not allude to the impulse it received as she gazed at the pyramids in the course of an excursion from Cairo, or as she stood among the broken columns of the Acropolis and fixed her eyes upon the point designated to her as the strait of Salamis,

Starting point is 12:29:25 deep and memorable as these emotions had remained. She came back by the last of March from Egypt and Greece and made another stay in Rome. A few days after her arrival, Gilbert Osmond descended from Florence and remained three weeks, during which the fact of her being with his old friend Madame Merle, in whose house she had gone to lodge, made it virtually inevitable that he should see her every day. When the last of April came, she wrote to Mrs. Touchett that she should now rejoice to accept an invitation given long before, and went to pay a visit at Palazzo Cresciantini,

Starting point is 12:30:00 Madame Merle on this occasion remaining in Rome. She found her aunt alone, her cousin was still at Corfu. Ralph, however, was expected in Florence from day to day, and Isabel, who had not seen him for upwards of a year, was prepared to give him the most affectionate welcome. End of Chapter 31. Chapter 32 of the Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. It was not of him, nevertheless, that she was thinking while she stood at the window near which we found her a while ago, and it was not of him.

Starting point is 12:30:41 of any of the matters I have rapidly sketched. She was not turned to the past, but to the immediate, impending hour. She had reason to expect a scene, and she was not fond of scenes. She was not asking herself what she should say to her visitor. This question had already been answered. What he would say to her, that was the interesting issue. It could be nothing in the least soothing. She had warrant for this, and the conviction doubtless showed in the cloud on her brow. For the rest, however, all clearness reigned in her. She had put away her morning, and she walked in no small shimmering splendor. She only felt older, ever so much, and as if she were worth more for it, like some curious piece in an antiquary's collection.

Starting point is 12:31:33 She was not, at any rate, left indefinitely to her apprehensions, for a servant at last stood before her with a card on his tray. Let the gentleman come in, she said, and continued to gaze out of the window after a footman had retired. It was only when she heard the door close behind the person who presently entered that she looked round. Casper Goodwood stood there, stood and received a moment from head to foot, the bright, dry gaze with which she rather withheld than offered a greeting. Whether his sense of maturity had kept pace with Isabelle's, we shall perhaps presently ascertain, Let me say, meanwhile, that to her critical glance, he showed nothing of the injury of time.

Starting point is 12:32:16 Straight, strong, and hard. There was nothing in his appearance that spoke positively either of youth or of age. If he had neither innocence nor weakness, so he had no practical philosophy. His jaw showed the same voluntary cast as in earlier days, but a crisis like the present had in it, of course, something grim. He had the air of a man who had travelled hard. he said nothing at first, as if he had been out of breath. This gave Isabel time to make a reflection.

Starting point is 12:32:47 Poor fellow, what great things he's capable of, and what a pity he should waste so dreadfully his splendid force. What a pity, too, that one can't satisfy everybody. It gave her time to do more to say at the end of a minute, I can't tell you how I hoped you wouldn't come. I've no doubt of that. And he looked about him for a seat. Not only had he come, but he meant to settle.

Starting point is 12:33:14 You must be very tired, said Isabel, seating herself, and generously, as she thought, to give him his opportunity. No, I'm not at all tired. Did you ever know me to be tired? Never. I wish I had. When did you arrive? Last night, very late, in a kind of snail train they call the express. These Italian trains go at about the rate of an American funeral. That's in keeping. You must have felt as if you were coming to bury me. And she forced a smile of encouragement to an easy view of their situation.

Starting point is 12:33:51 She had reasoned the matter well out, making it perfectly clear that she broke no faith and falsified no contract. But for all this she was afraid of her visitor. She was ashamed of her fear, but she was devoutly thankful there was nothing else to be ashamed of. He looked at her with his stiff insistence. an insistence in which there was such a want of tact, especially when the dull, dark beam in his eye rested on her as a physical weight.

Starting point is 12:34:18 No, I didn't feel that. I couldn't think of you as dead. I wish I could. He candidly declared, I thank you immensely. I'd rather think of you as dead than as married to another man. That's very selfish of you? She returned with the ardor of a real conviction.

Starting point is 12:34:37 If you're not happy yourself, others have you. yet a right to be? Very likely it's selfish, but I don't in the least mind you're saying so. I don't mind anything you can say now. I don't feel it. The cruelest things you could think of would be mere pinpricks. After what you've done, I shall never feel anything. I mean anything but that. That I shall feel all my life. Mr. Goodwood made these detached assertions with dry deliberateness, in his hard, slow, American tone, which flung no atmospheric color over propositions intrinsically crude. The tone made Isabel angry, rather than touched her, but her anger perhaps was fortunate, inasmuch as it gave her a further reason for controlling herself.

Starting point is 12:35:27 It was under the pressure of this control that she became, after a little, irrelevant. When did you leave New York? He threw up his head as if calculated. 17 days ago. You must have traveled fast in spite of your slow trains. I came as fast as I could. I'd have come five days ago if I'd been able. It wouldn't have made any difference, Mr. Goodwood. She coldly smiled.

Starting point is 12:35:55 Not to you, no, but to me. You gain nothing that I see. That's for me to judge. Of course. To me it seems that you only torment yourself. herself. And then, to change the subject, she asked him if he had seen Henrietta Stackpole. He looked as if he had not come from Boston to Florence to talk of Henrietta Stackpole, but he answered distinctly enough that this young lady had been with him just before he left

Starting point is 12:36:24 America. She came to see you, Isabelle then demanded. Yes, she was in Boston, and she called at my office. It was the day I had got your letter. Did you tell her? Isabel asked with a certain anxiety. "'Oh, no,' said Casper Goodwood simply. "'I didn't want to do that. "'She'll hear it quick enough. "'She hears everything.' "'I shall write to her.

Starting point is 12:36:50 "'And then she'll write to me and scold me.' "'Isabel declared, trying to smile again. "'Casper, however, remained sternly grave. "'I guess she'll come right out,' he said. "'On purpose to scold me?' "'I don't know. She seemed to think she had not seen Europe thoroughly. I'm glad you tell me that, Isabel said.

Starting point is 12:37:14 I must prepare for her. Mr. Goodwood fixed his eyes for a moment on the floor, then at last raising them. Does she know Mr. Osmond? He inquired. A little? And she doesn't like him. But of course I don't marry to please Henrietta, she added. It would have been better for poor Casper if she had.

Starting point is 12:37:37 tried a little more to gratify Miss Stackpole, but he didn't say so. He only asked presently when her marriage would take place, to which he made answer that she didn't know yet. I can only say it will be soon. I've told no one but yourself and one other person, an old friend of Mr. Osmond's. Is it a marriage your friends won't like? He demanded. I really haven't an idea. As I say, I don't marry for my friends. He went on, making no exclamation, no comment, only asking questions, doing it quite without delicacy. Who and what, then, is Mr. Gilbert Osmond.

Starting point is 12:38:20 Who and what? Nobody and nothing but a very good and very honorable man. He's not in business, said Isabel. He's not rich. He's not known for anything in particular. She disliked Mr. Goodwood's questions, but she said to herself, that she owed it to him to satisfy him as far as possible. The satisfaction poor Casper exhibited was, however, small.

Starting point is 12:38:44 He sat very upright, gazing at her. Where does he come from? Where does he belong? She had never been so little pleased with the way he said, belong. He comes from nowhere. He has spent most of his life in Italy. You said in your letter he was an American. Hasn't he a native place?

Starting point is 12:39:05 Yes, but he has forgotten it. He left it as a small boy. Has he never gone back? Why should he go back? Isabel asked, flushing all defensively. He has no profession. He might have gone back for his pleasure. Doesn't he like the United States?

Starting point is 12:39:23 He doesn't know them. Then he's very quiet and very simple. He contends himself with Italy. With Italy and with you, said Mr. Goodwood, with gloomy plainness, and no appearance of trying to make an epigram. What has he ever done? He added abruptly.

Starting point is 12:39:41 That I should marry him? Nothing at all. Isabel replied, while her patience helped itself by turning a little to hardness. If he had done great things, would you forgive me any better? Give me up, Mr. Goodwood. I'm marrying a perfect non-entity. Don't try to take an interest in him. You can't.

Starting point is 12:40:02 I can't appreciate him. That's what you mean. And you don't mean in the least that you're not. that he's a perfect non-entity. You think he's grand, you think he's great, though no one else thinks so." Isabel's color deepened. She felt this really acute of her companion, and it was certainly a proof of the aid that passion might render perceptions she had never taken for fine. Why do you always come back to what others think? I can't discuss Mr. Osmond with you. Of course not, said Casper reasonably. And he sat there with his air of stiff,

Starting point is 12:40:37 helplessness, as if not only this were true, but there were nothing else that they might discuss. You see how little you gain, she accordingly broke out, how little comfort or satisfaction I can give you. I didn't expect you to give me much. I don't understand then why you came. I came because I wanted to see you once more, even just as you are. I appreciate that, but if you had waited a while sooner or later we should have been sure to meet, and our meeting would have been pleasanter for each of us than this. Waited till after you're married. It's just what I didn't want to do. You'll be different then. Not very. I shall still be a great friend of yours. You'll see. That will make it all the worse, said Mr. Goodwood grimly.

Starting point is 12:41:32 You're unaccommodating. I can't promise to dislike you in order to help you to resign. yourself? I shouldn't care if you did. Isabel got up with a movement of repressed impatience and walked to the window, where she remained a moment looking out. When she turned round, her visitor was still motionless in his place. She came toward him again and stopped, resting her hand on the back of the chair she had just quitted. Do you mean you came simply to look at me? That's better for you perhaps than for me. I wish to hear the sound of your voice. he said. You've heard it, and you see it says nothing very sweet. It gives me pleasure,

Starting point is 12:42:15 all the same. And with this he got up. She had felt pain and displeasure on receiving early that day the news he was in Florence, and by her leave would come within an hour to see her. She had been vexed and distressed, though she had sent back word by his messenger that he might come when he would. She had not been better pleased when she saw him. His being there at all was so full of heavy implications. It implied things she could never assent to, rights, reproaches, remonstrance, rebuke, the expectation of making her change her purpose. These things, however, if implied, had not been expressed. And now, our young lady, strangely enough, began to resent her visitor's remarkable self-control.

Starting point is 12:43:02 There was a dumb misery about him that irritated her. There was a manly staying of his hand that made her heart beat faster. She felt her agitation rising, and she said to herself that she was angry in the way a woman is angry when she has been in the wrong. She was not in the wrong. She had fortunately not that bitterness to swallow. But all the same, she wished he would denounce her a little. She had wished his visit would be short,

Starting point is 12:43:29 it had no purpose, no propriety. Yet now that he seemed to be turning away, she felt a sudden horror of his leaving her without uttering a word that would give her an opportunity to defend herself, more than she had done in writing to him a month before in a few carefully chosen words to announce her engagement. If she were not in the wrong, however, why should she desire to defend herself?

Starting point is 12:43:53 It was an excess of generosity on Isabel's part to desire that Mr. Goodwood should be angry. and if he had not meanwhile held himself hard, it might have made him so to hear the tone in which she suddenly exclaimed, as if she were accusing him of having accused her. I've not deceived you. I was perfectly free. Yes, I know that, said Casper. I gave you full warning that I'd do as I chose. You said you'd probably never marry, and you said it with such a manner that I pretty well believed it. She considered this an instant.

Starting point is 12:44:28 "'No one can be more surprised than myself at my present intention. "'You told me that if I heard you were engaged, I was not to believe it,' "'Casper went on. "'I heard it twenty days ago from yourself, "'but I remembered what you had said. "'I thought there might be some mistake, "'and that's partly why I came. "'If you wish me to repeat it by word of mouth, that's soon done.

Starting point is 12:44:53 "'There's no mistake whatever. "'I saw that as soon as I came into the room. "'What good would it do you that I shouldn't marry?' she asked with a certain fierceness. "'I should like it better than this. "'You're very selfish, as I said before. "'I know that. I'm selfish as iron. "'Even iron sometimes melts. "'If you'll be reasonable, I'll see you again.

Starting point is 12:45:20 "'Don't you call me reasonable now?' "'I don't know what to say to you,' she answered with sudden humility. I shan't trouble you for a long time. The young man went on. He made a step towards the door, but he stopped. Another reason why I came was that I wanted to hear what you would say in explanation of your having changed your mind. Her humbleness as suddenly deserted her. In explanation?

Starting point is 12:45:48 Do you think I'm bound to explain? He gave her one of his long, dumb looks. You were very positive. I did believe. believe it. So did I. Do you think I could explain if I would? No, I suppose not. Well, he added, I've done what I wished. I've seen you. How little you make of these terrible journeys, she felt the poverty of her presently replying. If you're afraid I'm knocked up, in any such way as that, you may be at your ease about it.

Starting point is 12:46:28 He turned away, this time in earnest, and no handshake, no sign of parting was exchanged between them. At the door he stopped with his hand on the knob. I shall leave Florence tomorrow, he said without a quaver. I'm delighted to hear it, she answered passionately.

Starting point is 12:46:48 Five minutes after he had gone out, she burst into tears. End of Chapter 32 Chapter 33 of the Portrait of a Lady by Henry James This Librivox recording is in the public domain Her fit of weeping, however, was soon smothered, and the signs of it had vanished when, An hour later, she broke the news to her aunt. I used this expression because she had been sure Mrs. Touchett would not be pleased.

Starting point is 12:47:24 Isabel had only waited to tell her till she had had been, had seen Mr. Goodwood. She had an odd impression that it would not be honorable to make the fact public before she should have heard what Mr. Goodwood would say about it. He had said rather less than she expected, and she now had a somewhat angry sense of having lost time. But she would lose no more. She waited till Mrs. Touchett came into the drawing-room before the midday breakfast, and then she began. "'Aunt Lydia, I've something to tell you. Mrs. Touchett gave a little jump and looked at her almost fiercely. You needn't tell me. I know what it is.

Starting point is 12:48:04 I don't know how you know. The same way that I know when the windows open, by feeling a draft. You're going to marry that man. What man do you mean? Isabel inquired with great dignity. Madame Merle's friend, Mr. Osmond. I don't know why you call him Madame Merle's friend. is that the principal thing he's known by?

Starting point is 12:48:29 If he's not her friend, he ought to be, after what she has done for him, cried Mrs. Touchett. I shouldn't have expected it of her. I'm disappointed. If you mean that Madame Merle has had anything to do with my engagement, you're greatly mistaken, Isabel declared, with a sort of ardent coldness. You mean that your attractions were sufficient, without the gentlemen's having had to be lashed up? You're quite right. There amends your attractions, and he would never have presumed to think of you if she hadn't put him up to it. He has a very good opinion of himself, but he was not a man to take trouble.

Starting point is 12:49:07 Madame Merle took the trouble for him. He has taken a great deal for himself, cried Isabel with a voluntary laugh. Mrs. Touchett gave a sharp nod. I think he must, after all, to have made you like him so much. I thought he even pleased you. He did, at one time, and that's why I'm angry with him. Be angry with me, not with him, said the girl. Oh, I'm always angry with you, that's no satisfaction.

Starting point is 12:49:39 Was it for this that you refused Lord Warburton? Please don't go back to that. Why shouldn't I like Mr. Osmond, since others have done so? Others, at their wildest moments, never wanted to marry him. There's nothing of him, Mrs. Touch had explained. Then he can't hurt me, said Isabel. Do you think you're going to be happy? No one's happy in such doings you should know.

Starting point is 12:50:06 I shall set the fashion then. What does one marry for? What you will marry for, heaven only knows. People usually marry as they go into partnership, to set up a house. but in your partnership you'll bring everything. Is it that Mr. Osmond isn't rich? Is that what you're talking about? Isabel asked.

Starting point is 12:50:27 He has no money. He has no name. He has no importance. I value such things, and I have the courage to say it. I think they're very precious. Many other people think the same, and they show it. But they give some other reason. Isabel hesitated a little.

Starting point is 12:50:45 I think I value everything that's valuable. I care very much for money, and that's why I wish Mr. Osmond to have a little. Give it to him, then, but marry someone else. His name's good enough for me, the girl went on. It's a very pretty name. Have I such a fine one myself? All the more reason you should improve on it. There are only a dozen American names. Do you marry him out of charity?

Starting point is 12:51:13 It was my duty to tell you, Aunt Lydia, but I don't think it's my duty to explain to you. Even if it were, I shouldn't be able. So please don't remonstrate. In talking about it, you have me at a disadvantage. I can't talk about it. I don't remonstrate. I simply answer you. I must give some sign of intelligence. I saw it coming, and I said nothing. I never meddle. You never do, and I'm greatly obliged to you. You've been very considerate. It was not considerate. It was convenient, said Mrs. Touchett, but I shall talk to Madame Merle. I don't see why you keep bringing her in. She has been a very good friend to me.

Starting point is 12:51:58 Possibly, but she has been a poor one to me. What has she done to you? She has deceived me. She as good as promised me to prevent your engagement. She couldn't have prevented it. She can do anything. That's what I've always liked her for. I knew she could play any part, but I understood that she played them one by one.

Starting point is 12:52:21 I didn't understand that she would play two at the same time. I don't know what part she may have played to you, Isabel said. That's between yourselves. To me she has been honest and kind and devoted. Devoted, of course. She wished you to marry her candidate. She told me she was watching you only in order to interpose. She said that to please you.

Starting point is 12:52:45 The girl answered, conscious, however, of the inadequacy of the explanation, To please me by deceiving me, and she knows me better. Am I pleased today? I don't think you're ever much pleased, Isabel was obliged to reply. If Madame Merle knew you would learn the truth, what had she to gain by insincerity? She gained time, as you see. While I waited for her to interfere, you were marching away, and she was really beating the drum. That's very well, but by your own admission you saw I was marching, and even if she had given

Starting point is 12:53:20 the alarm, you wouldn't have tried to stop me. No, but someone else would. Whom do you mean? Isabel asked, looking very hard at her aunt. Mrs. Touchett's little bright eyes, active as they usually were, sustained her gaze rather than returned it. Would you have listened to Ralph? Not if he had abused Mr. Osmond.

Starting point is 12:53:42 Ralph doesn't abuse people. You know that perfectly. He cares very much for you. I know he does, said Isabel, and I shall feel the value of it now, for he knows that whatever I do, I do with reason. He never believed you would do this. I told him you were capable of it, and he argued the other way. He did it for the sake of argument. The girl smiled. You don't accuse him of having deceived you. Why should you accuse Madame Merle? He never pretended that he'd prevent it. I'm glad of that, cried Isabel gaily.

Starting point is 12:54:18 I wish very much, she presently added, that when he comes, you'd tell him first of my engagement. Of course I'll mention it, said Mrs. Touchett. I shall say nothing more to you about it, but I give you notice, I shall talk to others. That's as you please. I only meant that it's rather better the announcement should come from you than from me.

Starting point is 12:54:41 I quite agree with you. It's much more proper. And on this, the aunt and the niece went to breakfast, where Mrs. Touchett, as good as her word, made no allusion to Gilbert Osmond. After an interval of silence, however, she asked her companion from whom she had received a visit an hour before. From an old friend, an American gentleman, Isabelle said with a color in her cheek. An American gentleman, of course, it's only an American. gentleman who calls at ten o'clock in the morning. It was half past ten.

Starting point is 12:55:16 He was in a great hurry. He goes away this evening. Couldn't he have come yesterday at the usual time? He only arrived last night. He spends but twenty-four hours in Florence. Mrs. Touchett cried. He's an American gentleman truly. He is indeed, said Isabel,

Starting point is 12:55:34 thinking with perverse admiration of what Casper Goodwood had done for her. Two days afterward, Ralph arrived. But though Isabel was sure that Mrs. Touchett had lost no time and imparting to him the great fact, he showed at first no open knowledge of it. Their prompted talk was naturally of his health. Isabel had many questions to ask about Corfu. She had been shocked by his appearance when he came into the room. She had forgotten how ill he looked. In spite of Corfu he looked very ill today, and she wondered if he were really worse, or if she were simply disaccustomed to living with an invalid. Poor Ralph made no nearer approach to conventional beauty as he advanced in life, and the now apparently complete loss of health had done little to mitigate the natural oddity of his person. Blighted and battered, but still responsive, and still ironic, his face was like a lighted lantern patched with paper and unsteadily held. His thin whisker languished upon a lean cheek, the exorbitant curve of his nose to find

Starting point is 12:56:36 itself more sharply. Lean he was altogether. lean and long and loose-jointed, an accidental cohesion of relaxed angles. His brown velvet jacket had become perennial, his hands had fixed themselves in his pockets. He shambled and stumbled and shuffled in a manner that denoted great physical helplessness. It was perhaps this whimsical gait that helped to mark his character more than ever as that of the humorous invalid, the invalid for whom even his own disabilities are part of the general joke. They might well indeed with Ralph have been the chief cause of the want of seriousness

Starting point is 12:57:14 marking his view of a world in which the reason for his own continued presence was past finding out. Isabel had grown fond of his ugliness, his awkwardness had become dear to her. They had been sweetened by association, they struck her as the very terms on which it had been given him to be charming. He was so charming that her sense of his being ill had hitherto had a sort of comfort in it. The state of his health had seemed not a limitation, but a kind of intellectual advantage. It absolved him from all professional and official emotions, and left him the luxury of being

Starting point is 12:57:49 exclusively personal. The personality so resulting was delightful. He had remained proof against the staleness of disease. He had had to consent to be deplorably ill, yet had somehow escaped being formally sick. Such had been the girl's impression of her cousin, and when she had pitied him, it was only on reflection. As she reflected a good deal, she had allowed him a certain amount of compassion, but she always had a dread of wasting that essence, a precious article, worth more to the giver than to anyone else. Now, however, it took no great sensibility to feel that poor Ralph's

Starting point is 12:58:26 tenure of life was less elastic than it should be. He was a bright, free, generous spirit. He had all the illumination of wisdom, and none of its pedantry. And yet he was distressed. He was stressfully dying. Isabel noted afresh that life was certainly hard for some people, and she felt a delicate glow of shame as she thought how easy it now promised to become for herself. She was prepared to learn that Ralph was not pleased with her engagement, but she was not prepared, in spite of her affection for him, to let this fact spoil the situation. She was not even prepared, or so she thought, to resent his want of sympathy, for it would

Starting point is 12:59:07 be his privilege, it would be indeed his natural line, to find fault with any step she might take toward marriage. One's cousin always pretended to hate one's husband. That was traditional, classical. It was a part of one's cousins always pretending to adore one. Ralph was nothing, if not critical, and though she would certainly, other things being equal, have been as glad to marry to please him as to please anyone, it would be absurd to regard as important that her choice should square with his views.

Starting point is 12:59:37 What were his views after all? He had pretended to believe she had better have married Lord Warburton, but this was only because she had refused that excellent man. If she had accepted him, Ralph would certainly have taken another tone. He always took the opposite. You could criticise any marriage. It was the essence of a marriage to be open to criticism. How well she herself, should she only give her mind to it,

Starting point is 13:00:02 might criticise this union of her own. She had other employment, however, and Ralph was welcome to relieve her of the care. Isabel was prepared to be most patient and most indulgent. He must have seen that, and this made it the more odd he should say nothing. After three days had elapsed without his speaking, our young woman wearied of waiting. Dislike it as he would, he might at least go through the form. We who know more about poor Ralph than his cousin may easily believe that during the hours

Starting point is 13:00:33 that followed his arrival at Palazzo Cresciantini, he's a little bit of his arrival at Palazzo Cresciantini, he had privately gone through many forms. His mother had literally greeted him with the great news, which had been even more sensibly chilling than Mrs. Touchett's maternal kiss. Ralph was shocked and humiliated. His calculations had been false, and the person in the world in whom he was most interested was lost. He drifted about the house like a rudderless vessel in a rocky stream, or sat in the garden of the palace on a great cane chair, his long legs extended, his head thrown back and his hat pulled over his eyes. He felt cold about the heart.

Starting point is 13:01:12 He had never liked anything less. What could he do? What could he say? If the girl were irreclaimable, could he pretend to like it? To attempt to reclaim her was permissible only if the attempt should succeed. To try to persuade her of anything sordid or sinister in the man, to whose deep art she had succumbed, would be decently discreet only in the event of her being persuaded.

Starting point is 13:01:37 Otherwise, he should simply have damned himself. It cost him an equal effort to speak his thought and to dissemble. He could neither assent with sincerity nor protest with hope. Meanwhile he knew, or rather he supposed, that the affianced pair were daily renewing their mutual vows. Osmond at this moment showed himself little at Palazzo Crescianini, but Isabel met him every day elsewhere, as she was free to do after their engagement had been made public. She had taken a carriage by the month, so as not to be indebted to her aunt for the means

Starting point is 13:02:11 of purchasing a course of which Mrs. Touchett disapproved, and he drove in the morning to the casino. This suburban wilderness during the early hours was void of all intruders, and our young lady, joined by her lover in its quietest part, strolled with him a while through the grey, Italian shade, and listened to the nightingales. End of Chapter 33. Chapter 34 of the Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Librovoc's recording is in the public domain. One morning, on her return from her drive, some half hour before luncheon, she quitted her vehicle in the court of the palace, and instead of ascending the great staircase, crossed the court, passed beneath another archway, and entered the garden. A sweeter spot at this moment could not have been imagined. The stillness of noontide hung over it,

Starting point is 13:03:12 and the warm shade, enclosed and still, made bowers like spacious caves. Ralph was sitting there in the clear gloom, at the base of a statue of terpsichory, a dancing nymph with taper fingers and inflated draperies in the manner of Bernini. The extreme relaxation of his attitude suggested at first to Isabel that he was asleep. her light footstep on the grass had not roused him and before turning away she stood for a moment looking at him during this instant he opened his eyes upon which she sat down on a rustic chair that matched with his own though in her irritation she had accused him

Starting point is 13:03:52 of indifference she was not blind to the fact that he had visibly had something to brood over but she had explained his air of absence partly by the languor of his increased weakness, partly by worries connected with the property inherited from his father, the fruit of eccentric arrangements of which Mrs. Touchett disapproved, and which, as she had told Isabelle, now encountered opposition from the other partners in the bank. He ought to have gone to England, his mother said, instead of coming to Florence. He had not been there for months, and took no more interest in the bank than in the state of Patagonia. I'm sorry I wake to you.

Starting point is 13:04:31 Isabel said, You look too tired. I feel too tired. But I was not asleep. I was thinking of you. Are you tired of that? Very much so. It leads to nothing.

Starting point is 13:04:46 The road's long and I never arrive. What do you wish to arrive at? She put to him, closing her parasol. At the point of expressing to myself properly what I think of your engagement. Don't think too much. of it she lightly returned do you mean that it's none of my business beyond a certain point yes that's the point I want to fix I had an idea you may have found me wanting at good manners I've never congratulated you of course I've noticed that I wondered why

Starting point is 13:05:24 you were silent there have been a good many reasons I'll tell you now Ralph said He pulled off his hat and laid it on the ground. Then he sat looking at her. He leaned back under the protection of Bernini, his head against his marble pedestal, his arms dropped on either side of him, his hands laid upon the rests of his wide chair. He looked awkward, uncomfortable.

Starting point is 13:05:51 He hesitated long. Isabel said nothing. When people were embarrassed, she was usually sorry for them, but she was determined not to help Ralph to utter a word that should not be to the honor of her high decision. I think I've hardly got over my surprise. He went on at last. You were the last person I expected to see caught. I don't know why you call it caught. Because you're going to be put into a cage.

Starting point is 13:06:20 If I like my cage, that needn't trouble you, she answered. That's what I wonder at. That's what I've been thinking of. If you've been thinking, you may imagine how I've thought. I'm satisfied that I'm doing well. You must have changed immensely. A year ago, you valued your liberty beyond everything. You wanted only to see life. I've seen it, said Isabel. It doesn't look to me now, I admit, such an inviting expanse. I don't pretend it is. Only I had an idea that you took a genial view of it and wanted to survey the whole field. I've seen that one can't do anything so general. One must choose a corner and cultivate that.

Starting point is 13:07:06 That's what I think. And one must choose as good a corner as possible. I had no idea all winter while I read your delightful letters that you were choosing. You said nothing about it, and your silence put me off my guard. It was not a matter I was likely to write to you about. besides I knew nothing of the future. It has all come lately. If you had been on your guard, however, Isabel asked, what would you have done? I should have said, wait a little longer.

Starting point is 13:07:41 Wait for what? Well, for a little more light, said Ralph, with rather an absurd smile, while his hands found their way into his pockets. Where should my light have come from? "'From you?' "'I might have struck a spark or two.' "'Isabel had drawn off her gloves. She smoothed them out as they lay upon her knee. The mildness of this movement was accidental,

Starting point is 13:08:08 for her expression was not conciliatory. "'You're beating about the bush, Ralph. "'You wish to say that you don't like Mr. Osmond, "'and yet you're afraid.' "'Willing to wound and yet afraid to strike? "'I'm willing to wound him, yet. but not to wound you. I'm afraid of you, not of him.

Starting point is 13:08:30 If you marry him, it won't be a fortunate way for me to have spoken. If I marry him, have you had any expectation of dissuading me? Of course that seems to you too fatuous. No, said Isabel after a while. It seems to me too touching. That's the same thing. It makes me so ridiculous that you pity me. She stroked out her long gloves again.

Starting point is 13:08:58 I know you have a great affection for me. I can't get rid of that. For heaven's sake, don't try. Keep that well in sight. It will convince you how intensely I want you to do well. And how little you trust me. There was a moment's silence. The warm noontide seemed to listen.

Starting point is 13:09:20 I trust you, but I don't trust him, said Ralph. She raised her eyes and gave him a wide, deep look. You've said it now, and I'm glad you've made it so clear. But you'll suffer by it. Not of your just. I'm very just, said Isabel. What better proof of it can there be than that I'm not angry with you?

Starting point is 13:09:48 I don't know what's the matter with me, but I'm not. I was when you began. but it has passed away. Perhaps I ought to be angry, but Mr. Osmond wouldn't think so. He wants me to know everything. That's what I like him for. You've nothing to gain, I know that. I've never been so nice to you as a girl

Starting point is 13:10:10 that you should have much reason for wishing me to remain one. You give very good advice. You often do so. No, I'm very quiet. I've always believed in your wisdom. She went on. boasting of her quietness, yet speaking with a kind of contained exaltation. It was her passionate desire to be just.

Starting point is 13:10:31 It touched Ralph to the heart, affected him like a caress from a creature he had injured. He wished to interrupt, to reassure her. For a moment he was absurdly inconsistent. He would have retracted what he had said. But she gave him no chance. She went on, having caught a glimpse, as she thought, of the heroic line and desiring to advance in that direction. I see you have some special idea.

Starting point is 13:10:58 I should like very much to hear it. I'm sure it's disinterested. I feel that. It seems a strange thing to argue about. And of course I ought to tell you definitely that if you expect to dissuade me you may give it up. You'll not move me an inch. It's too late.

Starting point is 13:11:14 As you say, I'm caught. Certainly it won't be pleasant for you to remember this, but your pain will be in your own thoughts. I shall never reproach you. I don't think you ever will, said Ralph. It's not in the least the sort of marriage I thought you'd make. What sort of marriage was that, pray? Well, I can hardly say.

Starting point is 13:11:38 I hadn't exactly a positive view of it, but I had a negative. I didn't think you'd decide for... Well, for that type. What's the matter with Mr. Opherson? Osmond's type, if it be one. His being so independent, so individual, is what I most see in him, the girl declared. What do you know against him? You know him scarcely at all. Yes, said Ralph, I know him very little, and I confess I haven't facts and items to prove him a villain, but all the same I can't help feeling that you're running at grave risk. Marriage is always a grave

Starting point is 13:12:16 risk, and his risks as grave as mine. That's his affair. If he's afraid, let him back out. I wish to God he would. Isabel reclined in her chair, folding her arms and gazing a while at her cousin. I don't think I understand you, she said at last coldly. I don't know what you're talking about. I believed you'd marry a man of more importance. Cold, I say, her tone had been, But at this a color like a flame leaped into her face. Of more importance to whom? It seems to me enough that one's husband should be of importance to oneself. Ralph blushed as well.

Starting point is 13:12:59 His attitude embarrassed him. Physically speaking, he proceeded to change it. He straightened himself, then leaned forward, resting a hand on each knee. He fixed his eyes on the ground. He had an air of the most respectful deliberation. I'll tell you in a moment what I'll tell you in a moment what I'm. I mean, he presently said. He felt agitated, intensely eager. Now that he had opened the discussion, he wished to discharge his mind, but he wished also to be superlatively gentle.

Starting point is 13:13:30 Isabel waited a little. Then she went on with majesty. In everything that makes one care for people, Mr. Osmond is preeminent. There may be nobler natures, but I've never had the pleasure of meeting one. Mr. Osmond's is the finest I know. He's good enough for me. me, and interesting enough and clever enough. I'm far more struck with what he has and what he represents than with what he may lack. I had treated myself to a charming vision of your future. Ralph observed without answering this. I had amused myself with planning out a high destiny for you. There was to be nothing of this sort in it. You were not to come down so easily or so soon. Come down, you say. Well, that renders my sense.

Starting point is 13:14:16 of what has happened to you. You seemed to me to be soaring far up into the blue, to be sailing in the bright light over the heads of men. Suddenly someone tosses up a faded rose-butt, a missile that should never have reached you, and straight you drop to the ground. It hurts me, said Ralph audaciously, hurts me as if I had fallen myself. The look of pain and bewilderment deepened in his companion's face. I don't understand you in the least, she repeated. You say you amused yourself with a project for my career. I don't understand that. Don't amuse yourself too much, or I shall think you're doing it at my expense.

Starting point is 13:15:02 Ralph shook his head. I'm not afraid of you're not believing that I've had great ideas for you. What do you mean by my soaring and sailing, she pursued? I've never moved on a higher plane than I'm moving on now. There's nothing higher for a girl than to marry a... A person she likes, said poor Isabel, wandering into the didactic. It's your liking the person we speak of that I venture to criticize, my dear cousin. I should have said that the man for you would have been a more active, larger, freer sort of nature.

Starting point is 13:15:38 Ralph hesitated, then added, I can't get over the sense that Osmond is somehow, well, small. He had uttered the last word with no great assurance. He was afraid she would flash out again. But to his surprise, she was quiet. She had the air of considering. Small? She made it sound immense.

Starting point is 13:16:02 I think he's narrow, selfish. He takes himself so seriously. He has a great respect for himself. I don't blame him for that, said Isabel. It makes one more sure to respect others. Ralph, for a moment, felt almost reassured by her reasonable tone. Yes, but everything is relative. One ought to feel one's relation to things, to others.

Starting point is 13:16:27 I don't think Mr. Osmond does that. I've chiefly to do with his relation to me, in that he's excellent. He's the incarnation of taste. Ralph went on, thinking he's. hard how he could best express Gilbert Osmond's sinister attributes without putting himself in the wrong by seeming to describe him coarsely. He wished to describe him personally, scientifically. He judges and measures, approves and condemns, altogether by that. It's a happy thing, then, that his taste should be exquisite. It's exquisite indeed, since it has led him to select you as

Starting point is 13:17:03 his bride. But have you ever seen such a taste, a really exquisite one, ruffled? I hope it may never be my fortune to fail to gratify my husbands. At these words, a sudden passion leaped to Ralph's lips. Ah, that's willful. That's unworthy of you. You were not meant to be measured in that way. You were meant for something better than to keep guard over the sensibilities of a sterile dilettante.

Starting point is 13:17:32 Isabel rose quickly, and he did the same, so that they stood for a moment looking at each other, as if he had flung down a defiance or an insult. But you go too far, she simply breathed. I've said what I had on my mind, and I've said it because I love you. Isabel turned pale. Was he too on that tiresome list? She had a sudden wish to strike him off.

Starting point is 13:18:00 Ah, then, you're not disinterested. I love you, but I love without hope. said Ralph quickly, forcing a smile and feeling that in that last declaration he had expressed more than he had intended. Isabel moved away and stood looking into the sunny stillness of the garden, but after a little she turned back to him. I'm afraid your talk then is the wildness of despair. I don't understand it, but it doesn't matter. I'm not arguing with you, it's impossible I should. I've only tried to listen to you. I'm much obliged to you for attempting to explain. She said, gently, as if the anger with which she had just sprung up had already

Starting point is 13:18:43 subsided. It's very good of you to try to warn me if you're really alarmed, but I won't promise to think of what you've said. I shall forget it as soon as possible. Try and forget it yourself. You've done your duty and no man can do more. I can't explain to you what I feel, what I believe, and I wouldn't if I could. She paused a moment, and then, and went on with an inconsequence that Ralph observed even in the midst of his eagerness to discover some symptom of concession. I can't enter into your idea of Mr. Osmond. I can't do it justice, because I see him in quite another way.

Starting point is 13:19:22 He's not important. No, he's not important. He's a man to whom importance is supremely indifferent. If that's what you mean when you call him small, then he's as small as you please. I call that large. It's the largest thing. I know. I won't pretend to argue with you about a person I'm going to marry, Isabel repeated. I'm not in the least concerned to defend Mr. Osmond. He's not so weak as to need my defense.

Starting point is 13:19:50 I should think it would seem strange even to yourself that I should talk of him so quietly and coldly as if he were anyone else. I wouldn't talk of him at all to anyone but you. And you, after what you've said, I may just answer you once for all. Pray, would you wish me to make a mercenary marriage, what they call a marriage of ambition? I've only one ambition, to be free to follow out a good feeling. I had others once, but they've passed away. Do you complain of Mr. Osmond because he's not rich? It's just what I like him for.

Starting point is 13:20:28 I've fortunately money enough. I've never felt so thankful for it as today. There have been moments when I should like to go and kneel down by your father's grave. He did perhaps a better thing than he knew when he put it into my power to marry a poor man, a man who was born his poverty with such dignity, with such indifference. Mr. Osmond has never scrambled nor struggled. He has cared for no worldly prize. If that's to be narrow, if that's to be selfish, then it's very well. I'm not frightened by such words.

Starting point is 13:21:00 I'm not even displeased. I'm only sorry that you should make a mistake. Others might have done so, but I'm surprised that you should. You might know a gentleman when you see one. You might know a fine mind. Mr. Osmond makes no mistakes. He knows everything. He understands everything.

Starting point is 13:21:20 He has the kindest, gentlest, highest spirit. You've got hold of some false idea. It's a pity, but I can't help it. It regards you more than me. Isabel paused a moment, looking at her cousin with an eye illumined by a sentiment which contradicted the careful calmness of her manner, a mingled sentiment, to which the angry pain excited by his words, and the wounded pride of having needed to justify a choice of which she felt only the nobleness and purity equally contributed.

Starting point is 13:21:52 Though she paused, Ralph said nothing. He saw she had more to say. She was grand, but she was highly solicitous. She was indifferent, but she was all in a passion. What sort of a person should you have liked me to marry?' she asked suddenly. You talk about one's soaring and sailing, but if one marries at all, one touches the earth. One has human feelings and needs. One has a heart in one's bosom, and one must marry a particular individual. Your mother has never forgiven me for not having come to a better understanding with Lord Warburton, and she's horrified at my contenting myself with a person who has none of his great advantages. No property, no title, no honors, no houses, nor lands, nor position, nor reputation, nor brilliant

Starting point is 13:22:38 belongings of any sort. It's the total absence of all these things that pleases me. Mr. Osmond's simply a very lonely, a very cultivated, and a very honest man. He is not a prodigious proprietor. Ralph had listened with great attention, as if everything she said merited deep consideration. But in truth he was only half-thinking of the thing she said. he was for the rest simply accommodating himself to the weight of his total impression, the impression of her ardent good faith. She was wrong, but she believed. She was deluded, but she was dismally consistent.

Starting point is 13:23:16 It was wonderfully characteristic of her that having invented a fine theory about Gilbert Osmond, she loved him not for what he really possessed, but for his very poverty is dressed out as honors. Ralph remembered what he had said to his father about wishing to put it into her power to meet the requirements of her imagination. He had done so, and the girl had taken full advantage of the luxury. Poor Ralph felt sick. He felt ashamed. Isabel had uttered her last words with a low solemnity of conviction which virtually terminated the discussion, and she closed it formally by turning away and walking back to the house. Ralph walked beside her,

Starting point is 13:23:57 and they passed into the court together and reached the big staircase. Here he was. He was a He stopped, and Isabel paused, turning on him a face of elation, absolutely and perversely of gratitude. His opposition had made her own conception of her conduct clearer to her. "'Shall you not come up to breakfast?' she asked. "'No. I want no breakfast. I'm not hungry.'

Starting point is 13:24:22 "'You ought to eat,' said the girl. "'You live on air.' "'I do, very much, and I shall go back into the garden and take another mouthful. I came thus far simply to say this. I told you last year that if you were to get into trouble, I should feel terribly sold. That's how I feel today. Do you think I'm in trouble?

Starting point is 13:24:45 One's in trouble when one's in error. Very well, said Isabel. I shall never complain of my trouble to you. And she moved up the staircase. Ralph, standing there with his hands and his pockets, followed her with his eyes. Then the lurking chill of the high-walled court struck him and made him shiver, so that he returned to the garden to breakfast on the Florentine sunshine.

Starting point is 13:25:12 End of Chapter 34 Chapter 35 of The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Librivox recording is in the public domain. Isabel, when she strolled in the casino with her lover, felt no impulse to tell him how little he was approved at Palazzo Cresciantini, The discreet opposition offered to her marriage by her aunt and her cousin made on the whole no great impression upon her. The moral of it was simply that they disliked Gilbert Osmond. This dislike was not alarming to Isabel.

Starting point is 13:25:50 She scarcely even regretted it, for it served mainly to throw into higher relief the fact, in every way so honorable, that she married to please herself. One did other things to please other people. one did this for more personal satisfaction, and Isabel's satisfaction was confirmed by her lover's admirable good conduct. Gilbert Osmond was in love, and he had never deserved less than during these still bright days, each of them numbered, which preceded the fulfillment of his hopes. The harsh criticism passed upon him by Ralph Touchett. The chief impression produced on Isabel's spirit by this criticism was that the passion of love separated its victim terribly from everyone but the loved object. She felt herself disjoined from everyone she had ever known before,

Starting point is 13:26:39 from her two sisters, who wrote to express a dutiful hope that she would be happy, and a surprise, somewhat more vague, at her not having chosen a consort, who was the hero of a richer accumulation of anecdote. From Henrietta, who, she was sure would come out too late on purpose to remonstrate, from Lord Warburton, who would certainly console himself, and from Casper Goodwood, who perhaps would not, from her aunt who had cold, shallow ideas about marriage, for which she was not sorry to display her contempt, and from Ralph,

Starting point is 13:27:13 whose talk about having great views for her was surely but a whimsical cover for a personal disappointment. Ralph apparently wished her not to marry at all. That was what it really meant, because he was amused with the spectacle of her adventures as a single woman. His disappointment made him say angry, things about the man she had preferred even to him. Isabel flattered herself that she believed Ralph had been angry.

Starting point is 13:27:37 It was the more easy for her to believe this because, as I say, she had now little free or unemployed emotion for minor needs, and accepted as an incident, in fact, quite as an ornament of her lot, the idea that to prefer Gilbert Osmond as she preferred him was perforce to break all other ties. She tasted of the sweets of this preference, and they made her conscious, almost. with awe, of the invidious and remorseless tide of the charmed and possessed condition, great as was the traditional honor and imputed virtue of being in love. It was the tragic part of happiness. One's right was always made of the wrong of someone else. The elation of success,

Starting point is 13:28:20 which surely now flamed high in Osmond, emitted, meanwhile very little smoke for so brilliant ablaze. Contentment, on his part, took no vulgar form. Excitement in the most self-conscious of men was a kind of ecstasy of self-control. This disposition, however, made him an admirable lover. It gave him a constant view of the smitten and dedicated state. He never forgot himself, as I say, and so he never forgot to be graceful and tender, to wear the appearance, which presented indeed no difficulty, of stirred senses and deep intentions. He was immensely pleased with his young lady. Madame Merle had made him a present of incalculable value. What could be a finer thing to live with than a high spirit attuned to softness?

Starting point is 13:29:06 For would not the softness be all for oneself, and the strenuousness for society, which admired the air of superiority? What could be a happier gift in a companion than a quick, fancable mind, which saved one repetitions and reflected one's thought on a polished, elegant surface? Osmond hated to see his thought reproduced literally. That made it look stale and stupid. He preferred it to be freshened in the reproduction even as words by music. His egotism had never taken the crude form of desiring a dull wife.

Starting point is 13:29:38 This lady's intelligence was to be a silver plate, not an earthen one, a plate that he might heap up with ripe fruits, to which it would give a decorative value, so that talk might become for him a sort of served dessert. He found the silver quality in this perfection in Isabel. He could tap her imagination with his knuckle and make it ring, He knew perfectly, though he had not been told, that their union enjoyed little favor with the girl's relations, but he had always treated her so completely as an independent person that it hardly seemed necessary to express regret for the attitude of her family.

Starting point is 13:30:13 Nevertheless, one morning he made an abrupt allusion to it. It's the difference in our fortune they don't like, he said. They think I'm in love with your money. Are you speaking of my aunt, of my cousin? "'Isabelle asked. How do you know what they think?' "'You've not told me they're pleased. And when I wrote to Mrs. Touchett the other day, she never answered my note. If they had been delighted, I should have had some sign of it, and the fact of my being poor and you rich is the most obvious explanation of their reserve.

Starting point is 13:30:47 But of course, when a poor man marries a rich girl, he must be prepared for imputations. I don't mind them. I only care for one thing, for you're not having the shableness. of a doubt. I don't care what people of whom I ask nothing think. I'm not even capable, perhaps, of wanting to know. I've never so concerned myself, God forgive me, and why should I begin today, when I've taken to myself a compensation for everything? I won't pretend I'm sorry, you're rich. I'm delighted. I delight in everything that's yours, whether it be money or virtue. Money is a horrid thing to follow, but a charming thing to meet. It seems to me, however, that I I've sufficiently proved the limits of my itch for it.

Starting point is 13:31:30 I never in my life tried to earn a penny, and I ought to be less subject to suspicion than most of the people one sees grubbing and grabbing. I suppose it's their business to suspect. Oh, that of your family. It's proper, on the whole, they should. They'll like me better some day. And so will you, for that matter.

Starting point is 13:31:48 Meanwhile, my business is not to make myself bad blood, but simply to be thankful for life and love. It has made me better, loving you, he said on another occasion. It has made me wiser and easier, and, I won't pretend to deny, brighter and nicer and even stronger. I used to want a great many things before and to be angry I didn't have them. Theoretically, I was satisfied, as I once told you. I flattered myself, I had limited my wants, but I was subject to irritation. I used to have morbid, sterile, hateful fits of hunger, of desire.

Starting point is 13:32:28 Now I'm really satisfied, because I can't think of anything better. It's just as when one has been trying to spell out a book in the twilight, and suddenly the lamp comes in. I had been putting out my eyes over the book of life and finding nothing to reward me for my pains. But now that I can read it properly, I see it's a delightful story. My dear girl, I can't tell you how life seems to stretch there before us, but a long summer afternoon awaits us. It's the latter half of an Italian day, with a golden haze and the shadows just lengthening, and that divine delicacy in the air, the light, the landscape,

Starting point is 13:33:11 which I have loved all my life, and which you love today. Upon my honour, I don't see why we shouldn't get on. We've got what we like, to say nothing of having each other. We've the faculty of admiration and several capital convictions. We're not stupid. We're not mean. We're not under any bonds to any kind of ignorance or dreariness. You're remarkably fresh, and I'm remarkably well-seasoned.

Starting point is 13:33:37 We've my poor child to amuse us. We'll try and make up some little life for her. It's all soft and mellow. It has the Italian coloring. They made a good many plans, but they left themselves also a good deal of latitude. It was a matter of course, however, that they should live for the present in Italy. It was an Italy that they had met. Italy had been a party to their first impressions of each other,

Starting point is 13:34:05 and Italy should be a party to their happiness. Osmond had the attachment of old acquaintance and Isabel the stimulus of New, which seemed to assure her a future at a high level of consciousness of the beautiful. The desire for unlimited expansion had been succeeded in her soul by the sense that life was vacant without some private duty that might gather one's energies to a point. She had told Ralph she had seen life in a year or two, and that she was already tired, not of the act of living, but of that of observing. What had become of all her ardors, her aspirations, her theories, her high estimate of her independence, and her incipient conviction, that she should never marry. These things had been absorbed in a more primitive need, a need the answer to which brushed away numberless questions, yet gratified infinite desires. It simplified the

Starting point is 13:35:01 situation at a stroke, it came down from above like the light of the stars, and it needed no explanation. There was explanation enough in the fact that he was her lover, her own, and that she should be able to be of use to him. She could surrender to him with a kind of humility. She could marry him with a kind of pride. She was not only taking, she was giving. He brought Pansy with him two or three times to the Casina, Pansy, who was very little taller than a year before, and not much older. That she would always be a child was the conviction expressed by her father, who held her by the hand when she was in her 16th year and told her to go and play while he sat down a little with the pretty lady.

Starting point is 13:35:47 Pansy wore a short dress and a long coat. Her hat always seemed too big for her. She found pleasure in walking off with quick short steps to the end of the alley, and then in walking back with a smile that seemed an appeal for approbation. Isabelle approved in abundance, and the abundance had the personal touch that the child's affectionate nature craved. She watched her indications as if for herself also much dependent on the child. them. Pansy already so represented part of the service she could render, part of the responsibility

Starting point is 13:36:19 she could face. Her father took so the childish view of her that he had not yet explained to her the new relation in which he stood to the elegant Miss Archer. She doesn't know, he said to Isabel. She doesn't guess. She thinks it perfectly natural that you and I should come and walk here together simply as good friends. There seems to me something enchantingly innocent in that. It's the way I like her to be. No, I'm not a failure, as I used to think. I've succeeded in two things. I'm to marry the woman I adore, and I've brought up my child, as I wished, in the old way. He was very fond in all things of the old way. That had struck Isabel as one of his fine, quiet, sincere notes. It occurs to me that you'll not know whether you've succeeded until you've told her, she said.

Starting point is 13:37:10 you must see how she takes your news. She may be horrified. She may be jealous. I'm not afraid of that. She's too fond of you on her own account. I should like to leave her in the dark a little longer, to see if it will come into her head that if we're not engaged we ought to be.

Starting point is 13:37:29 Isabel was impressed by Osmond's artistic, the plastic view, as it somehow appeared, of Pansy's innocence, her own appreciation of it being more anxiously moral. She was perhaps not the less pleased when he told her a few days later that he had communicated the fact to his daughter, who had made such a pretty little speech. Oh, then I shall have a beautiful sister. She was neither surprised nor alarmed. She had not cried as he expected.

Starting point is 13:37:59 Perhaps she had guessed it, said Isabel. Don't say that. I should be disgusted if I believed that. I thought it would be just a little shock, but the way she took it proves that her good manners are paramount. That's also what I wished. You shall see for yourself. Tomorrow she shall make you her congratulations in person. The meeting on the morrow took place at the Countess Gemini's, whither Pansy had been conducted by her father, who knew that Isabel was to come in the afternoon to return a visit made her by the Countess on learning that they were to become sisters-in-law.

Starting point is 13:38:34 Calling at Casa Tuchet, the visitor had not found Isabel at home, but after our young woman had been ushered into the Countess's drawing-room, Pansy arrived to say that her aunt would presently appear. Pansy was spending the day with that lady, who thought her of an age to begin to learn how to carry herself in company. It was Isabel's view that the little girl might have given lessons in deportment to her relative, and nothing could have justified this conviction more than the manner in which Pansy acquitted herself while they waited together for the countess. Her father's decision the year before had finally been to send her back to the convent to receive the last graces, and Madame Catherine had evidently carried out her theory that Pansy

Starting point is 13:39:14 was to be fitted for the great world. "'Papa has told me that you've kindly consented to marry him,' said this excellent woman's pupil. "'It's very delightful. I think you'll suit very well.' "'You think I shall suit you? You'll suit me beautifully. But what I mean is that you and Papa will suit each other. You're both so quiet and so serious. You're not so quiet as he, or even as Madame Merle, but you're more quiet than many others. He should not, for instance, have a wife like my aunt. She's always in motion, in agitation, today especially. You'll see when she comes in. They told us at the convent it was wrong to judge our elders,

Starting point is 13:39:55 but I suppose there's no harm if we judge them favorably. You'll be a delightful companion for Papa. For you too, I hope, Isabel said. I speak first of him on purpose. I've told you already what I myself think of you. I liked you from the first. I admire you so much that I think it will be good fortune to have you always before me. You'll be my model. I shall try to imitate you, though I'm afraid it will be very feeble. I'm very glad for Papa. He needed something more than me. Without you, I don't see how he should have got it. You'll be my stepmother, but we mustn't use that word. They're always said to be cruel. But I don't think you'll ever so much as pinch or even push me. I'm not afraid at all. "'My good little pansy,' said Isabel gently. "'I shall be ever so kind to you.' A vague, inconsequent vision of her coming in some odd way to need it had intervened with the effect of a chill. "'Very well, then, I have nothing to fear,'

Starting point is 13:40:56 the child returned with her note of prepared promptitude. "'What teaching she had had, it seemed to suggest, "'or what penalties for non-performance she dreaded.' Her description of her aunt had not been incorrect. The Countess Gemini was further than ever from having folded her wings. She entered the room with a flutter through the air and kissed Isabel first on the forehead and then on each cheek, as if according to some ancient prescribed right. She drew the visitor to a sofa, and looking at her with a variety of turns of the head, began to talk very much as if, seated brush in hand before an easel, she were applying a series of considered touches to a composition of figures already sketched in. If you expect me to congratulate you, I must beg you to excuse me. I don't suppose you care if I do or not. I believe you're supposed not to care, though being so clever, for all sorts of ordinary things. But I care myself if I tell fibs, I never tell them unless there's something rather good to be gained.

Starting point is 13:41:56 I don't see what's to be gained with you, especially as you wouldn't believe me. I don't make professions any more than I make paper flowers or flouncy lampshades. I don't know how. My lampshades would be sure to take fire, my roses and my fibs to be larger than life. I'm very glad for my own sake that you're to marry Osmond, but I won't pretend I'm glad for yours. You're very brilliant. You know that's the way you're always spoken of. You're an heiress and very good-looking and original, not banal, so it's a good thing to have you in the family.

Starting point is 13:42:26 Our family's very good, you know. Osmond will have told you that. And my mother was rather distinguished. She was called the American Corinne. But we're dreadfully fallen, I think, and perhaps you'll pick us up. I've great confidence in you. There are ever so many things I want to talk to you about. I never congratulate any girl on marrying. I think they ought to make it somehow not quite so awful a steel trap. I suppose Pansy oughtn't to hear all this, but that's what she has come

Starting point is 13:42:53 to me for, to acquire the tone of society. There's no harm in her knowing what horror she may be in for. When first I got an idea that my brother had designs on you, I thought of writing to you, to recommend you in the strongest terms not to listen to him. Then I thought it would be disloyal, and I hate anything of that kind. Besides, as I say, I was enchanted for myself, and after all I'm very selfish. By the way, you won't respect me, not one little mite, and we shall never be intimate. I should like it, but you won't. Someday, all the same, we shall be better friends than you will believe at first.

Starting point is 13:43:27 My husband will come and see you, though, as you probably know. He's on no sorts of terms with Osmond. He's very fond of going to see pretty women. But I'm not afraid of you. In the first place, I don't care what he does. In the second, you won't care a straw for him. He won't be a bit at any time your affair. And stupid as he is, he'll see that you're not his.

Starting point is 13:43:45 Someday, if you can stand it, I'll tell you all about him. Do you think my niece ought to go out of the room? Pansy, go and practice a little in my boudoir. Let her stay, please, said Isabel. I would rather hear nothing that Pansy may not. End of Chapter 35. Chapter 36 of the Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Libervox recording is in the public domain.

Starting point is 13:44:18 One afternoon of the autumn of 1876, toward dusk, a young man of pleasing appearance rang at the door of a small apartment on the third floor of an old Roman house. On its being opened he inquired for Madame Merle, where upon the servant, a neat, plain woman with a French face and a lady's maids manner, ushered him into a diminutive drawing-room and requested the favor of his name. Mr. Edward Rosier, said the young man, who sat down to wait till his hostess should appear. The reader will perhaps not have forgotten that Mr. Rosier was an ornament of the American circle in Paris, but it may also be remembered that he sometimes vanished from its horizon. He had spent a portion of several winters at Pow, and as he was a gentleman of constituted habits, he might have continued for years to pay his annual visit to this charming resort.

Starting point is 13:45:11 In the summer of 1876, however, an incident befell him which changed the current not only of his thoughts, but of his customary sequences. He passed a month in the upper Engadine and encountered at San Maritz, a charming young girl. To this little person he began to pay, on the spot, particular attention. She struck him as exactly the household angel he had long been looking for. He was never precipitate, he was nothing if not discreet, so he forbore for the present to declare his passion. But it seemed to him when they parted, the young lady to go down into Italy, and her admirer to proceed to Geneva, where he was under bonds to join other friends, that he should be romantically wretched if he were not to see her again. The simplest way to do so was to go in the autumn to Rome,

Starting point is 13:45:58 where Miss Osmond was domiciled with her family. Mr. Rosier started on his pilgrimage to the Italian capital, and reached it on the 1st of November. It was a pleasant thing to do, but for the young man there was a strain of the heroic in the enterprise. He might expose himself unseasoned to the poison of the Roman air, which in November lay, notoriously, much in weight. Fortune, however, favors the brave, and this adventurer, who took three grains of quinine a day, had at the end of a month no cause to deplore his temerity. He had made to a certain extent, and he had made to a certain extent, meant good use of his time. He had devoted it in vain to finding a flaw in Pansy Osmond's composition. She was admirably finished. She had had the last touch. She was really a consummate

Starting point is 13:46:46 piece. He thought of her in amorous meditation a good deal as he might have thought of a Dresden China shepherdess. Miss Osmond, indeed, in the bloom of her juvenility, had a hint of the Rococo, which rosier, whose taste was predominantly for that manner, could not fail to appreciate. That he esteemed the productions of comparatively frivolous periods would have been apparent from the attention he bestowed upon Madame Merle's drawing-room, which, although furnished with specimens of every style, was especially rich in articles of the last two centuries. He had immediately put a glass into one eye and looked round, and then, by jove, she has some jolly good things.

Starting point is 13:47:28 He had yearningly murmured. The room was small and densely filled with furniture. It gave an impression of faded silk and little statuettes which might totter if one moved. Rosier got up and wandered about with his careful tread, bending over the tables charged with knick-knacks and the cushions embossed with princely arms. When Madame Merle came in, she found him standing before the fireplace with his nose very close to the great lace flounce attached to the damask cover of the mantle. He had lifted it delicately, as if he were smelling it. "'It's old Venetian,' she said. "'It's rather good.

Starting point is 13:48:04 "'It's too good for this. You ought to wear it.' "'They tell me you have some better in Paris, in the same situation.' "'Ah, but I can't wear mine,' smiled the visitor. "'I don't see why you shouldn't. I've better lace than that to wear.' His eyes wondered, lingeringly, round the room again. You've some very good things. Yes, but I hate them. Do you want to get rid of them?

Starting point is 13:48:34 The young man quickly asked. No, it's good to have something to hate. One works it off. I love my things, said Mr. Rosier, as he sat there flushed with all his recognitions. But it's not about them, nor about yours, that I came to talk to you. He paused a moment. moment, and then with greater softness. I care more for Miss Osmond than for all the B-Belows in Europe.

Starting point is 13:49:02 Madame Merle opened wide eyes. Did you come to tell me that? I came to ask your advice. She looked at him with a friendly frown, stroking her chin with her large white hand. A man in love, you know, doesn't ask advice. Why not, if he's in a difficult position? that's often the case with a man in love.

Starting point is 13:49:24 I've been in love before, and I know. But never so much as this time, really never so much. I should like particularly to know what you think of my prospects. I'm afraid that for Mr. Osmond I'm not, well, a real collector's piece. Do you wish me to intercede? Madame Merle asked, with her fine arms folded and her handsome mouth drawn up to the left. If you could say good word for me, I should be greatly obliged. There will be no use in my troubling Miss Osmond unless I have good reason to believe her father will consent.

Starting point is 13:49:57 You've been very considerate. That's in your favor. But you assume in rather an offhand way that I think you apprise. You've been very kind to me, said the young man. That's why I came. I'm always kind to people who have good Louis Catoors. It's very rare now, and there's no telling what one may get by it. with which the left-hand corner of Madame Merle's mouth gave expression to the joke. But he looked, in spite of it, literally apprehensive and consistently strenuous. Ah, I thought you liked me for myself. I like you very much, but if you please, we won't analyze. Pardon me if I seem patronizing, but I think you a perfect little gentleman. I must tell you, however, that I've not the marrying of Pansy Osmond.

Starting point is 13:50:46 I didn't suppose that. But you've seemed to me intimate with her family, and I thought you might have influence. Madame Merle considered, Whom do you call her family? Why her father, and, how do you say in English, her belmere? Mr. Osmond's her father, certainly, but his wife can scarcely be termed a member of her family. Mrs. Osmond has nothing to do with marrying her. I'm sorry for that, said Rosier with an amiable sigh of good faith.

Starting point is 13:51:18 I think Mrs. Osmond would favor me. Very likely, if her husband doesn't. He raised his eyebrows. Does she take the opposite line from him? In everything, they think quite differently. Well, said Rosier, I'm sorry for that, but it's not of my business. She's very fond of Pansy. Yes, she's very fond of Pansy.

Starting point is 13:51:45 And Pansy has a great affection for her. She has told me how she likes her. loves her as if she were her own mother. You must, after all, have had some very intimate talk with the poor child, said Madame Merle. Have you declared your sentiments? Never, cried Rosier, lifting his neatly-gloved hand. Never till I've assured myself of those of the parents. You always wait for that.

Starting point is 13:52:09 You've excellent principles. You observe the proprieties. I think you're laughing at me, the young man murmured, dropping back in his chair and feeling his small mustache. I didn't expect that of you, Madame Pearl. She shook her head calmly, like a person who saw things as she saw them. You don't do me justice.

Starting point is 13:52:31 I think your conduct in excellent taste and the best you could adopt. Yes, that's what I think. I wouldn't agitate her, only to agitate her, I love her too much for that, said Ned Rosier. I'm glad after all that you've told. me. Madame Merle went on. Leave it to me a little. I think I can help you. I said you were the person

Starting point is 13:52:54 to come to, her visitor cried with prompt elation. You were very clever. Madame Merle returned more dryly. When I say I can help you, I mean once assuming your cause to be good. Let us think a little if it is. I'm awfully decent, you know, said Rosier earnestly. I won't say I've no faults, but I'll say I've no vices. All that's negative, and it always depends also on what people call vices. What's the positive side? What's the virtuous? What have you got besides your Spanish lace and your Dresden teacups? I have a comfortable little fortune, about 40,000 francs a year. With the talent I have for arranging, we can live beautifully on such an income. Beautifully, no. sufficiently, yes.

Starting point is 13:53:45 Even that depends on where you live. Oh, well, in Paris. I would undertake it in Paris. Madame Merle's mouth rose to the left. It wouldn't be famous. You'd have to make use of the teacups, and they'd get broken. We don't want to be famous. If Miss Osmond should have everything pretty, it would be enough.

Starting point is 13:54:07 When one's as pretty as she, one can afford, well, quite cheap feyance. She ought never to wear anything but muslin, without the sprig, said Rosier reflectively. Wouldn't you even allow her the sprig? She'd be much obliged to you at any rate for that theory. It's the correct one, I assure you, and I'm sure she'd enter into it. She understands all that, that's why I love her. She's a very good little girl, and most tidy, also extremely graceful. But her father, to the best of my belief, can give her nothing.

Starting point is 13:54:40 Rosier scarcely demurred. I don't in the least desire that he should, but I may remark all the same that he lives like a rich man. The money is his wife's. She brought him a large fortune. Mrs. Osmond, then, is very fond of her stepdaughter. She may do something. For a love-sick swain you have your eyes about you.

Starting point is 13:55:02 Madame Merle exclaimed with a laugh. I esteem a dough very much. I can do without it, but I esteem it. "'Mrs. Osmond,' Madame Merle went on, "'will probably prefer to keep her money for her own children. "'Her own children? Surely she has none. "'She may have yet. "'She had a poor little boy who died two years ago,

Starting point is 13:55:26 "'six months after his birth. "'Others, therefore, may come. "'I hope they will, if it will make her happy. "'She's a splendid woman.' "'Madame Merle failed to burst into speech. Ah, about her there's much to be said. Splendid as you like. We've not exactly made out that you are a party.

Starting point is 13:55:46 The absence of vices is hardly a source of income. Pardon me, I think it may be, said Rosier quite lucidly. You'll be a touching couple living on your innocence. I think you underrate me. You're not so innocent as that? Seriously, said Madame Merle. Of course, 40,000 francs a year and a nice character are a combination to be considered. I don't say it's to be jumped at, but there might be a worse offer.

Starting point is 13:56:17 Mr. Osmond, however, will probably incline to believe he can do better. He can do so, perhaps, but what can his daughter do? She can't do better than to marry the man she loves. For she does, you know, Rosier added eagerly. She does. I know it. Ah, cried the young man, I said you were the person to come. come to. But I don't know how you know it, if you haven't asked her. Madame Merle went on. In touch a case, there's no need of asking and telling, as you say, we're an innocent

Starting point is 13:56:48 couple. How did you know it? I, who am not innocent? By being very crafty. Leave it to me. I'll find out for you. Rose-year got up and stood smoothing his hat. You say that rather coldly. Don't simply find out how it is, but try to make it as it should be. I'll do my best. I'll try to make the most of your advantages. Thank you so very much. Meanwhile then, I'll say a word to Mrs. Osmond. Guardé v'en bien.

Starting point is 13:57:21 And Madame Merle was on her feet. Don't set her going, or you'll spoil everything. Rosier gazed into his hat. He wondered whether his hostess had been, after all, the right person to come to. I don't think I understand you. I'm an old friend of Mrs. Osmond, and I think she would like me to succeed. Be an old friend as much as you like. The more old friend she has the better, for she doesn't get on very well with some of her new.

Starting point is 13:57:49 But don't, for the present, try to make her take up the cudgels for you. Her husband may have other views, and, as a person who wishes her well, I advise you not to multiply points of difference between them. Poor Rosier's face assumed an expression of alarm. A suit for the hand of Pansy Osmond was even a more complicated business than his taste for proper transition sat allowed. But the extreme good sense which he concealed under a surface suggesting that of a careful owner's best set came to his assistance. I don't see that I'm bound to consider Mr. Osmond so very much, he exclaimed. No, but you should consider her.

Starting point is 13:58:29 You say you're an old friend. Would you make her suffer? Not for the world. Then be very careful, and let the matter alone till I've taken a few soundings. Let the matter alone, dear Madame Merle. Remember that I'm in love. Oh, you won't burn up. Why did you come to me if you're not to heed, would I say?

Starting point is 13:58:51 You're very kind, I'll be very good, the young man promised. But I'm afraid Mr. Osmond's pretty hard, he added in his mild voice as he went to the door. Madame Merle gave a short laugh. It has been said before, but his wife isn't easy either. Ah, she's a splendid woman. Ned Rosier repeated for departure. He resolved that his conduct should be worthy of an aspirant who was already a model of discretion. But he saw nothing in any pledge she had given Madame Merle that made it improper he should keep himself in spirits by an occasional visit to Miss Osmond's home.

Starting point is 13:59:29 He reflected constantly on what his advisor had said to him, and turned over in his mind the impression of her rather circumspect tone. He had gone to her de Confiance, as they put it in Paris, but it was possible he had been precipitate. He found difficulty in thinking of himself as rash. He had incurred this reproach so rarely, but it certainly was true that he had known Madame Merle only for the last month, and that his thinking her a delightful woman was not, when one came to look into it, a reason for assuming that she would be eager to push Pansy Osmond into his arms, gracefully arranged as these members might be to receive her. She had indeed shown him benevolence, and she was a person of consideration among the girls' people,

Starting point is 14:00:13 where she had a rather striking appearance. Rosier had more than once wondered how she managed it, of being intimate without being familiar. But, possibly, he had exaggerated these advantages. There was no particular reason why she should take trouble for him. A charming woman was charming to everyone, and Rosier felt rather a fool when he thought of his having appealed to her on the ground that she had distinguished him. Very likely, though she had appeared to say it in joke, she was really only thinking of his bibelow. Had it come into her head that he might offer her two or three of the gems of his collection? If she would only help him to marry Miss Osmond, he would present her with his whole museum.

Starting point is 14:00:53 He could hardly say so to her outright. It would seem too gross a bribe. But he should like her to believe it. It was with these thoughts that he went again to Mrs. Osmond's. Mrs. Osmond having an evening, she had taken the Thursday of each week, when his presence could be accounted for on general principles of civility. The object of Mr. Rosier's well-regulated affection dwelt in a high house in the very heart of Rome, a dark and massive structure

Starting point is 14:01:21 overlooking a sunny pietzetta in the neighborhood of the Farnese palace. In a palace too Little Pansy lived, a palace by Roman measure, but a dungeon to pour rosier's apprehensive mind. It seemed to him of an evil omen that the young lady he wished to marry

Starting point is 14:01:38 and whose fastidious father he doubted of his ability to conciliate should be immured in a kind of domestic fortress, a pile which bore a stern old Roman name, which smelt of historic deeds, of crime and craft and violence, which was mentioned in Murray, and visited by tourists, who looked on a vague survey, disappointed and depressed, and which had frescoes by Caravaggio and the Piano Nobile, and a row of mutilated statues and dusty urns in the wide, nobly arched loggia overhanging the damp court, where a fountain gushed out of a mossy niche.

Starting point is 14:02:14 In a less preoccupied frame of mind, he could have done justice to the Palazzo rocanera. He could have entered into the sentiment of Mrs. Osmond, who had once told him that on settling themselves in Rome, she and her husband had chosen this habitation for the love of local color. It had local color enough, and though he knew less about architecture than about La Mouge enamel's, he could see that the proportions of the windows and even the details of the cornice had quite the grand air. But, Rosier was haunted by the conviction that at picturesque periods young girls had been shut up there to keep them from their true loves, and then, under the threat of being thrown into convents, had been forced into unholy marriages.

Starting point is 14:02:56 There was one point, however, to which he always did justice when once he found himself in Mrs. Osmond's warm, rich-looking reception rooms, which were on the second floor. He acknowledged that these people were very strong in good things. It was a taste of Osmond's own, not at all of hers. This she had told him the first time he came to the the house. When, asking after himself for a quarter of an hour whether they had even better French than he in Paris, he was obliged on the spot to admit that they had, very much, and vanquished his envy, as a gentleman should, to the point of expressing to his hostess his pure admiration of her treasures. He learned from Mrs. Osmond that her husband had made a large

Starting point is 14:03:37 collection before their marriage, and that, though he had annexed a number of fine pieces within the last three years, he had achieved his greatest fines at a time. He had achieved his greatest fines at a time, when he had not the advantage of her advice. Rosier interpreted this information according to principles of his own. For advice, read cash, he said to himself, and the fact that Gilbert Osmond had landed his highest prizes during his impecunious season confirmed his most cherished doctrine,

Starting point is 14:04:05 the doctrine that a collector may freely be poor if he be only patient. In general, when Rosier presented himself on a Thursday evening, his first recognition was for the walls of the saloon. There were three or four objects his eye really yearned for. But after his talk with Madame Merle, he felt the extreme seriousness of his position. And now, when he came in,

Starting point is 14:04:28 he looked about for the daughter of the house with such eagerness, as might be permitted a gentleman whose smile, as he crossed a threshold, always took everything comfortable for granted. End of Chapter 36. Chapter 37 of the Portrait of the Portrait of the... A Lady by Henry James. This Librovoc's recording is in the public domain. Pansy was not in the first of the rooms, a large apartment with a concave ceiling and walls covered with old red

Starting point is 14:05:01 damask. It was here Mrs. Osmond usually sat, though she was not in her most customary place tonight, and that a circle of more especial intimates gathered about the fire. The room was flushed with subdued, diffused brightness. It continued. the larger things, and almost always, an odor of flowers. Pansy on this occasion was presumably in the next of the series, the resort of younger visitors, where tea was served. Osmond stood before the chimney, leaning back with his hands behind him. He had one foot up and was warming the soul. Half a dozen persons scattered near him were talking together, but he was not in the conversation. His eyes had an expression, frequent with

Starting point is 14:05:48 them, that seemed to represent them as engaged with objects more worth their while than the appearances actually thrust upon them. Rosier, coming in unannounced, failed to attract his attention. But the young man who was very punctilious, though he was even exceptionally conscious that it was the wife, not the husband he had come to see, went up to shake hands with him. Osmond put out his left hand without changing his attitude. How do you do? My wife somewhere about. "'Never fear, I shall find her,' said Rosier cheerfully. Osmond, however, took him in. He had never in his life felt himself so efficiently looked at.

Starting point is 14:06:30 Madame Merle has told him and he doesn't like it. He privately reasoned. He had hoped Madame Merle would be there, but she was not in sight. Perhaps she was in one of the other rooms or would come later. He had never especially delighted in Gilbert Osmond, having a fancy he gave himself air. But Rosier was not quickly resentful, and where politeness was concerned had ever a strong need of being quite in the right. He looked round him and smiled, all without help, and then in a moment, I saw a jolly good piece of Capo de Monte today, he said. Osmond answered nothing at first, but presently while he warmed his boot sole. I don't care a fig for Capo de Monte, he returned.

Starting point is 14:07:16 I hope you're not losing your interest. In old pots and plates. Yes, I'm losing my interest. Rosier, for an instant, forgot the delicacy of his position. You're not thinking of parting with a—a piece or two? No, I'm not thinking of parting with anything at all, Mr. Rosier, said Osmond, with his eyes still on the eyes of his visitor. Ah, you want to keep, but not to add, Rosier remarked brightly. Exactly. I've nothing I wish to match.

Starting point is 14:07:52 Poor Rosier was aware he had blushed. He was distressed at his want of assurance. Ah, well, I have, was all he could murmur. And he knew his murmur was partly lost as he turned away. He took his course to the adjoining room and met Mrs. Osmond coming out of the deep doorway. She was dressed in black velvet. She looked high and splendid, as he had adjoining room. Asmonde, she was dressed in black velvet. She looked high and splendid, as he had said, and yet oh, so radiantly gentle. We know what Mr. Rosier thought of her, and the terms in which, to Madame Merle, he had expressed his admiration. Like his appreciation of her dear little stepdaughter, it was based partly on his eye for decorative character, his instinct for authenticity, but also on a sense

Starting point is 14:08:37 for un-catalogued values, for that secret of a luster beyond any recorded losing or rediscovering, which his devotion to brittle wares had still not disqualified him to recognize. Mrs. Osmond at present might well have gratified such tastes. The years had touched her only to enrich her. The flower of her youth had not faded, it only hung more quietly on its stem. She had lost something of that quick eagerness to which her husband had privately taken exception. She had more the air of being able to wait. Now, at all events, framed, in the gilded doorway, she struck our young man as the picture of a gracious lady. You see, I'm very regular, he said, but who should be if I'm not?

Starting point is 14:09:23 Yes, I've known you longer than anyone here, but we mustn't indulge in tender reminiscences. I want to introduce you to a young lady. Ah, please, what young lady? Rosier was immensely obliging, but this was not what he had come for. She sits there by the fire in pink, and has no one to speak to. Rosier hesitated a moment. Can't Mr. Osmond speak to her?

Starting point is 14:09:50 He's within six feet of her. Mrs. Osmond also hesitated. She's not very lively, and he doesn't like dull people. But she's good enough for me. Ah, now that's hard. I only meant that you've ideas for two, and then you're so obliging. No, he's not, to me.

Starting point is 14:10:10 And Mrs. Osmond vaguely smiled. That's a sign he should be doubly so to other women. So I tell him, she said, still smiling. You see, I want some tea. Rosier went on, looking wistfully beyond. That's perfect. Go and give some to my young lady. Very good, but after that I'll abandon her to her fate.

Starting point is 14:10:34 The simple truth is I'm dying to have a little talk with Miss Osmond. Ah, said Isabel, turning away. I can't help you there. Five minutes later, while he handed a teacup to the damsel in pink, whom he had conducted into the other room, he wondered whether, in making to Mrs. Osmond the profession I have just quoted, he had broken the spirit of his promise to Madame Merle. Such a question was capable of occupying this young man's mind for a considerable time. At last, however, he became, comparatively speaking, reckless.

Starting point is 14:11:09 He cared little what promises he might break. The fate to which she had threatened to abandon the damsel in pink proved to be none so terrible. For Pansy Osmond, who had given him the tea for his companion, Pansy was as fond as ever of making tea, presently came and talked to her. Into this mild colloquy Edward Rosier entered little. He sat by moodily, watching his small sweetheart. If we look at her now through his eyes, we shall at first not see much to remind us of the obedient little girl, who, at Florence, three years before, was sent to walk short distances in the casino,

Starting point is 14:11:46 while her father and Miss Archer talked together of matters sacred to elder people. But after a moment we shall perceive that if at nineteen, Pansy has become a young lady, she doesn't really fill out the part. That if she has grown very pretty, she lacks, in a deplorable degree, the quality known and esteemed in the appearance of females as style. And that if she is dressed with great freshness, she wears her smart attire with an undisguised appearance of saving it, very much as if it were lent her for the occasion.

Starting point is 14:12:17 Edward Rosier, it would seem, would have been just the man to note these defects, and in point of fact there was not a quality of this young lady of any sort that he had not noted. Only he called her qualities by names of his own, some of which indeed were happy enough. No, she's unique, she's absolutely unique, he used to say to himself, and you may be sure that not for an instant would he have admitted to you that she was wanting in style. Style? Why, she had the style of a little princess. If you couldn't see it, you had no eye. It was not modern, it was not conscious, it would produce no impression in Broadway. The small, serious damsel, in her stiff little dress, only looked like an infanta of Velazquez.

Starting point is 14:13:03 This was enough for Edward Rosier, who thought her delightfully old-fashioned. Her anxious eyes, her charming lips, her slip of a figure, were as touching as a childish prayer. He had now an acute desire to know just to what point she liked him, a desire which made him fidget as he sat in his chair. It made him feel hot, so that he had to pat his forehead with his handkerchief. He had never been so uncomfortable. She was such a perfect Jun Fie, and one couldn't make of a Jun Fie the inquiry requisite for throwing light on such a point. A Jeun Fie was what Rosier had always dreamed of, a Jeune Fie who should yet not be French, for he had felt that this nationality would complicate the question.

Starting point is 14:13:48 He was sure Pansy had never looked at a newspaper, and that in the way of novels, if she had read Sir Walter Scott, it was the very most. An American Jeun Fie, what could be better than that? She would be frank and gay, and yet would not have walked alone, nor have received letters from men, nor have been taken to the theatre to see the comedy of manners. Rosier could not deny that, as the matter stood, it would be a breach of hospitality to appeal directly to this unsophisticated creature. But he was now in imminent danger of asking himself if hospitality were the most sacred thing in the world. Was not the sentiment that he entertained for Miss Osmond

Starting point is 14:14:27 of infinitely greater importance? Of greater importance to him, yes, but not probably to the master of the house. There was one comfort. Even if this gentleman had been placed on his guard by Madame Merle, he would not have extended the warning to Pansy. It would not have been part of his policy to let her know that a prepossessing young man was in love with her. But he was in love with her, the prepossessing young man, and all these restrictions of circumstance had ended by irritating him. What had Gilbert Osmond meant by giving him two fingers of his left hand? If Osmond was rude, surely he himself might be bold. He felt extremely bold after the dull girl and so vain a disguise of rose-color had responded to the call of her mother, who came in to say,

Starting point is 14:15:15 with a significant simper at Rosier, that she must carry her off to other triumphs. The mother and daughter departed together, and now it depended only upon him that he should be virtually alone with Pansy. He had never been alone with her before. He had never been alone with a jeun-fie. It was a great moment. Poor Rosier began to pat his forehead again. There was another room beyond the one in which they stood, a small room that had been thrown open and lighted, but that, the company, not being numerous, had remained empty all the evening. It was empty yet. It was upholstered in pale yellow. There were several lamps. Through the open doorway it looked the very temple of authorized love. Rosier gazed a moment through this aperture. He was afraid that Pansy would

Starting point is 14:16:03 run away, and felt almost capable of stretching out a hand to detain her. But she lingered where the other maiden had left them, making no motion to join a knot of visitors on the far side of the room. For a little it occurred to him that she was frightened, too frightened perhaps to move. But a second glance assured him she was not, and he then reflected that she was too innocent indeed for that. After a supreme hesitation, he asked her if he might go and look at the yellow room, which seemed so attractive, yet so virginal. He had been there already with Osmond to inspect the furniture, which was of the first French Empire, and especially to admire the clock, which he didn't really admire, an immense classic structure of that period. He

Starting point is 14:16:48 therefore felt that he had now begun to maneuver. "'Certainly you may go,' said Pansy. "'And if you like, I'll show you.' She was not in the least frightened. That's just what I hoped you'd say, you're so very kind, Rosier murmured. They went in together. Rosier really thought the room very ugly, and it seemed cold. The same idea appeared to have struck Pansy. It's not for winter evenings, it's more for summer, she said. It's Papa's taste. He has so much. He had a good deal, Rosier thought, but some of it was very bad. He looked about him. He hardly knew what to say in such a situation. Doesn't Mrs. Osmond care how her rooms are done?

Starting point is 14:17:35 Has she no taste? He asked. Oh, yes, a great deal. But it's more for literature, said Pansy, and for conversation. But Papa cares also for those things. I think he knows everything. Rosier was silent a little. There's one thing I'm sure he knows.

Starting point is 14:17:54 He broke out presently. He knows that when I come here it's, with all respect to him, with all respect to Mrs. who's so charming, it's really, said the young man, to see you. To see me? And Pansy raised her vaguely troubled eyes. To see you, that's what I come for. Rosier repeated, feeling the intoxication of a rupture with authority. Pansy stood looking at him, simply, intently, openly. A blush was not needed to make her face more modest. I thought it was for that. And it was not disagreeable to you? I couldn't tell.

Starting point is 14:18:34 I didn't know. You never told me, said Pansy. I was afraid of offending you. You don't offend me? The young girl murmured, smiling as if an angel had kissed her. You like me, then, Pansy? Rosier asked very gently, feeling very happy. Yes, I like you.

Starting point is 14:18:56 They had walked to the chimney-piece where the big cold Empire Claw, was perched. They were well within the room and beyond observation from without. The tone in which she had said those four words seemed to him the very breath of nature, and his only answer could be to take her hand and hold it a moment. Then he raised it to his lips. She submitted, still with her pure, trusting smile, in which there was something ineffably passive. She liked him. She had liked him all the while. Now anything might happen. She was ready. She had always been ready, waiting for him to speak. If he had not spoken, she would have waited forever. But when the word came, she dropped like the peach from the shaken tree. Rosier felt that if he should draw her toward him and hold her to his heart,

Starting point is 14:19:47 she would submit without a murmur, would rest there without a question. It was true that this would be a rash experiment in a yellow empire Salatino. She had known it was for her he came, and yet, like, what a perfect little lady she had carried it off. You're very dear to me, he murmured, trying to believe that there was, after all, such a thing as hospitality. She looked a moment at her hand, where he had kissed it. Did you say Papa knows? You told me just now he knows everything. I think you must make sure, said Pansy. "'Ah, my dear, when once I'm sure of you,' Rosier murmured in her ear,

Starting point is 14:20:29 "'whereupon she turned back to the other rooms with a little air of consistency, which seemed to imply that their appeal should be immediate. The other rooms, meanwhile, had become conscious of the arrival of Madame Merle, who, wherever she went, produced an impression when she entered. How she did it the most attentive spectator could not have told you, for she neither spoke loud, nor laughed profusely, nor moved rapidly, nor dressed with splendor, nor appealed in any appreciable manner to the audience. Large, fair, smiling, serene, there was something in her very tranquility that diffused itself,

Starting point is 14:21:04 and when people looked round it was because of the sudden quiet. On this occasion she had done the quietest thing she could do. After embracing Mrs. Osmond, which was more striking, she had sat down on a small sofa to commune with the master of the house. There was a brief exchange of commonplaces between these two, They always paid, in public, a certain formal tribute to the commonplace. And then Madame Merle, whose eyes had been wandering, asked if little Mr. Rosier had come this evening. He came nearly an hour ago, but he has disappeared, Osmond said.

Starting point is 14:21:40 And where's Pansy? In the other room, there are several people there. He's probably among them, said Madame Merle. Do you wish to see him? "'Ozman asked in a provokingly pointless tone. "'Madame Merle looked at him a moment. "'She knew each of his tones to the eighth of a note. "'Yes, I should like to say to him

Starting point is 14:22:02 "'that I've told you what he wants, "'and that it interests you but feebly. "'Don't tell him that. "'He'll try to interest me more, "'which is exactly what I don't want. "'Tell him I hate his proposal.' "'But you don't hate it.' "'It doesn't signify.

Starting point is 14:22:19 "'I don't love it. I let him see that myself this evening. I was rude to him on purpose. That sort of thing's a great bore. There's no hurry. I'll tell him that you'll take time and think it over. No, don't do that. He'll hang on.

Starting point is 14:22:36 If I discourage him, he'll do the same. Yes, but in the one case he'll try to talk and explain, which would be exceedingly tiresome. In the other, he'll probably hold his tongue and go in for some deeper game. That will leave me quiet. I hate talking with a dog. donkey. Is that what you call poor Mr. Rosier? Oh, he's a nuisance, with his eternal majolica. Madame Merle dropped her eyes. She had a faint smile. He's a gentleman. He has a charming

Starting point is 14:23:05 temper, and after all, an income of forty thousand francs. It's misery, genteel misery, Osmond broke in. It's not what I've dreamed of for Pansy. Very good, then. He has promised me not to speak. to her. Do you believe him? Asmund asked absent-mindedly. Perfectly. Pansy has thought a great deal about him, but I don't suppose you consider that that matters. I don't consider it matters at all, but neither do I believe she has thought of him. That opinion's more convenient, said Madame Merle quietly. Has she told you she's in love with him? For what do you take her, and for what do you take me, Madame Merle added in a moment.

Starting point is 14:23:54 Osmond had raised his foot and was resting his slim ankle on the other knee. He clasped his ankle in his hand familiarly. His long, fine forefinger and thumb could make a ring for it, and gazed a while before him. This kind of thing doesn't find me unprepared. It's what I educated her for. It was all for this, that when such a case should come up, she should do what I prefer. I'm not afraid that she'll not do it. Well, then, where's the hitch?

Starting point is 14:24:25 I don't see any. But all the same I recommend you not get rid of Mr. Rosier. Keep him on hand. He may be useful. I can't keep him. Keep him yourself. Very good. I'll put him into a corner and allow him so much a day.

Starting point is 14:24:44 Madame Merle had, for the most part, while they talked, been glancing about her. It was her habit and, this situation, just as it was her habit to interpose a good many blank-looking pauses. A long drop followed the last words I have quoted, and before it had ended, she saw Pansy come out of the adjoining room, followed by Edward Rosier. The girl advanced a few steps, and then stopped and stood looking at Madame Merle and at her father. "'He has spoken to her,' Madame Merle went on to Osmond. Her companion never turned his head.

Starting point is 14:25:18 so much for your belief in his promises. He ought to be horsewipped. He intends to confess, poor little man. Osmond got up. He had now taken a sharp look at his daughter. It doesn't matter, he murmured, turning away. Pansy, after a moment, came up to Madame Merle with her little manner of unfamiliar politeness. This lady's reception of her was not more intimate. She simply, as she rose from the sofa, gave her a friend. friendly smile. You're very late, the young creature gently said. My dear child, I'm never later than I intend to be.

Starting point is 14:25:59 Madame Merle had not got up to be gracious to Pansy. She moved toward Edward Rosier. He came to meet her, and very quickly, as if to get it off his mind. I've spoken to her, he whispered. I know it, Mr. Rosier. Did she tell you? Yes, she told me. Behave properly for the rest of the evening, and come and see me tomorrow at a quarter past five.

Starting point is 14:26:24 She was severe, and in the manner in which she turned her back to him, there was a degree of contempt, which caused him to mutter a decent imprecation. He had no intention of speaking to Osmond. It was neither the time nor the place, but he instinctively wandered toward Isabel, who sat talking with an old lady. He sat down on the other side of her. The old lady was Italian, and Rosier took for granted. she understood no English. You said just now you wouldn't help me.

Starting point is 14:26:53 He began to Mrs. Osmond. Perhaps you'll feel differently when you know. When you know, Isabel met his hesitation. When I know what? That she's all right. What do you mean by that? Well, that we've come to an understanding. She's all wrong, said Isabel.

Starting point is 14:27:13 It won't do. Poor Rosier gazed at her half-pleadingly, half angrily, a sudden flush testified to his sense of injury. I've never been treated so, he said. What is there against me after all? That's not the way I'm usually considered. I could have married twenty times. It's a pity you didn't.

Starting point is 14:27:34 I don't mean twenty times, but once, comfortably. Isabel added, smiling kindly, You're not rich enough for Pansy. She doesn't care a straw for one's money. No. but her father does. Ah, yes, he has proved that, cried the young man. Isabel got up, turning away from him, leaving her old lady without ceremony, and he occupied

Starting point is 14:28:00 himself for the next ten minutes in pretending to look at Gilbert Osmond's collection of miniatures, which were neatly arranged on a series of small velvet screens. But he looked without seeing, his cheek burned, he was too full of his sense of injury. It was certain that he had never been treated that. way before. He was not used to being thought not good enough. He knew how good he was, and if such a fallacy had not been so pernicious he could have laughed at it. He searched again for Pansy, but she had disappeared, and his main desire was now to get out of the house. Before doing so, he spoke once more to Isabel. It was not agreeable to him to reflect that he had just said a rude

Starting point is 14:28:39 thing to her, the only point that would now justify a low view of him. I referred to Mr. Osmond as I shouldn't have done a while ago. He began. But you must remember my situation. I don't remember what you said, she answered coldly. Ah, now you're offended, and now you'll never help me. She was silent an instant, and then with a change of tone. It's not that I won't.

Starting point is 14:29:05 I simply can't. Her manner was almost passionate. If you could, just a little, I'd never again speak of your husband and save as an angel. The inducement's great, said Isabel gravely, inscrutably as he afterwards to himself called it, and she gave him, straight in the eye, a look which was also inscrutable.

Starting point is 14:29:27 It made him remember somehow that he had known her as a child, and yet it was keener than he liked, and he took himself off. End of Chapter 37. Chapter 38 of the Portrait of a Lady by Henry James, This Librovoc's recording is in the public domain. He went to see Madame Merle on the morrow, and to his surprise, she let him off rather easily. But she made him promise that he would stop there till something should have been decided.

Starting point is 14:30:03 Mr. Osmond had had higher expectations. It was very true that as he had no intention of giving his daughter a portion, such expectations were open to criticism, or even, if one would, to ridicule. But she would advise Mr. Rosier not to take that tone. If he would possess his soul in patience, he might arrive at his felicity. Mr. Osmond was not favorable to his suit, but it wouldn't be a miracle if he should gradually come round. Pansy would never defy her father.

Starting point is 14:30:33 He might depend on that, so nothing was to be gained by precipitation. Mr. Osmond needed to accustom his mind to an offer of a sort that he had not hitherto entertained, and this result must come of itself. It was useless to try to force it. Rozier remarked that his own situation would be in the meantime the most uncomfortable in the world, and Madame Merle assured him that she felt for him. But as she justly declared, one couldn't have everything one wanted. She had learned that lesson for herself.

Starting point is 14:31:05 There would be no use in his writing to Gilbert Osmond, who had charged her to tell him as much. He wished the matter dropped for a few weeks, and would himself write when he should have anything to communicate that might please Mr. Rosier to hear. He doesn't like your having spoken to Pansy. Ah, he doesn't like it at all, said Madame Merle. I'm perfectly willing to give him a chance to tell me so. If you do, he'll tell you more than you care to hear.

Starting point is 14:31:33 Go to the house for the next month as little as possible, and leave the rest to me. As little as possible, who's to measure the possibility? Let me measure it. Go on Thursday evenings with the rest of the world, but don't go at all at odd times, and don't fret about Pansy. I'll see that she understands everything. She's a calm little nature. She'll take it quietly. Edward Rosier fretted about Pansy a good deal, but he did as he was advised, and awaited another Thursday evening before returning to Palazzo Roca Nara. There had been a party at dinner, so that though he went early, the company was already tolerably numerous. Osmond, as usual, was in the first room near the fire, staring straight at the door,

Starting point is 14:32:19 so that, not to be distinctly uncivil, Rosier had to go and speak to him. I'm glad that you can take a hint, Pansy's father said, slightly closing his keen, conscious eyes. I take no hints, but I took a message, as I supposed it to be. You took it. Where did you take it? It seemed to poor Rosier he was being insulted, and he waited a moment, asking himself how much a true lover ought to submit to. Madame Merle gave me, as I understand it, a message from you,

Starting point is 14:32:53 to the effect that you declined to give me the opportunity to thy desire, the opportunity to explain my wishes to you. And he flattered himself he spoke rather sternly. I don't see what Madame Merle has to do with it. Why did you apply to Madame Merle? I asked her for an opinion, for nothing more. I did so because she had seemed to me to know you very well. She doesn't know me so well as she thinks, said Asmond.

Starting point is 14:33:19 I'm sorry for that, because she has given me some little ground for hope. Osmond stared into the fire a moment. I set a great price on my daughter. You can't set a higher one than I do. Don't I prove it by wishing to marry her? I wish to marry her very well. Asmund went on with a dry impertinence, which, in another mood, poor Rosier would have admired.

Starting point is 14:33:45 Of course I pretend she'd marry well in marrying me. She couldn't marry a man who loves her more, or whom I may venture to add, she loves more. I'm not bound to accept your theories as to whom my daughter loves. And Osmond looked up with a quick, cold smile. I'm not theorizing. Your daughter has spoken. Not to me, Osmond continued,

Starting point is 14:34:09 now bending forward a little and dropping his eyes to his boot toes. I have her promise, sir, cried Rosier, with the sharpness of exasperation. As their voices had been pitched very low before, such a note attracted some attention from the company. Osmond waited till this little movement had subsided, then he said, all undisturbed. I think she has no recollection of having given it. They had been standing with their faces to the fire, And after he had uttered these last words, the master of the house turned round again to the room. Before Rosier had time to reply, he perceived that a gentleman, a stranger, had just come in,

Starting point is 14:34:50 unannounced, according to the Roman custom, and was about to present himself to his host. The latter smiled blandly, but somewhat blankly. The visitor had a handsome face and a large, fair beard, and was evidently an Englishman. "'You apparently don't recognize me,' he said. with a smile that expressed more than Osmond's. Ah, yes, now I do. I expected so little to see you. Rosier departed, and went in direct pursuit of Pansy. He sought her, as usual in the neighboring room,

Starting point is 14:35:23 but he again encountered Mrs. Osmond in his path. He gave his hostess no greeting. He was too righteously indignant, but said to her crudely, Your husband's awfully cold-blooded. She gave the same mystical smile he had noticed before. You can't expect everyone to be as hot as yourself. I don't pretend to be cold, but I'm cool. What has he been doing to his daughter?

Starting point is 14:35:48 I have no idea. Don't you take any interest? Rosier demanded with his sense that she too was irritating. For a moment she answered nothing. Then, no, she said abruptly, and with a quickened light in her eyes, which directly contradicted the word. Pardon me if I don't believe that. "'Where's Miss Osmond?'

Starting point is 14:36:10 "'In the corner making tea. "'Please leave her there.' "'Rosier instantly discovered his friend "'who had been hidden by intervening groups. "'He watched her, "'but her own attention was entirely given to her occupation. "'What on earth has he done to her?' "'He asked again, imploringly.

Starting point is 14:36:28 "'He declares to me she has given me up.' "'She has not given you up,' "'isabow said in a low tone and without looking at him. Oh, thank you for that. Now I'll leave her alone as long as you think proper. He had hardly spoken when he saw her change color, and became aware that Osmond was coming toward her, accompanied by the gentleman who had just entered. He judged the latter, in spite of the advantage of good looks and evident social experience, a little embarrassed. Isabel, said her husband, I bring you an old friend.

Starting point is 14:37:03 Mrs. Osmond's face, though it wore a smile, was like her old friends not perfectly confident. I'm very happy to see Lord Warburton, she said. Rosier turned away, and now that his talk with her had been interrupted, felt absolved from the little pledge she had just taken. He had a quick impression that Mrs. Osmond wouldn't notice what he did. Isabel, in fact, to do him justice, for some time quite ceased to observe him. She had been startled. She hardly knew if she felt a pleasure or a pain. Lord Warburton, however, now that he was face to face with her,

Starting point is 14:37:40 was plainly quite sure of his own sense of the matter, though his grey eyes had still their fine original property of keeping recognition and attestation strictly sincere. He was heavier than of yore, and looked older. He stood there very solidly and sensibly. "'I suppose you didn't expect to see me,' he said. I've but just arrived. Literally I only got here this evening.

Starting point is 14:38:04 You see, I've lost no time in coming to pay you my respects. I knew you were at home on Thursdays. You see, the fame of your Thursdays has spread to England, Asmund remarked to his wife. It's very kind of Lord Warburton to come so soon. We're greatly flattered, Isabel said. Ah, well, it's better than stopping in one of those horrible inns. Asmund went on.

Starting point is 14:38:28 The hotel seems very good. I think it's the same at which I saw you four years since. You know it was here in Rome that we first met. It's a long time ago. Do you remember where I bade you goodbye? His lordship asked of his hostess. It was in the capital, in the first room. I remember that myself, said Asmund.

Starting point is 14:38:49 I was there at the time. Yes, I remember you there. I was very sorry to leave Rome. So sorry that, somehow or other, it became almost a dismal memory, and I've never cared to come back till today. But I knew you were living here. Her old friend went on to Isabel, and I assure you I've often thought of you. It must be a charming place to live in. He added with a look round him at her established home, in which she might have caught the dim ghost of his old ruefulness.

Starting point is 14:39:19 We should have been glad to see you at any time, Asmund observed with propriety. Thank you very much. I haven't been out of England since then. Till a month ago, I really supposed my travels were over. I've heard of you from time to time, said Isabel, who had already, with her rare capacity for such inward feats, taken the measure of what meeting him again meant for her. I hope you've had no harm. My life has been a remarkably complete blank. Like the good reigns in history, Osmond suggested. He appeared to think his duties as a heart.

Starting point is 14:39:54 host now terminated, he had performed them so conscientiously. Nothing could have been more adequate, more nicely measured, than his courtesy to his wife's old friend. It was punctilious, it was explicit, it was everything but natural. A deficiency which Lord Warburton, who himself had on the whole a good deal of nature, may be supposed to have perceived. I'll leave you and Mrs. Osmond together, he added, you have reminiscences into which I don't. don't enter. I'm afraid you lose a good deal. Lord Warburton called after him, as he moved away, in a tone which perhaps betrayed over much an appreciation of his generosity. Then the visitor turned on Isabel the deeper, the deepest consciousness of his look, which gradually became more

Starting point is 14:40:41 serious. I'm really very glad to see you. It's very pleasant. You're very kind. Do you know that you've changed, a little? She just hesitated. "'Yes, a good deal.' "'I don't mean for the worse, of course. "'And yet how can I say for the better?' "'I think I shall have no scruple in saying that to you,' she bravely returned. "'Ah, well, for me, it's a long time. "'It would be a pity there shouldn't be something to show for it.'

Starting point is 14:41:15 They sat down and she asked him about his sisters, with other inquiries of a somewhat perfunctory kind. He answered her questions as if they interested him, and in a few moments she saw, or believed she saw, that he would press with less of his whole weight than of your. Time had breathed upon his heart, and without chilling it, given it a relieved sense of having taken the air. Isabel felt her usual esteem for time rise at a bound. Her friend's manner was certainly that of a contented man, one who would rather like people,

Starting point is 14:41:49 or like her at least, to know him for such. There's something I must tell you without more delay, he resumed. I've brought Ralph Touchett with me. Brought him with you? Isabel's surprise was great. He's at the hotel. He was too tired to come out and has gone to bed. I'll go to see him, she immediately said.

Starting point is 14:42:12 That's exactly what I hoped you'd do. I had an idea you hadn't seen much of him since your marriage, that in fact your relations were, "'A little more formal. "'That's why I hesitated, like an awkward Britain.' "'I'm as fond of Ralph as ever,' Isabel answered. "'But why has he come to Rome?' The declaration was very gentle, the question a little sharp.

Starting point is 14:42:38 "'Because he's very far gone, Mrs. Osmond.' "'Rome then is no place for him. "'I heard from him that he determined to give up his custom of wintering abroad "'and to remain in England, indoors, in what he called an artificial climate. Poor fellow. He doesn't succeed with the artificial. I went to see him three weeks ago at Garden Court,

Starting point is 14:42:59 and found him thoroughly ill. He's been getting worse every year, and now he has no strength left. He smoked no more cigarettes. He had got up an artificial climate, indeed. The house was as hot as Calcutta. Nevertheless, he had suddenly taken it into his head to start for Sicily. I didn't believe in it.

Starting point is 14:43:19 neither did the doctors nor any of his friends. His mother, as I suppose you know, is in America, so there was no one to prevent him. He stuck to his idea that it would be the saving of him to spend the winter at Catania. He said he could take servants and furniture, could make himself comfortable, but in point of fact he hasn't brought anything.

Starting point is 14:43:40 I wanted him at least to go by sea to save fatigue, but he said he hated the sea and wished to stop at Rome. After that, though I thought it was all. rubbish, I made up my mind to come with him. I'm acting as, what do you call it in America, as a kind of moderator. Poor Ralph's very moderate now. We left England a fortnight ago, and he has been very bad on the way. He can't keep warm, and the further south we come the more he feels the cold. He has got rather a good man, but I'm afraid he's beyond human help. I wanted him to take with him some clever fellow, I mean some sharp young doctor, but he wouldn't hear of it.

Starting point is 14:44:22 If you don't mind my saying so, I think it was a most extraordinary time for Mrs. Touchard to decide on going to America. Isabel had listened eagerly. Her face was full of pain and wonder. My aunt does that at fixed periods, and lets nothing turn her aside. When the date comes round, she starts. I think she'd have started if Ralph had been dying. I sometimes think he is dying, Lord Warburton said. Isabel sprang up. I'll go to him then now. He checked her.

Starting point is 14:44:54 He was a little disconcerted at the quick effect of his words. I don't mean I thought so tonight. On the contrary, today in the train he seemed particularly well. The idea of our reaching Rome. He's very fond of Rome, you know, gave him strength. An hour ago, when I bade him good-night, he told me he was very tired but very happy. "'Go to him in the morning. That's all I mean. I didn't tell him I was coming here. I didn't decide to till after we had separated. Then I remembered he had told me you had an evening,

Starting point is 14:45:26 and that it was this very Thursday. It occurred to me to come in and tell you he's here, and to let you know you had perhaps better not wait for him to call. I think he said he hadn't written to you.' There was no need of Isabelle's declaring that she would act upon Lord Warburton's information. She looked as she sat there, like a winged creature held back. Let alone that I wanted to see you for myself, her visitor gallantly added. I don't understand Ralph's plan. It seems to me very wild, she said. I was glad to think of him between those thick walls at Garden Court. He was completely alone there. The thick walls were his only company. You went to see him. You've been extremely kind. Oh, dear.

Starting point is 14:46:11 I had nothing to do, said Lord Warburton. We hear, on the contrary, that you're doing great things. Everyone speaks of you as a great statesman, and I'm perpetually seeing your name in the times, which, by the way, doesn't appear to hold it in reverence. You're apparently as wild a radical as ever. I don't feel nearly so wild. You know the world has come round to me. Touch it and I have kept up a sort of parliamentary debate all the way from London.

Starting point is 14:46:39 I tell him he's the last of. the Tories, and he calls me the King of the Goths. Says I have, down to the details of my personal appearance, every sign of the brute. So you see there's life in him yet. Isabel had many questions to ask about Ralph, but she abstained from asking them all. She would see for herself on the morrow. She perceived that after a little Lord Warburton would tire of that subject. He had a conception of other possible topics. She was more and more able to to say to herself that he had recovered, and what is more to the point, she was able to say it without bitterness. He had been for her of old, such an image of urgency, of insistence, of something

Starting point is 14:47:23 to be resisted and reasoned with, that his reappearance at first menaced her with a new trouble. But she was now reassured. She could see he only wished to live with her on good terms, that she was to understand he had forgiven her, and was incapable of the bad taste of making pointed illusions. This was not a form of revenge, of course. She had no suspicion of his wishing to punish her by an exhibition of disillusionment. She did him the justice to believe it had simply occurred to him that she would now take a good-natured interest in knowing he was resigned. It was the resignation of a healthy, manly nature, in which sentimental wounds could never fester. British politics had cured him. She had known they would. She gave an envious thought

Starting point is 14:48:08 to the happier lot of men, who were always free to plunge into the healing waters of action. Lord Warburton, of course, spoke of the past, but he spoke of it without implications. He even went so far as to allude to their former meeting in Rome as a very jolly time. And he told her he had been immensely interested in hearing of her marriage, and that it was a great pleasure for him to make Mr. Osmond's acquaintance, since he could hardly be said to have made it on the other occasion. He had not written to her at the time of that passage in her. history, but he didn't apologize to her for this. The only thing he implied was that they were

Starting point is 14:48:44 old friends, intimate friends. It was very much as an intimate friend that he said to her, suddenly, after a short pause, which he had occupied in smiling, as he looked about him, like a person amused at a provincial entertainment by some innocent game of guesses. Well now, I suppose you're very happy and all that sort of thing? Isabel answered with a quick laugh. The tone of his remarks, her as almost the accent of comedy. Do you suppose if I were not, I'd tell you? Well, I don't know.

Starting point is 14:49:15 I don't see why not. I do, then. Fortunately, however, I'm very happy. You've got an awfully good house. Yes, it's very pleasant. But that's not my merit. It's my husband's. You mean he has arranged it?

Starting point is 14:49:31 Yes, it was nothing when we came. He must be very clever. He has a genius for upholstery, said Isabel. There's a great rage for that sort of thing now, but you must have a taste of your own. I enjoy things when they're done, but I've no ideas.

Starting point is 14:49:48 I never can propose anything. Do you mean you accept what others propose? Very willingly for the most part. That's a good thing to know. I shall propose to you something. It will be very kind. I must say, however, that I have in a few small ways a certain initiative. I should like for it.

Starting point is 14:50:07 instance, to introduce you to some of these people. Oh, please don't. I prefer sitting here. Unless it be to that young lady in the blue dress, she has a charming face. The one talking to the rosy young man? That's my husband's daughter. Lucky man, your husband, what a dear little maid. You must make her acquaintance. In a moment, with pleasure, I like looking at her from here. He ceased to look at her, however, very soon. His eyes. constantly reverted to Mrs. Osmond. Do you know I was wrong just now in saying you had changed? He presently went on.

Starting point is 14:50:45 You seemed to me, after all, very much the same. And yet I find it a great change to be married, said Isabel with mild gaiety. It affects most people more than it has affected you. You see I haven't gone in for that. It rather surprises me. You ought to understand it, Mrs. Osmond. But I do want to marry. He added more simply,

Starting point is 14:51:09 "'It ought to be very easy,' Isabel said, rising, after which he reflected, with the pang perhaps too visible, that she was hardly the person to say this. It was perhaps because Lord Warburton divined the pang that he generously forbore to call her attention to her not having contributed then to the facility. Edward Rosier had meanwhile seated himself on an ottoman beside Pansy's tea-table. He pretended at first to talk.

Starting point is 14:51:37 to her about trifles, and she asked him who was the new gentleman conversing with her stepmother. "'He's an English lord,' said Rosier. "'I don't know more.' "'I wonder if he'll have some tea. The English are so fond of tea.' "'Never mind that. I've something particular to say to you.' "'Don't speak so loud everyone will hear,' said Pansy. "'They won't hear if you continue to look that way, as if your only thought in life was the wish the kettle would boil.'

Starting point is 14:52:05 "'It has just been filled. the servants never know. And she sighed with the weight of her responsibility. Do you know what your father said to me just now, that you didn't mean what you said a week ago? I don't mean everything, I say. How can a young girl do that? But I mean what I say to you.

Starting point is 14:52:25 He told me you'd forgotten me. Oh, no, I don't forget, said Pansy, showing her pretty teeth in a fixed smile. Then everything's just the very same? Oh, no, not the very same. Papa has been terribly severe. What has he done to you? He asked me what you had done to me, and I told him everything.

Starting point is 14:52:47 Then he forbade me to marry you. You needn't mind that. Oh, yes, I must indeed. I can't disobey Papa. Not for one who loves you as I do, and whom you pretend to love? She raised the lid of the teapot, gazing into the vessel for a moment, then she dropped six words into its aromatic depths. I love you just as much.

Starting point is 14:53:12 What good will that do me? Ah, said Pansy, raising her sweet, vague eyes. I don't know that. You disappoint me, groaned poor Rosier. She was silent a little. She handed a teacup to a servant. Please don't talk anymore. Is this to be all my satisfaction?

Starting point is 14:53:33 Papa said I was not. to talk with you. Do you sacrifice me like that? Oh, it's too much. I wish you'd wait a little, said the girl in a voice just distinct enough to betray a quaver. Of course I'll wait if you'll give me hope, but you take my life away. I'll not give you up. Oh no, Pansy went on. He'll try and make you marry someone else. I'll never do that. What then are we to wait for? She hesitated again. I'll speak to Mrs. Osmond, and she'll help us. It was in this manner that she, for the most part, designated her stepmother. She won't help us much. She's afraid.

Starting point is 14:54:16 Afraid of what? Of your father, I suppose. Pansy shook her little head. She's not afraid of anyone. We must have patience. Oh, that's an awful word. Rosier groaned. He was deeply disconcerted,

Starting point is 14:54:31 Oblivious of the customs of good society, he dropped his head into his hands, and supporting it with a melancholy grace, sat staring at the carpet. Presently he became aware of a good deal of movement about him, and as he looked up, saw Pansy making a curtsy. It was still her little courtesy of the convent, to the English lord whom Mrs. Osmond had introduced. End of Chapter 38. Chapter 39 of the Portrait of a Lady. Henry James. This Librovoc's recording is in the public domain.

Starting point is 14:55:11 It will probably not surprise the reflective reader that Ralph Touchett should have seen less of his cousin since her marriage than he had done before that event, an event of which he took such a view as could hardly prove a confirmation of intimacy. He had uttered his thought, as we know, and after this had held his peace. Isabel not having invited him to resume a discussion which marked an error in their relations. That discussion had made a difference, the difference he feared rather than the one he hoped. It had not chilled the girl's zeal in carrying out her engagement,

Starting point is 14:55:49 but it had come dangerously near to spoiling a friendship. No reference was ever again made between them to Ralph's opinion of Gilbert Osmond, and by surrounding this topic with a sacred silence, they managed to preserve a semblance of reciprocal frankness. But there was a difference, as Ralph often said to himself, there was a difference. She had not forgiven him. She never would forgive him. That was all he had gained. She thought she had forgiven him. She believed she didn't care. And as she was both very generous and very proud, these convictions represented a certain reality. But whether or no the event should justify

Starting point is 14:56:30 him, he would virtually have done her a wrong, and the wrong was of the sort that women remember best. As Osmond's wife, she could never again be his friend. If, in this character, she should enjoy the felicity she expected, she would have nothing but contempt for the man who had attempted, in advance, to undermine a blessing so dear. And if, on the other hand, his warning should be justified, the vow she had taken that he should never know it would lay upon her spirit such a burden as to make her hate him. So dismal had been, during the year that followed his cousin's marriage, Ralph's prevision of the future. And if his meditations appear morbid, we must remember he was not in the bloom of health.

Starting point is 14:57:15 He consoled himself as he might by behaving, as he deemed, beautifully, and was present at the ceremony by which Isabel was united to Mr. Osmond, and which was performed in Florence in the month of June. He learned from his mother that Isabel at first had thought of celebrating her nuptials in her native land, but that as simplicity was what she chiefly desired to secure, she had finally decided, in spite of Osmond's professed willingness to make a journey of any length, that this characteristic would be best embodied in their being married by the nearest clergyman in the shortest time. The thing was done, therefore, at the Little American Chapel on a very hot day, in the presence only of Mrs. Touchett and her son, of Pansy Osmond, and the Countess Gemini.

Starting point is 14:58:01 That severity in the proceedings of which I just spoke was in part the result of the absence of two persons who might have been looked for on the occasion, and who would have lent it a certain richness. Madame Merle had been invited, but Madame Merle, who was unable to leave Rome, had written a gracious letter of excuses. Henrietta Stackpole had not been invited, as her departing her departing her. from America, announced to Isabel by Mr. Goodwood, was in fact frustrated by the duties of her profession. But she had sent a letter, less gracious than Madame Merle's, intimating that, had she been able to cross the Atlantic, she would have been present not only as a witness, but as a critic. Her return to Europe had taken place somewhat later, and she had affected a meeting

Starting point is 14:58:48 with Isabel in the autumn, in Paris. When she had indulged, perhaps a trifle too freely, her critical genius. Poor Osmond, who was chiefly the subject of it, had protested so sharply that Henrietta was obliged to declare to Isabel that she had taken a step which put a barrier between them. It isn't in the least that you've married, it is that you have married him, she had deemed it her duty to remark, agreeing it will be seen, much more with Ralph Touchett than she suspected, though she had few of his hesitations and compunctions. Henrietta's second visit to Europe, however, was not apparently to have been made in vain. For just at the moment when Osmond had declared to Isabel that he really must object to that newspaper woman, and Isabel

Starting point is 14:59:32 had answered that it seemed to her he took Henrietta too hard, the good Mr. Bantling had appeared upon the scene, and proposed that they should take a run down to Spain. Henrietta's letters from Spain had proved the most acceptable she had yet published, and there had been one in a special, dated from the Alhambra, and entitled Moors and Moonlight, which generally passed for her masterpiece. Isabel had been secretly disappointed at her husband's not seeing his way simply to take the poor girl for funny. She even wondered if his sense of fun, or of the funny, which would be his sense of humor,

Starting point is 15:00:05 wouldn't it, were by chance defective. Of course she herself looked at the matter as a person whose present happiness had nothing to grudge to Henrietta's violated conscience. Osmond had thought their alliance a kind of monstrosity. He couldn't imagine what they had in common. For him, Mr. Bantling's fellow tourist was simply the most vulgar of women, and he had also pronounced her the most abandoned. Against this latter clause of the verdict, Isabel had appealed with an ardor that had made

Starting point is 15:00:34 him wonder afresh at the oddity of some of his wife's tastes. Isabel could explain it only by saying that she liked to know people who were as different as possible from herself. Why then don't you make the acquaintance of your washerwoman? had inquired, to which Isabel had answered that she was afraid her washerwoman wouldn't care for her. Now Henrietta cared so much. Ralph had seen nothing of her for the greater part of the two years that had followed her marriage. The winter that formed the beginning of her residence in Rome, he had spent again at San Remo,

Starting point is 15:01:08 where he had been joined in the spring by his mother, who afterwards had gone with him to England to see what they were doing at the bank, an operation she couldn't induce him to perform. Ralph had taken a lease of his house at San Remo, a small villa which he had occupied still another winter, but late in the month of April of this second year, he had come down to Rome. It was the first time since her marriage that he had stood face to face with Isabel. His desire to see her again was then of the keenest. She had written to him from time to time, but her letters told him nothing he wanted to know. He had asked his mother what she was making of her life,

Starting point is 15:01:45 and his mother had simply answered that she supposed she was making the best of it. Mrs. Touchett had not the imagination that communes with the unseen, and she now pretended to know intimacy with her niece, whom she rarely encountered. This young woman appeared to be living in a sufficiently honorable way, but Mrs. Touchett still remained of the opinion that her marriage had been a shabby affair. It had given her no pleasure to think of Isabel's establishment, which she was sure was a very lame business. From time to time in Florence, she rubbed against the Countess Gemini, doing her best all

Starting point is 15:02:18 ways to minimize the contact, and the countess reminded her of Osmond, who made her think of Isabelle. The countess was less talked of in these days, but Mrs. Touchett augured no good of that. It only proved how she had been talked of before. There was a more direct suggestion of Isabel in the person of Madame Merle, but Madame Merle's relations with Mrs. Touchett had undergone a perceptible change. Isabelle's aunt had told her, without circumlocution, that she had played too ingenious apart. And Madame Merle, who never quarreled with anyone, who appeared to think no one worth it, and who had performed the miracle of living, more or less, for several years with Mrs. Touchett and showing no symptom of irritation, Madame Merle now took a very high tone,

Starting point is 15:03:03 and declared that this was an accusation from which she couldn't stoop to defend herself. She added, however, without stooping, that her behavior had been only too simple, that she had believed only what she saw, that she saw Isabel was not eager to marry, and Osmond not eager to please. His repeated visits had been nothing. He was boring himself to death on his hilltop, and he came merely for amusement. Isabel had kept her sentiments to herself, and her journey to Greece and Egypt had effectually thrown dust in her companion's eyes. Madame Merle accepted the event. She was unprepared to think of it as a scandal, but that she had played any part in it, double or single, was an imputation against which she proudly protested.

Starting point is 15:03:49 It was doubtless in consequence of Mrs. Touchett's attitude, and of the injury it offered to habits consecrated by many charming seasons, that Madame Merle had, after this, chosen to pass many months in England, where her credit was quite unimpaired. Mrs. Touchett had done her a wrong. There are some things that can't be forgiven. But Madame Merle suffered in silence. There was always something exquisite. in her dignity. Ralph, as I say, had wished to see for himself, but while engaged in this pursuit, he had yet felt afresh what a fool he had been to put the girl on her guard. He had played the wrong card, and now he had lost the game. He should see nothing, he should learn nothing,

Starting point is 15:04:31 for him she would always wear a mask. His true line would have been to profess delight in her union, so that later, when, as Ralph phrased it, the bottom should fall out of it, she might have the pleasure of saying to him that he had been a goose. He would gladly have consented to pass for a goose in order to know Isabel's real situation. At present, however, she neither taunted him with his fallacies, nor pretended that her own confidence was justified. If she wore a mask, it completely covered her face. There was something fixed and mechanical in the serenity painted on it. This was not an expression, Ralph said. It was a representation. It was even an advertisement.

Starting point is 15:05:14 She had lost her child. That was a sorrow, but it was a sorrow she scarcely spoke of. There was more to say about it than she could say to Ralph. It belonged to the past, moreover. It had occurred six months before, and she had already laid aside the tokens of mourning. She appeared to be leading the life of the world. Ralph heard her spoken of as having a charming position. He observed that she produced the impression of being peculiar the enviable.

Starting point is 15:05:41 that it was supposed, among many people, to be a privilege even to know her. Her house was not open to everyone, and she had an evening in the week to which people were not invited as a matter of course. She lived with a certain magnificence, but you needed to be a member of her circle to perceive it, for there was nothing to gape at, nothing to criticize, nothing even to admire in the daily proceedings of Mr. and Mrs. Osmond. Ralph, in all this, recognized the hand of the master, for he knew that Isabel had no faculty for producing studied impressions. She struck him as having a great love of movement, of gaiety, of late hours, of long rides, of fatigue, an eagerness to be entertained, to be interested,

Starting point is 15:06:27 even to be bored, to make acquaintances, to see people who were talked about, to explore the neighborhood of Rome, to enter into relation with certain of the mustiest rome. relics of its old society. In all this, there was much less discrimination than in that desire for comprehensiveness of development on which she had been used to exercise his wit. There was a kind of violence in some of her impulses, of crudity in some of her experiments, which took him by surprise. It seemed to him that she even spoke faster, moved faster, breathed faster, than before her marriage. Certainly she had fallen into exaggerations. She who used to care so much for the pure truth, and whereas of old she had a great delight in good-humoured argument

Starting point is 15:07:12 in intellectual play, she never looked so charming as when in the genial heat of discussion she received a crushing blow full in the face and brushed it away as a feather. She appeared now to think there was nothing worth people's either differing about or agreeing upon. Of old she had been curious, and now she was indifferent. And yet in spite of her indifference, her activity was greater than ever. Slender still, but lovelier than before, she had gained no great maturity of aspect. Yet there was an amplitude and a brilliancy in her personal arrangements that gave a touch of insolence to her beauty. Poor human-hearted Isabel! What perversity had bitten her? Her light step drew a mass of drapery behind it. Her intelligent head sustained a majesty of ornament.

Starting point is 15:08:01 The free, keen girl had become quite another person. What he saw! was the fine lady who was supposed to represent something. What did Isabel represent? Ralph asked himself, and he could only answer by saying that she represented Gilbert Osmond. Good heavens, what a function! He then woefully exclaimed. He was lost in wonder at the mystery of things. He recognized Osmond, as I say.

Starting point is 15:08:29 He recognized him at every turn. He saw how he kept all things within limits, how he adjusted, regulated, animated their manner of life. Osmond was in his element. At last he had material to work with. He always had an eye to effect, and his effects were deeply calculated. They were produced by no vulgar means, but the motive of interior with a sort of invidious sanctity,

Starting point is 15:08:55 to tantalize society with a sense of exclusion, to make people believe his house was different from every other, to impart to the face that he presented to the world a cold originality. This was the ingenious effort of the personage to whom Isabel had attributed a superior morality. He works with superior material, Ralph said to himself, its rich abundance compared with his former resources. Ralph was a clever man, but Ralph had never, to his own sense, been so clever as when he observed in Petto that under the guise of caring only for intrinsic vexorice,

Starting point is 15:09:31 values, Osmond lived exclusively for the world. Far from being its master as he pretended to be, he was its very humble servant, and the degree of its attention was his only measure of success. He lived with his eye on it from morning till night, and the world was so stupid it never suspected the trick. Everything he did was Pose, Pose so subtly considered that if one were not on the lookout one mistook it for impulse. Ralph had never met a man who lived so much in the land of consideration. His tastes, his studies, his accomplishments, his collections were all for a purpose. His life on his hilltop at Florence had been the conscious attitude of years. His solitude, his ennui, his love for his daughter, his good manners, his bad manners,

Starting point is 15:10:24 were so many features of a mental image constantly present to him as a model of impertinence and mystification. His ambition was not to please the world, but to please himself by exciting the world's curiosity and then declining to satisfy it. It had made him feel great ever to play the world a trick. The thing he had done in his life most directly to please himself was his marrying Miss Archer. Though in this case, indeed, the gullible world was in a manner embodied in poor Isabel, who had been mystified to the top of her bent. of course, found a fitness in being consistent. He had embraced a creed, and as he had suffered for it, he could not in honor forsake it. I give this little sketch of its articles for what they

Starting point is 15:11:11 may at the time have been worth. It was certain that he was very skillful in fitting the facts to his theory, even the fact that during the month he spent in Rome at this period, the husband of the woman he loved appeared to regard him not in the least as an enemy. For Gilbert Osmond, Ralph had not now that importance. It was not that he had the importance of a friend, it was rather that he had none at all. He was Isabel's cousin, and he was rather unpleasantly ill. It was on this basis that Osmond treated with him. He made the proper inquiries, asked about his health, about Mrs. Touchett, about his opinion of winter climates, whether he were comfortable at his hotel. He addressed him on the few occasions of their meeting,

Starting point is 15:11:57 not a word that was not necessary, but his manner had always the urbanity proper to conscious success in the presence of conscious failure. For all this, Ralph had had, toward the end, a sharp inward vision of Osmond's making it of small ease to his wife that she should continue to receive Mr. Touchett. He was not jealous. He had not that excuse. No one could be jealous of Ralph, but he made Isabel pay for her old-time kindness, of which so much was still left. And as Ralph had no idea of her paying too much, so when his suspicion had become sharp, he had taken himself off. In doing so, he had deprived Isabel of a very interesting occupation. She had been constantly wondering what fine principle was keeping him alive. She had decided that it

Starting point is 15:12:47 was his love of conversation. His conversation had been better than ever. He had given up walking, he was no longer a humorous stroller. He sat all day in a chair, almost any chair would serve, and was so dependent on what you would do for him, that, had not his talk been highly contemplative, you might have thought he was blind. The reader already knows more about him than Isabel was ever to know, and the reader may therefore be given the key to the mystery. What kept Ralph alive was simply the fact that he had not yet seen enough of the person in the world in whom he was most interested. He was not yet satisfied. There was more to come. He couldn't make up his mind to lose that. He wanted to see what she would make of her husband, or what her husband would make of her.

Starting point is 15:13:35 This was only the first act of the drama, and he was determined to sit out the performance. His determination had held good. It had kept him going some 18 months more, till the time of his returned to Rome with Lord Warburton. It had given him indeed such an air of intending to live indefinitely that Mrs. Touchett, though more accessible to confusions of thought in the matter of this strange unremunerative and unremunerated, son of hers, than she had ever been before, had, as we have learned, not scrupled to embark for a distant land. If Ralph had been kept alive by suspense, it was with a good deal of the same emotion, the excitement of wondering in what state she should find him, that Isabel mounted to his apartment the day after Lord Warburton had

Starting point is 15:14:21 notified her of his arrival in Rome. She spent an hour with him. It was the first of several visits. Gilbert Osmond called on him punctually, and on there sending their carriage for him, Ralph came more than once to Palazzo Roca Nara. A fortnight elapsed, at the end of which Ralph announced to Lord Warburton that he thought, after all, he wouldn't go to Sicily. The two men had been dining together after a day spent by the latter in ranging about the Campagna. They had left the table, and Warburton, before the chimney, was lighting a cigar, which he instantly removed from his lips. Won't go to Sicily. Where then will you go? Well, I guess I won't go anywhere, said Ralph from the sofa, all shamelessly. Do you mean you'll return to England? Oh dear no,

Starting point is 15:15:10 I'll stay in Rome. Rome won't do for you. Rome's not warm. Rome's not warm enough. It will have to do. I'll make it do. See how well I've been. Lord Warburton looked at him a while, puffing a cigar and as if trying to see it. You've been better than you were in the journey, certainly. I wonder how you lived through that. But I don't understand your condition. I recommend you to try Sicily. I can't try, said poor Ralph. I've done trying. I can't move further. I can't face that journey. Fancy me between Silla and Carybdis.

Starting point is 15:15:50 I don't want to die on the Sicilian plains to be snatched away like proserpine in the same locality to the plutonian shades. What's the deuce then did you come for? His lordship inquired. Because the idea took me. I see it won't do. It really doesn't matter where I am now.

Starting point is 15:16:10 I've exhausted all remedies, I've swallowed all climates. As I'm here, I'll stay. I haven't a single cousin in Sicily, much less a married one. Your cousin's certainly an inducement. But what does the doctor say? I haven't asked him, and I don't care a fig. If I die here, Mrs. Asmond will bury me. But I shall not die here.

Starting point is 15:16:35 I hope not. Lord Warburton continued to smoke reflectively. Well, I must say, he resumed. For myself, I'm very glad you don't insist on Sicily. I had a horror of that journey. Ah, but for you it needn't have mattered. I had no idea of dragging you in my train. I certainly didn't mean to let you go alone.

Starting point is 15:16:58 My dear Warburton, I never expected you to come further than this. Ralph cried. I should have gone with you and seen you settled, said Lord Warburton. You're a very good Christian. You're a very kind man. Then I should have come back here. And then you'd have gone to England. No, no, I should have stayed.

Starting point is 15:17:20 Well, said Ralph, if that's what we are both up to, I don't see where Sicily comes in. His companion was silent. He sat staring at the fire. At last, looking up, I say, tell me this, he broke out. Did you really mean to go to Sicily when we started?

Starting point is 15:17:40 Ah, you mon demand they too. Let me put a question first. Did you come with me quite platonically? I don't know what you mean by that. I wanted to come abroad. I suspect we've each been playing our little game. Speak for yourself. I made no secret whatever of my desiring to be here a while.

Starting point is 15:18:03 Yes, I remember you said you wished to see the Minister of Foreign Affairs. I've seen him three times. He's very amusing. I think you've forgotten what you came for. said Ralph. Perhaps I have. His companion answered rather gravely. These two were gentlemen of a race which is not distinguished by the absence of reserve,

Starting point is 15:18:25 and they had travelled together from London to Rome without an allusion to matters that were uppermost in the mind of each. There was an old subject they had once discussed, but it had lost its recognized place in their attention, and even after their arrival in Rome, where many things led back to it, they had kept the same half-difident, half-confident silence. I recommend you to get the doctor's consent all the same. Lord Warburton went on abruptly after an interval. The doctor's consent will spoil it.

Starting point is 15:18:57 I never have it when I can help it. What then does Mrs. Osmond think? Ralph's friend demanded. I've not told her. She'll probably say that Rome's too cold, and even offer to go with me to Catania. She's capable of that. In your place I should like it.

Starting point is 15:19:17 Her husband won't like it. Ah, well, I can fancy that. Though it seems to me you're not bound to mind his likings. They're his affair. I don't want to make any more trouble between them, said Ralph. Is there so much already? There's complete preparation for it. Her going off with me would make the explosion.

Starting point is 15:19:39 Asmund isn't fond of his wife's cousin. Then, of course, he'd make a row. But weren't he make a row of you stop here? That's what I want to see. He made one the last time I was in Rome, and then I thought it my duty to disappear. Now I think it's my duty to stop and defend her. My dear touch it, your defensive powers.

Starting point is 15:20:03 Lord Warburton began with a smile. But he saw something in his companion's face that checked him. Your duty in these premises seems to me rather, a nice question, he observed instead. Ralph, for a short time, answered nothing. It's true that my defensive powers are small, he returned at last. But as my aggressive ones are still smaller, Osmond may, after all, not think me worth his gunpowder. At any rate, he added, there are things I'm curious to see.

Starting point is 15:20:37 You'll sacrificing your health to your curiosity, then? I'm not much interested in my health. and I'm deeply interested in Mrs. Asmond. So am I, but not as I once was, Lord Warburton added quickly. This was one of the illusions he had not hitherto found occasion to make. Does she strike you as very happy? Ralph inquired, emboldened by this confidence.

Starting point is 15:21:03 Well, I don't know. I've hardly thought. She told me the other night she was happy. Ah, she told you, of course. Ralph exclaimed, smiling. I don't know that. It seems to me I was rather the sort of person she might have complained to. Complained.

Starting point is 15:21:21 She'll never complain. She has done it, what she has done, and she knows it. She'll complain to you, least of all. She's very careful. She needn't be. I don't mean to make love to her again. I'm delighted to hear it. There can be no doubt at least of your duty.

Starting point is 15:21:40 Ah, no, said Lord. Warburton gravely. None. Permit me to ask, Ralph went on, whether it's to bring out the fact that you don't mean to make love to her that you're so very civil to the little girl? Lord Warburton gave a slight start. He got up and stood before the fire, looking at it hard. Does that strike you as very ridiculous? Ridiculous? Not in the least if you really like her. I think her a delightful little person. I don't know when a girl of that age has pleased me more. She's a charming creature. Ah, she at least is genuine. Of course there's the difference in our ages, more than 20 years. My dear Warburton, said Ralph. Are you serious? Perfectly serious, as far as I've got.

Starting point is 15:22:31 I'm very glad. And heaven help us, cried Ralph. How cheered up old Osmond will be. His companion frowned. I say, don't spoil it. I shouldn't propose for his daughter to please him. He'll have the perversity to be pleased all the same. He's not so fond of me as that, said his lordship. As that? My dear Warburton, the drawback of your position is that people needn't be fond of you at all to wish to be connected with you. Now with me in such a case, I should have the happy confidence that they loved me. Lord Warburton seemed scarcely in the mood for doing justice to general axioms, he was thinking of a special case. Do you judge she'll be pleased?

Starting point is 15:23:16 The girl herself? Delighted, surely. No, no. I mean Mrs. Osmond. Ralph looked at him a moment. My dear fellow, what has she to do with it? Whatever she chooses. She's very fond of Pansy.

Starting point is 15:23:33 Very true. Very true. And Ralph slowly got up. It's an interesting question. How far her fondness for Pansy will carry her. He stood there a moment with his hands in his pockets, and rather a clouded brow. I hope you know that you're very—very sure. The deuce, he broke off.

Starting point is 15:23:56 I don't know how to say it. Yes, you do. You know how to say everything. Well, it's awkward. I hope you're sure that among Miss Osmond's merits her being a— So near her step. mother isn't a leading one good heavens touch it cried lord warburton angrily for what do you take me end of chapter 39 chapter 40 of the portrait of a lady by henry james this librivox recording is in the public domain

Starting point is 15:24:35 isabel had not seen much of madame merle since her marriage this lady having indulged in frequent absences from rome at one time she had spent six months in England. At another, she had passed a portion of a winter in Paris. She had made numerous visits to distant friends, and gave countenance to the idea that, for the future, she should be a less inveterate Roman than in the past. As she had been inveterate in the past, only in the sense of constantly having an apartment in one of the sunniest niches of the Pinsien, an apartment which often stood empty, this suggested a prospect of almost constant absence, a danger which Isabel at one period had been much inclined to deplore.

Starting point is 15:25:19 Familiarity had modified in some degree her first impression of Madame Merle, but it had not essentially altered it. There was still much wonder of admiration in it. That personage was armed at all points. It was a pleasure to see a character so completely equipped for the social battle. She carried her flag discreetly, but her weapons were polished steel, and she used them with a skill which struck Isabel as more and more that of a veteran. She was never weary, never overcome with disgust. She never appeared to need rest or consolation. She had her own ideas. She had of old exposed a great many of them to Isabel, who knew also that under an appearance of extreme self-control, her highly cultivated friend concealed a rich sensibility.

Starting point is 15:26:07 But her will was mistress of her life. There was something gallant in the way she kept. going. It was as if she learned the secret of it, as if the art of life were some clever trick she had guessed. Isabelle, as she herself grew older, became acquainted with revulsions, with disgusts. There were days when the world looked black, and she asked herself with some sharpness what it was that she was pretending to live for. Her old habit had been to live by enthusiasm, to fall in love with suddenly perceived possibilities, with the idea of some new adventure. As a younger person, she had been used to proceed from one little exaltation to the other. There were scarcely any dull places between.

Starting point is 15:26:52 But Madame Merle had suppressed enthusiasm. She fell in love nowadays with nothing. She lived entirely by reason, and by wisdom. There were hours when Isabel would have given anything for lessons in this art. If her brilliant friend had been near, she would have made an appeal to her. She had become aware more than before of the advantage of being like that, of having made oneself a firm surface, a sort of corslet of silver. But, as I say, it was not till the winter, during which we lately renewed acquaintance

Starting point is 15:27:25 with our heroine, that the personage in question made again a continuous stay in Rome. Isabel now saw more of her than she had done since her marriage, but by this time Isabel's needs and inclinations had considerably changed. It was not at present to Madame Merle that she would have applied for instruction. She had lost the desire to know this lady's clever trick. If she had troubles, she must keep them to herself. And if life was difficult, it would not make it easier to confess herself beaten. Madame Merle was doubtless of great use to herself and an ornament to any circle.

Starting point is 15:28:01 But was she? Would she be? of use to others in periods of refined embarrassment. The best way to profit by her friend, this indeed Isabel had always thought, was to imitate her, to be as firm and bright as she. She recognized no embarrassments,

Starting point is 15:28:21 and Isabel, considering this fact, determined for the 50th time to brush aside her own. It seemed to her, too, on the renewal of an intercourse which had virtually been interrupted, that her old ally was different, was almost detached, pushing to the extreme a certain rather artificial fear of being indiscreet. Ralph Touchett, we know, had been of the opinion that she was prone to exaggeration, to forcing the note, was apt in the vulgar phrase, to overdo it.

Starting point is 15:28:50 Isabelle had never admitted this charge, she had indeed never quite understood it. Madame Merle's conduct, to her perception, always bore the stamp of good taste, was always quiet. But in this matter of not wishing to intrude upon the inner life of the Osmond family, it at last occurred to our young woman that she overdid a little. That, of course, was not the best taste. That was rather violent. She remembered too much that Isabel was married, that she had now other interests, that though she, Madame Merle, had known Gilbert Osmond and his little pansy very well,

Starting point is 15:29:27 better almost than anyone, she was not, after all, of the inner surveillance. She was on her guard. She never spoke of their affairs till she was asked, even pressed, as when her opinion was wanted, she had a dread of seeming to meddle. Madame Merle was as candid as we know, and one day she candidly expressed this dread to Isabel. I must be on my guard, she said. I might so easily, without suspecting it, offend you. You would be right to be offended, even if my auntie. intention should have been of the purest. I must not forget that I knew your husband long before you did. I must not let that betray me. If you were a silly woman, you might be jealous. You're not a

Starting point is 15:30:15 silly woman, I know that very well. But neither am I. Therefore, I'm determined not to get into trouble. A little harm's very soon done, a mistake's made before one knows it. Of course, if I had wished to make love to your husband I had ten years to do it in, and nothing to prevent. So it isn't likely I shall begin today when I'm so much less attractive than I was. But if I were to annoy you by seeming to take a place that doesn't belong to me, you wouldn't make that reflection. You'd simply say I was forgetting certain differences. I'm determined not to forget them. Certainly a good friend isn't always thinking of that. One doesn't always suspect one's friends of injustice. I don't suspect you, my dear, in the least, but I suspect human nature.

Starting point is 15:31:07 Don't think I make myself uncomfortable. I'm not always watching myself. I think I sufficiently prove it in talking to you as I do now. All I wish to say is, however, that if you were to be jealous, that's the form it would take. I should be sure to think it was a little my fault. It certainly wouldn't be your husbands. Isabel had had three years to think over Mrs. Touchett's theory that Madame Merle had made Gilbert Osmond's marriage. We know how she had at first received it. Madame Merle might have made Gilbert Osmond's marriage, but she had certainly not made Isabel Archer's. That was the work of... Isabel scarcely knew what? Of nature, providence, fortune, of the eternal mystery of things.

Starting point is 15:31:57 It was true her aunt's complaint had been not so much of Madame Merle's activity as of her duplicity. She had brought about the strange event, and then she had denied her guilt. Such guilt would not have been great, to Isabel's mind. She couldn't make a crime of Madame Merle's having been the producing cause of the most important friendship she had ever formed. This had occurred to her just before her marriage, after her little discussion with her aunt, and at a time when she was still capable of that large inward reference, the tone almost. of the philosophic historian to her scant young annals. If Madame Merle had desired her change of state,

Starting point is 15:32:34 she could only say it had been a very happy thought. With her, moreover, she had been perfectly straightforward. She had never concealed her high opinion of Gilbert Osmond. After their union, Isabel discovered that her husband took a less convenient view of the matter. He seldom consented to finger, in talk, this roundest and smoothest bead of their social rosary. Don't you like Madame Merle?

Starting point is 15:32:57 Isabel had once said to him, She thinks a great deal of you. I'll tell you once for all, Osmond had answered. I liked her once better than I do today. I'm tired of her, and I'm rather ashamed of it. She's so almost unnaturally good. I'm glad she's not in Italy. That makes for relaxation, for a sort of moral d'aunt.

Starting point is 15:33:20 Don't talk of her too much. It seems to bring her back. She'll come back in plenty of time. Madame Merle, in fact, had come back before it was too late. Too late, I mean, to recover whatever advantage she might have lost. But meantime, if, as I have said, she was sensibly different, Isabelle's feelings were also not quite the same. Her consciousness of the situation was as acute as of old,

Starting point is 15:33:47 but it was much less satisfying. A dissatisfied mind, whatever else it may miss, is rarely in want of reasons. They bloom as thick as buttercups in June. The fact of Madame Merle's having had a hand in Gilbert Osmond's marriage ceased to be one of her titles to consideration. It might have been written, after all, that there was not so much to thank her for. As time went on, there was less and less,

Starting point is 15:34:14 and Isabel once said to herself that perhaps without her these things would not have been. That reflection indeed was instantly stifled. She knew an immediate horror at having made it. Whatever happens to me, let me not be unjust, she said. Let me bear my burdens myself and not shift them upon others. This disposition was tested eventually by that ingenious apology for her present conduct, which Madame Merle saw fit to make, and of which I have given a sketch. For there was something irritating.

Starting point is 15:34:48 There was almost an air of mockery in her neat discriminations and clear convictions. In Isabel's mind today there was nothing. clear. There was a confusion of regrets, a complication of fears. She felt helpless as she turned away from her friend, who had just made the statements I have quoted. Madame Merle knew so little what she was thinking of. She was herself, moreover, so unable to explain. Jealous of her? Jealous of her with Gilbert? The idea just then suggested no near reality. She almost wished jealousy had been possible, it would have made in a manner for refreshment. Wasn't it in a manner one of the symptoms of happiness?

Starting point is 15:35:33 Madame Merle, however, was wise, so wise that she might have been pretending to know Isabel better than Isabel knew herself. This young woman had always been fertile in resolutions, any of them of an elevated character, but at no period had they flourished, in the privacy of her heart, more richly than today. It is true that they all had a family likeness. They might have been summed up in the determination that if she was to be unhappy, it should not be by a fault of her own. Her poor, winged spirit had always had a great desire to do its best,

Starting point is 15:36:08 and it had not as yet been seriously discouraged. It wished, therefore, to hold fast to justice, not to pay itself by petty revenges. To associate Madame Merle with its disappointment would be a petty revenge, especially as the pleasure to be derived from that would be perfectly insincere. It might feed her sense of bitterness, but it would not loosen her bonds. It was impossible to pretend that she had not acted with her eyes open. If ever a girl was a free agent, she had been.

Starting point is 15:36:41 A girl in love was doubtless not a free agent, but the sole source of her mistake had been within herself. There had been no plot, no snare. She had looked and considered, and chose. When a woman had made such a mistake, there was only one way to repair it, just immensely, oh, with the highest grandeur, to accept it. One folly was enough, especially when it was to last forever. A second one would not much set it off.

Starting point is 15:37:12 In this vow of reticence there was a certain nobleness which kept Isabel going. But Madame Merle had been right for all that, in taking her precautions. One day, about a month after Ralph touched its arrival in Rome, Isabel came back from a walk with Pansy. It was not only a part of her general determination to be just that she was at present very thankful for Pansy, it was also a part of her tenderness for things that were pure and weak. Pansy was dear to her,

Starting point is 15:37:42 and there was nothing else in her life that had the rightness of the young creature's attachment or the sweetness of her own clearness about it. It was like a soft presence, like a small hand in her own creature's attachment, a small hand in her own. On Pansy's part, it was more than an affection. It was a kind of ardent, coercive faith. On her own side, her sense of the girl's dependence was more than a pleasure. It operated as a definite reason when motives threatened to fail her. She had said to herself that we must take our duty where we find it, and that we must look for it as much as possible. Pansy's sympathy was a direct admonition. It seemed to say that here was an opportunity, not

Starting point is 15:38:21 Seminent, perhaps, but unmistakable. Yet an opportunity for what, Isabel could hardly have said, in general to be more for the child than the child was able to be for herself. Isabel could have smiled in these days to remember that her little companion had once been ambiguous, for she now perceived that Pansy's ambiguities were simply her own grossness of vision. She had been unable to believe anyone could care so much, so extraordinarily much, to please. but since then she had seen this delicate faculty in operation, and now she knew what to think of it. It was the whole creature. It was a sort of genius. Pansy had no pride to interfere with it, and though she was constantly extending her conquests, she took no credit for them.

Starting point is 15:39:10 The two were constantly together. Mrs. Osmond was rarely seen without her stepdaughter. Isabel liked her company. It had the effect of ones carrying a nosegay. composed all of the same flower. And then not to neglect Pansy, not under any provocation to neglect her, this she had made an article of religion. The young girl had every appearance of being happier in Isabelle's society than in that of anyone save her father, whom she admired with an intensity justified by the fact that, as paternity was an exquisite pleasure to Gilbert Osmond, he had always been luxuriously mild. Isabel knew how Pansy liked to be with her and how she studied the means of pleasing her. She had decided that the best way of pleasing her was negative,

Starting point is 15:39:55 and consisted in not giving her trouble, a conviction which certainly could have had no reference to trouble already existing. She was therefore ingeniously passive and almost imaginatively docile. She was careful even to moderate the eagerness with which she assented to Isabel's propositions, and which might have implied that she could have thought otherwise. She never interrupted, never asked social questions, and though she delighted in approbation, to the point of turning pale when it came to her, never held out her hand for it. She only looked toward it wistfully, an attitude which, as she grew older, made her eyes the prettiest in the world. When, during the second winter at Palazzo Rocanera, she began to go to parties, to dances, she always, at a

Starting point is 15:40:44 reasonable hour, lest Mrs. Osmond should be tired, was the first to propose departure. Isabelle appreciated the sacrifice of the late dances, for she knew her little companion had a passionate pleasure in this exercise, taking her steps to the music like a conscientious fairy. Society, moreover, had no drawbacks for her. She liked even the tiresome parts, the heat of ballrooms, the dullness of dinners, the crush at the door, the awkward waiting for the carriage. During the day in this vehicle beside her stepmother, she sat in a small, fixed, appreciative posture, bending forward and faintly smiling, as if she had been taken to drive for the first time. On the day I speak of, they had been driven out of one of the gates of the city, and at the

Starting point is 15:41:32 end of half an hour had left the carriage to await them by the roadside, while they walked away over the short grass of the Campania, which even in the winter months is sprinkled with delicate flowers. This was almost a daily habit with Isabel, who was fond of a walk and had a swift length of step, though not so swift a one as on her first coming to Europe. It was not the form of exercise that Pansy loved best, but she liked it, because she liked everything, and she moved with a shorter undulation beside her father's wife, who afterwards, on their return to Rome, paid a tribute to her preferences by making the circuit of the Pinsian or

Starting point is 15:42:09 the Villa Borghese. She had gathered a handful of flowers in a sunny hollow. far from the walls of Rome, and on reaching Palazzo Roca Nara went straight to her room to put them into water. Isabel passed into the drawing-room, the one she herself usually occupied, the second in order from the large antechamber which was entered from the staircase, and in which even Gilbert Osmond's rich devices had not been able to correct a look of rather grand nudity. Just beyond the threshold of the drawing-room she stopped short,

Starting point is 15:42:40 the reason for her doing so being that she had received an impression. The impression had, in strictness, nothing unprecedented, but she felt it as something new, and the soundlessness of her step gave her time to take in the scene before she interrupted it. Madame Merle was there in her bonnet, and Gilbert Osmond was talking to her. For a minute they were unaware she had come in. Isabel had often seen that before, certainly. But what she had not seen, or at least had not noticed, was that their colloquy had for the moment converted itself into a sort of familiar silence, from which she instantly perceived

Starting point is 15:43:18 that her entrance would startle them. Madame Merle was standing on the rug, a little way from the fire. Osmond was in a deep chair, leaning back and looking at her. Her head was erect as usual, but her eyes were bent on his. What struck Isabel first was that he was sitting while Madame Merle stood. There was an anomaly in this that arrested her. Then she perceived. She perceived, that they had arrived at a desultory pause in their exchange of ideas, and were musing, face-to-face, with the freedom of old friends who sometimes exchange ideas without uttering them. There was nothing to shock in this. They were old friends, in fact. But the thing made an image, lasting only a moment, like a sudden flicker of light. Their relative positions, their absorbed mutual gaze,

Starting point is 15:44:10 struck her as something detected. But it was all over by the time she had fairly seen it. Madame Merle had seen her and had welcomed her without moving. Her husband, on the other hand, had instantly jumped up. He presently murmured something about wanting a walk, and after having asked their visitor to excuse him, left the room. I came to see you, thinking you would have come in, and as you hadn't, I waited for you.

Starting point is 15:44:38 Madame Merle said, Didn't he ask you to sit down? Isabel asked with a smile. Madame Merle looked about her. Ah, it's very true. I was going away. You must stay now. Certainly.

Starting point is 15:44:54 I came for a reason. I've something on my mind. I've told you that before, Isabel said, that it takes something extraordinary to bring you to this house. And you know what I've told you, that whether I come or whether I stay away, I've always the same motive, the affection I bear you. Yes, you've told me that.

Starting point is 15:45:17 You look just now as if you didn't believe it, said Madame Merle. Ah, Isabel answered. The profundity of your motives. That's the last thing I doubt. You doubt sooner the sincerity of my words. Isabel shook her head gravely. I know you've always been kind to me. as often as you would let me.

Starting point is 15:45:42 You don't always take it. Then one has to let you alone. It's not to do you a kindness, however, that I've come today. It's quite another affair. I've come to get rid of a trouble of my own, to make it over to you. I've been talking to your husband about it. I'm surprised at that. He doesn't like troubles.

Starting point is 15:46:05 Especially other peoples, I know very well, but neither do you, I suppose. At any rate, whether you do or not, you must help me. It's about poor Mr. Rosier. Ah, said Isabel reflectively, it's his trouble then, not yours. He has succeeded in saddling me with it. He comes to see me ten times a week to talk about Pansy. Yes, he wants to marry her.

Starting point is 15:46:32 I know all about it. Madame Merle hesitated. I gathered from your husband that, perhaps you didn't how should he know what I know he has never spoken to me of the matter it's probably because he doesn't know how to speak of it it's nevertheless the sort of question in which he's rarely at fault yes because as a general thing he knows perfectly well what to think today he doesn't haven't you been telling him isabel asked madame merle gave a bright voluntary smile Do you know you're a little dry?

Starting point is 15:47:11 Yes, I can't help it. Mr. Rosier has also talked to me. In that there's some reason. You're so near the child. Ah, said Isabel, for all the comfort I've given him. If you think me dry, I wonder what he thinks. I believe he thinks you can do more than you have done. I can do nothing.

Starting point is 15:47:34 You can do more, at least than I. I don't know what mysterious connection he may have discovered between me and Pansy, but he came to me from the first, as if I held his fortune in my hand. Now he keeps coming back to spur me up, to know what hope there is, to pour out his feelings. He's very much in love, said Isabel. Very much, for him. Very much for Pansy, you might say as well. Madame Merle dropped her eyes a moment.

Starting point is 15:48:06 Don't you think she's attractive? The dearest little person possible, but very limited. She ought to be all the easier for Mr. Rosier to love. Mr. Rosier is not unlimited. No, said Isabel. He has about the extent of one's pocket-handkerchief, the small ones with lace borders. Her humor had lately turned a good deal to sarcasm, but in a moment she was ashamed of exercising it on so innocent an object as Pansy Souter.

Starting point is 15:48:39 He's very kind, very honest, she presently added, and he's not such a fool as he seems. He assures me that she delights in him, said Madame Merle. I don't know. I've not asked her. You've never sounded her a little. It's not my place. It's her father's. Oh, you're too literal, said Madame Merle.

Starting point is 15:49:04 I must judge. judge for myself. Madame Merle gave her smile again. It isn't easy to help you. To help me, said Isabel very seriously. What do you mean? It's easy to displease you. Don't you see how wise I am to be careful? I notify you, at any rate, as I notified Osmond, that I wash my hands of the love affairs of Miss Pansy and Mr. Edward Rosier. I need "'I can't talk to Pansy about him, especially,' added Madame Merle, "'as I don't think him a paragon of husbands.' Isabel reflected a little, after which with a smile,

Starting point is 15:49:49 "'You don't wash your hands then,' she said. After which again she added in another tone. "'You can't. You're too much interested.' Madame Merle slowly rose. she had given Isabelle a look as rapid as the intimation that had gleamed before our hero in a few moments before. Only this time, the latter saw nothing. Ask him the next time, and you'll see.

Starting point is 15:50:17 I can't ask him. He has ceased to come to the house. Gilbert has let him know that he's not welcome. Ah, yes, said Madame Merle. I forgot that, though it's the burden of his lamentation. He says Osmond has insulted him. "'All the same,' she went on. "'Ozmond doesn't dislike him so much as he thinks.

Starting point is 15:50:40 "'She had got up as if to close the conversation, "'but she lingered, looking about her, "'and had evidently more to say. "'Isabelle perceived this and even saw the point she had in view, "'but Isabel also had her own reasons for not opening the way. "'That must have pleased him if you've told him,' she answered, smiling. "'Certainly I've told him. As far as that goes, I've encouraged him. I've preached patience, have said that his case

Starting point is 15:51:09 isn't desperate if he'll only hold his tongue and be quiet. Unfortunately, he has taken it into his head to be jealous. Jealous? Jealous? Jealous of Lord Warburton, who he says is always here. Isabel, who was tired, had remained sitting, but at this she also rose. "'Ah!' she exclaimed simply, moving slowly to the fireplace. Madame Merle observed her as she passed, and while she stood a moment before the mantel-glass and pushed into its place a wandering tress of hair. Poor Mr. Rosier keeps saying there's nothing impossible in Lord Warburton's falling in love with Pansy. Madame Merle went on.

Starting point is 15:51:52 Isabelle was silent a little. She turned away from the glass. "'It's true. There's nothing impossible.' She returned at last, gravely and more gently. So I've had to admit to Mr. Rosier. So, too, your husband thinks. That I don't know. Ask him, and you'll see. I shall not ask him, said Isabel.

Starting point is 15:52:17 Pardon me, I forgot you had pointed that out. Of course, Madame Merle added. You've had infinitely more observation of Lord Warburton's behavior than I. I see no reason why I shouldn't tell you. you that he likes my stepdaughter very much. Madame Merle gave one of her quick looks again. Likes her, you mean, as Mr. Rosier means. I don't know how Mr. Rosier means, but Lord Warburton has let me know that he's charmed with Pansy. And you've never told Osmond. This observation was immediate, precipitate, it almost burst from Madame Merle's lips. Isabel's eyes rested on her.

Starting point is 15:52:57 I suppose he'll know in time. Lord. Warburton has a tongue and knows how to express himself. Madame Merle instantly became conscious that she had spoken more quickly than usual, and the reflection brought the color to her cheek. She gave the treacherous impulse time to subside, and then said as if she had been thinking it over a little. That would be better than marrying poor Mr. Rosier. Much better, I think.

Starting point is 15:53:23 It would be very delightful. It would be a great marriage. It's really very kind, don't him. Very kind of him? To drop his eyes on a simple little girl. I don't see that. It's very good of you. But after all, Pansy Osmond...

Starting point is 15:53:41 After all, Pansy Osmond's the most attractive person he has ever known, Isabel exclaimed. Madame Merle stared, and indeed she was justly bewildered. Ah, a moment ago I thought you seemed rather to disparage her. I said she was limited, and so she is, and so's Lord Warburton. So are we all, if you come to that. If it's no more than Pansy deserves all the better. But if she fixes her affections on Mr. Rosier, I won't admit that she deserves it. That will be too perverse.

Starting point is 15:54:17 Mr. Rosier's a nuisance, Isabel cried abruptly. I quite agree with you, and I'm delighted to know that I'm not expected to feed his flame. For the future, when he curls on me, my door shall be closed to him. And gathering her mantle together, Madame Merle prepared to depart. She was checked, however, on her progress to the door by an inconsequent request from Isabel. All the same you know. Be kind to him. She lifted her shoulders and eyebrows, and stood looking at her friend. I don't understand your contradictions.

Starting point is 15:54:53 Decidedly, I shan't be kind to him, for it will be a false kindness. I want to see her married to Lord Warburton. You had better wait till he asks her. If what you say is true, he'll ask her. Especially, said Madame Merle in a moment. If you make him. If I make him? It's quite in your power.

Starting point is 15:55:17 You've great influence with him. Isabel frowned a little. Where did you learn that? Mrs. Touchett told me. Not you. never said madame merle smiling i certainly never told you anything of the sort you might have done so so far as opportunity went when we were by way of being confidential with each other but you really told me very little i've often thought so since isabel had thought so too and sometimes with a certain satisfaction but she didn't admit it now perhaps because she wished not to appear to exalt in it You seem to have had an excellent informant in my aunt, she simply returned. She let me know you had declined an offer of marriage from Lord Warburton,

Starting point is 15:56:07 because she was greatly vexed and was full of the subject. Of course I think you've done better in doing as you did, but if you wouldn't marry Lord Warburton yourself, make him the reparation of helping him to marry someone else. Isabel listened to this with a face that persisted in not reflecting the bright expressiveness of Madame Merle's. But in a moment, she said, reasonably and gently enough, I should be very glad indeed, if, as regards Pansy, it could be arranged. Upon which her companion, who seemed to regard this as a speech of good omen,

Starting point is 15:56:42 embraced her more tenderly than might have been expected, and triumphantly withdrew. End of Chapter 40. Chapter 41 of the Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Libravox recording is in the public domain. Osmond touched on this matter that evening for the first time, coming very late into the drawing-room where she was sitting alone. They had spent the evening at home, and Pansy had gone to bed. He himself had been sitting since dinner in a small apartment in which he had arranged his books

Starting point is 15:57:26 and which he called his study. At ten o'clock, Lord Warburton had come in, as he always did when he knew from Isabel that, she was to be at home. He was going somewhere else and he sat for half an hour. Isabel, after asking him for news of Ralph, said very little to him on purpose. She wished him to talk with her stepdaughter. She pretended to read. She even went after a little to the piano. She asked herself if she mightn't leave the room. She had come little by little to think well of the idea of Pansy's becoming the wife of the master of beautiful Lockley, though at first it had not

Starting point is 15:58:03 presented itself in a manner to excite her enthusiasm. Madame Merle that afternoon had applied the match to an accumulation of inflammable material. When Isabel was unhappy, she always looked about her, partly from impulse and partly by theory, for some form of positive exertion. She could never rid herself of the sense that unhappiness was a state of disease, of suffering as opposed to doing. To do, it hardly mattered what, would therefore be an escape. perhaps in some degree a remedy. Besides, she wished to convince herself that she had done everything possible to content her husband. She was determined not to be haunted by visions of his wife's limpness under appeal. It would please him greatly to see Pansy married to an English nobleman,

Starting point is 15:58:51 and justly please him, since this nobleman was so sound a character. It seemed to Isabel that if she could make it her duty to bring about such an event, she should play the part of a good wife. She wanted to be that. She wanted to be able to believe sincerely, and with proof of it, that she had been that. Then, such an undertaking had other recommendations. It would occupy her, and she desired occupation. It would even amuse her, and if she could really amuse herself, she perhaps might be saved. Lastly, it would be a service to Lord Warburton, who evidently pleased himself greatly with the charming girl. It was a little weird he should, being what he was, but there was no accounting for such impressions. Pansy might captivate anyone, anyone at least but Lord Warburton.

Starting point is 15:59:44 Isabel would have thought her too small, too slight, perhaps even too artificial for that. There was always a little of the doll about her, and that was not what he had been looking for. Still, who could say what men ever were looking for? They looked for what they found. They knew what pleased them only when they saw it. No theory was valid in such matters, and nothing was more unaccountable or more natural than anything else. If he had cared for her, it might seem odd he should care for Pansy, who was so different,

Starting point is 16:00:19 but he had not cared for her so much as he had supposed. Or if he had, he had completely got over it, and it was natural that, as the affair had failed, he should think something of quite another sort might succeed. Enthusiasm, as I say, had not come at first to Isabel, but it came today and made her feel almost happy. It was astonishing what happiness she could still find in the idea of procuring a pleasure for her husband. It was a pity, however, that Edward Rosier had crossed their path. At this reflection, the light that had suddenly gleamed upon that path lost something of its brightness. Isabel was unfortunately as sure that Pansy thought Mr. Rosier the nicest of all the young men,

Starting point is 16:01:04 as sure as if she had held an interview with her on the subject. It was very tiresome she should be so sure, when she had carefully abstained from informing herself, almost as tiresome as that poor Mr. Rosier should have taken it into his own head. He was certainly very inferior to Lord Warburton. It was not the difference in fortune so much as the difference in the men. The young American was really so light a weight. He was much more of the type of the useless fine gentleman than the English nobleman. It was true that there was no particular reason why Pansy should marry a statesman.

Starting point is 16:01:38 Still, if a statesman admired her, that was his affair, and she would make a perfect little pearl of a pyrus. It may seem to the reader that Mrs. Osmond had grown of a sudden, strangely cynical, for she ended by saying to herself that this difficulty could probably be arranged. an impediment that was embodied in poor Rosier could not anyhow present itself as a dangerous one. There were always means of leveling secondary obstacles. Isabel was perfectly aware that she had not taken the measure of Pansy's tenacity, which might prove to be inconveniently great.

Starting point is 16:02:12 But she inclined to see her as rather letting go under suggestions than as clutching under deprecation, since she had certainly the Faculty of Assent developed in a very much higher degree than that of protest. She would cling, yes, she would cling, but it really mattered to her very little what she clung to. Lord Warburton would do as well as Mr. Rosier, especially as she seemed quite to like him. She had expressed this sentiment to Isabel without a single reservation. She had said she thought his conversation most interesting. He had told her all about India. His manner to Pansy had been of the rightest and easiest.

Starting point is 16:02:48 Isabel noticed that for herself. As she also observed that he talked to her not in the least, in a patronizing way, reminding himself of her youth and simplicity, but quite as if she understood his subjects with that sufficiency with which she followed those of the fashionable operas. This went far enough for attention to the music and the baritone. He was careful only to be kind. He was as kind as he had been to another fluttered young chit at Garden Court. A girl might well be touched by that. She remembered how she herself had been touched, and said to herself that if she had been as simple as Pansy, the impression would have been deeper still. She had not been simple when

Starting point is 16:03:28 she refused him. That operation had been as complicated as later her acceptance of Osmond had been. Pansy, however, in spite of her simplicity, really did understand, and was glad that Lord Warburton should talk to her, not about her partners and bouquets, but about the state of Italy, the condition of the peasantry, the famous grist tax, the pelagra, his impressions of Roman society. She looked at him, as she drew her needle through her tapestry, with sweet, submissive eyes, and when she lowered them she gave little quiet, oblique glances at his person, his hands, his feet, his clothes, as if she were considering him. Even his person, Isabel might have reminded her, was better than Mr. Rosiers.

Starting point is 16:04:13 But Isabel contended herself at such moments with wondering where this gentleman was. He came no more at all to Palazzo Roca Nara. It was surprising, as I say, the hold it had taken of her, the idea of assisting her husband to be pleased. It was surprising for a variety of reasons, which I shall presently touch upon. On the evening I speak of, while Lord Warburton sat there, she had been on the point of taking the great step of going out of the room and leaving her companions alone. I say the great step, because it was in this light that Gilbert Osmond would have regarded it, and Isabel was trying as much as possible to take her husband's view. She succeeded after a fashion, but she fell short of the point I mention.

Starting point is 16:04:57 After all, she couldn't rise to it. Something held her and made this impossible. It was not exactly that it would be base or insidious, for women as a general thing practice such maneuvers with a perfectly good conscience, and Isabel was instinctively much more true than false to the common genius of her sex. There was a vague doubt that interposed, a sense that she was not quite sure. So she remained in the drawing-room, and after a while Lord Warburton went off to his party, of which he promised to give Pansy a full account on the morrow.

Starting point is 16:05:29 After he had gone, she wondered if she had prevented something which would have happened if she had absented herself for a quarter of an hour, and then pronounced, always mentally, that when their distinguished visitors should wish her to go away, he would easily find means to let her know it. Pansy said nothing whatever about him after he had gone, and Isabel studiously said nothing, as she had taken a vow of reserve until after he should have declared himself. He was a little longer in coming to this than might seem to accord with the description he had given Isabel of his feelings. Pansy went to bed, and Isabel had to admit that she could not now guess what her stepdaughter

Starting point is 16:06:07 was thinking of. Her transparent little companion was for the moment not to be seen through. She remained alone, looking at the fire, until at the end of half an hour her husband came in. He moved about a while in silence and then sat down. He looked at the fire like herself. But she now had transferred her eyes from the flickering flame in the chimney to Osmond's face, and she watched him while he kept his silence. Covert observation had become a habit with her, an instinct of which it is not an exaggeration

Starting point is 16:06:40 to say that it was allied to that of self-defense, had made it habitual. She wished as much as possible to know his thoughts, to know what he would say beforehand, so that she might prepare her answer. Preparing answers had not been her strong point of old. She had rarely, in this respect, got further than thinking afterwards of clever things she might have said, but she had learned caution, learned it in a measure from her husband's very countenance. It was the same face she had looked into with eyes equally earnest, perhaps, but less penetrating, on the terrace of a Florentine villa.

Starting point is 16:07:14 Except that Osmond had grown slightly stouter since his marriage. He still, however, might strike one as very distinguished. Has Lord Warburton been here? He presently asked. Yes, he stayed half an hour. Did he see Pansy? Yes, he sat on the sofa beside her. Did he talk with her much?

Starting point is 16:07:38 He talked almost only to her. It seems to me he's attentive. Isn't that way? what you call it? I don't call it anything, said Isabel. I've waited for you to give it a name. That's consideration you don't always show. Osmond answered after a moment.

Starting point is 16:07:58 I've determined this time to try and act as you'd like. I've so often failed of that. Osmond turned his head slowly, looking at her. Are you trying to quarrel with me? No, I'm trying to live at peace. Nothing's more easy. You know I don't quarrel myself. What do you call it when you try to make me angry? Isabel asked. I don't try. If I've done so, it has been the most natural thing in the world.

Starting point is 16:08:28 Moreover, I'm not in the least trying now. Isabel smiled. It doesn't matter. I've determined never to be angry again. That's an excellent resolve. Your temper isn't good. No, it's not good. She pushed away the book she had been reading, and took up the band of tapestry Pansy had left on the table. That's partly why I've not spoken to you about this business of my daughters, Osmond said, designating Pansy in the manner that was most frequent with him. I was afraid I should encounter opposition, that you too would have views on the subject.

Starting point is 16:09:07 I've sent Little Rosier about his business. You were afraid I'd plead for Mr. Rosier? Haven't you noticed that I've never spoken to you of him? I've never given you a chance. We've so little conversation in these days. I know he was an old friend of yours. Yes, he's an old friend of mine. Isabel cared little more for him than for the tapestry that she held in her hand.

Starting point is 16:09:32 But it was true that he was an old friend and that with her husband she felt a desire not to extenuate such ties. He had a way of expressing contempt for them which fortified. her loyalty to them, even when, as in the present case, they were in themselves insignificant. She sometimes felt a sort of passion of tenderness for memories which had no other merit than that they belonged to her unmarried life. But as regards Pansy, she added in a moment, I've given him no encouragement. That's fortunate, Osmond observed. Fortunate for me, I suppose you mean. For him it matters little.

Starting point is 16:10:10 There's no use talking of him. him, Osmond said. As I tell you, I've turned him out. Yes, but a lover outside's always a lover. He's sometimes even more of one. Mr. Rosier still has hope. He's welcome to the comfort of it. My daughter has only to sit perfectly quiet to become Lady Warburton. Should you like that? Isabel asked with a simplicity, which was not so affected as it may appear. She was resolved to assume nothing, for Osmond had a way of unexpectedly turning her assumptions against her. The intensity with which he would like his daughter to become Lady Warburton had been the very basis of her own recent reflections. But that was for herself. She would

Starting point is 16:10:55 recognize nothing until Osmond should have put it into words. She would not take for granted with him that he thought Lord Warburton a prize worth an amount of effort that was unusual among the Osmond's. It was Gilbert's constant intimation that for him nothing in life was a prize, that he treated as from equal to equal with the most distinguished people in the world, and that his daughter had only to look about her to pick out a prince. It cost him, therefore, a lapse from consistency to say explicitly that he yearned for Lord Warburton, and that if this nobleman escaped, his equivalent might not be found, with which, moreover, it was another of his customary implications that he was never inconsistent.

Starting point is 16:11:34 He would have liked his wife to glide over the point. But strangely enough, now that she was face to face with him, and although an hour before she had almost invented a scheme for pleasing him, Isabel was not accommodating, would not glide. And yet she knew exactly the effect on his mind of her question. It would operate as an humiliation. Never mind. He was terribly capable of humiliating her,

Starting point is 16:12:00 all the more so that he was also capable of waiting for great opportunity. and of showing sometimes an almost unaccountable indifference to small ones. Isabel, perhaps, took a small opportunity because she would not have availed herself of a great one. Osmond at present acquitted himself very honorably. I should like it extremely. It would be a great marriage. And then Lord Warburton has another advantage. He's an old friend of yours. It would be pleasant for him to come into the family. It's very odd, Pansy's admirers should all be your old friend.

Starting point is 16:12:34 It's natural that they should come to see me. In coming to see me they see Pansy. Seeing her, it's natural they should fall in love with her. So I think, but you're not bound to do so. If she should marry Lord Warburton, I should be very glad. Isabel went on. He's an excellent man. You say, however, that she has only to sit perfectly still. Perhaps she won't sit perfectly still. If she loses Mr. Rosier, she may jump up. "'Ozmond appeared to give no heed to this. "'He sat gazing at the fire. "'Pansy would like to be a great lady.'

Starting point is 16:13:12 "'He remarked in a moment with a certain tenderness of tone. "'She wishes above all to please,' he added. "'To please Mr. Rosier, perhaps?' "'No, to please me.' "'Me too a little, I think,' said Isabel. "'Yes, she has a great opinion of you, "'but she'll do what I like.' "'If you're sure of that, it's very well,' she went on.

Starting point is 16:13:38 "'Meantime,' said Osmond, "'I should like our distinguished visitor to speak.' "'He has spoken, to me. "'He has told me it would be a great pleasure to him "'to believe she could care for him.' "'Ozman turned his head quickly, "'but at first he said nothing. "'Then—'

Starting point is 16:13:57 "'Why didn't you tell me that?' "'He asked sharply. "'There was no opportunity. "'You know how we live?' I've taken the first chance that is offered. Did you speak to him of Rosier? Oh, yes, a little. That was hardly necessary.

Starting point is 16:14:13 I thought at best he should know that. So that... So that... And Isabel paused. So that what? So that he might act accordingly. So that he might back out, do you mean? No, so that he might advance while there's yet time.

Starting point is 16:14:31 That's not the effect it seems to have had. You should have patience, said Isabel. You know Englishmen are shy. This one's not. He was not when he made love to you. She had been afraid Osmond would speak of that. It was disagreeable to her. I beg your pardon.

Starting point is 16:14:50 He was extremely so, she returned. He answered nothing for some time. He took up a book and fingered the pages while she sat silent and occupied herself with Pansy's tapestry. You must have a great deal of influence with him. Osmond went on at last. The moment you really wish it, you can bring him to the point. This was more offensive still, but she felt the great naturalness of his saying it,

Starting point is 16:15:18 and it was, after all, extremely like what she had said to herself. Why should I have influence? she asked. What have I ever done to put him under an obligation to me? You refused to marry him, said Asmund with his eyes on his book. I must not presume too much on that, she replied. He threw down the book presently and got up, standing before the fire with his hands behind him. Well, I hold that it lies in your hands. I shall leave it there. With a little goodwill you may manage it. Think that over, and remember how much I count on you.

Starting point is 16:15:55 He waited a little, to give her time to answer. But she answered nothing, and he presently strolled out. of the room. End of Chapter 41. Chapter 42 of the Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Librivox recording is in the public domain. She had answered nothing, because his words had put the situation before her, and she was absorbed in looking at it. There was something in them that suddenly made vibrations deep, so that she had been afraid

Starting point is 16:16:35 to trust herself to speak. After he had gone, she leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes, and for a long time, far into the night and still further, she sat in the still drawing-room, given up to her meditation. A servant came in to attend to the fire, and she bade him bring fresh candles and then go to bed. Osmond had told her to think of what he had said, and she did so indeed, and of many other things. things. The suggestion from another that she had a definite influence on Lord Warburton, this had given her the start that accompanies unexpected recognition. Was it true that there was something still between them that might be a handle to make him declare himself to Pansy?

Starting point is 16:17:26 A susceptibility on his part to approval, a desire to do what would please her. Isabel had hitherto not asked herself the question, because she had not to have not. been forced. But now that it was directly presented to her, she saw the answer, and the answer frightened her. Yes, there was something, something on Lord Warburton's part. When he had first come to Rome, she believed the link that united them to be completely snapped. But little by little, she had been reminded that it had yet a palpable existence. It was as thin as a hair, but there were moments when she seemed to hear it vibrate. For herself, nothing was changed. What she once thought of him she always thought. It was needless this feeling should change. It seemed to her,

Starting point is 16:18:20 in fact, a better feeling than ever. But he? Had he still the idea that she might be more to him than other women? Had he the wish to profit by the memory of the few moments of intimacy through which they had once passed? Isabel knew she had read some of the signs of such a disposition. But what were his hopes, his pretensions, and in what strange way were they mingled with his evidently very sincere appreciation of poor Pansy? Was he in love with Gilbert Osmond's wife? And if so, what comfort did he expect to derive from it? If he was in love with Pansy, he was not in love with her stepmother, and if he was in love with her stepmother, he was not in love with Pansy. Was she to cultivate the advantage she possessed in order to make him commit himself to Pansy,

Starting point is 16:19:12 knowing he would do so for her sake, and not for the small creature's own? Was this the service her husband had asked of her? This, at any rate, was the duty with which she found herself confronted. From the moment she admitted to herself that her old friend had still an uneradicated predilection for her society. It was not an agreeable task. It was, in fact, a repulsive one. She asked herself with dismay whether Lord Warburton were pretending to be in love with Pansy

Starting point is 16:19:43 in order to cultivate another satisfaction and what might be called other chances. Of this refinement of duplicity, she presently acquitted him. She preferred to believe him in perfect good faith. But if his admiration for Pansy were a delusion, This was scarcely better than its being an affectation. Isabel wandered among these ugly possibilities, until she had completely lost her way. Some of them, as she suddenly encountered them, seemed ugly enough.

Starting point is 16:20:17 Then she broke out of the labyrinth, rubbing her eyes, and declared that her imagination surely did her little honor, and that her husbands did him even less. Lord Warburton was as disinterested as he need be, and she was no more to him than she need wish. She would rest upon this till the contrary should be proved, proved more effectually than by a cynical intimation of Osmond's. Such a resolution, however, brought her this evening but little peace, for her soul was haunted with terrors which crowded to the foreground of thought as quickly as a place was made for them. What had suddenly set them into livelier motion she hardly knew, unless it were the strange

Starting point is 16:21:01 impression she had received in the afternoon of her husband's being in more direct communication with Madame Merle than she suspected. That impression came back to her from time to time, and now she wondered it had never come before. Besides this, her short interview with Osmond half an hour ago was a striking example of his faculty for making everything with her that he taught. touched, spoiling everything for her that he looked at. It was very well to undertake to give him a proof of loyalty. The real fact was that the knowledge of his expecting a thing raised a presumption

Starting point is 16:21:36 against it. It was as if he had had the evil eye, as if his presence were a blight and his favor a misfortune. Was the fault in himself, or only in the deep mistrust she had conceived for him. This mistrust was now the clearest result of their short married life. A gulf had opened between them, over which they looked at each other with eyes that were on either side a declaration of the deception suffered. It was a strange opposition, of the like of which she had never dreamed, an opposition in which the vital principle of the one was a thing of contempt to the other. It was not her fault. She had practiced no deception. She had only admired and believed. She had taken all the first steps in the purest confidence, and then she had suddenly found the infinite vista of a

Starting point is 16:22:34 multiplied life to be a dark, narrow alley with the dead wall at the end. Instead of leading to the high places of happiness, from which the world would seem to lie below one, so that one could look down with a sense of exaltation and advantage, and judge and choose and pity, it led rather downward and earthward, into realms of restriction and depression, where the sound of other lives, easier and freer, was heard as from above, and where it served to deepen the feeling of failure. It was her deep distrust of her husband. This was what darkened the world. That is a sentiment easily indicated, but not so easily explained, and so composite in its character that much time and still more suffering had been needed to bring it to its actual perfection.

Starting point is 16:23:28 Suffering with Isabel was an active condition. It was not a chill, a stupor, a despair. It was a passion of thought, of speculation, of response to every pressure. She flattered herself that she had kept her failing faith to herself, however, that not No one suspected it but Osmond. Oh, he knew it, and there were times when she thought he enjoyed it. It had come gradually. It was not till the first year of their life together, so admirably intimate at first, had closed that she had taken the alarm.

Starting point is 16:24:04 Then the shadows had begun to gather. It was as if Osmond deliberately, almost malignantly, had put the lights out one by one. The dusk at first was vague and thin, and she could still see her way in it. But it steadily deepened. And if now and again it had occasionally lifted, there were certain corners of her prospect that were impenetrably black. These shadows were not an emanation from her own mind. She was very sure of that.

Starting point is 16:24:34 She had done her best to be just and temperate, to see only the truth. They were a part. They were a kind of creation and consequence of her husband's very present. They were not his misdeeds, his turpitudes. She accused him of nothing. That is, but of one thing, which was not a crime. She knew of no wrong he had done. He was not violent.

Starting point is 16:24:59 He was not cruel. She simply believed he hated her. That was all she accused him of, and the miserable part of it was precisely that it was not a crime, for against a crime she might have found redress. He had discovered that she was, was so different that she was not like what he had believed she would prove to be. He had thought at first he could change her, and she had done her best to be what he would like. But she was, after all,

Starting point is 16:25:27 herself. She couldn't help that. And now there was no use pretending, wearing a mask or a dress, for he knew her and had made up his mind. She was not afraid of him. She had no apprehension he would hurt her, for the ill-will he bore her was not of that sort. He would, if possible, never give her a pretext, never put himself in the wrong. Isabel, scanning the future with dry, fixed eyes, saw that he would have the better of her there. She would give him many pretexts. She would often put herself in the wrong. There were times when she almost pitied him. For if she had not deceived him in intention, she understood how completely she must have done so in fact. She had effaced herself when he first knew her. She had made herself small, pretending there was

Starting point is 16:26:19 less of her than there really was. It was because she had been under the extraordinary charm that he, on his side, had taken pains to put forth. He was not changed. He had not disguised himself, during the year of his courtship, any more than she. But she had seen only half his nature then, as one saw the disc of the moon when it was partly masked by the shadow of the earth. She saw the full moon now. She saw the whole man. She had kept still, as it were, so that he should have a free field. And yet in spite of this, she had mistaken a part for the whole.

Starting point is 16:27:00 Ah, she had been immensely under the charm. It had not passed away. It was there still. She still knew perfectly what it was that made Osmond delightful when he chose to be. He had wished to be when he made love to her, and as she had wished to be charmed, it was not wonderful he had succeeded. He had succeeded because he had been sincere. It never occurred to her now to deny him that.

Starting point is 16:27:26 He admired her. He had told her why, because she was the most imaginative woman he had known. It might very well have been true, for during those months she had imagined. imagined a world of things that had no substance. She had had a more wondrous vision of him, fed through charmed senses, and, oh, such a stirred fancy. She had not read him right. A certain combination of features had touched her, and in them she had seen the most striking of figures. That he was poor and lonely, and yet that somehow he was noble. That was what had interested her, and seemed to give her her opportunity.

Starting point is 16:28:05 There had been an indefinable beauty about him, in his situation, in his mind, in his face. She had felt at the same time that he was helpless and ineffectual, but the feeling had taken the form of a tenderness, which was the very flower of respect. He was like a skeptical voyager strolling on the beach while he waited for the tide, looking seaward, yet not putting to sea. It was in all this she had found her occasion. She would launch his boat for him. She would be his providence.

Starting point is 16:28:41 It would be a good thing to love him. And she had loved him. She had so anxiously and yet so ardently given herself, a good deal for what she found in him, but a good deal also for what she brought him and what might enrich the gift. As she looked back at the passion of those full weeks, she perceived in it a kind of maternal strain, the happiness of a woman who felt that she was a

Starting point is 16:29:06 contributor, that she came with charged hands. But for her money, as she saw today, she would never have done it. And then her mind wandered off to poor Mr. Touchett, sleeping under English turf, the beneficent author of infinite woe. For this was the fantastic fact. At bottom her money had of burden, had been on her mind, which was filled with the desire to transfer the weight of it to some other conscience, to some more prepared receptacle. What would lighten her own conscience more effectually than to make it over to the man with the best taste in the world? Unless she should have given it to a hospital, there would have been nothing better she could do with it, and there was no charitable institution in which she had been as much interested

Starting point is 16:29:55 as in Gilbert Osmond. He would use her fortune in a way that would make her think better of it, and rub off a certain grossness attaching to the good luck of an unexpected inheritance. There had been nothing very delicate in inheriting seventy thousand pounds. The delicacy had been all in Mr. Touchets leaving them to her. But to marry Gilbert Osmond and bring him such a portion. In that there would be delicacy for her as well. There would be less for him, that was true, but that was his affair. And if he loved her, he wouldn't object to him. He wouldn't to her being rich. Had he not had the courage to say he was glad she was rich?

Starting point is 16:30:38 Isabelle's cheek burned when she asked herself if she had really married on a factitious theory in order to do something finely appreciable with her money. But she was able to answer quickly enough that this was only half the story. It was because a certain ardor took possession of her, a sense of the earnestness of his affection and a delight in his personal qualities. He was better than anyone else. This supreme conviction had filled her life for months, and enough of it still remained to prove to her that she could not have done otherwise. The finest, in the sense of being the subtlest, manly organism she had ever known, had become her property,

Starting point is 16:31:21 and the recognition of her having but to put out her hands and take it had been originally a sort of act of devotion. She had not been mistaken about the beauty of, his mind, she knew that organ perfectly now. She had lived with it. She had lived in it almost. It appeared to have become her habitation. If she had been captured, it had taken a firm hand to seize her. That reflection perhaps had some worth. A mind more ingenious, more pliant, more cultivated, more trained to admirable exercises she had not encountered. And it was this exquisite instrument she had now to reckon with. She lost herself in infinite dismay when she thought of the magnitude of his deception. It was a wonder, perhaps, in view of this, that he didn't hate her more.

Starting point is 16:32:10 She remembered perfectly the first sign he had given of it. It had been like a bell that was to ring up the curtain upon the real drama of their life. He said to her one day that she had too many ideas, and that she must get rid of them. He had told her that already before their marriage, but then she had not noticed it. It had come back to her only afterwards. This time she might well have noticed it, because he had really meant it. The words had been nothing superficially, but when, in the light of deepening experience she had looked into them, they had then appeared portentous. He had really meant it. He would have liked her to have nothing of her own but her pretty appearance. She had known she had too many ideas.

Starting point is 16:32:57 She had more even than he had supposed, many more than she had expressed to him when he had asked her to marry him. Yes, she had been hypocritical. She had liked him so much. She had too many ideas for herself. But that was just what one married for, to share them with someone else. One couldn't pluck them up by the roots, though of course one might suppress them, be careful not to utter them. It had not been this, however, his objecting to her opinions. This had been nothing.

Starting point is 16:33:32 She had no opinions, none that she would not have been eager to sacrifice and the satisfaction of feeling herself loved for it. What he had meant had been the whole thing, her character, the way she felt, the way she judged. This was what she had kept in reserve. This was what he had not known until he had found himself, with the door closed behind, as it were, set down face to face with. She had a certain way of looking at life which he took as a personal offense. Heaven knew that now at least it was a very humble accommodating way. The strange thing was that she should not have suspected from the first that his own had been so different. She had thought it so large, so enlightened, so perfectly that of an honest man

Starting point is 16:34:18 and a gentleman. Hadn't he assured her that he had no superstitions, no dull, limitations, no prejudices that had lost their freshness? Hadn't he all the appearance of a man living in the open air of the world, indifferent to small considerations, caring only for truth and knowledge, and believing that two intelligent people ought to look for them together, and whether they found them or not, find at least some happiness in the search? He had told her he loved the conventional, but there was a sense in which this seemed a noble declaration. In that sense, that of the love of harmony and order and decency, and of all the stately offices of life, she went with him freely, and his warning had contained nothing ominous.

Starting point is 16:35:05 But when, as the months had elapsed, she had followed him further, and he had led her into the mansion of his own habitation, then, then she had seen where she really was. She could live it over again, the incredulous terror with which she had taken the measure of her dwelling. Between those four walls she had lived ever since, they were to surround her for the rest of her life. It was the house of darkness, the house of dumbness, the house of suffocation. Osmond's beautiful mind gave it neither light nor air. Osmond's beautiful mind indeed seemed to peep down from a small high window and mock at her. Of course it had not been physical suffering, for physical suffering there might have been a remedy. She could come and go. She had her liberty. Her husband was

Starting point is 16:35:59 perfectly polite. He took himself so seriously. It was something appalling. Under all his culture, his cleverness, his amenity, under his good nature, his facility, his knowledge of life, his egotism lay hidden like a serpent in a bank of flowers. She had taken him seriously, but she had not taken him so seriously as that. How could she? Especially when she had known him better. She was to think of him as he thought of himself, as the first gentleman in Europe.

Starting point is 16:36:36 So it was that she had thought of him at first, and that indeed was the reason she had married him. But when she began to see what it implied, she drew back. There was more in the bond than she had meant to put her name to. It implied a sovereign contempt for everyone but some three or four very exalted people whom he envied, and for everyone in the world but half a dozen ideas of his own. That was very well.

Starting point is 16:37:03 She would have gone with him even there a long distance, for he pointed out to her so much of the baseness and shabbiness of life, opened her eyes so wide to the stupidity, the depravity, the ignorance of mankind, that she had been properly impressed with the infinite vulgarity of things and of the virtue of keeping oneself unspotted by it. But this base, if noble world, it appeared, was after all what one was to live for. One was to keep it forever in one's eye,

Starting point is 16:37:33 in order not to enlighten or convert or redeem it, but to extract from it some recognition of one's own superiority. On the one hand it was despicable, but on the other it afforded a standard. Osmond had talked to Isabel about his renunciation, his indifference, the ease with which she dispensed with the usual aids to success, and all this had seemed to her admirable. She had thought it a grand indifference, an exquisite independence. But indifference was really the last of his qualities. She had never seen anyone who thought so much of others. For herself, avowedly, the world had always interested her, and the study of of her fellow creatures been her constant passion. She would have been willing, however,

Starting point is 16:38:22 to renounce all her curiosities and sympathies for the sake of a personal life, if the person concerned had only been able to make her believe it was a gain. This, at least, was her present conviction, and the thing certainly would have been easier than to care for society as Osmond cared for it. He was unable to live without it, and she saw that he had never really done so. He had looked at it out of his window, even when he appeared to be most detached from it. He had his ideal, just as she had tried to have hers. Only it was strange that people should seek for justice in such different quarters. His ideal was a conception of high prosperity and propriety, of the aristocratic life, which he now saw that he deemed himself always, in essence

Starting point is 16:39:10 at least, to have led. He had never lapsed from it for an hour. He would have done. He would never have recovered from the shame of doing so. That again was very well. Here, too, she would have agreed, but they attached such different ideas, such different associations and desires, to the same formulas. Her notion of the aristocratic life was simply the union of great knowledge with great liberty. The knowledge would give one a sense of duty and the liberty a sense of enjoyment. But for Osmond, it was altogether a thing of forms, a conscious, calculated attitude. He was fond of the old, the consecrated, the transmitted. So was she, but she pretended to do what she chose with it.

Starting point is 16:39:55 He had an immense esteem for tradition. He had told her once that the best thing in the world was to have it, but that if one was so unfortunate as to not have it, one must immediately proceed to make it. She knew that he meant by this, that she hadn't it, but that he was better off. Though from what source he had derived his traditions, she had never learned. He had a very large collection of them, however, that was very certain,

Starting point is 16:40:21 and after a little she began to see. The great thing was to act in accordance with them, the great thing not only for him but for her. Isabel had an undefined conviction that to serve for another person than their proprietor traditions must be of a thoroughly superior kind, but she nevertheless assented to this intimation that she too must march to the stately music that floated down from unknown periods in her husband's past. She, who of old, had been so free of step, so desultory, so devious, so much the reverse of processional. There were certain things they must do, a certain posture they must take, certain people they must know and not know. When she saw this rigid system close about her, draped though it was in pictured tapestries,

Starting point is 16:41:11 that sense of darkness and suffocation, of which I have spoken, took possession of her. She seemed shut up with an odor of mold and decay. She had resisted, of course, at first very humorously, ironically, tenderly. Then, as the situation grew more serious, eagerly, passionately, pleadingly. She had pleaded the cause of freedom, of doing as they chose, of not caring for the aspect and denomination of their life, the cause of other instincts and longings of quite another ideal.

Starting point is 16:41:49 Then it was that her husband's personality touched as it never had been, stepped forth, and stood erect. The things she had said were answered only by his scorn, and she could see he was ineffably ashamed of her. What did he think of her? That she was base, vulgar, ignoble, He at least knew now that she had no traditions.

Starting point is 16:42:15 It had not been in his provision of things that she should reveal such flatness. Her sentiments were worthy of a radical newspaper or a Unitarian preacher. The real offence, as she ultimately perceived, was her having a mind of her own at all. Her mind was to be his, attached to his own like a small garden plot to a deer park. He would rake the soil gently and water the flowers. he would weed the beds and gather an occasional nosegay. It would be a pretty piece of property for a proprietor already far-reaching. He didn't wish her to be stupid.

Starting point is 16:42:53 On the contrary, it was because she was clever that she had pleased him. But he expected her intelligence to operate altogether in his favor, and so far from desiring her mind to be a blank, he had flattered himself that it would be richly receptive. He had expected his wife to feel. feel with him and for him, to enter into his opinions, his ambitions, his preferences. And Isabel was obliged to confess that this was no great insolence on the part of a man so accomplished, and a husband originally at least so tender. But there were certain things she could

Starting point is 16:43:29 never take in. To begin with, they were hideously unclean. She was not a daughter of the Puritans, but for all that she believed in such a thing as chastity, and even, even as decency. It would appear that Osmond was far from doing anything of the sort. Some of his traditions made her push back her skirts. Did all women have lovers? Did they all lie and even the best have their price? Were there only three or four that didn't deceive their husbands? When Isabel heard such things, she felt a greater scorn for them than for the gossip of a village parlor, a scorn that kept its freshness in a very tainted air. There was the taint of her sister-in-law.

Starting point is 16:44:14 Did her husband judge only by the Countess Gemini? This lady very often lied, and she had practiced deceptions that were not simply verbal. It was enough to find these facts assumed among Osmond's traditions. It was enough without giving them such a general extension. It was her scorn of his assumptions. It was this that made him draw himself up. He had plenty of contempt, and it was proper his way. wife should be as well furnished, but that she should turn the hot light of her disdain upon

Starting point is 16:44:45 his own conception of things, this was a danger he had not allowed for. He believed he should have regulated her emotions before she came to it, and Isabel could easily imagine how his ears had scorched on his discovering he had been too confident. When one had a wife who gave one that sensation, there was nothing left but to hate her. She was morally sorry. She was morally certain now that this feeling of hatred, which at first had been a refuge and a refreshment, had become the occupation and comfort of his life. The feeling was deep, because it was sincere. He had had the revelation that she could, after all, dispense with him. If, to herself, the idea was startling, if it presented itself at first as a kind of infidelity, a capacity for pollution,

Starting point is 16:45:35 what infinite effect might it not be expected to have had upon him? It was very simple. He despised her. She had no traditions and the moral horizon of a Unitarian minister. Poor Isabel, who had never been able to understand Unitarianism. This was the certitude she had been living with now for a time that she had ceased to measure. What was coming? What was before them? That was her constant question.

Starting point is 16:46:06 What would he do? What ought she to do? When a man hated his wife, what did it lead to? She didn't hate him, that she was sure of, for every little while she felt a passionate wish to give him a pleasant surprise. Very often, however, she felt afraid, and it used to come over her, as I have intimated, that she had deceived him at the very first. They were strangely married at all events, and it was a horrible life. until that morning he had scarcely spoken to her for a week his manner was as dry as a burned-out fire she knew there was a special reason he was displeased at ralph touchett staying on in rome he thought she saw too much of her cousin he had told her a week before it was indecent she should go to him at his hotel he would have said more than this if ralph's invalid state had not appeared to make it brutal to denounce him but having had to contain himself had only deepened his disgust.

Starting point is 16:47:08 Isabel read all this as she would have read the hour on the clock face. She was as perfectly aware that the sight of her interest in her cousin stirred her husband's rage, as if Osmond had locked her into her room, which she was sure was what he wanted to do. It was her honest belief that on the whole she was not defiant, but she certainly couldn't pretend to be indifferent to Ralph. She believed he was dying at last, and that she should never see him again.

Starting point is 16:47:37 And this gave her a tenderness for him that she had never known before. Nothing was a pleasure to her now. How could anything be a pleasure to a woman who knew that she had thrown away her life? There was an everlasting weight on her heart. There was a livid light on everything. But Ralph's little visit was a lamp in the darkness. For the hour that she sat with him, her ache for herself became somehow her ache for him. She felt today as if he had been her brother.

Starting point is 16:48:08 She had never had a brother. But if she had, and she were in trouble, and he were dying, he would be dear to her, as Ralph was. Ah, yes, if Gilbert was jealous of her, there was perhaps some reason. It didn't make Gilbert look better to sit for a half an hour with Ralph. It was not that they talked of him. It was not that she complained. His name was never uttered between them. It was simply that Ralph was generous and that her husband was not.

Starting point is 16:48:39 There was something in Ralph's talk, in his smile, in the mere fact of his being in Rome, that made the blasted circle round which she walked more spacious. He made her feel the good of the world. He made her feel what might have been. He was, after all, as intelligent as Osmond, quite apart from his being better. And thus it seemed to her an action. of devotion to conceal her misery from him. She concealed it elaborately. She was perpetually in their talk, hanging out curtains and before her again, it lived before her again. It had never had time to

Starting point is 16:49:17 die, that morning in the garden at Florence, when he had warned her against Osmond. She had only to close her eyes to see the place, to hear his voice, to feel the warm, sweet air. How could he have known. What a mystery. What a wonder of wisdom. As intelligent as Gilbert? He was much more intelligent to arrive at such a judgment as that. Gilbert had never been so deep, so just. She had told him then that from her at least, he should never know if he was right. And this was what she was taking care of now. It gave her plenty to do. There was a passion, exaltation, religion in it. Women find their religion sometimes in strange exercises, and Isabel at present, in playing a part before her cousin, had an idea that she was doing him a kindness. It would have

Starting point is 16:50:15 been a kindness, perhaps, if he had been, for a single instant, a dupe. As it was, the kindness consisted mainly in trying to make him believe that he had once wounded her greatly, and that the event had put him to shame. But that, as she was very generous and he was very generous and he he was so ill, she bore him no grudge, and even considerately forbore to flaunt her happiness in his face. Ralph smiled to himself as he lay on his sofa at this extraordinary form of consideration, but he forgave her for having forgiven him. She didn't wish him to have the pain of knowing she was unhappy. That was the great thing, and it didn't matter that such knowledge would rather have right at him. For herself, she lingered in the soundless saloon long,

Starting point is 16:51:01 after the fire had gone out. There was no danger of her feeling the cold. She was in a fever. She heard the small hours strike, and then the great ones, but her vigil took no heed of time. Her mind, assailed by visions, was in a state of extraordinary activity, and her visions might as well come to her there, where she sat up to meet them, as on her pillow, to make a mockery of rest. As I have said, she believed she was not defiant, and what could be a better proof of it than that she should linger there half the night, trying to persuade herself that there was no reason why Pandy shouldn't be married as he would put a letter in the post office. When the clock struck four she got up.

Starting point is 16:51:49 She was going to bed at last, for the lamp had long since gone out, and the candles burned down to their sockets. But even then, she stopped again in the middle of the room. and stood there gazing at a remembered vision, that of her husband and Madame Merle, unconsciously and familiarly associated. End of Chapter 42. Chapter 43 of the Portrait of a Lady by Henry James.

Starting point is 16:52:30 This Librivox recording is in the public domain. Three nights after this, she took Pansy to a great party, to which Osmond, who never went to dances, did not accompany them. Pansy was as ready for a dance as ever. She was not of a generalizing turn, and had not extended to other pleasures the interdict she had seen placed on those of love. If she was biding her time or hoping to circumvent her father, she must have had a provision of success.

Starting point is 16:53:01 Isabel thought this unlikely. It was much more likely that Pansy had simply determined to be a good girl. She had never had such a chance, and she had a proper esteem for chances. She carried herself no less attentively than usual, and kept no less anxious an eye upon her vaporous skirts. She held her bouquet very tight, and counted over the flowers for the twentieth time. She made Isabel feel old. It seemed so long since she'd been in a flutter about a ball. Pansy, who was greatly admired, was never in want of partners, and very soon after their arrival she gave Isabel, who was not dancing, her bouquet to hold. Isabel had rendered her this service for some minutes when she became aware of the near presence of Edward Rosier.

Starting point is 16:53:49 He stood before her. He had lost his affable smile and wore a look of almost military resolution. The change in his appearance would have made Isabel smile if she had not felt his case to be at bottom a hard one. He had always smelt so much more of heliotrope than of gunpowder. He looked at her a moment somewhat fiercely, as if to notify her he was dangerous. and then dropped his eyes on her bouquet. After he had inspected it, his glance softened and he said quickly, "'It's all pansies. It must be hers.' Isabelle smiled kindly.

Starting point is 16:54:27 "'Yes, it's hers. She gave it to me to hold.' "'May I hold it a little, Mrs. Osmond?' The poor young man asked. "'No, I can't trust you. I'm afraid you wouldn't give it back. I'm not sure that I should. I should leave the house with it instantly. But may I not at least have a single flower? Isabel hesitated a moment, and then, smiling still, held out the bouquet.

Starting point is 16:54:56 Choose one yourself. It's frightful what I'm doing for you. Ah, if you do know more than this, Mrs. Osmond, Rosier exclaimed, with his glass in one eye, carefully choosing his flower. "'Don't put it into your buttonhole,' she said. "'Don't for the world. "'I should like her to see it. "'She has refused to dance with me,

Starting point is 16:55:18 "'but I wish to show her that I believe in her still. "'It's very well to show it to her, "'but it's out of place to show it to others. "'Her father has told her not to dance with you. "'And is that all you can do for me? "'I expected more from you, Mrs. Osmond,' "'said the young man in a tone of fine general reference. You know our acquaintance goes back very far quite into the days of our innocent childhood.

Starting point is 16:55:45 Don't make me out too old, Isabel patiently answered. You come back to that very often, and I've never denied it. But I must tell you that, old friends as we are, if you had done me the honor to ask me to marry you, I should have refused you on the spot. Ah, you don't esteem me then. Say it once that you think me a mere Parisian person. trifler. I esteem you very much, but I'm not in love with you. What I mean by that, of course, is that I'm not in love with you for Pansy. Very good, I see. You pity me, that's all.

Starting point is 16:56:24 And Edward Rosier looked all round, inconsequently, with his single glass. It was a revelation to him that people shouldn't be more pleased, but he was at least too proud to show that the deficiency struck him as general. Isabel for a moment said nothing. His manner and appearance had not the dignity of the deepest tragedy. His little glass, among other things, was against that. But she suddenly felt touched. Her own unhappiness, after all, had something in common with his.

Starting point is 16:56:54 And it came over her more than before, that here, in recognizable, if not in romantic form, was the most affecting thing in the world, young loves struggling with adversity. Would you really be very kind to her? She finally asked in a low tone. He dropped his eyes devoutly and raised the little flower that he held in his fingers to his lips.

Starting point is 16:57:18 Then he looked at her, You pity me, but don't you pity her a little? I don't know. I'm not sure. She'll always enjoy life. It will depend on what you call life, Mr. Rosier effectively said. She won't. I don't enjoy being tortured.

Starting point is 16:57:37 There'll be nothing of that. I'm glad to hear it. She knows what she's about. You'll see. I think she does, and she'll never disobey her father. But she's coming back to me, Isabel added, and I must beg you to go away. Rosier lingered a moment, till Pansy came in sight on the arm of her cavalier. He stood just long enough to look her in the face.

Starting point is 16:58:02 Then he walked away, holding up his head. head, and the manner in which he achieved this sacrifice to expediency, convinced Isabel he was very much in love. Pansy, who seldom got disarranged in dancing, looking perfectly fresh and cool after this exercise, waited a moment and then took back her bouquet. Isabel watched her, and saw she was counting the flowers, whereupon she said to herself that decidedly there were deeper forces at play than she had recognized. Pansy had seen. seen rosier turn away, but she said nothing to Isabel about him. She talked only of her partner, after he had made his bow and retired, of the music, the floor, the rare misfortune of having

Starting point is 16:58:46 already torn her dress. Isabel was sure, however, she had discovered her lover to have abstracted a flower, though this knowledge was not needed to account for the dutiful grace with which she responded to the appeal of her next partner. That perfect amenity under acute constraint was part of a larger system. She was again led forth by a flushed young man, this time carrying her bouquet, and she had not been absent many minutes when Isabel saw Lord Warburton advancing through the crowd.

Starting point is 16:59:17 He presently drew near and bade her good evening. She had not seen him since the day before. He looked about him, and then, Where's the little mate? he asked. It was in this manner that he had formed the harmless habit of alluding to Miss Osmond. She's dancing, said Isabel. You'll see her somewhere.

Starting point is 16:59:39 He looked among the dancers, and at last caught Pansy's eye. She sees me, but she won't notice me. He then remarked, Are you not dancing? As you see, I'm a wallflower. Won't you dance with me? Thank you. I'd rather you should dance with the little maid.

Starting point is 16:59:59 One needn't prevent the other, especially as she's engaged. She is not engaged for everything, and you can reserve yourself. She dances very hard, and you'll be the fresher. She dances beautifully, said Lord Warburton, following her with his eyes. Ah, at last, he added, she has given me a smile. He stood there with his handsome, easy, important physiognomy, and as Isabel observed him, it came over her, as it had done before, that it was strange a man of his metal should take an interest in a little maid.

Starting point is 17:00:37 It struck her as a great incongruity. Neither Pansy's small fascinations, nor his own kindness, his good nature, not even his need for amusement, which was extreme and constant, were sufficient to account for it. I should like to dance with you. He went on in a moment, turning back to Isabelle. But I think I like even better to talk with you. Yes, it's better, and it's more worthy of your dignity. Great statesman oughtn't to waltz.

Starting point is 17:01:08 Don't be cruel. Why did you recommend me then to dance with Miss Osmond? Ah, that's different. If you danced with her, it would look simply like a piece of kindness, as if you were doing it for her amusement. If you dance with me, you look as if you were doing it for your own. And pray, haven't I a right to amuse myself? No.

Starting point is 17:01:30 not with the affairs of the British Empire on your hands? The British Empire be hanged. You're always laughing at it. Amuse yourself with talking to me, said Isabel. I'm not sure it's really a recreation. You're too pointed. I've always to be defending myself. And you strike me as more than usually dangerous tonight.

Starting point is 17:01:54 Will you absolutely not dance? I can't leave my place. Pansy must find me here. He was silent a little. You're wonderfully good to her, he said suddenly. Isabel stared a little and smiled. Can you imagine one's not being? No, indeed.

Starting point is 17:02:15 I know how one is charmed with her. But she must have done a good deal for her. I've taken her out with me, said Isabel, smiling still, and I've seen that she has proper clothes. Your society must have been a great benefit to her. You've talked to her, advised her, helped her to develop. Ah, yes. If she isn't the rose, she has lived near it. She laughed, and her companion did as much. But there was a certain visible preoccupation in his

Starting point is 17:02:46 face which interfered with complete hilarity. We all try to live as near it as we can, he said, after a moment's hesitation. Isabel turned away. Pansy was about to be restored to her, and she welcomed the diversion. We know how much she liked Lord Warburton. She thought him pleasanter even than the sum of his merits warranted. There was something in his friendship that appeared a kind of resource in case of indefinite need. It was like having a large balance at the bank. She felt happier when he was in the room.

Starting point is 17:03:22 There was something reassuring in his approach. The sound of his voice reminded her of the beneficence of nature. Yet for all that it didn't suit her that he should be too near her, that he should take too much of her goodwill for granted. She was afraid of that. She averted herself from it. She wished he wouldn't. She felt that if he should come too near, as it were, it might be in her to flash out and bid him keep his distance. Pansy came back to Isabel with another rent in her skirt, which was the inevitable consequence of the first, and which she displayed to Isabel with serious eyes. There were too many gentlemen in uniform.

Starting point is 17:04:01 They wore those dreadful spurs, which were fatal to the dresses of little maids. It hereupon became apparent that the resources of women are innumerable. Isabel devoted herself to Pansy's desecrated drapery. She fumbled for a pin and repaired the injury. She smiled and listened to her account of her adventures. Her attention, her sympathy were immediate and active. and they were in direct proportion to a sentiment with which they were in no way connected. A lively conjecture as to whether Lord Warburton might be trying to make love to her.

Starting point is 17:04:34 It was not simply his words just then, it was others as well. It was the reference and the continuity. This was what she thought about while she pinned up Pansy's dress. If it were so, as she feared, he was of course unwitting. He himself had not taken account of his intention. But this made it none the more auspicious, made the situation none less impossible. The sooner he should get back into right relations with things the better. He immediately began to talk to Pansy, on whom it was certainly mystifying to see that he dropped a smile of chastened devotion.

Starting point is 17:05:12 Pansy replied, as usual, with a little air of conscientious aspiration. He had to bend down toward her a good deal in conversation, and her eyes, as usual, wandered up and down his robust person as if he had offered it to her for exhibition. She always seemed a little frightened, yet her fright was not of the painful character that suggests dislike. On the contrary, she looked as if she knew that he knew she liked him. Isabelle left them together a little, and wandered toward a friend whom she saw near,

Starting point is 17:05:43 and with whom she talked till the music of the following dance began, for which she knew Pansy to be also engaged. The girl joined her presently with a little fluttered flight, And Isabel, who scrupulously took Osmond's view of his daughter's complete dependence, consigned her, as a precious and momentary loan, to her appointed partner. About all this matter she had her own imaginations, her own reserves. There were moments when Pansy's extreme adhesiveness made each of them, to her sense, look foolish. But Asmund had given her a sort of tableau of her position as his daughter's duena, which consisted of gracious alternations of concession and contraction. and there were directions of his which she liked to think she obeyed to the letter.

Starting point is 17:06:29 Perhaps, as regards some of them, it was because her doing so appeared to reduce them to the absurd. After Pansy had been led away, she found Lord Warburton drawing near her again. She rested her eyes on him steadily. She wished she could sound his thoughts. But he had no appearance of confusion. She is promised to dance with me later, he said. I'm glad of that. I suppose you've engaged her for the cotillion. At this he looked a little awkward.

Starting point is 17:07:01 No, I didn't ask her for that. It's a quadril. You're not clever, said Isabel almost angrily. I told her to keep the cotillion in case you should ask for it. Poor little maid, fancy that. And Lord Warburton laughed, frankly. Of course I will if you like. If I like? Oh, if you dance with her only because I like it.

Starting point is 17:07:27 I'm afraid I bore her. She seems to have a lot of young fellows on her book. Isabel dropped her eyes, reflecting rapidly. Lord Warburton stood there looking at her, and she felt his eyes on her face. She felt much inclined to ask him to remove them. She didn't do so, however. She only said to him after a minute with her own raised.

Starting point is 17:07:50 please let me understand. Understand what? You told me ten days ago that you'd like to marry my stepdaughter. You've not forgotten it? Forgotten it? I wrote to Mr. Osmond about it this morning. Ah, said Isabel. He didn't mention to me that he had heard from you.

Starting point is 17:08:11 Lord Warburton stammered a little. I didn't send my letter. Perhaps you forgot that. No, I wasn't satisfied with it. It's an awkward sort of letter to write, you know, but I shall send it tonight. At three o'clock in the morning? I mean later in the course of the day. Very good.

Starting point is 17:08:35 You still wish then to marry her? Very much indeed. Aren't you afraid that you'll bore her? And as her companion stared at this enquiry, Isabel added, If she can't dance with you for half an hour, how will she be able to dance with you for life? Ah, said Lord Warburton readily. I'll let her dance with other people. About the cotillion, the fact is, I thought that you, that you, that I would do it with you?

Starting point is 17:09:06 I told you I'd do nothing. Exactly, so that while it's going on, I might find some quiet corner where we may sit down and talk. Oh, said Isabel. gravely. You are much too considerate of me. When the Catillion came, Pansy was found to have engaged herself, thinking, in perfect humility, that Lord Warburton had no intentions. Isabel recommended him to seek another partner, but he assured her that he would dance with no one but herself. As, however, she had, in spite of the remonstrances of her hostess, declined other invitations on the ground that she was not dancing at all, it was not possible for her to make an

Starting point is 17:09:46 exception in Lord Warburton's favor. After all, I don't care to dance, he said. It's a barbarous amusement. I'd much rather talk. And he intimated that he had discovered exactly the corner he had been looking for, a quiet nook in one of the smaller rooms, where the music would come to them faintly and not interfere with conversation. Isabelle had decided to let him carry out his idea.

Starting point is 17:10:14 She wished to be satisfied. She wandered away from the ballroom with him, though she knew her husband desired she should not lose sight of his daughter. It was with his daughter's pretendant, however, that would make it right for Osmond. On her way out of the ballroom, she came upon Edward Rosier, who was standing in a doorway with folded arms, looking at the dance and the attitude of a young man without illusions. She stopped a moment and asked him if he were not dancing. Certainly not, if I can't deliour. with her, he answered.

Starting point is 17:10:47 You had better go away, then, said Isabel, with the manner of good counsel. I shall not go till she does. And he let Lord Warburton pass without giving him a look. This nobleman, however, had noticed the melancholy youth, and he asked Isabel, who her dismal friend was, remarking that he had seen him somewhere before. It's the young man I've told you about, who's in love with Pansy. "'Ah, yes, I remember, he looks rather bad. "'He has reason.

Starting point is 17:11:19 "'My husband won't listen to him.' "'What's the matter with him?' "'Lord Warburton inquired. "'He seems very harmless. "'He hasn't money enough, "'and he isn't very clever.' "'Lord Warburton listened with interest. "'He seemed struck with this account of Edward Rosier.

Starting point is 17:11:38 "'Dear me, he looked a well-set-up young fellow.' "'So he is, but, my husband's very particular. Oh, I see. And Lord Warburton paused a moment. How much money has he got? He then ventured to ask. Some 40,000 francs a year. Sixteen hundred pounds? Ah, but that's very good, you know. So I think. My husband, however, has larger ideas. Yes, I've noticed that your husband has very large ideas. Is he really an idiot, the young man? An idiot? Not in the least. He's charming. When he was twelve years old, I myself was in love with him. He doesn't look much more than twelve today. Lord Warburton rejoined vaguely, looking about him. Then, with more point,

Starting point is 17:12:32 don't you think we might sit here? He asked. Wherever you please. The room was a sort of boudoir, pervaded by a subdued rose-coloured light. A lady and gentleman moved out of it as our friends came in. "'It's very kind of you to take such an interest in Mr. Rosier,' Isabel said. "'He seems to me rather ill-treated. He had a face a yard long. I wondered what ailed him.' "'You are just man,' said Isabel. "'You have a kind thought even for arrival.' Lord Warburton suddenly turned with a stare.

Starting point is 17:13:09 "'A rival? Do you call him my rival?' "'Surely, if you both wish to marry the same person.' "'Yes, but since he has no chance.' "'I like you, however that may be, for putting yourself in his place. "'It shows imagination.' "'You like me for it?' "'And Lord Warburton looked at her with an uncertain eye. "'I think you mean you're laughing at me for it.'

Starting point is 17:13:37 "'Yes, I'm laughing at you a little.' little, but I like you as somebody to laugh at. Ah, well then, let me enter into his situation a little more. What do you suppose one could do for him? Since I have been praising your imagination, I'll leave you to imagine that yourself, Isabel said. Pansy, too, would like you for that. Miss Osmond.

Starting point is 17:14:01 Ah, she, I flatter myself, likes me already. Very much, I think. He waited a little. he was still questioning her face. Well, then, I don't understand you. You don't mean that she cares for him. A quick blush sprang to his brow. You told me she would have no wish apart from her father's,

Starting point is 17:14:23 and as I've gathered that he would favour me. He paused a little, and then suggested, Don't you see? Through his blush. Yes, I told you she has an immense wish to please her father, and that it would probably take her very far. That seems to me a very proper feeling, said Lord Warburton. Certainly, it's a very proper feeling.

Starting point is 17:14:49 Isabelle remained silent for some moments. The room continued empty. The sound of the music reached them with its richness softened by the interposing apartments. Then at last, she said, But it hardly strikes me as the sort of feeling to which a man would like to be indebted for a wife. "'I don't know. "'If the wife's a good one, and he thinks she does well.' "'Yes, of course, you must think that.

Starting point is 17:15:16 "'I do. I can't help it. "'You call that very British, of course.' "'No, I don't. "'I think Pansy would do wonderfully well to marry you, "'and I don't know who should know it better than you. "'But you're not in love.' "'Ah, yes, I am, Mrs. Osmond.' "'Isabelle shook her head.

Starting point is 17:15:36 You like to think you are while you sit here with me, but that's not how you strike me. I'm not like the young man in the doorway. I admit that. But what makes it so unnatural? Could anyone in the world be more lovable than Miss Osmond? No one possibly. But love has nothing to do with good reasons. I don't agree with you. I'm delighted to have good reasons. Of course you are. If you were really in love, you wouldn't care a straw for them. Ah, really in love, really in love, Lord Warburton exclaimed, folding his arms, leaning back his head and stretching himself a little. You must remember that I'm 42 years old. I won't pretend I'm as I once was. Well, if you're sure, said Isabel, it's all right. He answered nothing. He sat there with his head back looking before him.

Starting point is 17:16:35 Abruptly, however, he changed his position. He turned quickly to his friend. Why are you so unwilling, so skeptical? She met his eyes, and for a moment they looked straight at each other. If she wished to be satisfied, she saw something that satisfied her. She saw in his expression the gleam of an idea that she was uneasy on her own account, that she was perhaps even in fear. It showed a suspicion, not a hope, but such as a moment.

Starting point is 17:17:05 it was, it told her what she wanted to know. Not for an instant should he suspect her of detecting in his proposal of marrying her stepdaughter, an implication of increased nearness to herself, or of thinking it, on such a betrayal, ominous. In that brief, extremely personal gaze, however, deeper meanings passed between them than they were conscious of at the moment. "'My dear Lord Warburton,' she said, smiling, You may do, so far as I'm concerned, whatever comes into your head. And with this she got up and wandered in the adjoining room, where within her companion's view, she was immediately addressed by a pair of gentlemen, high personages in the Roman world,

Starting point is 17:17:51 who met her as if they had been looking for her. While she talked with them, she found herself regretting she had moved. It looked a little like running away, all the more as Lord Warburton didn't follow her. She was glad of this, however, and at any rate she was satisfied. She was so well satisfied that when, in passing back into the ballroom, she found Edward Rose-ear still planted in the doorway, she stopped and spoke to him again. You did right not to go away. I have some comfort for you. I need it, the young man softly wailed, when I see you so awfully thick with him.

Starting point is 17:18:28 Don't speak of him. I'll do what I can for you. I'm afraid it won't be much, but what I can all do. He looked at her with gloomy obliqueness. What has suddenly brought you round? The sense that you are an inconvenience in doorways, she answered, smiling as she passed him. Half an hour later she took leave, with Pansy, and at the foot of the staircase the two ladies, with many other departing guests, waited a while for their carriage. Just as it approached, Lord Warburne.

Starting point is 17:19:02 came out of the house and assisted them to reach their vehicle. He stood a moment at the door, asking Pansy if she had abused herself, and she, having answered him, fell back with a little air of fatigue. Then Isabel at the window, detaining him by a movement of her finger, murmured gently. Don't forget to send your letter to her father. End of Chapter 43. Chapter 44 of the Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Librovoc's recording is in the public domain. The Countess Gemini was often extremely bored. Bored, in her own phrase, to extinction.

Starting point is 17:19:50 She had not been extinguished, however, and she struggled bravely enough with her destiny, which had been to marry an unaccommodating Florentine, who insisted upon living in his native town, where he enjoyed such consideration as might attach to a gentleman whose talent for losing at had not the merit of being incidental to an obliging disposition. The Count Gemini was not even liked by those who won from him, and he bore a name which, having a measurable value in Florence, was, like the local coin of the old Italian states, without currency in other parts of the peninsula.

Starting point is 17:20:27 In Rome, he was simply a very dull Florentine, and it is not remarkable that he should not have cared to pay frequent visits to a place where, to carry it off, his dullness needed more explanation than was convenient. The Countess lived with her eyes upon Rome, and it was the constant grievance of her life that she had not an habitation there. She was ashamed to say how seldom she had been allowed to visit that city. It scarcely made the matter better that there were other members of the Florentine nobility

Starting point is 17:20:57 who had never been there at all. She went whenever she could. That was all she could say. Or rather, not all, but all she said she had. could say. In fact, she had much more to say about it, and had often set forth the reasons why she hated Florence, and wished to end her days in the shadow of St. Peter's. They are reasons, however, that do not closely concern us, and were usually summed up in the declaration that Rome, in short, was the eternal city, and that Florence was simply a pretty

Starting point is 17:21:29 little place like any other. The countess apparently needed to connect the idea of eternity with her amusements. She was convinced that society was infinitely more interesting in Rome, where you met celebrities all winter at evening parties. At Florence, there were no celebrities, none at least that one had heard of. Since her brother's marriage, her impatience had greatly increased, she was so sure his wife had a more brilliant life than herself. She was not so intellectual as Isabel, but she was intellectual enough to do justice to Rome, not to the ruins and the catacombs, not even perhaps to the monuments and museums, the church ceremonies and the scenery, but certainly to all the rest. She had heard a great deal about her sister-in-law

Starting point is 17:22:15 and knew perfectly that Isabel was having a beautiful time. She had indeed seen it for herself on the only occasion on which she had enjoyed the hospitality of Palazzo Roca Nara. She had spent a week there during the first winter of her brother's marriage, but she had not been encouraged to renew this satisfaction. Osmond didn't want her. That she was perfectly aware of. But she would have gone all the same, for after all she didn't care too straws about Osmond.

Starting point is 17:22:44 It was her husband who wouldn't let her, and the money question was always a trouble. Isabelle had been very nice. The countess, who had liked her sister-in-law from the first, had not been blinded by envy to Isabel's personal merits. She had always observed that she got on better with clever women than with silly ones like herself. The silly ones could never understand her wisdom, whereas the clever ones, the really clever ones, always understood her silliness. It appeared to her that, different as they were in appearance and general style, Isabel and she had somewhere a patch

Starting point is 17:23:20 of common ground that they would set their feet upon at last. It was not very large, but it was firm, and they should both know it when once they had really touched it. And then she lived, with Mrs. Osmond, under the influence of a pleasant surprise. She was constantly expecting that Isabelle would look down on her, and she as constantly saw this operation postponed. She asked herself when it would begin, like fireworks, or lent, or the opera season. Not that she cared much, but she wondered what kept it in abeyance. Her sister-in-law regarded her with none but level glances and expressed for the poor countess as little contempt as admiration. In reality, Isabel would as soon have thought of despising her as of passing a moral judgment on a grasshopper.

Starting point is 17:24:08 She was not indifferent to her husband's sister, however. She was rather a little afraid of her. She wondered at her. She thought her very extraordinary. The Countess seemed to her to have no soul. She was like a bright, rare shell, with a polished surface and a remarkably pink lip, in which something would rattle when you shook it. This rattle was apparently the Countess's spiritual principle,

Starting point is 17:24:31 a little loose nut that tumbled about inside of her. She was too awed for disdain, too anomalous for comparisons. Isabel would have invited her again, there was no question of inviting the Count, but Asmond, after his marriage, had not scrupled to say frankly that Amy was a fool of the worst species, a fool whose folly had the irrepressibility of genius. He said at another time that she had no heart, and he added in a moment that she had given it all away, in small pieces, like a frosted wedding cake.

Starting point is 17:25:04 The fact of not having been asked was of course another obstacle to the countess's going again to Rome, but at the period with which this history has now to deal, she was in receipt of an invitation to spend several weeks at Palazzo Roca Nara. The proposal had come from Osmond himself, who wrote to his sister that she must be prepared to be very quiet. Whether or no she found in this phrase all the meaning he had put into it, I am unable to say, but she accepted the invitation on any terms. She was curious, moreover, for one of the impressions of her former visit had been that her brother

Starting point is 17:25:40 had found his match. Before the marriage she had been sorry for Isabel, so sorry as to have had serious thoughts, if any of the countess's thoughts were serious, of putting her on her guard. But she had let that pass, and after a little she was reassured. Osmond was as lofty as ever, but his wife would not be an easy victim. The Countess was not very exact at measurements, but it seemed to her that if Isabel should draw herself up, she would be the taller spirit of the two. What she wanted to learn now was whether Isabelle had drawn herself up. It would give her immense pleasure to see Osmond overtopped. Several days before she was to start for Rome, a servant brought her the card of a visitor.

Starting point is 17:26:26 A card with this simple superscription, Henrietta C. Stackpole. The Countess pressed her fingertips to her forehead. She didn't remember to have known any such Henrietta as that. The servant then remarked that the lady had requested him to say that if the countess should not recognize her name, she would know her well enough on seeing her. By the time she appeared before her visitor, she had in fact reminded herself that there was once a literary lady at Mrs. Touchett's,

Starting point is 17:26:54 the only woman of letters she had ever encountered, that is, the only modern one, since she was the daughter of a defunct poetess. She recognized Miss Stackpole immediately. The more so that Miss Stackpole seemed perfectly unchanged, and the Countess, who was thoroughly good-natured, thought it rather fine to be called on by a person of that sort of distinction. She wondered if Miss Stackpole had come on account of her mother, whether she had heard of the American Corinne. Her mother was not at all like Isabel's friend. The Countess could see at a glance that this lady was much more contemporary, and she received an impression of the improvements that were taking place, chiefly in distant countries, in the character, the professional character, of literary ladies.

Starting point is 17:27:38 Her mother had been used to wear a Roman scarf thrown over a pair of shoulders timorously bared of their tight black velvet, oh, the old clothes, and a gold laurel wreath set upon a multitude of glossy ringlets. She had spoken. spoken softly and vaguely, with the accent of her Creole ancestors, as she always confessed. She sighed a great deal, and was not at all enterprising. But Henrietta, the Countess could see, was always closely buttoned and compactly braided. There was something brisk and businesslike in her appearance. Her manner was almost conscientiously familiar.

Starting point is 17:28:15 It was as impossible to imagine her ever vaguely sighing as to imagine a letter posted without its address. The Countess could not but feel that the correspondent of the interviewer was much more in the movement than the American Corinne. She explained that she had called on the Countess because she was the only person she knew in Florence, and that when she visited a foreign city she liked to see something more than superficial travelers. She knew Mrs. Touchett, but Mrs. Touchett was in America, and even if she had been in Florence, Henrietta would not have put herself out for her, since Mrs. Touchett was not one of her admirations. "'Do you mean by that that—' "'I am?' the Countess graciously asked.

Starting point is 17:28:57 "'Well, I like you better than I do her,' said Miss Stackpole. "'I seem to remember that when I saw you before you were very interesting. "'I don't know whether it's an accident or whether it's your usual style. "'At any rate, I was a good deal struck with what you said. "'I made use of it afterwards in print.' "'Dear me!' cried the Countess, staring and half-alarmed. "'I had no idea I ever said anything remarkable. I wish I had known it at the time.

Starting point is 17:29:24 It was about the position of women in this city, Miss Stackpole remarked. You threw a good deal of light upon it. The position of women's very uncomfortable. Is that what you mean? And you wrote it down and published it? The Countess went on. Oh, do let me see it.

Starting point is 17:29:43 I'll write to them to send you the paper if you like, Henrietta said. I didn't mention your name. I only said a lady of high rank, and then I quoted your views. The Countess threw herself hastily backward, tossing up her clasped hands. Do you know?

Starting point is 17:29:59 I'm rather sorry you didn't mention my name. I should rather have liked to see my name in the papers. I forget what my views were. I have so many, but I'm not ashamed of them. I'm not at all like my brother. I suppose you know my brother. He thinks it a kind of scandal to be put in the papers. If you were to quote him, he'd never forgive.

Starting point is 17:30:20 you. He needn't be afraid. I shall never refer to him, said Miss Stackpole with bland dryness. That's another reason, she added, why I wanted to come to see you. You know Mr. Osmond married my dearest friend. Oh, yes, you were a friend of Isabelle's. I was trying to think what I knew about you. I'm quite willing to be known by that, Henrietta declared, but that isn't what your brother likes to know me by. He has tried to break up my relations with you. He has tried to break up my relations with Isabel. Don't permit it, said the Countess. That's what I want to talk about. I'm going to Rome. So am I, the Countess cried. We'll go together. With great pleasure, and when I write about my journey, I'll mention you by name as my companion. The Countess sprang from her chair and came and sat on the

Starting point is 17:31:10 sofa beside her visitor. Oh, you must send me the paper. My husband won't like it, but he need never see it. Besides, he doesn't know how to read. Henrietta's large eyes became immense. Doesn't know how to read? May I put that into my letter? Into your letter? In the interviewer, that's my paper. Oh, yes, if you like, with his name.

Starting point is 17:31:35 Are you going to stay with Isabel? Henrietta held up her head, gazing a little in silence at her hostess. She has not asked me. I wrote to her I was coming, and she answered that she would engage a room for me at a pension. She gave no reason. The Countess listened with extreme interest. The reasons, Osmond, she pregnantly remarked. Isabel ought to make a stand, said Miss Stackpole.

Starting point is 17:32:02 I'm afraid she has changed a great deal. I told her she would. I'm sorry to hear it. I hoped she would have her own way. Why doesn't my brother like you? The Countess ingenuously added. I don't know, and I don't care. He's perfectly welcome not to like me.

Starting point is 17:32:19 I don't want everyone to like me. I should think less of myself if some people did. A journalist can't hope to do much good unless he gets a good deal hated. That's the way he knows how his work goes on, and it's just the same for a lady. But I didn't expect it of Isabel. Do you mean that she hates you? The Countess inquired. I don't know. I want to see. That's what I'm going to roam for. Dear me, what a tiresome errand, the Countess exclaimed. She doesn't write to me in the same way. it's easy to see there's a difference. If you know anything, Miss Stackpole went on.

Starting point is 17:32:55 I should like to hear it beforehand, so as to decide on the line I shall take. The Countess thrust out her underlip and gave a gradual shrug. I know very little. I see and hear very little of Osmond. He doesn't like me any better than he appears to like you. Yet you're not a lady correspondent, said Henrietta pensively. Oh, he has plenty of reasons. nevertheless they've invited me. I'm to stay in the house.

Starting point is 17:33:23 And the Countess smiled almost fiercely. Her exultation, for the moment, took little account of Miss Stackpole's disappointment. This lady, however, regarded it very placidly. I shouldn't have gone if she had asked me. That is, I think I shouldn't, and I'm glad I hadn't to make up my mind. It would have been a very difficult question. I shouldn't have liked to turn away from her, and yet I shouldn't have been happy under her roof. A pension will suit me very well.

Starting point is 17:33:50 But that's not all. Rome's very good just now, said the Countess. There are all sorts of brilliant people. Did you ever hear of Lord Warburton? Hear of him. I know him very well. Do you consider him very brilliant? Henrietta inquired.

Starting point is 17:34:08 I don't know him, but I'm told he's extremely grand seigneur. He's making love to Isabel. Making love to her. So I'm told, I don't know the details, said the Countess lightly. But Isabel's pretty safe. Henrietta gazed earnestly at her companion. For a moment she said nothing.

Starting point is 17:34:28 When do you go to Rome? She inquired abruptly. Not for a week, I'm afraid. I shall go tomorrow, Henrietta said. I think I had better not wait. Dear me, I'm sorry. I'm having some dresses made. I'm told Isabelle receives immensely,

Starting point is 17:34:46 but I shall see you there. I shall call on you at your pension. Henrietta sat still. She was lost in thought, and suddenly the Countess cried, Oh, but if you don't go with me, you can't describe our journey. Miss Stackpole seemed unmoved by this consideration. She was thinking of something else, and presently expressed it. I'm not sure that I understand you about Lord Warburton. Understand me? I mean, he's very nice, that's all. Do you consider it nice to make love to married women?

Starting point is 17:35:19 Henrietta inquired, with unprecedented distinctness. The Countess stared, and then with a little violent laugh, "'It's certain all the nice men do it. Get married and you'll see,' she added. "'That idea would be enough to prevent me,' said Miss Stackpole. "'I should want my own husband. I shouldn't want anyone else's. Do you mean that Isabelle's guilty—' Guilty. And she paused a little, choosing her expression. Do I mean she's guilty? Oh, dear, no. Not yet, I hope. I only mean that Osmond's very tiresome, and that Lord Warburton, as I hear, is a great deal at the house. I'm afraid you're scandalized. No, I'm just anxious, Henrietta said. Ah, you're not very complimentary to Isabel. You should have more confidence. I'll tell you. The countess added,

Starting point is 17:36:15 If it will be a comfort to you, I engage to draw him off." Miss Stackpole answered at first only with the deeper solemnity of her gaze. "'You don't understand me,' she said after a while. "'I haven't the idea you seem to suppose. I'm not afraid for Isabel, in that way. I'm only afraid she's unhappy. That's what I want to get at.' The Countess gave a dozen turns of the head.

Starting point is 17:36:43 She looked impatient, and sarcastic. That may very well be. For my part, I should like to know whether Osmond is. Miss Stackpole had begun a little to bore her. If she's really changed, that must be at the bottom of it. Henrietta went on. You'll see. She'll tell you, said the Countess. Ah, she may not tell me. That's what I'm afraid of. Well, if Osmond isn't amusing himself in his own old way, I flatter myself, I shall discover it.

Starting point is 17:37:15 The Countess rejoined. I don't care for that, said Henrietta. I do immensely. If Isabelle's unhappy, I'm very sorry for her, but I can't help it. I might tell her something that would make her worse, but I can't tell her anything that would console her. What did she go and marry him for? If she had listened to me, she'd have got rid of him. I'll forgive her, however, if I find she has made things hot for him.

Starting point is 17:37:41 If she has simply allowed him to trample upon her, I don't know that I shall even pity her. But I don't think that's very likely. I count upon finding that if she's miserable, she has at least made him so. Henrietta got up. These seemed to her naturally very dreadful expectations. She honestly believed she had no desire to see Mr. Osmond unhappy, and indeed he could not be for her the subject of a flight of fancy. She was, on the whole rather disappointed in the countess, whose mind moved in a narrower circle than she had imagined. though with a capacity for coarseness even there. It will be better if they love each other, she said for edification.

Starting point is 17:38:23 They can't. He can't love anyone. I presumed that was the case, but it only aggravates my fear for Isabel. I shall positively start tomorrow. Isabel certainly has devotees, said the Countess, smiling very vividly. I declare I don't pity her. It may be I can't assist her. her. Miss Stackpole pursued, as if it were well not to have illusions. You can have wanted to, at any rate, that's something. I believe that's what you came from

Starting point is 17:38:55 America for, the Countess suddenly added. Yes, I wanted to look after her, Henrietta said serenely. Her hostess stood there, smiling at her with small, bright eyes and an eager-looking nose, with cheeks into each of which a flush had come. Oh, that's the It's very pretty. Cé bien-ganty. Isn't that what they call friendship? I don't know what they call it. I thought I had better come.

Starting point is 17:39:25 She's very happy. She's very fortunate, the Countess went on. She has others besides. And then she broke out passionately. She's more fortunate than I. I'm as unhappy as she. I have a very bad husband.

Starting point is 17:39:40 He's a great deal worse than Osmond. And I've no friends. I thought I had, but they're gone. No one, man or woman, would do for me what you've done for her." Henrietta was touched. There was nature in this bitter effusion. She gazed at her companion a moment and then, Look here, Countess, I'll do anything for you that you like.

Starting point is 17:40:01 I'll wait over and travel with you. Never mind, the Countess answered with a quick change of tone. Only describe me in the newspaper. Henrietta, before leaving her, however, was obliged to make her understand that she could give no fictitious representation of her journey to Rome. Miss Stackpole was a strictly voracious reporter. On quitting her, she took the way to the Langarno, the sunny key beside the yellow river, where the bright-faced inns familiar to tourists, stand all in a row.

Starting point is 17:40:32 She had learned her way before this through the streets of Florence. She was very quick in such matters, and was therefore able to turn with great decision of step out of the little square, which forms the approach to the bridge of the Holy Trinity. She proceeded to the left, toward the Pontavecchio, and stopped in front of one of the hotels which overlook that delightful structure. Here she drew forth a small pocketbook, took from it a card and a pencil, and after meditating a moment, wrote a few words. It is our privilege to look over her shoulder, and if we exercise it, we may read the brief query. Could I see you this evening for a few moments on a very important matter? Her? Henrietta added that she should start on the morrow for Rome.

Starting point is 17:41:17 Armed with this little document, she approached the porter, who had now taken up his station in the doorway, and asked if Mr. Goodwood were at home. The porter replied, as porters always reply, that he had gone out about twenty minutes before, whereupon Henrietta presented her card and begged it might be handed him on his return. She left the inn and pursued her course along the key to the severe portico of the Uffizi, through which she presently reached the entrance of the famous gallery of paintings. Making her way in, she ascended the high staircase which leads to the upper chambers. The long corridor, glazed on one side and decorated with antique busts, which gives admission to these apartments, presented an empty vista, in which the bright winter light

Starting point is 17:42:03 twinkled upon the marble floor. The gallery is very cold, and during the midwinter weeks but scantily visited. Miss Stackpole may appear more ardent in her quest of artistic beauty than she has hitherto struck us as being, but she had, after all, her preferences and admirations. One of the latter was the little Geregio of the Tribune, the Virgin kneeling down before the sacred infant, who lies in a litter of straw, and clapping her hands to him while he delightedly laughs and crows. Henrietta had a special devotion to this little intimate scene.

Starting point is 17:42:38 she thought it the most beautiful picture in the world. On her way, at present from New York to Rome, she was spending but three days in Florence, and yet reminded herself that they must not elapse without her paying another visit to her favorite work of art. She had a great sense of beauty in all ways, and it involved a good many intellectual obligations. She was about to turn into the Tribune when a gentleman came out of it,

Starting point is 17:43:03 whereupon she gave a little exclamation, and stood before Casper Goodwood. "'I've just been at your hotel,' she said. "'I left a card for you.' "'I'm very much honoured,' Casper Goodwood answered, as if he really meant it. "'It was not to honor you, I did it. "'I've called on you before, and I know you don't like it. "'It was to talk to you a little about something.'

Starting point is 17:43:26 "'He looked for a moment at the buckle in her hand. "'I shall be very glad to hear what you wish to say.' "'You don't like to talk with me,' said Henrietta. "'But I don't care for that. I don't talk for your amusement. I wrote a word to ask you to come and see me, but since I've met you here, this will do as well. I was just going away, Goodwood stated, but of course I'll stop.

Starting point is 17:43:51 He was civil, but not enthusiastic. Henrietta, however, never looked for great professions, and she was so much in earnest that she was thankful he would listen to her on any terms. She asked him first, nonetheless, if he had seen all the pictures. "'All I want to, I've been here an hour.' "'I wonder if you've seen my Correggio,' said Henrietta. "'I came up on purpose to have a look at it.' She went into the Tribune, and he slowly accompanied her.

Starting point is 17:44:21 "'I suppose I've seen it, but I didn't know it was yours. I don't remember pictures, especially that sort.' She had pointed out her favourite work, and he asked her if it was about Corregio she wished to talk with him. "'No,' said Henrietta. it's about something less harmonious. They had the small, brilliant room, a splendid cabinet of treasures to themselves. There was only a custod hovering about the Medici and Venus.

Starting point is 17:44:49 I want you to do me a favor, Miss Stackpole went on. Casper Goodwood frowned a little, but he expressed no embarrassment at the sense of not looking eager. His face was that of a much older man than our earlier friend. I'm sure it's something I shan't like, he said rather loudly. No, I don't think you'll like it. If you did, it would be no favor.

Starting point is 17:45:14 Well, let's hear it. He went on, in the tone of a man quite conscious of his patience. You may say there's no particular reason why you should do me a favor. Indeed, I only know of one. The fact that if you'd let me, I'd gladly do you one. Her soft, exact tone in which there was no attempt at effect, had an extreme sincerity, and her companion, though he presented rather a hard surface, couldn't help being touched by it. When he was touched, he rarely showed it, however, by the usual

Starting point is 17:45:47 signs. He neither blushed nor looked away, nor looked conscious. He only fixed his attention more directly. He seemed to consider with added firmness. Henrietta continued, therefore, disinterestedly, without the sense of an advantage. I may say now, indeed, it seems a good time, that if I've ever annoyed you, and I think I sometimes have, it's because I knew I was willing to suffer annoyance for you. I've troubled you, doubtless, but I'd take trouble for you. Goodwood hesitated. You're taking trouble now.

Starting point is 17:46:25 Yes, I am. Some. I want you to consider whether it's better on the whole that you should go to Rome. I thought you were going to say that, he answered rather artlessly. You have considered it then? Of course I have, very carefully. I've looked all round it. Otherwise, I shouldn't have come so far as this.

Starting point is 17:46:46 That's what I stayed in Paris two months for. I was thinking it over. I'm afraid you decided as you liked. You decided it was best, because you were so much attracted. Best for whom do you mean? Goodwood demanded. Well, for yourself first, for Mrs. Osmond next. Though it won't do her any good, I don't flatter myself that.

Starting point is 17:47:11 Won't it do her some harm? That's the question. I don't see what it will matter to her. I'm nothing to Mrs. Osmond. But if you want to know, I do want to see her myself. Yes, and that's why you go. Of course it is. Could there be a better reason?

Starting point is 17:47:28 How will it help you? That's what I want to know, said Miss Stackpole. That's just what I can't tell you. It's just what I was thinking about in Paris. It will make you more discontented. Why do you say more so? Goodwood asked rather sternly, how do you know I'm discontented? Well, said Henrietta, hesitating a little. You seem never to have cared for another. How do you know what I care? care for. He cried with a big blush. Just now I care to go to Rome.

Starting point is 17:48:04 Henrietta looked at him in silence, with a sad yet luminous expression. Well, she observed at last, I only wanted to tell you what I think. I had it on my mind. Of course you think it's none of my business. But nothing is anyone's business on that principle. It's very kind of you. I'm greatly obliged to you for your interest, said Casper Goodwood. I shall go to Rome, and I shan't hurt Mrs. Osmond. You won't hurt her, perhaps. But will you help her? That's the real issue. Is she in need of help?

Starting point is 17:48:41 He asked slowly, with a penetrating look. Most women always are, said Henrietta, with a conscientious evasiveness, and generalizing less hopefully than usual. If you go to Rome, she added, I hope you'll be a true friend, not a selfish one. And she turned off, and began to look at the pictures. Casper Goodwood let her go, and stood watching her while she wandered round the room,

Starting point is 17:49:10 but after a moment he rejoined her. You've heard something about her here. He then resumed. I should like to know what you've heard. Henrietta had never prevaricated in her life, and, though on this occasion there might have been a fitness in doing so, she decided, after thinking some minutes, to make no superficial exception. Yes, I've heard, she answered.

Starting point is 17:49:36 But as I don't want you to go to Rome, I won't tell you. Just as you please, I shall see for myself, he said. Then, inconsistently for him, you've heard she's unhappy, he added. Oh, you won't see that, Henrietta exclaimed. I hope not. When do you start? Tomorrow, by the evening train. And you?

Starting point is 17:50:01 Goodwood hung back. He had no desire to make his journey to Rome in Miss Stackpole's company. His indifference to this advantage was not of the same character as Gilbert Osmond's, but it had at this moment an equal distinctness. It was rather a tribute to Miss Stackpole's virtues than a reference to her faults. He thought her very remarkable, very brilliant, and he had in theory no objection to the class to which she belonged. Lady correspondence appeared to him a part of the natural scheme of things in a progressive country,

Starting point is 17:50:32 and though he never read their letters, he supposed that they ministered somehow to social prosperity. But it was this very eminence of their position that made him wish Miss Stackpole didn't take so much for granted. She took for granted that he was always ready for some allusion to Mrs. Osmond. She had done so when they met in Paris, six weeks after his arrival in Europe, and she had repeated the assumption with every successive opportunity. He had no wish whatever to allude to Mrs. Osmond. He was not always thinking of her. He was perfectly sure of that.

Starting point is 17:51:04 He was the most reserved, the least colloquial of men, and this inquiring authoress was constantly flashing her lantern into the quiet darkness of his soul. He wished she didn't care so much. He even wished, though it might seem rather brutal of him, that she would leave him alone. In spite of this, however, he just now made other reflections, which showed that he would how widely different in effect his ill-humor was from Gilbert Osmond's. He desired to go immediately to Rome. He would have liked to go alone, in the night train.

Starting point is 17:51:37 He hated the European railway carriages, in which one sat for hours in a vice, knee to knee and nose to nose with a foreigner to whom one presently found oneself objecting with all the added vehemence of one's wish to have the window open. And if they were worse at night even than by day, at least at night one could sleep and dream of an American saloon car. But he couldn't take a night train when Miss Stackpole was starting in the morning. It struck him that this would be an insult to an unprotected woman. Nor could he wait until after she had gone, unless he should wait longer than he had patience for.

Starting point is 17:52:12 It wouldn't do to start the next day. She worried him. She oppressed him. The idea of spending the day in a European railway carriage with her offered a complication of irritations. Still, she was a lady traveling alone. It was his duty to put himself out for her. There could be no two questions about that. It was a perfectly clear necessity.

Starting point is 17:52:34 He looked extremely grave for some moments, and then said, wholly without the flourish of gallantry, but in a tone of extreme distinctness. Of course, if you're going tomorrow, I'll go too, as I may be of assistance to you. Well, Mr. Goodwood, I should hope so. Henrietta returned imperturbably.

Starting point is 17:52:55 End of Chapter 44. Chapter 45 of the Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Librivox recording is in the public domain. I have already had reason to say that Isabel knew her husband to be displeased by the continuance of Ralph's visit to Rome. That knowledge was very present to her, as she went to her cousin's hotel, the day after she had invited Lord Warburton to give tangible proof of his sincerity, and at this moment, as at others, she had a sufficient perception of the sources of Osman's opposition. He wished her to have no freedom of mind, and he knew perfectly well that Ralph was an apostle of freedom. It was just because he was this,

Starting point is 17:53:50 Isabel said to herself, that it was a refreshment to go and see him. It will be perceived that she partook of this refreshment in spite of her husband's aversion to it, that is, partook of it, as she flattered herself, discreetly. She had not as yet undertaken to act in direct opposition to his wishes. He was her appointed and inscribed master. She gazed at moments with a sort of incredulous blankness at this fact. It weighed upon her imagination, however, constantly present to her mind were all the traditionary decencies and sanctities of marriage. The idea of violating them filled her with shame as well as with dread, for a for on giving herself away, she had lost sight of this contingency in the perfect belief that

Starting point is 17:54:35 her husband's intentions were as generous as her own. She seemed to see, nonetheless, the rapid approach of the day when she should have to take back something she had solemnly bestown. Such a ceremony would be odious and monstrous. She tried to shut her eyes to it, meanwhile. Osmond would do nothing to help it by beginning first. He would put that burden upon her to the end. He had not yet formally forbidden her to call upon Ralph, but she felt sure that unless Ralph should very soon depart this prohibition would come. How could poor Ralph depart? The weather as yet made it impossible. She could perfectly understand her husband's wish for the event. She didn't, to be just, see how he could like her to be with her cousin. Ralph never said a word

Starting point is 17:55:23 against him. But Osmond's sore, mute protest was nonetheless founded. If he should positively interpose, if he should put forth his authority, she would have to decide, and that wouldn't be easy. The prospect made her heartbeat and her cheeks burn, as I say, in advance. There were moments when, in her wish to avoid an open rupture, she found herself wishing Ralph would start even at a risk. And it was of no use that, when catching herself in this state of mind, she called herself a feeble spirit, a coward.

Starting point is 17:55:59 It was not that she loved Ralph less, but that almost anything seemed preferable to repudiating the most serious act, the single sacred act, of her life. That appeared to make the whole future hideous. To break with Osmond once would be to break forever. Any open acknowledgment of a reconcilable needs would be an admission that their whole attempt had proved a failure. For them, there could be no condonement, no compromise, no even, forgetfulness, no formal readjustment. They had attempted only one thing, but that one thing was to have been exquisite. Once they missed it, nothing else would do. There was no conceivable substitute for that success. For the moment, Isabel went to the Hotel de Paris as often as she thought

Starting point is 17:56:50 well. The measure of propriety was in the canon of taste, and there couldn't have been a better proof that morality was, so to speak, a matter of earnest appreciation. Isabelle's application of that measure had been particularly free today, for in addition to the general truth that she couldn't leave Ralph to die alone, she had something important to ask of him. This indeed was Gilbert's business as well as her own. She came very soon to what she wished to speak of. I want you to answer me a question. It's about Lord Warburton. I think I guess, your question. Ralph answered from his armchair, out of which his thin legs protruded at a greater length than ever. Very possibly you guess it. Please then answer it. Oh, I don't say I can do that.

Starting point is 17:57:40 You're intimate with him, she said. You've a great deal of observation of him. Very true, but think how he must dissimulate. Why should he dissimulate? That's not his nature. Ah, you must remember. You that the circumstances are peculiar, said Ralph, with an air of private amusement. To a certain extent, yes, but is he really in love? Very much, I think. I can make that out. Ah, said Isabel, with a certain dryness. Ralph looked at her as if his mild hilarity had been touched with mystification. You say that as if you were disappointed.

Starting point is 17:58:22 "'Isabelle got up, slowly smoothing her gloves and eyeing them thoughtfully. "'It's, after all, no business of mine.' "'You're very philosophic,' said her cousin. "'And then in a moment, "'May I inquire what you're talking about?' "'Isabel stared. "'I thought you knew. "'Lord Warburton tells me he wants, of all things in the world, to marry Pansy.

Starting point is 17:58:50 "'I've told you that before, without eliciting a comment from you. You might risk one this morning, I think. Is it your belief that he really cares for her? Ah, for Pansy, no, cried Ralph very positively. But you said just now he did. Ralph waited a moment. That he cared for you, Mrs. Osmond. Isabel shook her head gravely. That's nonsense, you know. Of course it is, but the nonsense is Warburton's, not mine. That would be very tiresome. She spoke, as she flattered herself, with much subtlety. I ought to tell you indeed, Ralph went on, that to me he has denied it.

Starting point is 17:59:37 It's very good of you to talk about it together. Has he also told you that he's in love with Pansy? He has spoken very well of her, very properly. He has let me know, of course, that he thinks she would do very well at Lockley. Does he really think it? "'Ah, what Warburton really thinks,' said Ralph. Isabel fell to smoothing her gloves again. They were long, loose gloves, on which she could freely expend herself.

Starting point is 18:00:04 Soon, however, she looked up, and then, "'Oh, Ralph, you give me no help!' she cried abruptly and passionately. It was the first time she had alluded to the need for help, and the word shook her cousin with their violence. He gave a long murmur of relief. of pity, of tenderness. It seemed to him that at last the gulf between them have been bridged. It was this that made him exclaim in a moment, How unhappy you must be.

Starting point is 18:00:36 He had no sooner spoken than she recovered herself possession, and the first use she made of it was to pretend she had not heard him. When I talk of your helping me, I talk great nonsense, she said with a quick smile. The idea of my troubling you with my domestic and bed. embarrassments. The matter is very simple. Lord Warburton must get on by himself. I can't undertake to see him through. He ought to succeed easily, said Ralph. Isabel debated. Yes, but he has not always succeeded. Very true. You know, however, how that always surprised me. Is Miss Osmond capable of giving us a surprise? It will come from him, rather. I seem to see that after all he'll let the matter a drop. He'll do nothing dishonorable, said Ralph. I'm very sure of that. Nothing can be more

Starting point is 18:01:29 honorable than for him to leave the poor child alone. She cares for another person, and it's cruel to attempt to bribe her by magnificent offers to give him up. Cruel to the other person, perhaps, the one she cares for. But Warburton isn't obliged to mind that. No, cruel to her, said Isabel. She would be very unhappy if she were to allow herself to be persuaded to desert poor Mr. Rosier. That idea seems to amuse you. Of course you're not in love with him. He has the merit, for Pansy, of being in love with Pansy. She can see it a glance that Lord Warburton isn't.

Starting point is 18:02:09 He'd be very good to her, said Ralph. He has been good to her already. Fortunately, however, he has not said a word to disturb her. He could come and bid her goodbye tomorrow with perfect propriety. How would your husband like that? Not at all, and he may be right in not liking it. Only he must obtain satisfaction himself. Has he commissioned you to obtain it?

Starting point is 18:02:34 Ralph ventured to ask. It was natural that as an old friend of Lord Warburton's, an older friend that is than Gilbert, I should take an interest in his intentions. Take an interest in his renouncing them, you mean? Isabel hesitated, frowning a little. "'Let me understand. Are you pleading his cause?' "'Not in the least. I'm very glad he shouldn't become your stepdaughter's husband.

Starting point is 18:03:00 "'It makes such a very queer relation to you,' said Ralph, smiling. "'But I'm rather nervous lest your husband should think you haven't pushed him enough.' Isabel found herself able to smile as well as he. "'He knows me well enough not to have expected me to push. "'He himself has no intention of pushing, I presume.' I'm not afraid I shall not be able to justify myself, she said lightly. Her mask had dropped for an instant, but she had put it on again, to Ralph's infinite disappointment. He had caught a glimpse of her natural face, and he wished immensely to look into it.

Starting point is 18:03:40 He had an almost savage desire to hear her complain of her husband, hear her say that she should be held accountable for Lord Warburton's defection. Ralph was certain that this was her situation. He knew by instinct, in advance, the form that in such an event Osmond's displeasure would take. It could only take the meanest and cruelest. He would have liked to warn Isabel of it, to let her see at least how he judged for her and how he knew. It little mattered that Isabel would know much better. It was for his own satisfaction more than for hers that he longed to show her he was not deceived. He tried and tried again to make her betray Osmond.

Starting point is 18:04:19 He felt cold-blooded, cruel, dishonorable almost in doing so. But it scarcely mattered, for he only failed. What had she come for, then, and why did she seem almost to offer him a chance to violate their tacit convention? Why did she ask him his advice if she gave him no liberty to answer her? How could they talk of her domestic embarrassments, as it pleased her humorously to designate them, if the principal factor was not to be mentioned? These contradictions were themselves but an indication of her trouble, and her cry for help, just before, was the only thing he was bound to consider.

Starting point is 18:05:00 You'll be decidedly at variance all the same, he said in a moment. And, as she answered nothing, looking as if she scarce understood, you'll find yourselves thinking very differently, he continued. That may easily happen among the most united couples. She took up her parasol. He saw she was nervous, afraid of what he might say. It's a matter we can hardly quarrel about, however, she added, for almost all the interest is on his side. That's very natural.

Starting point is 18:05:33 Pansy's after all his daughter, not mine. And she put out her hand to wish him goodbye. Ralph took an inward resolution that she shouldn't leave him without his letting her know that he knew everything. It seemed too great an opportunity to lose. Do you know what his interest will make him say? He said, as he took her hand. She shook her head, rather dryly, not discouragingly, and he went on. It will make him say that your want of zeal is owing to jealousy.

Starting point is 18:06:06 He stopped a moment. Her face made him afraid. To jealousy? To jealousy of his daughter. She blushed red, and threw back her. her head. You're not kind, she said in a voice that he had never heard on her lips. Be frank with me and you'll see, he answered. But she made no reply. She only pulled her hand out of his own, which he tried still to hold, and rapidly withdrew from the room. She made up her mind

Starting point is 18:06:39 to speak to Pansy, and she took an occasion on the same day, going to the girl's room before dinner. Pansy was already dressed. She was always in advance of the time. It seemed to illustrate her pretty patience and the graceful stillness with which she could sit and wait. At present she was seated, in her fresh array, before the bedroom fire. She had blown out her candles on the completion of her toilet, in accordance with the economical habits in which she had been brought up, and which she was now more careful than ever to observe, so that the room was lighted only by a couple of The rooms in Palazzo Roca Nara were as spacious as they were numerous, and Pansy's virginal bower was an immense chamber with a dark, heavily timbered ceiling. Its diminutive mistress in the

Starting point is 18:07:27 midst of it appeared but a speck of humanity, and as she got up with quick deference to welcome Isabelle, the latter was more than ever struck with her shy sincerity. Isabel had a difficult task, the only thing was to perform it as simply as possible. She felt bitter and angry, but she warned herself against betraying this heat. She was afraid even of looking too grave, or at least too stern. She was afraid of causing alarm. But Pansy seemed to have guessed she had come more or less as a confessor, for after she had moved the chair in which she had been sitting a little nearer to the fire

Starting point is 18:08:05 and Isabel had taken her place in it, she kneeled down on a cushion in front of her, looking up and resting her clasped hands on her stepmother's knees. What Isabel wished to do was to hear from her own lips that her mind was not occupied with Lord Warburton. But if she desired the assurance, she felt herself by no means at liberty to provoke it. The girl's father would have qualified this as rank treachery. And indeed, Isabel knew that if Pansy should display the smallest germ of a disposition to encourage Lord Warburton, her own duty was to hold her tongue. It was difficult to interrogate without appearing to suggest. Tansy's supreme simplicity, an innocence even more complete than Isabel had yet judged it,

Starting point is 18:08:49 gave to the most tentative enquiry something of the effect of an admonition. As she knelt there in the vague firelight, with her pretty dress dimly shining, her hands folded half in appeal and half in submission, her soft eyes, raised and fixed, full of the seriousness of the situation. She looked to Isabel like a childish martyr decked out for sacrifice, and scarcely presuming even to hope to avert it. When Isabel said to her that she had never yet spoken to her of what might have been going on in relation to her getting married,

Starting point is 18:09:22 but that her silence had not been indifference or ignorance, had only been the desire to leave her at liberty, pansy bent forward, raised her face nearer and nearer, and with a little murmur which evidently expressed to deep longing, answered that she had greatly wished her to speak, and that she begged her to advise her now. It's difficult for me to advise you, Isabel returned. I don't know how I can undertake that.

Starting point is 18:09:48 That's for your father. You must get his advice, and above all, you must act on it. At this, Pansy dropped her eyes. For a moment she said nothing. I think I should like your advice better than Papa's, she presently remarked. That's not as it should be, said Isabel coldly. "'I love you very much, but your father loves you better.' "'It isn't because you love me. It's because you're a lady,' Pansy answered,

Starting point is 18:10:20 with the air of saying something very reasonable. "'A lady can advise a young girl better than a man.' "'I advise you, then, to pay the greatest respect to your father's wishes.' "'Ah, yes,' said the child eagerly. "'I must do that.' "'But if I speak to you now about your getting married, "'It's not for your own sake. It's for mine,' Isabel went on. "'If I try to learn from you what you expect, what you desire, it's only that I may act accordingly.'

Starting point is 18:10:53 Pansy stared, and then very quickly, "'Will you do everything I want?' she asked. "'Before I say yes, I must know what such things are.' Pansy presently told her that the only thing she wanted in life was to marry Mr. Rosier. He had asked her, and she had told him she would do so if her papa would allow it. Now her papa wouldn't allow it. Very well, then. It's impossible, Isabel pronounced. Yes, it's impossible, said Pansy without a sigh, and with the same extreme attention

Starting point is 18:11:30 in her clear little face. You must think of something else, then, Isabel went on. But Pansy, sighing at this, told her that she had attempted that. feet without the least success you think of those who think of you she said with a faint smile I know mr. Rosier thinks of me he ought not to said Isabel loftily your father has expressly requested he shouldn't he can't help it because he knows I think of him you shouldn't think of him there's some excuse for him perhaps but there's none for you I wish she would try to find one the girl exclaimed as it

Starting point is 18:12:10 if she were praying to the Madonna. I should be very sorry to attempt it, said the Madonna with unusual frigidity. If you knew someone else was thinking of you, would you think of him? No one can think of me as Mr. Rosier does. No one has the right. Ah, but I don't admit Mr. Rosier's right,

Starting point is 18:12:31 Isabel hypocritically cried. Pansy only gazed at her, evidently much puzzled, and Isabel, taking advantage of it, began to represent to her the wretched consequences of disobeying her father. At this, Pansy stopped her with the assurance that she would never disobey him, would never marry without his consent, and she announced, in the serenest, simplest tone, that though she might never marry Mr. Rosier, she would never cease to think of him. She appeared to have accepted the idea of eternal

Starting point is 18:13:03 singleness, but Isabel, of course, was free to reflect that she had no conception of its meaning. She was perfectly sincere. She was prepared to give up her lover. This might seem an important step toward taking another, but for Pansy, evidently, it failed to lead in that direction. She felt no bitterness toward her father. There was no bitterness in her heart. There was only the sweetness of fidelity to Edward Rosier,

Starting point is 18:13:28 and a strange, exquisite intimation that she could prove it better by remaining single than even by marrying him. Your father would like you to make a better moment. marriage, said Isabel. Mr. Rosier's fortune is not at all large. How do you mean better, if that would be good enough? And I have myself so little money, why should I look for a fortune? Your having so little is a reason for looking for more. With which Isabel was grateful for the dimness of the room, she felt as if her face were hideously insincere. It was what she was doing for Osmond. It was what one had to do for Osmond.

Starting point is 18:14:07 Pansy's solemn eyes, fixed on her own, almost embarrassed her. She was ashamed to think she had made so light of the girl's preference. What should you like me to do? Her companion softly demanded. The question was a terrible one, and Isabel took refuge in timorous vagueness. To remember all the pleasure it's in your power to give your father. To marry someone else, you mean, if he should ask me? For a moment, Isabel.

Starting point is 18:14:37 Isabelle's answer caused itself to be waited for. Then she heard herself utter it in the stillness that Pansy's attention seemed to make. Yes, to marry someone else. The child's eyes grew more penetrating. Isabel believed she was doubting her sincerity, and the impression took force from her slowly getting up from her cushion. She stood there a moment with her small hands unclasped, and then quavered out. Well, I hope no one will ask me.

Starting point is 18:15:07 There has been a question of that. Someone else would have been ready to ask you. I don't think he can have been ready, said Pansy. It would appear so if he had been sure he'd succeed. If he had been sure, then he wasn't ready. Isabel thought this rather sharp. She also got up and stood a moment looking into the fire. Lord Warburton has shown you great attention, she resumed. Of course you know it's of him I speak. She found herself against her expectation, almost placed in the position of justifying herself,

Starting point is 18:15:43 which led her to introduce this nobleman more crudely than she had intended. He has been very kind to me, and I like him very much. But if you mean that he'll propose for me, I think you're mistaken. Perhaps I am, but your father would like it extremely. Pansy shook her head with a wise little smile. Lord Warburton won't propose simply to please Papa. "'Your father would like you to encourage him.' Isabel went on mechanically.

Starting point is 18:16:13 "'How can I encourage him?' "'I don't know. Your father must tell you that.' Pansy said nothing for a moment. She only continued to smile, as if she were in possession of a bright assurance. "'There's no danger, no danger,' she declared at last. There was a conviction in the way she said this, and a felicity in her believing it, which conduced to Isabel's awkwardness. She felt accused of dishonesty, and the idea was disgusting.

Starting point is 18:16:44 To repair her self-respect, she was on the point of saying that Lord Warburton had let her know that there was a danger, but she didn't. She only said, in her embarrassment rather wide of the mark, that he surely had been most kind, most friendly. Yes, he has been very kind, Pansy answered, that's what I like him for. Why then is the difficulty so great? I've always felt sure of his knowing that I don't want.

Starting point is 18:17:11 What did you say I should do? To encourage him. He knows I don't want to marry, and he wants me to know that he therefore won't trouble me. That's the meaning of his kindness. It's as if he had said to me, I like you very much, but if it doesn't please you, I'll never say it again.

Starting point is 18:17:28 I think that's very kind, very noble. Pansy went on with deepening positiveness. That is all we've said to each other. And he doesn't care for me either. Oh, no, there's no danger. Isabel was touched with wonder at the depths of perception of which this submissive little person was capable. She felt afraid of Pansy's wisdom, began almost to retreat before it. You must tell your father that, she remarked reservedly.

Starting point is 18:17:58 I think I'd rather not. Pansy unreservedly answered. You oughtn't to let him have false hopes. Perhaps not, but it will be good for me that he should. So long as he believes that Lord Warburton intends anything of the kind you say, Papa won't propose anyone else. And that will be an advantage for me, said the child very lucidly. There was something brilliant in her lucidity,

Starting point is 18:18:23 and it made her companion draw a long breath. It relieved this friend of a heavy responsibility. Pansy had a sufficient illumination of her own, and Isabel felt that she herself just now had no light to spare from her small stock. Nevertheless, it still clung to her that she must be loyal to Osmond, that she was on her honor in dealing with his daughter. Under the influence of this sentiment, she threw out another suggestion before she retired, a suggestion with which it seemed to her that she should have done her utmost. Your father takes for granted at least that she would like to marry a nobleman. Pansy stood in the open doorway. She had drawn back the curtain for Isabel to pass. I think Mr. Rosier looks like one, she remarked very gravely.

Starting point is 18:19:12 End of Chapter 45. Chapter 46 of the Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. Lord Warburton was not seen in Mrs. Osmond's drawing room for several days, and Isabel couldn't fail to observe that her husband said nothing to her about having received a letter from him. She couldn't fail to observe either that Osmond was in a state of expectancy, and that, though it was not agreeable to him to betray it, he thought their distinguished friend kept him waiting quite too long. At the end of four days, he alluded to his absence. What has become of Warburton? What does he mean by treating one like a tradesman with a bill? I know nothing about him, Isabel said. I saw him last Friday at the German ball. He told me then that he meant to write to you. He has never written to me. So I supposed,

Starting point is 18:20:12 from your not having told me. He's an odd fish, said Osmond comprehensively, and on Isabel's making no rejoinder, he went on to inquire whether it took his lordship five days to indict a letter. Does he form his words with such difficulty? I don't know. Isabel was reduced to replying. I've never had a letter from him. "'Never had a letter. I had an idea that you were at one time an intimate correspondence.' She answered that this had not been the case, and let the conversation drop. On the morrow, however, coming into the drawing-room late in the afternoon, her husband took it up again. When Lord Warburton told you of his intention of writing, what did you say to him?' he asked.

Starting point is 18:21:01 She just faltered. I think I told him not to forget it. Did you believe there was a danger of that? As you say, he's an odd fish. Apparently he has forgotten it, said Asmond. Be so good as to remind him. Should you like me to write to him? She demanded.

Starting point is 18:21:24 I have no objection, whatever. You expect too much of me. Ah, yes, I expect a great deal of you. I'm afraid I shall disappoint you, said Isabel. My expectations have survived a good deal of disappointment. Of course, I know that. Think how I must have disappointed myself. If you really wish hands laid on Lord Warburton, you must lay them yourself.

Starting point is 18:21:50 For a couple of minutes, Osmond answered nothing. Then he said, That won't be easy, with you working against me. Isabel started. She felt herself beginning to train. He had a way of looking at her through half-closed eyelids, as if he were thinking of her but scarcely saw her, which seemed to her to have a wonderfully cruel intention. It appeared to recognize her as a disagreeable necessity of thought, but to ignore her for the time as a presence.

Starting point is 18:22:22 That effect had never been so marked as now. I think you accuse me of something very base, she returned. I accuse you of not being trusted. If he doesn't, after all, come forward, it will be because you've kept him off. I don't know that it's base. It is the kind of thing a woman always thinks she may do. I've no doubt you've the finest ideas about it. I told you I would do what I could, she went on.

Starting point is 18:22:51 Yes, that gained you time. It came over her after he had said this, that she had once thought him beautiful. How much you must want to make him. sure of him. She exclaimed in a moment. She had no sooner spoken than she perceived the full reach of her words, of which she had not been conscious in uttering them. They made a comparison between Osmond and herself, recalled the fact that she had once held this coveted treasure in her hand, and felt herself rich enough to let it fall. A momentary exultation took possession of her, a horrible delight in having wounded him, for his face instantly took her.

Starting point is 18:23:33 told her that none of the force of her exclamation was lost. He expressed nothing otherwise, however, he only said quickly, Yes, I wanted immensely. At this moment a servant came to usher in a visitor, and he was followed the next by Lord Warburton, who received a visible check on seeing Osmond. He looked rapidly from the master of the house to the mistress, a movement that seemed to denote a reluctance to interrupt,

Starting point is 18:24:01 or even a perception of ominous conditions. Then he advanced, with his English address, in which a vague shyness seemed to offer itself as an element of good breeding, in which the only defect was a difficulty in achieving transitions. Osmond was embarrassed. He found nothing to say,

Starting point is 18:24:20 but Isabel remarked, promptly enough, that they had been in the act of talking upon their visitor. Upon this, her husband added, that they hadn't known what was become of him, that they had been afraid he had gone away. way. No, he explained, smiling and looking at Osmond. I'm only on the point of going. And then he mentioned that he found himself suddenly recalled to England he should start on the morrow or the day after. I'm awfully sorry to leave poor touch it. He ended by exclaiming.

Starting point is 18:24:51 For a moment neither of his companions spoke. Osmond only leaned back in his chair, listening. Isabel didn't look at him. She could only fancy how he looked. Her eyes were on their visitor's face, or they were the more free to rest that those of his lordship carefully avoided them. Yet Isabel was sure that had she met his glance, she would have found it expressive. You had better take poor touch it with you. She heard her husband say, lightly enough, in a moment. He had better wait for warmer weather.

Starting point is 18:25:24 Lord Warburton answered, I shouldn't advise him to travel just now. He sat there a quarter of an hour. talking as if he might not soon see them again. Unless, indeed, they should come to England, a course he strongly recommended. Why shouldn't they come to England in the autumn? That struck him as a very happy thought. It would give him such pleasure to do what he could for them, to have them come and spend a month with him.

Starting point is 18:25:50 Osmond, by his own admission, had been to England but once, which was an absurd state of things for a man of his leisure and intelligence. It was just the country for him. He would be sure to get on well there. Then Lord Warburton asked Isabelle if she remembered what a good time she had had there, and if she didn't want to try it again. Didn't she want to see Garden Court once more? Garden Court was really very good. Touchett didn't take proper care of it, but it was the sort of place you could hardly spoil by letting it alone.

Starting point is 18:26:20 Why didn't they come and pay Touchett a visit? He surely must have asked them. Hadn't asked them? What an ill-mannered wretch! And Lord Warburton promised to give the Master of Gardencourt a piece of his mind. mind. Of course it was a mere accident. He would be delighted to have them. Spending a month with touch it and a month with himself, and seeing all the rest of the people they must know there, they really wouldn't find it half bad. Lord Warburton added that it would amuse Miss Osmond as well, who had told him that she had never been to England, and whom he had assured it was a country she deserved to see. Of course she didn't need to go to England to be admired. That was her fate

Starting point is 18:26:57 everywhere. But she would be in immense success there. She certainly would, if that was any inducement. He asked if she were not at home. Couldn't he say goodbye? Not that he liked goodbyes, he always funked them. When he left England the other day, he hadn't said goodbye to a two-legged creature. He had had half a mind to leave Rome without troubling Mrs. Osmond for a final interview. What could be more dreary than final interviews? One never said the things one wanted. One remembered them all an hour afterwards. On the other hand, one usually said a lot of things one shouldn't, simply from a sense that one had to say something. Such a sense was upsetting, it muddled one's wits. He had it at present, and that was the effect it produced on him.

Starting point is 18:27:39 If Mrs. Osmond didn't think he spoke as he ought, she must set it down to agitation. It was no light thing to part with Mrs. Osmond. He was really very sorry to be going. He had thought of writing to her instead of calling, but he would write to her at any rate, to tell her a lot of things that would be sure to occur to him as soon as he left the house. They must think seriously about coming to Lockley. If there was anything awkward in the conditions of his visit, or in the announcement of his departure, it failed to come to the surface. Lord Warburton talked about his agitation, but he showed it in no other manner, and Isabel saw that since he had determined on a retreat,

Starting point is 18:28:17 he was capable of executing it gallantly. She was very glad for him. She liked him quite well enough to wish him to appear to carry a thing off. He would do that on any occasion, not from impudence, but simply from the habit of success, and Isabel felt it out of her husband's power to frustrate this faculty. A complex operation, as she sat there, went on in her mind. On one side she listened to their visitor, said what was proper to him, read more or less between the lines of what he said himself, and wondered how he would have spoken if he had found her alone. On the other, she had a perfect consciousness of Osman's emotion. She felt almost sorry for him.

Starting point is 18:29:01 He was condemned to the sharp pain of loss without the relief of cursing. He had had a great hope, and now, as he saw it vanish into smoke, he was obliged to sit and smile and twirl his thumbs. Not that he troubled himself to smile very brightly, he treated their friend, on the whole, to his vacant countenance as so clever a man could very well wear. It was indeed a part of Osman's cleverness that he could look consummately uncompromised. His present appearance, however, was not a confession of disappointment. It was simply a part of Osman's habitual system, which was to be inexpressive exactly in proportion, as he was really intent.

Starting point is 18:29:39 He had been intent on this prize from the first, but he had never allowed his eagerness to irradiate his refined face. He had treated his possible son-in-law as he treated everyone, with an air of being interested in him only for his own advantage, not for any profit to a person already so generally, so perfectly provided as Gilbert Osmond. He would give no sign now of an inward rage, which was the result of a vanished prospect of gain, not the faintest nor subtlest. Isabel could be sure of that, if it was any satisfaction to her. Strangely, very strangely, it was a satisfaction. She wished Lord Warburton to triumph before her husband, and at the same time, she wished her husband to be very superior before Lord Warburton.

Starting point is 18:30:26 Osmond, in his way, was admirable. He had, like their visitor, the advantage of an acquired habit. It was not that of succeeding, but it was something almost as good, that of not attempting. As he leaned back in his place, listening but vaguely to the others' friendly offers and suppressed explanations, as if it were only proper to assume that they were addressed essentially to his wife, he had at least, since a little else was left him, the comfort of thinking how well he personally had kept out of it, and how the air of indifference, which he was now able to wear, had the added beauty of consistency. It was something to be able to look as if the leave-taker's

Starting point is 18:31:06 movements had no relation to his own mind. The latter did well, certainly, but Osmond's performance was in its very nature more finished. Lord Warburton's position was, after all, an easy one. There was no reason in the world why he shouldn't leave Rome. He had had beneficent inclinations, but they had stopped short of fruition. He had never committed himself, and his honor was safe. Osmond appeared to take but a moderate interest in the proposal that they should go and stay with him, and in his allusion to the success Pansy might extract from their visit. He murmured a recognition, but left Isabel to say that it was a matter requiring grave consideration.

Starting point is 18:31:46 Isabel, even while she made this remark, could see the great vista which had suddenly opened out in her husband's mind, with Pansy's little figure marching up the middle of it. Lord Warburton had asked leave to bid goodbye to Pansy, but neither Isabel nor Osmond had made any motion to send for her. He had the air of giving out that his visit must be short. He sat on a small chair, as if it were only for a moment, keeping his hat in his hand. But he saw, stayed and stayed. Isabel wondered what he was waiting for. She believed it was not to see Pansy.

Starting point is 18:32:20 She had an impression that on the whole, he would rather not see Pansy. It was, of course, to see herself alone. He had something to say to her. Isabel had no great wish to hear it, for she was afraid it would be an explanation, and she could perfectly dispense with explanations. Osmond, however, presently got up, like a man of good taste, to whom it had occurred that so inveterate a visitor might wish to say just the last word of all to the ladies. I have a letter to write before dinner, he said, you must excuse me. I'll see if my daughter's disengaged,

Starting point is 18:32:55 and if she is, she shall know you're here. Of course when you come to Rome you'll always look us up. Mrs. Osmond will talk to you about the English expedition. She decides all those things. The nod with which, instead of a handshake, he wound up this little speech, was perhaps rather a meaguerre form of salutation. But on the whole, it was all the occasion demanded. Isabel reflected that, after he left the room, Lord Warburton would have no pretext for saying, your husband's very angry, which would have been extremely disagreeable to her. Nevertheless, if he had done so, she would have said, oh, don't be anxious. He doesn't hate you. It's me that he hates. It was only when they had been left alone together that her friend showed a

Starting point is 18:33:41 certain vague awkwardness, sitting down in another chair, handling two or three of the objects that were near him. "'I hope he'll make Miss Osmond come,' he presently remarked. "'I want very much to see her.' "'I'm glad it's the last time,' said Isabel. "'So am I. She doesn't care for me.' "'No, she doesn't care for you.' "'I don't wonder at it,' he returned.

Starting point is 18:34:08 Then he added, within consequence, "'You'll come to England, won't you?' "'I think we had better not. "'Ah, you owe me a visit. "'Don't you remember that you were to have come to Lockley once, "'and you never did.' "'Everything's changed since then,' said Isabel. "'Not changed for the worse, surely, as far as we're concerned.

Starting point is 18:34:30 "'To see you under my roof.' "'And he hung fire about an instant. "'Would be a great satisfaction.' "'She had feared. an explanation, but that was the only one that occurred. They talked a little of Ralph, and at another moment Pansy came in, already dressed for dinner, and with a little red spot in either cheek. She shook hands with Lord Warburton, and stood looking up into his face with a fixed smile, a smile that Isabel knew, though his lordship probably never suspected it,

Starting point is 18:35:03 to be near akin to a burst of tears. "'I'm going away,' he said. "'I want to bid you good-bye.' Goodbye, Lord Warburton. Her voice perceptibly trembled. And I want to tell you how much I wish you may be very happy. Thank you, Lord Warburton, Pansy answered. He lingered a moment and gave a glance at Isabel. You ought to be very happy.

Starting point is 18:35:30 You've got a guardian angel. I'm sure I shall be happy, said Pansy, in the tone of a person whose certainties were always cheerful. such a conviction as that will take you a great way. But if it should ever fail you, remember, remember. And her interlocutor stammered a little. Think of me sometimes, you know, he said with a vague laugh. Then he shook hands with Isabelle in silence, and presently he was gone. When he had left the room, she expected an effusion of tears from her stepdaughter, but Pansy, in fact, treated her to something very different. I think you are my guardian angel, she exclaimed very sweetly.

Starting point is 18:36:18 Isabel shook her head. I'm not an angel of any kind. I'm at the most your good friend. You're a very good friend then, to have asked Papa to be gentle with me. I've asked her father nothing, said Isabel, wondering. He told me just now to come to the drawing room, and then he gave me a very kind,

Starting point is 18:36:39 kiss. Ah, said Isabel, that was quite his own idea. She recognized the idea perfectly, it was very characteristic, and she was to see a great deal more of it. Even with Pansy he couldn't put himself the least in the wrong. They were dining out that day, and after their dinner they went to another entertainment, so that it was not till late in the evening that Isabel saw him alone. When Pansy kissed him before going to bed, he returned her embrace with even more than his usual munificence, and Isabel wondered if he meant it as a hint that his daughter had been injured by the machinations of her stepmother. It was a partial expression at any rate of what he continued to expect of his wife. She was about to follow Pansy, but he remarked that he wished she

Starting point is 18:37:28 would remain. He had something to say to her. Then he walked about the drawing-room a little, while she stood waiting in her cloak. I don't understand what you wish to do, he said in a moment. I should like to know, so that I may know how to act. Just now I wish to go to bed. I'm very tired.

Starting point is 18:37:49 Sit down and rest. I shall not keep you long. Not there. Take a comfortable place. And he arranged a multitude of cushions that were scattered in picturesque disorder upon a vast divan. This was not, however, where she seated.

Starting point is 18:38:03 herself, she dropped into the nearest chair. The fire had gone out, the lights in the great room were few. She drew her cloak about her. She felt mortally cold. I think you're trying to humiliate me. Osmond went on. It's a most absurd undertaking. I haven't the least idea what you mean, she returned. You've played a very deep game. You've managed it beautifully. What is it that I've managed? You've not quite settled it, however. We shall see him again.

Starting point is 18:38:40 And he stopped in front of her, with his hands in his pockets, looking down at her thoughtfully, in his usual way, which seemed meant to let her know that she was not an object, but only a rather disagreeable incident of thought. If you mean that Lord Warburton's under an obligation to come back, you're wrong, Isabel said. He's under none, whatever. That's just what I complain of. But when I say he'll come back, I don't mean he'll come

Starting point is 18:39:08 from a sense of duty. There's nothing else to make him. I think he's quite exhausted Rome. Ah, no, that's a shallow judgment. Rome's inexhaustible. And Asmund began to walk about again. However, about that, perhaps, there's no hurry. He added, it's rather a good idea of his that we should go to England. If it were not for the fear of finding your cousin there, I think I should try to persuade you. It may be that you'll not find my cousin, said Isabel. I should like to be sure of it. However, I shall be as sure as possible. At the same time, I should like to see his house that you told me so much about at one time. What do you call it? Garden Court. It must be a charming thing. And then, you know, I have a devotion to the memory of your uncle. You made me take a great fancy to him.

Starting point is 18:39:59 I should like to see where he lived and died. That indeed is a detail. Your friend was right. Pansy ought to see England. I have no doubt she would enjoy it, said Isabel. But that's a long time hence. Next autumn's far off. Osmond continued.

Starting point is 18:40:17 And meantime, there are things that more nearly interest us. Do you think me so very proud? He suddenly asked. I think you very strange. You don't understand. understand me. No, not even when you insult me. I don't insult you. I'm incapable of it. I merely speak of certain facts, and if the allusions an injury to you, the fault's not mine. It's surely a fact that you have kept all this matter quite in your own hands. Are you going back to Lord Warburton?

Starting point is 18:40:50 Isabel asked. I'm very tired of his name. You shall hear it again before we've done with it. She had spoken of his insulting her, but it suddenly seemed to her that this ceased to be a pain. He was going down, down. The vision of such a fall made her almost giddy. That was the only pain. He was too strange, too different. He didn't touch her. Still, the working of his morbid passion was extraordinary, and she felt a rising curiosity to know in what light he saw himself justified. I might say to you that I judge you've done nothing to me that's worth hearing, she said in a moment, but I should perhaps be wrong. There's a thing that would be worth my hearing, to know in the plainest words of what it is you accuse me.

Starting point is 18:41:41 Of having prevented Pansy's marriage to Warburton. Are those words plain enough? On the contrary, I took a great interest in it. I told you so, and when you told me that you counted on me, that I'm not. I think was what you said. I accepted the obligation. I was a fool to do so, but I did it. You pretended to do it, and you even pretended reluctance to make me more willing to trust you. Then you began to use your ingenuity to get him out of the way. I think I see what you mean, said Isabel.

Starting point is 18:42:14 Where's the letter you told me he had written me? Her husband demanded. I haven't the least idea. I haven't asked him. You stopped it on the way. said Osmond. Isabel slowly got up. Standing there in her white cloak, which covered her to her feet, she might have represented the angel of disdain,

Starting point is 18:42:36 first cousin to that of pity. Oh, Gilbert, for a man who was so fine, she exclaimed in a long murmur. I was never so fine as you. You've done everything you wanted. You've got him out of the way without appearing to do so, and you've placed me in the position in which you wished to see me,

Starting point is 18:42:57 that of a man who has tried to marry his daughter to a lord, but has grotesquely failed. Pansy doesn't care for him. She's very glad he's gone, Isabel said. That has nothing to do with the matter. And he doesn't care for Pansy. That won't do. You told me he did. I don't know why you wanted this particular satisfaction. Osmond continued. you might have taken some other.

Starting point is 18:43:24 It doesn't seem to me that I've been presumptuous, that I have taken too much for granted. I've been very modest about it, very quiet. The idea didn't originate with me. He began to show that he liked her before I ever thought of it. I left it all to you. Yes, you were very glad to leave it to me. After this, you must attend to such things yourself. He looked at her a moment.

Starting point is 18:43:48 Then he turned away. I thought you were very fond. of my daughter. I've never been more so than today. Your affection is attended with immense limitations. However, that perhaps is natural. Is this all you wished to say to me? Isabel asked, taking a candle that stood on one of the tables. Are you satisfied? Am I sufficiently disappointed? I don't think that on the whole you're disappointed. You've had another opportunity to try to stupefy me. It's not that. It's proved that Pansy can aim high. Poor little Pansy, said Isabel, as she turned away with her candle.

Starting point is 18:44:33 End of Chapter 46. Chapter 47 of the Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. It was from Henrietta Stackpole that she learned how Casper Goodwood had come to Rome, an event that took place three days after Lord Warburton's departure. This latter fact had been preceded by an incident of some importance to Isabel, the temporary absence once again of Madame Merle, who had gone to Naples to stay with a friend, the happy possessor of a villa at Posipel.

Starting point is 18:45:13 Madame Merle had ceased to minister to Isabel's happiness, who found herself wondering whether the most discreet of women might not also by chance be the most dangerous. Sometimes at night she had strange visions. She seemed to see her husband and her friend, his friend, in dim, indistinguishable combination. It seemed to her that she had not done with her. This lady had something in reserve. Isabelle's imagination applied itself actively to this elusive point, but every now and then it was checked by a nameless dread, so that when the charming woman was away from Rome,

Starting point is 18:45:54 she had almost a consciousness of respite. She had already learned from Miss Stackpole that Casper Goodwood was in Europe, Henrietta having written to make it known to her immediately after meeting him in Paris. He himself never wrote to Isabel, and though he was in Europe, she thought it very possible he might not desire to see her. Their last interview, before her marriage, had had quite the character of a complete rupture. If she remembered rightly, he had said he wished to take his last look. at her. Since then, he had been the most discordant survival of her earlier time, the only one, in fact, with which a permanent pain was associated. He had left her that morning with a sense of the most superfluous of shocks. It was like a collision between vessels in broad daylight. There had been

Starting point is 18:46:42 no mist, no hidden current to excuse it, and she herself had only wished to steer wide. He had bumped against her prow, however, while her hand was on the tiller, and, to complete the metaphor, had given the lighter vessel a strain which still occasionally betrayed itself in a faint creaking. It had been horrid to see him, because he represented the only serious harm that, to her belief, she had ever done in the world. He was the only person with an unsatisfied claim on her. She had made him unhappy. She couldn't help it, and his unhappiness was a grim reality. She had cried with rage after he had left her at—she hardly knew what. She tried to think it had been at his want of consideration.

Starting point is 18:47:29 He had come to her with his unhappiness when her own bliss was so perfect. He had done his best to darken the brightness of those pure rays. He had not been violent, and yet there had been a violence in the impression. There had been a violence at any rate in something somewhere. Perhaps it was only in her own fit of weeping, and in that after sense of the same which had lasted three or four days. The effect of his final appeal had in short faded away, and all the first year of her marriage he had dropped out of her books.

Starting point is 18:48:00 He was a thankless subject of reference. It was disagreeable to have to think of a person who was sore and somber about you and whom you could yet do nothing to relieve. It would have been different if she had been able to doubt, even a little, of his unreconciled state, as she doubted of Lord Warburton's. Unfortunately, it was beyond question, and this aggressive, uncompromising look of it

Starting point is 18:48:23 was just what made it unattractive. She could never say to herself that here was a sufferer who had compensations, as she was able to say in the case of her English suitor. She had no faith in Mr. Goodwood's compensations and no esteem for them. A cotton factory was not a compensation for anything, least of all for having failed to marry Isabel Archer.

Starting point is 18:48:45 And yet, beyond that, she hardly knew what he had, save of course his intrinsic qualities. Oh, he was intrinsic enough. She never thought of his even looking for artificial aids. If he extended his business, that, to the best of her belief, was the only form exertion could take with him, it would be because it was an enterprising thing or good for the business, not in the least because he might hope it would overlay the past. This gave his figure a kind of bareness and bleakness, which makes me that he might be a kind of bareness and bleakness, which made the accident of meeting it in memory or an apprehension a peculiar concussion. It was deficient in the social drapery commonly muffling, in an over-civilized age,

Starting point is 18:49:26 the sharpness of human contacts. His perfect silence, moreover, the fact that she had never heard from him and very seldom heard any mention of him, deepened this impression of his loneliness. She asked Lily for news of him, from time to time. But Lily knew nothing of Boston. her imagination was all bounded on the east by Madison Avenue. As time went on, Isabelle had thought of him oftener, and with fewer restrictions. She had had more than once the idea of writing to him.

Starting point is 18:49:56 She had never told her husband about him, never let Osmond know of his visits to her in Florence, a reserve not dictated in the early period by a want of confidence in Osmond, but simply by the consideration that the young man's disappointment was not her secret, but his own. It would be very wrong of her, she had believed, to convey it to another, and Mr. Goodwood's affairs could have, after all, little interest for Gilbert. When it had come to the point she had never written to him, it seemed to her that, considering his grievance, the least she could do was to let him alone. Nevertheless, she would have been glad to be in some way nearer to him.

Starting point is 18:50:34 It was not that it ever occurred to her that she might have married him, even after the consequences of her actual union had grown vivid to her, that particular reflection, though she indulged in so many, had not had the assurance to present itself. But on finding herself in trouble, he had become a member of that circle of things with which she wished to set herself right. I have mentioned how passionately she needed to feel that her unhappiness should not have come to her through her own fault. She had no near prospect of dying, and yet she wished to make her peace with the world, to put her spiritual affairs in order. It came back to her from time to time that there was an account still to be settled with Casper, and she saw herself disposed or able to

Starting point is 18:51:17 settle it today on terms easier for him than ever before. Still, when she learned he was coming to Rome, she felt all afraid. It would be more disagreeable for him than for anyone else to make out, since he would make it out as over a falsified balance sheet or something of that sort. the intimate disarray of her affairs. Deep in her breast she believed that he had invested his all in her happiness, while the others had invested only apart. He was one more person from whom she should have to conceal her stress. She was reassured, however, after he arrived in Rome, for he spent several days without coming to see her. Henrietta Stackpole, it may well be imagined, was more punctual, and Isabel was largely favored with the society of her friend. She threw

Starting point is 18:52:05 herself into it, for now that she had made such a point of keeping her conscience clear, that was one way of proving she had not been superficial. The more so, as the years in their flight had rather enriched than blighted those peculiarities, which had been humorously criticized by persons less interested than Isabel, and which were still marked enough to give loyalty a spice of heroism. Henrietta was as keen and quick and fresh as ever, and as neat and bright and fair. Her remarkably open eyes, lighted like great glazed railway stations, had put up no shutters. Her attire had lost none of its crispness, her opinions none of their national reference. She was by no means quite unchanged, however it struck Isabelle she had grown

Starting point is 18:52:49 vague. Of old she had never been vague, though undertaking many inquiries at once. She had managed to be entire and pointed about each. She had a reason for everything she did. She fairly bristled with motives. Formerly, when she came to Europe, it was because she wished to see it. But now, having already seen it, she had no such excuse. She didn't, for a moment, pretend that the desire to examine decaying civilizations had anything to do with her present enterprise. Her journey was rather an expression of her independence of the old world than of a sense of further obligations to it. "'It's nothing to come to Europe,' she said to Isabel.

Starting point is 18:53:28 "'It doesn't seem to me one needs so many reasons for that. "'It is something to stay at home. "'This is much more important.' "'It was not, therefore, with a sense of doing anything very important, "'that she treated herself to another pilgrimage to Rome. "'She had seen the place before and carefully inspected it. "'Her present act was simply a sign of familiarity, "'of her knowing all about it,

Starting point is 18:53:50 "'of her having as good a right as anyone else to be there. This was all very well, and Henrietta was restless. She had a perfect right to be restless, too, if one came to that. But she had, after all, a better reason for coming to Rome than that she cared for it so little. Her friend easily recognized it, and with it the worth of the other's fidelity. She had crossed the stormy ocean in midwinter, because she had guessed that Isabel was sad. Henrietta guessed a great deal, but she had never guessed so happily as that. Isabel's satisfactions just now were few, but even if they had been more numerous, there would still have been something of individual joy in her sense of being justified in having always thought highly of Henrietta.

Starting point is 18:54:34 She had made large concessions with regard to her, and had yet insisted that, with all abatements, she was very valuable. It was not her own triumph, however, that she found good. It was simply the relief of confessing to this confidant, the first person to whom she had owned it, that she was not in the least at her ease. Henrietta had herself approached this point with the smallest possible delay, and had accused her to her face of being wretched. She was a woman. She was a sister. She was not Ralph, nor Lord Warburton, nor Casper Goodwood, and Isabel could speak.

Starting point is 18:55:11 Yes, I'm wretched, she said very mildly. She hated to hear herself say it. She tried to say it as judicially as possible. What does he do to you? Henrietta asked, frowning as if she were inquiring into the operations of a quack doctor. He does nothing, but he doesn't like me. He's very hard to please, cried Miss Stackpole. Why don't you leave him?

Starting point is 18:55:38 I can't change that way, Isabel said. Why not I should like to know? You won't confess that you've made a mistake. You're too proud. I don't know whether or not. I'm too proud, but I can't publish my mistake. I don't think that's decent. I'd much rather die. You won't always think so, said Henrietta. I don't know what great unhappiness might bring me to, but it seems to me I shall always be ashamed. One must accept one's deeds. I married him before all

Starting point is 18:56:12 the world. I was perfectly free. It was impossible to do anything more deliberate. One can't change that way. Isabel repeated. You have changed, in spite of the impossibility. I hope you don't mean to say you like him. Isabel debated. No, I don't like him. I can tell you because I'm weary of my secret. But that's enough. I can't announce it on the housetops. Henrietta gave a laugh. Don't you think you're rather too considerate? It's not of him that I'm considerate. It's of myself. Isabel answered. It was not surprising Gilbert Osmond should not have taken comfort in Miss Stackpole. His instinct had naturally set him in opposition to a young lady,

Starting point is 18:57:01 capable of advising his wife to withdraw from the conjugal roof. When she arrived in Rome, he had said to Isabel that he hoped she would leave her friend the interviewer alone, and Isabel had answered that he at least had nothing to fear from her. She said to Henrietta that as Osmond didn't like her, she couldn't invite her to dine. but they could easily see each other in other ways. Isabel received Miss Stackpole freely in her own sitting-room and took her repeatedly to drive, face-to-face with Pansy, who, bending a little forward, on the opposite seat of the carriage,

Starting point is 18:57:34 gazed at the celebrated authoress with a respectful attention, which Henrietta occasionally found irritating. She complained to Isabel that Miss Osmond had a little look as if she could remember everything one said. I don't want to be remembered that way, Miss Stackpole to be. declared. I consider that my conversation refers only to the moment, like the morning papers. Your stepdaughter, as she sits there, looks as if she kept all the back numbers and would bring them out someday against me. She could not teach herself to think favorably of Pansy,

Starting point is 18:58:05 whose absence of initiative, of conversation, of personal claims, seemed to her, in a girl of 20, unnatural, and even uncanny. Isabel presently saw that Osmond would have liked her to urge a little the cause of her friend, insist a little upon his receiving her, so that he might appear to suffer for good manners' sake. Her immediate acceptance of his objections put him too much in the wrong, it being, in effect, one of the disadvantages of expressing contempt that you cannot enjoy at the same time the credit of expressing sympathy. Osmond held to his credit, and yet he held to his objections, all of which were elements difficult to reconcile. The right thing would have been that Miss Stackpole should come to dine at Palazzo Roca Nara once or twice, so that, in spite of his

Starting point is 18:58:54 superficial civility, always so great, she might judge for herself how little pleasure it gave him. From the moment, however, that both the ladies were so unaccommodating, there was nothing for Osmond but to wish the lady from New York would take herself off. It was surprising how little satisfaction he got from his wife's friends. He took occasion to call Isabel's attention to it. You're certainly not fortunate in your intimates. I wish you might make a new collection. He said to her one morning, in reference to nothing visible at the moment, but in a tone of ripe reflection, which deprived the remark of all brutal abruptness.

Starting point is 18:59:31 It's as if you had taken the trouble to pick out the people in the world that I have the least in common with. Your cousin I have always thought a conceited ass, besides his being the most ill-favored animal I know. Then it's insufferably tiresome that one can't tell him so, one must spare him on account of his health. His health seems to me the best part of him. It gives him privileges enjoyed by no one else. If he's so desperately ill, there's only one way to prove it. But he seems to have no mind for that. I can't say much more for the great

Starting point is 19:00:03 Warburton. When one really thinks of it, the cool insolence of that performance was something rare. He comes and looks at one's daughter, as if she were a suite of apartments. He tries the door handles and looks out of the windows, wraps on the walls, and almost thinks he'll take the place. Will you be so good as to draw police? Then, on the whole, he decides that the rooms are too small. He doesn't think he could live on a third floor. He must look out for a piano nobile. And he goes away after having got a month's lodging in the poor little apartment for nothing. Miss Stackpole, however, is your most wonderful invention. She strikes me as a kind of monster. One hasn't a nerve in one's body that she doesn't set quivering.

Starting point is 19:00:49 You know, I have never admitted that she's a woman. Do you know what she reminds me of? Of a new steel pen, the most odious thing in nature. She talks as a steel pen writes. Aren't her letters, by the way, on ruled paper? She thinks and moves and walks and looks exactly as she talks. You may say that she doesn't hurt me, inasmuch as I don't see her. I don't see her, but I hear her.

Starting point is 19:01:17 I hear her all day long. Her voice is in my ears. I can't get rid of it. I know exactly what she says, and every inflection of the tone in which she says it. She's as charming things about me, and they give you great comfort. I don't like it all to think she talks about me.

Starting point is 19:01:35 I feel as I should feel if I knew the footmen were wearing my hat. Henrietta talked about Gilbert Osmond, as his wife assured him, rather less than he suspected. She had plenty of other subjects, in two of which the reader may be supposed to be especially interested. She let her friend know that Casper Goodwood had discovered for himself that she was unhappy, though indeed her ingenuity was unable to suggest what comfort he hoped to give her

Starting point is 19:02:02 by coming to Rome and yet not calling on her. They met him twice in the street, but he had no appearance of seeing them. They were driving, and he had a habit of looking straight in front of him, as if he proposed to take in but one object at a time. Isabel could have fancied she had seen him the day before. It must have been with just that face and step that he had walked out of Mrs. Touchett's door at the close of their last interview.

Starting point is 19:02:28 He was dressed just as he had been dressed on that day. Isabel remembered the color of his cravat. And yet in spite of this familiar look, there was a strangeness in his figure too, something that made her feel it afresh to be rather terrible that he should have come to Rome. He looked bigger and more overtopping than of old, and in those days he certainly reached high enough.

Starting point is 19:02:49 She noticed that the people whom he passed looked back after him, but he went straight forward, lifting above them a face like a February sky. Miss Stackpole's other topic was very different. She gave Isabel the latest news about Mr. Bantling. He had been out in the United States the year before, and she was happy to say she'd been able to show him considerable attention. She didn't know how much he had enjoyed it, but she would undertake to say it had done him good. He wasn't the same man when he left as he had been when he came.

Starting point is 19:03:22 It had opened his eyes and shown him that England wasn't everything. He had been very much liked in most places, and thought extremely simple, more simple than the English were commonly supposed to be. There were people who had thought him affected. She didn't know whether they meant that his simplicity was an affectation. Some of his questions were too discouraging. He thought all the chambermaids were farmer's daughters, or all the farmer's daughters were chambermaids. She couldn't exactly remember which. He hadn't seemed able to grasp the great school system.

Starting point is 19:03:55 It had really been too much for him. On the whole, he had behaved as if there were too much of everything, as if he could only take in a small part. The part he had chosen was the hotel system and the river navigation. He had seemed really fascinated with the hotels. He had a photograph of every one he had visited. But the river steamers were his principal interest. He wanted to do nothing but sail on the big boats. They had traveled together from New York to Milwaukee, stopping at the most interesting cities

Starting point is 19:04:25 on the route, and whenever they had started afresh, he'd want to know if they could go by the steamer. He seemed to have no idea of geography. He had an impression that Baltimore was a western city, and was perpetually expecting to arrive at the Mississippi. He appeared never to have heard of any river in America but the Mississippi, and was unprepared to recognize the existence of the Hudson, though obliged to confess at last that it was fully equal to the Rhine.

Starting point is 19:04:51 They had spent some pleasant hours in the palace cars. He was always ordering ice cream from the colored man. He could never get used to that idea that you could get ice cream in the cars. Of course you couldn't, nor fans, nor candy, nor anything in the English cars. He found the heat quite overwhelming. and she had told him she indeed expected it was the biggest he had ever experienced. He was now in England, hunting, hunting round, Henrietta called it. These amusements were those of the American Red Men.

Starting point is 19:05:23 We had left that behind long ago, the pleasures of the chase. It seemed to be generally believed in England that we wore tomahawks and feathers, but such a costume was more in keeping with English habits. Mr. Bandling would not have time to join her in Italy. but when she should go to Paris again, he expected to come over. He wanted very much to see Versailles again. He was very fond of the ancient regime. They didn't agree about that, but that was what she liked Versailles for,

Starting point is 19:05:51 that you could see the ancient regime had been swept away. There were no dukes and marquises there now. She remembered on the contrary one day when there were five American families walking all round. Mr. Bantling was very anxious that she should take up the subject of England again, and he thought she might get on better with it now. England had changed a good deal within two or three years. He was determined that if she went there, he should go see his sister, Lady Pencil,

Starting point is 19:06:18 and that this time the invitation should come to her straight. The mystery about that other one had never been explained. Casper Goodwood came at last to Palazzo Roca Nara. He had written Isabella note beforehand to ask leave. This was promptly granted. She would be at home at six o'clock that afternoon. She spent the day wondering what he was coming for, what good he expected to get out of it. He had presented himself hitherto as a person destitute of the faculty of compromise,

Starting point is 19:06:46 who would take what he had asked for, or take nothing. Isabelle's hospitality, however, raised no questions, and she found no great difficulty in appearing happy enough to deceive him. It was her conviction, at least, that she deceived him, made him say to himself that he had been misinformed, but she also saw, so she believed, that he was not disappointed, as some other men she was sure would have been. He had not come to Rome to look for an opportunity. She never found out what he had come for. He offered her no explanation. There could be none but the very simple one that he wanted to see her. In other words,

Starting point is 19:07:24 he had come for his amusement. Isabel followed up this induction with a good deal of eagerness, and was delighted to have found a formula that would lay the ghost of this gentleman's ancient grievance. If he had come to roam for his amusement, this was exactly what she wanted, for if he cared for amusement, he had got over his heartache. If he had got over his heartache, everything was as it should be, and her responsibilities were at an end. It was true that he took his recreation a little stiffly, but he had never been loose and easy, and she had every reason to believe he was satisfied with what he saw. Henrietta was not in his confidence, though he was in hers, and Isabelle, consequently received no side light upon his state of mind. He was open to little conversation

Starting point is 19:08:08 on general topics. It came back to her that she had said of him once years before. Mr. Goodwood speaks a great deal, but he doesn't talk. He spoke a good deal now, but he talked perhaps as little as ever, considering that is how much there was in Rome to talk about. His arrival was not calculated to simplify her relations with her husband, for if Mr. Osmond didn't like her friends, Mr. Goodwood had no claim upon his attention, save as having been one of the first of them. There was nothing for her to say of him but that he was the very oldest. This rather meager synthesis exhausted the facts. She had been obliged to introduce him to Gilbert. It was impossible she should not ask him to dinner, to her Thursday evenings, of which she had grown very weary,

Starting point is 19:08:55 but to which her husband still held, for the sake not so much of inviting people, as of not inviting them. To the Thursdays, Mr. Goodwood came regularly, solemnly, rather early. He appeared to regard them with a good deal of gravity. Isabel every now and then had a moment of anger. There was something so literal about him. She thought he might know that she didn't know what to do with him. But she couldn't call him stupid. He was not that in the least. He was only extraordinarily honest. To be as honest as that made a man very different from most people. One had to be almost equally honest with him. She made this latter reflection at the very time she was flattering herself.

Starting point is 19:09:39 She had persuaded him that she was the most light-hearted of women. He never threw any doubt on this point, never asked her any personal questions. He had got on much better with Osmond than had seemed probable. Osmond had a great dislike to being counted on. In such a case he had an irresistible need of disappointing you. It was in virtue of this principle that he gave himself the entertainment of taking a fancy to a perpendicular Bostonian whom he had been depended upon to treat with coldness. He asked Isabel if Mr. Goodwood also had wanted to marry her, and expressed surprise at her not having accepted him. It would have been an

Starting point is 19:10:16 excellent thing, like living under some tall belfry which would strike all hours and make a queer vibration in the upper air. He declared he liked to talk with the great Goodwood. It wasn't easy at first. You had to climb up an interminable steep staircase up to the top of the tower, but when you got there, you had a big view and felt a little fresh breeze. Osmond, as we know, had delightful qualities, and he gave to Casper Goodwood the benefit of them all. Isabel could see that Mr. Goodwood thought better of her husband than he had ever wished to. He had given her the impression that morning in Florence, of being inaccessible to a good impression. Gilbert asked him repeatedly to dinner, and Mr. Goodwood smoked a cigar with him afterwards, and even desired to be shown his collections.

Starting point is 19:11:03 Gilbert said to Isabel that he was very original. He was as strong, and of as good a style as an English portmanteau. He had plenty of straps and buckles which would never wear out, and a capital patent lock. Casper Goodwood took to riding on the Campania and devoted much time to this exercise. It was therefore mainly in the evening that Isabel saw him. She bethought herself of saying to him one day that if he were willing, he could render her a service. And then she added, smiling. I don't know, however, what right I have to ask a service of you. You're the person in the world who has most right, he answered. I've given you assurances that I've never given anyone else. The service was that he should go and see her cousin Ralph, who was ill at the Hotel de Paris.

Starting point is 19:11:51 alone, and be as kind to him as possible. Mr. Goodwood had never seen him, but he would know who the poor fellow was. If she was not mistaken, Ralph had once invited him to Garden Court. Casper remembered the invitation perfectly, and, though he was not supposed to be a man of imagination, had enough to put himself in the place of a poor gentleman who lay dying at a Roman inn. He called at the Hotel de Paris, and on being shown into the presence of the master of Garden Court, found Miss Stackpole sitting beside his sofa. A singular change had in fact occurred in this lady's relations with Ralph Touchett. She had not been asked by Isabel to go and see him,

Starting point is 19:12:32 but on hearing that he was too ill to come out, had immediately gone of her own motion. After this she had paid him a daily visit, always under the conviction that they were great enemies. Oh, yes, we're intimate enemies, Ralph used to say. And he accused her freely, as freely, as the humor of it would allow, of coming to worry him to death. In reality, they became excellent friends, Henrietta much wondering that she should never have liked him before. Ralph liked her

Starting point is 19:13:03 exactly as much as he had always done. He had never doubted for a moment that she was an excellent fellow. They talked about everything and always differed, about everything that is but Isabel, a topic as to which Ralph always had a thin forefinger on his lips. Mr. Bantling, on the other hand, proved a great resource. Ralph was capable of discussing Mr. Bandling with Henrietta for hours. Discussion was stimulated, of course, by their inevitable difference of view. Ralph, having amused himself with taking the ground that the genial ex-guardsman was a regular Machiavelli. Casper Goodwood could contribute nothing to such a debate, but after he had been left alone

Starting point is 19:13:42 with his host, he found there were various other matters they could take up. It must be admitted that the lady who had just gone out was not one of these. Casper granted all Miss Stackpole's merits in advance, but had no further remark to make about her. Neither, after the first allusions, did the two men expatiate upon Mrs. Osmond, a theme in which Goodwood perceived as many dangers as Ralph. He felt very sorry for that unclassable personage. He couldn't bear to see a pleasant man, so pleasant for all his queerness, so beyond anything to be done. There was always something to be done, for Goodwood, and he did it in this case,

Starting point is 19:14:20 by repeating several times his visit to the Hotel de Paris. It seemed to Isabel that she had been very clever. She had artfully disposed of the superfluous Casper. She had given him an occupation. She had converted him into a caretaker of Ralph. She had a plan of making him travel northward with her cousin, as soon as the first mild weather should allow it. Lord Warburton had brought Ralph to Rome, and Mr. Goodwood should take him away. There seemed a happy symmetry in this, and she was now intensely eager that Ralph should depart. She had a constant fear that he would die there before her eyes, and a horror of the occurrence of this event at an inn by her door,

Starting point is 19:15:00 which he had so rarely entered. Ralph must sink to his last rest in his own dear house, in one of those deep, dim chambers of Garden Court, where the dark ivy would cluster round the edges of the glimmering window. There seemed to Isabel in these days something sacred in Garden Court, No chapter of the past was more perfectly irrecoverable. When she thought of the months she had spent there, the tears rose to her eyes. She flattered herself, as I say, upon her ingenuity.

Starting point is 19:15:32 But she had need of all she could muster, for several events occurred which seemed to confront and defy her. The Countess Gemini arrived from Florence, arrived with her trunks, her dresses, her chatter, her falsehoods, her frivolity, the strange, unholy legend of her. the number of her lovers. Edward Rosier, who had been away somewhere, no one not even Pansy knew where, reappeared in Rome and began to write her long letters, which she never answered. Madame Merle returned from Naples, and said to her with a strange smile, What on earth did you do with Lord Warburton?

Starting point is 19:16:11 As if it were any business of hers. End of Chapter 47. Chapter 48. of the portrait of a lady by Henry James. This Librovoc's recording is in the public domain. One day toward the end of February, Ralph Touchett made up his mind to return to England. He had his own reasons for this decision, which he was not bound to communicate. But Henry at a stackpole, to whom he mentioned his intention, flattered herself that she guessed them. She forbore to express them, however, she only said after a moment as she sat by his sofa,

Starting point is 19:16:59 I suppose you know you can't go alone. I've no idea of doing that, Ralph answered. I shall have people with me. What do you mean by people, servants whom you pay? Ah, said Ralph jocosely. After all, they're human beings. Are there any women among them? Miss Stackpole desired to know.

Starting point is 19:17:22 You speak as if I had a dozen. No, I confess I haven't a Subrette in my employment. "'Well,' said Henrietta calmly, "'you can't go to England that way. "'You must have a woman's care. "'I've had so much of yours for the past fortnight "'that it will last me a good while. "'You've not had enough of it yet.

Starting point is 19:17:43 "'I guess I'll go with you,' said Henrietta. "'Go with me?' Ralph slowly raised himself from his sofa. "'Yes, I know you don't like me, "'but I'll go with you all the same. "'It would be better for your health to lie to, down again. Ralph looked at her a little. Then he slowly relapsed. I like you very much, he said in a moment. Miss Stackpole gave one of her infrequent laughs.

Starting point is 19:18:11 You needn't think by saying that that you can buy me off. I'll go with you, and what is more, I'll take care of you. You're a very good woman, said Ralph. Wait till I get you safely home before you say that. It won't be easy, but you had better go all the same. Before she left him, Ralph said to her, Do you really mean to take care of me? Well, I mean to try. I notify you then that I submit. Oh, I submit.

Starting point is 19:18:41 And it was perhaps a sign of submission that a few minutes after she had left him alone, he burst into a loud fit of laughter. It seemed to him so inconsequent, such a conclusive proof of his having abdicated all functions and renounced all exercise, that he should start on a journey across Europe under the supervision of Miss Stackpole, and the great oddity was that the prospect pleased him. He was gratefully, luxuriously passive.

Starting point is 19:19:09 He felt even impatient to start, and indeed he had an immense longing to see his own house again. The end of everything was at hand. It seemed to him he could stretch out his arm and touch the goal. But he wanted to die at home. It was the only wish he had left. to extend himself in the large, quiet room, where he had last seen his father lie, and close his eyes upon the summer dawn. That same day Casper Goodwood came to see him,

Starting point is 19:19:39 and he informed his visitor that Miss Stackpole had taken him up and was to conduct him back to England. "'Ah, then,' said Casper, "'I'm afraid I shall be a fifth wheel to the coach. Mrs. Osmond has made me promise to go with you.' "'Good heavens! It's the Golden Age!' You're all too kind.

Starting point is 19:19:59 The kindness on my part is to her. It's hardly to you. Granting that, she's kind, smiled Ralph. To get people to go with you? Yes, that's a sort of kindness. Goodwood answered without lending himself to the joke. For myself, however, he added, I'll go so far as to say that I would much rather travel with you and Miss Stackpole

Starting point is 19:20:21 than with Miss Stackpole alone. And you'd rather stay here than do either. said Ralph. There's really no need of your coming. Henrietta's extraordinarily efficient. I'm sure of that, but I've promised Mrs. Osmond. You can easily get her to let you off. She wouldn't let me off for the world.

Starting point is 19:20:40 She wants me to look after you, but that isn't the principal thing. The principal thing is that she wants me to leave Rome. Oh, you see too much in it, Ralph suggested. I bore her, Goodwood went on. She has nothing to say to me, so she invented that. Oh, then, if it's a convenience to her, I certainly will take you with me, though I don't see why it should be a convenience, Ralph added in a moment. Well, said Casper Goodwood simply.

Starting point is 19:21:10 She thinks I'm watching her. Watching her? Trying to make out if she's happy. That's easy to make out, said Ralph. She's the most visibly happy woman I know. Exactly so. I'm satisfied. Goodwood answered.

Starting point is 19:21:26 heard dryly. For all his dryness, however, he had more to say. I've been watching her. I was an old friend, and it seemed to me I had the right. She pretends to be happy. That was what she undertook to be, and I thought I should like to see for myself what it amounts to. I've seen, he continued with a harsh ring in his voice, and I don't want to see any more. I'm now quite ready to go. Do you know, it strikes me as about time you should. Ralph rejoined. And this was the only conversation these gentlemen had about Isabel Osmond. Henrietta made her preparations for departure, and among them she found it proper to say a few words to the Countess Gemini,

Starting point is 19:22:10 who returned at Miss Stackpole's pension the visit which this lady had paid her in Florence. You were very wrong about Lord Warburton, she remarked to the Countess. I think it's right you should know that. About his making love to Isabel! my poor lady, he was at her house three times a day. He has left traces of his passage. The Countess cried. He wished to marry your niece.

Starting point is 19:22:35 That's why he came to the house. The Countess stared, and then with an inconsiderate laugh, Is that the story that Isabel tells? It isn't bad as such things go. If he wishes to marry my niece, pray why doesn't he do it? Perhaps he is gone to buy the wedding ring, and we'll come back with it next month after I'm gone. No, he'll not come back.

Starting point is 19:22:58 Miss Osmond doesn't wish to marry him. She's very accommodating. I knew she was fond of Isabel, but I didn't know she carried it so far. I don't understand you, said Henrietta coldly, and reflecting that the Countess was unpleasantly perverse. I really must stick to my point

Starting point is 19:23:16 that Isabel never encouraged the attentions of Lord Warburton. My dear friend, what do you and I know about it. All we know is that my brother's capable of everything. I don't know what your brother's capable of, said Henrietta with dignity. It's not her encouraging Warburton that I complain of. It's her sending him away. I want particularly to see him. Do you suppose she thought I would make him faithless? The Count has continued with audacious insistence. However, she's only keeping him. One can feel that. The house is full of him there. He's quite in the air. He's quite in the Oh, yes, he has left traces. I'm sure I shall see him yet.

Starting point is 19:23:58 Well, said Henrietta after a little, with one of those inspirations which had made the fortune of her letters to the interviewer. Perhaps he'll be more successful with you than with Isabelle. When she told her friend of the offer she had made Ralph, Isabel replied that she could have done nothing that would have pleased her more. It had always been her faith that at bottom Ralph and this young woman were made to understand each other. I don't care whether he understands me or not, Henrietta declared. The great thing is that he shouldn't die in the cars. He won't do that, Isabel said, shaking her head with an extension of faith.

Starting point is 19:24:35 He won't if I can help it. I see you want us all to go. I don't know what you want to do. I want to be alone, said Isabel. You won't be that so long as you've so much company at home. Ah, they're part of the comedy, you others are spectators. Do you call it a comedy, Isabel Archer? Henrietta rather grimly asked.

Starting point is 19:24:58 The tragedy, then, if you like. You're all looking at me, it makes me uncomfortable. Henrietta engaged in this act for a while. You're like the stricken deer, seeking the innermost shade. Oh, you do give me such a sense of helplessness, she broke out. I'm not at all helpless. There are many things I mean to do. It's not you I'm speaking of.

Starting point is 19:25:22 It's myself. It's too much having come on purpose to leave you just as I find you. You don't do that. You leave me much refreshed, Isabel said. Very mild refreshment, sour lemonade. I want you to promise me something. I can't do that. I shall never make another promise.

Starting point is 19:25:43 I made such a solemn one four years ago, and I've succeeded so ill and keep. it. You've had no encouragement. In this case, I should give you the greatest. Leave your husband before the worst comes. That's what I want you to promise. The worst? What do you call the worst? Before your character gets spoiled. Do you mean my disposition? It won't get spoiled? Isabel answered, smiling. I'm taking very good care of it. I'm extremely struck. she added, turning away. With the offhand way in which you speak of a woman's leaving her husband,

Starting point is 19:26:24 it's easy to see you'd never had one. Well, said Henrietta, as if she were beginning an argument. Nothing is more common in our western cities, and it's to them, after all, that we must look in the future. Her argument, however, does not concern this history, which has too many other threads to unwind. She announced to Ralph Touchett that she was ready to leave Rome by any train he might designate, and Ralph immediately pulled himself together for departure. Isabel went to see him at the last, and he made the same remark that Henrietta had made. It struck him that Isabel was uncommonly glad to get rid of them all. For all answer to this, she gently laid her hand on his, and said in a low tone,

Starting point is 19:27:07 with a quick smile, My dear Ralph. It was answer enough, and he was quite contented. But he went on in the same. same way, jocosely, ingenuously. I've seen less of you than I might, but it's better than nothing, and then I've heard a great deal about you. I don't know from whom, leading the life you've done. From the voices of the air? Oh, from no one else. I never let other people speak of you. They always say you're charming, and that's so flat. I might have seen more of you certainly, "'Isabelle said.

Starting point is 19:27:44 "'But when one's married, one has so much occupation. "'Fortunately, I'm not married. "'When you come to see me in England, "'I shall be able to entertain you "'with all the freedom of a bachelor.' "'He continued to talk as if they should certainly meet again "'and succeeded in making the assumption appear almost just. "'He made no allusion to his term being near,

Starting point is 19:28:05 "'to the probability that he should not outlast the summer. "'If he preferred it so, Isabel was willing enough, the reality was sufficiently distinct without their erecting finger-posts in conversation. That had been well enough for the earlier time, though about this, as about his other affairs, Ralph had never been egotistic. Isabel spoke of his journey, of the stages into which he should divide it, of the precautions he should take. Henrietta's my greatest precaution, he went on, the conscience of that woman sublime.

Starting point is 19:28:38 Certainly she'll be very conscientious. "'Will be? She has been. It's only because she thinks it's her duty that she goes with me. There's a conception of duty for you.' "'Yes, it's a generous one,' said Isabel. "'And it makes me deeply ashamed. "'I ought to go with you, you know.' Your husband wouldn't like that.' "'No, he wouldn't like it. But I might go all the same.' "'I'm startled by the boldness of your imagination. Fancy my being a cause of disagreeing. between a lady and her husband." "'That's why I don't go,' said Isabel simply, yet not very lucidly.

Starting point is 19:29:20 Ralph understood well enough, however. I should think so, with all those occupations you speak of. "'It isn't that. I'm afraid,' said Isabel. After a pause she repeated, as if to make herself rather than him, hear the words. "'I'm afraid.' Ralph could hardly tell what her tone meant. It was so strangely deliberate, apparently so void of emotion. Did she wish to do public penance for a fault of which she had not been convicted? Or were her words simply an attempt at enlightened self-analysis? However this might be, Ralph could not resist so easy an opportunity. Afraid of your husband. Afraid of myself, she said, getting up. She stood there a moment. and then added,

Starting point is 19:30:13 "'If I were afraid of my husband, that would be simply my duty. That's what women are expected to be.' "'Ah, yes,' laughed Ralph, "'but to make up for it there's always some man awfully afraid of some woman.' She gave no heed to this pleasantry, but suddenly took a different turn. "'With Henrietta at the head of your little band,' she exclaimed abruptly, "'there will be nothing left for Mr. Goodwood.' "'Ah, my dear Isabel.'

Starting point is 19:30:41 Ralph answered, He's used to that. There is nothing left for Mr. Goodwood. She colored and then observed quickly that she must leave him. They stood together a moment. Both her hands were in both of his. You've been my best friend, she said. It was for you that I wanted, that I wanted to live.

Starting point is 19:31:04 But I'm of no use to you. Then it came over her more poignantly that she should not see him again. She could not accept that. She could not part with him that way. If you should send for me, I'd come, she said at last. Your husband won't consent to that. Oh, yes, I can arrange it.

Starting point is 19:31:27 I shall keep that for my last pleasure, said Ralph. In answer to which she simply kissed him. It was a Thursday, and that evening Casper Goodwood came to Palazzo Rokanara. He was among the first to arrive, and he spent some time in conversation with Gilbert Osmond, who almost always was present when his wife received. They sat down together, and Osmond, talkative, communicative, expansive, seemed possessed with a kind of intellectual gaiety. He leaned back with his legs crossed, lounging and chatting, while Goodwood, more restless, but not at all lively, shifted his position, played with his hat,

Starting point is 19:32:11 made the little sofa creak beneath him. Osman's face wore a sharp, aggressive smile. He was as a man whose perceptions have been quickened by good news. He remarked to Goodwood that he was sorry they were to lose him. He himself should particularly miss him. He saw so few intelligent men. They were surprisingly scarce in Rome. He must be sure to come back.

Starting point is 19:32:34 There was something very refreshing to an inveterate Italian like himself in talking with a genuine outsider. I'm very fond of Rome, you know, Osmond said. But there's nothing I like better than to meet people who haven't that superstition. The modern world's, after all, very fine. Now you're thoroughly modern,

Starting point is 19:32:53 and yet are not at all common. So many of the moderns we see are such very poor stuff. If they're the children of the future, we're willing to die young. Of course, the ancients, too, are often very tiresome. My wife and I like everything that's really new,

Starting point is 19:33:08 not the mere pretence of it. There's nothing new unfortunately in ignorance and stupidity. We see plenty of that in forms that offer themselves as a revelation of progress, of light, a revelation of vulgarity. There's a certain kind of vulgarity which I believe is really new. I don't think there ever was anything like it before. Indeed, I don't find vulgarity at all before the present century. You see a faint menace of it here and there and the last, but today the air has grown so dense that delicate things are literally not recognized. Now, we've liked you. With which he hesitated a moment, laying his

Starting point is 19:33:47 hand gently on Goodwood's knee, and smiling with a mixture of assurance and embarrassment. I'm going to say something extremely offensive and patronizing, but you must let me have the satisfaction of it. We've liked you because—because you've reconciled us a little to the future. If there are to be a certain number of people like you, a la bonner. I'm talking for my wife as well as for myself, you see. She speaks for me, my wife. Why shouldn't I speak for her? We're as united, you know, as the candlestick and the snuffers. Am I assuming too much when I say that I think I've understood from you that your occupations have been, uh, commercial? There's a danger in that, you know, but it's the way you've escaped that strikes us.

Starting point is 19:34:31 Excuse me if my little compliment seems inexorable taste. Fortunately, my wife doesn't hear me. What I mean is that you might have been, uh, what I was mentioning just now. The whole American world was in a conspiracy to make you so, but you resisted. You've something about you that saved you. And yet are so modern, so modern, the most modern man we know. We shall always be delighted to see you again. I have said that Osmond was in good humor, and these remarks will give ample evidence of the fact. They were infinitely more personal than he usually cared to be, and if Casper Goodwood had attended to them more closely, he might have thought that the defense of delicacy was in rather odd hands.

Starting point is 19:35:17 We may believe, however, that Osmond knew very well what he was about, and that if he chose to use the tone of patronage with a grossness not in his habits, he had an excellent reason for the escapade. Goodwood had only a vague sense that he was laying it on somehow. He scarcely knew where the mixture was applied. Indeed, he scarcely knew what Osmond was talking about. He wanted to be alone with Isabel, and that idea spoke louder to him than her husband's perfectly pitched voice. He watched her talking with other people, and wondered when she would be at liberty, and whether he might ask her to go into one of the other rooms. His humor was not, like Osmond's, of the best.

Starting point is 19:35:58 There was an element of dull rage in his consciousness of things. Up to this time he had not disliked Osmond, personally. He had only thought him very well informed and obliging, and more than he had supposed like the person whom Isabel Archer would naturally marry. His host had won in the open field a great advantage over him, and Goodwood had too strong a sense of fair play to have been moved to underrate him on that account. He had not tried positively to think well of him. This was a flight of sentimental benevolence of which, even in the days when he came nearest to reconciling himself to what had happened, Goodwood was quite in case.

Starting point is 19:36:34 capable. He accepted him as a rather brilliant personage of the amateurish kind, afflicted with a redundancy of leisure, which had amused him to work off in little refinements of conversation. But he only half trusted him. He could never make out why the deuce Osmond should lavish refinements of any sort upon him. It made him suspect that he had found some private entertainment in it, and it ministered to a general impression that his triumphant rival had in his composition a streak of perversity. He knew indeed that Osmond could have no reason to wish him evil. He had nothing to fear from him. He had carried off a supreme advantage, and could afford to be kind to a man who had lost everything. It was true that Goodwood had at

Starting point is 19:37:19 times grimly wished he were dead and would have liked to kill him. But Osmond had no means of knowing this, for practice had made the younger man perfect in the art of appearing inaccessible today to any violent emotion. He cultivated this art in order to deceive himself, but it was others that he deceived first. He cultivated it, moreover, with very limited success, of which there could be no better proof than the deep, dumb irritation that reigned in his soul when he heard Osmond speak of his wife's feelings, as if he were commissioned to answer for them. That was all he had had an ear for in what his host said to him this evening. He had been conscious that Osmond made more of a point even than usual of referring to the conjugal harmony prevailing

Starting point is 19:38:04 at Palazzo Roca Nara. He had been more careful than ever to speak as if he and his wife had all things in sweet community, and it were as natural to each of them to say we as to say I. In all this there was an air of intention that had puzzled and angered our poor Bostonian, who could only reflect for his comfort that Mrs. Osmond's relations with her husband were none of his business. He had no proof whatever that her husband misrepresented her, and if he judged her by the surface of things, was bound to believe that she liked her life. She had never given him the faintest sign of discontent. Miss Stackpole had told him that she had lost her illusions, but writing for the papers had made Miss Stackpole sensational. She was too fond of early news. Moreover, since her arrival in Rome,

Starting point is 19:38:52 she had been much on her guard. She had pretty well ceased to flash her lantern at him. This indeed it may be said for her, would have been quite against her conscience. She had now seen the reality of Isabel's situation, and it had inspired her with a just reserve. Whatever could be done to improve it, the most useful form of assistance would not be to inflame her former lovers with a sense of her wrongs. Miss Stackpole continued to take a deep interest in the state of Mr. Goodwood's feelings, but she showed it at present only by sending him choice extracts, humorous and other, from the American journals, of which she received several by every post, and which she always perused with a pair of scissors in hand. The articles she cut out

Starting point is 19:39:34 she placed in an envelope addressed to Mr. Goodwood, which she left with her own hand at his hotel. He never asked her a question about Isabel. Hadn't he come five thousand miles to see for himself? He was thus not in the least authorized to think Mrs. Osmond unhappy, but the very absence of authorization operated as an irritant, ministered to the harshness with which, in spite of his theory that he had ceased to care, he now recognized that, so far as she was concerned, the future had nothing more for him. He had not even the satisfaction of knowing the truth. Apparently he could not even be trusted to respect her if she were unhappy. He was hopeless, helpless. To this last character, she had called his attention by her ingenious plan for

Starting point is 19:40:21 making him leave Rome. He had no objection whatever to doing what he could for her cousin, but it made him grind his teeth to think that all of the services she might have asked of him this was the one she had been eager to select. There had been no danger of her choosing one that would have kept him in Rome. Tonight, what he was chiefly thinking of was that he was to leave her tomorrow, and that he had gained nothing by coming, but the knowledge that he was as little wanted as ever. About herself he had gained no knowledge. She was imperturbable, inscrutable, impenetrable. He felt the old bitterness, which he had tried so hard to swallow, rise again in his throat, and he knew there are disappointments that last as long as life. Osmond went on talking.

Starting point is 19:41:07 Goodwood was vaguely aware that he was touching again upon his perfect intimacy with his wife. It seemed to him for a moment that the man had a kind of demonic imagination, it was impossible that without malice he should have selected so unusual a topic. But what did it matter, after all, whether he were demonic or not, and whether she loved him or hated him? She might hate him to the death without one's gaining a straw oneself. You travel by the by with Ralph Touchett, Osmond said. I suppose that means you'll move slowly.

Starting point is 19:41:40 I don't know. I shall do just as he likes. You're very accommodating. We're immensely obliged to you. You must really let me say it. My wife has probably expressed to you what we feel. Touch it has been on our minds all winter. It has looked more than once as if he would never leave Rome. He ought never to have come. It's worse than an imprudence for people in that state to travel. It's a kind of indelicacy. I wouldn't, for the world, be under such an obligation to touch it as he has been to—to my wife and me. Other people inevitably have to look after him, and everyone is. isn't as generous as you."

Starting point is 19:42:17 "'I've nothing else to do,' Casper said dryly. "'Ozband looked at him a moment as Gantz. "'You ought to marry, and then you'd have plenty to do. It's true that in your case that you wouldn't be quite so available for deeds of mercy.' "'Do you find that as a married man you're so much occupied?' The young man mechanically asked. "'Ah, you see, being married in itself an occupation. It isn't always active. It's often passive. But that takes even more attention. Then my wife and I do so many things together. We read, we study, we make music, we walk, we drive. We talk, even, as when we first knew each other. I delight to this hour in my wife's conversation. If you're ever bored, take my advice and get married. Your wife indeed may bore you in that case, but you'll never bore yourself. He'll always have something to say. You'll always have something to be.

Starting point is 19:43:12 say to yourself, always have a subject of reflection. I'm not bored, said Goodwood. I've plenty to think about and to say to myself. More than to say to others, Osmond exclaimed with a light laugh, where shall you go next? I mean after you've consigned to touch it to his natural caretakers. I believe his mother is at last coming back to look after him. That little lady's superb. She neglects her duties with a finish. Perhaps he'll spend the summer in England? I don't know. I've no plans. Happy man. That's a little bleak, but it's very free.

Starting point is 19:43:50 Oh, yes, I'm very free. Free to come back to Rome, I hope, said Osmond, as he saw a group of new visitors enter the room. Remember that when you do come, we count on you. Goodwood had meant to go away early, but the evening elapse without his having a chance to speak to Isabel, otherwise than is one of several associated interlocutors. There was something perverse in the inveteracy with which she avoided him. His unquenchable rancor discovered an intention where there was certainly no appearance of one. There was absolutely no appearance of one.

Starting point is 19:44:24 She met his eyes with her clear, hospitable smile, which seemed almost to ask that he would come and help her to entertain some of her visitors. To such suggestions, however, he opposed but a stiff impatience. He wandered about and waited. He talked to the few people he knew. who found him for the first time rather self-contradictory. This was indeed rare with Casper Goodwood, though he often contradicted others. There was often music at Palazzo Roca Nara, and it was usually very good.

Starting point is 19:44:55 Under cover of the music he managed to contain himself, but, toward the end when he saw the people beginning to go, he drew near to Isabel and asked her in a low tone if he might speak to her in one of the other rooms, which he had just assured himself was empty. She smiled as if she wished to oblige him, but found herself absolutely prevented. I'm afraid it's impossible. People are saying good-night, and I must be where they can see me. I shall wait till they are all gone, then. She hesitated a moment. Oh, that will be delightful, she exclaimed. And he waited, though it took a long time yet. There were several people at the end who seemed tethered to the carpet. The Countess Gemini, who was never herself.

Starting point is 19:45:39 till midnight, as she said, displayed no consciousness that the entertainment was over. She had still a little circle of gentlemen in front of the fire, who every now and then broke into a united laugh. Osmond had disappeared. He never bade goodbye to people, and as the Countess was extending her range, according to her custom at this period of the evening, Isabel had sent Pansy to bed. Isabel sat a little apart. She too appeared to wish her sister-in-law would sound a lower note, and let the last loiterers depart in peace. May I not say a word to you now? Goodwood presently asked her.

Starting point is 19:46:16 She got up immediately, smiling. Certainly, we'll go somewhere else if you like. They went together, leaving the Countess with her little circle, and for a moment, after they had crossed the threshold, neither of them spoke. Isabel would not sit down. She stood in the middle of the room slowly fanning herself. she had for him the same familiar grace.

Starting point is 19:46:40 She seemed to wait for him to speak. Now that he was alone with her, all the passion he had never stifled surged into his senses. It hummed in his eyes and made things swim round him. The bright, empty room grew dim and blurred, and through the heaving veil

Starting point is 19:46:57 he felt her hover before him with gleaming eyes and parted lips. If he had seen more distinctly, he would have perceived her smile was fixed and a trifle forced, that she was frightened at what she saw in his own face. "'I suppose you wish to bid me goodbye,' she said. "'Yes, but I don't like it. I don't want to leave Rome.' He answered with almost plaintive honesty.

Starting point is 19:47:24 "'I can well imagine. It's wonderfully good of you. I can't tell you how kind I think you.' For a moment more he said nothing. With a few words like that you make me go. You must come back some day, she brightly returned. Someday. You mean as long a time hence as possible. Oh, no, I don't mean all that. What do you mean?

Starting point is 19:47:49 I don't understand. But I said I'd go, and I'll go. Goodwood added. Come back whenever you like, said Isabel with a tempted lightness. I don't care a straw for you. your cousin. Cassper broke out. Is that what you wished to tell me? No. No, I didn't want to tell you anything. I wanted to ask you. He paused a moment, and then, What have you really made of your life? He said in a low, quick tone. He paused again,

Starting point is 19:48:24 as if for an answer, but she said nothing and he went on. I can't understand. I can't penetrate you. What am I to believe? What do you? What do you? You? What do you? You? You know? What do you? You? You? You don't understand? What you want me to think. Still, she said nothing. She only stood looking at him, now quite without pretending to ease. I'm told you're unhappy, and if you are I should like to know it. That would be something for me. But you say yourself that you're happy, and you're somehow so still, so smooth, so hard. You're completely changed. You conceal everything. I haven't really come near you. You come very near, Isabel said gently, in a tone of warning. And yet I don't touch you. I want to know the truth. Have you done well?

Starting point is 19:49:13 You ask a great deal. Yes, I've always asked a great deal. Of course you won't tell me. I shall never know if you can help it. And then, it's none of my business. He had spoken with a visible effort to control himself. give a considerate form to an inconsiderate state of mind. But the sense that it was his last chance, that he loved her and had lost her, that she would think him a fool whatever he should say, suddenly gave him a lash, and added a deep vibration to his low voice. You're perfectly inscrutable, and that's what makes me think you've something to hide. I tell you I don't care a straw for your cousin, but I don't mean that I don't like him. I mean that it isn't because I

Starting point is 19:49:58 like him that I go away with him. I'd go if he were an idiot and you should have asked me. If you should ask me, I'd go to Siberia tomorrow. Why do you want me to leave the place? You must have some reason for that. If you were as contended as you pretend you are, you wouldn't care. I'd rather know the truth about you, even if it's damnable, than have come here for nothing. That isn't what I came for. I thought I shouldn't care. I came because I wanted to assure myself that I I needn't think of you anymore. I haven't thought of anything else, and you're quite right to wish me to go away. But if I must go, there's no harm in my letting myself out for a single moment, is there? If you're really hurt, if he hurts you, nothing I say will hurt you.

Starting point is 19:50:46 When I tell you I love you, it's simply what I came for. I thought it was for something else, but it was for that. I shouldn't say it if I didn't believe I should not. never see you again. It's the last time. Let me pluck a single flower. I've no right to say that, I know, and you've no right to listen. But you don't listen. You never listen. You're always thinking of something else. After this I must go, of course, so I shall at least have a reason. You're asking me is no reason, not a real one. I can't judge by your husband. He went on, irrelevantly, almost incoherently. I don't understand him. He tells me you adore each other. Why does he tell me that? What business is it of mine? When I say that to you, you look strange.

Starting point is 19:51:37 But you always look strange. Yes, you've something to hide. It's none of my business, very true. But I love you, said Casper Goodwood. As he said, she looked strange. She turned her eyes to the door by which they had entered, and raised her fan as if in warning. You've behaved so well. Don't spoil it, she uttered softly. No one hears me. It's wonderful what you tried to put me off with.

Starting point is 19:52:09 I love you as I've never loved you. I know it. I knew it as soon as you consented to go. You can't help it. Of course not. You would if you could, but you can't, unfortunately. Unfortunately, for me, I mean. I ask nothing, nothing that is I shouldn't.

Starting point is 19:52:29 But I do ask one's sole satisfaction. That you tell me. That you tell me. That I tell you what? Whether I may pity you. Should you like that? Isabel asked, trying to smile again. To pity you?

Starting point is 19:52:48 Most assuredly. That at least would be doing something. I'd give my life to it." She raised her fan to her face, which it covered all except her eyes. They rested a moment on his. Don't give your life to it, but give a thought to it every now and then. And with that, she went back to the Countess Gemini. End of Chapter 48.

Starting point is 19:53:28 Chapter 49 of The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. Librovoc's recording is in the public domain. Madame Merle had not made her appearance at Palazzo Roca Nara on the evening of that Thursday, of which I have narrated some of the incidents, and Isabel, though she observed her absence, was not surprised by it. Things had passed between them which added no stimulus to sociability, and to appreciate which we must glance a little backward. It has been mentioned that Madame Merle returned from Naples shortly after Lord Warburton had left Rome, and that on her first meeting with Isabel, whom, to do her justice, she came immediately to see, her first utterance had been an inquiry as to the whereabouts of this nobleman,

Starting point is 19:54:16 for whom she appeared to hold her dear friend accountable. "'Please don't talk of him,' said Isabel for answer. "'We've heard so much of him of late.' Madame Merle bent her head on one side a little, protestingly, and smiled at the left corner of her mouth. You've heard, yes, but you must remember that I've not, in Naples. I hoped to find him here and should be able to congratulate Pansy. You may congratulate Pansy still, but not on marrying Lord Warburton. How you say that! Don't you know I had set my heart on it? Madame Merle asked with a great deal of spirit, but still with the intonation of good-humour. Isabel was discomposed, but she was determined to be good-humoured, too.

Starting point is 19:55:04 You shouldn't have gone to Naples, then. You should have stayed here to watch the affair. I had too much confidence in you, but do you think it's too late? You had better ask Pansy, said Isabel. I shall ask her what you've said to her. These words seemed to justify the impulse of self-defense aroused on Isabelle's part by her perceiving that her visitor's attitude was a critical one. Madame Merle, as we know, had been very discreet hitherto. She had never criticized.

Starting point is 19:55:36 She had been markedly afraid of intermeddling. But apparently she had only reserved herself for this occasion, since she now had a dangerous quickness in her eye and an air of irritation which even her admirable ease was not able to transmute. She had suffered a disappointment which excited Isabel's surprise, our heroine having no knowledge of her zealous interest in Pansy's marriage, and she betrayed it in a manner which quickened Mrs. Osmond's alarm. More clearly than ever before, Isabel heard a cold, mocking voice proceed from she knew not

Starting point is 19:56:09 where, in the dim void that surrounded her, and declare that this bright, strong, definite, worldly woman, this incarnation of the practical, the personal, the immediate, was a powerful agent in her destiny. She was nearer to her than Isabel had yet discovered, and her nearness was not the charming accident she had so long supposed. The sense of accident indeed had died within her that day when she happened to be struck with the manner in which the wonderful lady and her own husband sat together in private. No definite suspicion had as yet taken its place. But, and she place, but it was enough to make her view this friend with a different eye, to have been led to reflect that there was more intention in her past behavior than she had allowed for at the time.

Starting point is 19:56:57 Ah, yes, there had been intention. There had been intention, Isabel said to herself, and she seemed to wake from a long, pernicious dream. What was it that brought home to her that Madame Merle's intention had not been good? Nothing but the mystery. trust which had lately taken body, and which married itself now to the fruitful wonder produced by her visitor's challenge on behalf of poor Pansy. There was something in this challenge, which had at the very outset excited in answering defiance, a nameless vitality, which she could see to have been absent from her friend's professions of delicacy and caution. Madame Merle had been unwilling to interfere, certainly, but only so long as there was nothing to interfere with. It will

Starting point is 19:57:45 perhaps seemed to the reader that Isabel went fast in casting doubt, on mere suspicion, on a sincerity proved by several years of good offices. She moved quickly indeed, and with reason, for a strange truth was filtering into her soul. Madame Merle's interest was identical with Osmond's. That was enough. I think Pansy will tell you nothing that will make you more angry, she said, in answer to her companion's last remark. I'm not in the least angry. I've only a great desire to retrieve the situation. Do you consider that Warburton has left us forever? I can't tell you. I don't understand you. It's all over. Please let it rest. Osmond has talked me a great deal about it, and I've nothing more to say or to hear.

Starting point is 19:58:33 I've no doubt, Isabel added, that he'll be very happy to discuss the subject with you. I know what he thinks. He came to see me last evening. As soon as you had arrived, Then you know all about it, and you needn't apply to me for information. It isn't information I want. At bottom, it's sympathy. I had set my heart on that marriage. The idea did what so few things do. It satisfied the imagination.

Starting point is 19:59:03 Your imagination, yes, but not that of the person's concerned. You mean by that, of course, that I'm not concerned. Of course not directly. But when one's such an old friend, one can't help having something at stake. You forget how long I've known Pansy. You mean, of course, Madame Merle added, that you are one of the persons concerned. No, that's the last thing I mean. I'm very weary of it all.

Starting point is 19:59:34 Madame Merle hesitated a little. Ah, yes, your work's done. Take care what you say, said Isabel. Isabelle very gravely. Oh, I take care, never perhaps more than when it appears least. Your husband judges you severely. Isabel made for a moment no answer to this. She felt choked with bitterness.

Starting point is 19:59:59 It was not the insolence of Madame Merle's informing her that Osmond had been taking her into his confidence as against his wife that struck her most, for she was not quick to believe that this was meant for insolence. Madame Merle was very rarely insolent. and only when it was exactly right. It was not right now, or at least it was not right yet. What touched Isabel like a drop of corrosive acid upon an opened wound was the knowledge that Osman dishonored her in his words as well as in his thoughts. Should you like to know how I judge him?

Starting point is 20:00:32 She asked at last. No, because you'd never tell me, and it would be painful for me to know. There was a pause, and for the first time, since I was a pause, and for the first time, she had known her, Isabel thought Madame Merle disagreeable. She wished she would leave her. Remember how attractive, Penzi is, and don't despair, she said abruptly, with a desire that this should close their interview. But Madame Merle's expansive presence underwent no contraction. She only gathered her mantle about her, and, with the movement, scattered upon the air of faint, agreeable fragrance. I don't despair. I feel encouraged. I'm

Starting point is 20:01:13 and I didn't come to scold you. I came, if possible, to learn the truth. I know you'll tell it if I ask you. It's an immense blessing with you that one can count upon that. No, you won't believe what a comfort I take in it. What truth do you speak of? Isabel asked, wondering. Just this. Whether Lord Warburton changed his mind quite of his own movement, or because you recommended it. To please himself, I mean, or to please you. Think of the confidence I must still have in you, in spite of having lost a little of it. Madame Merle continued with a smile, to ask such a question as that. She sat looking at her friend to judge the effect of her words, and then went on. Now don't be heroic, don't be unreasonable, don't take offense. It seems to me I do you an honor in speaking

Starting point is 20:02:10 so. I don't know another woman to whom I would do it. I haven't the least idea that any other woman would tell me the truth. And don't you see how well it is that your husband should know it? It's true that he doesn't appear to have had any tact whatever in trying to extract it. He is indulged in gratuitous suppositions. But that doesn't alter the fact that it would make a difference in his view of his daughter's prospects to know distinctly what really occurred. If Lord Warburton simply got tired of the poor child, that's one of the one of the same. thing, and it's a pity. If he gave her up to please you, it's another. That's a pity, too, but in a different way. Then, in the latter case, you'd perhaps resign yourself to not

Starting point is 20:02:52 being pleased, to simply seeing your stepdaughter married. Let him off. Let us have him. Madame Merle had proceeded very deliberately, watching her companion and apparently thinking she could proceed safely. As she went on, Isabel grew pale. She clasped her hands more tightly in her lap. It was not that her visitor had at last thought it the right time to be insolent, for this was not what was most apparent. It was a worse horror than that. "'Who are you? What are you?' Isabel murmured. "'What have you to do with my husband?' It was strange that for the moment she drew as near to him as if she had loved him. Ah, then, you take it heroically. I'm very sorry. Don't think, however, that I shall do so.

Starting point is 20:03:48 What have you to do with me? Isabel went on. Madame Merle slowly got up, stroking her muff, but not removing her eyes from Isabel's face. Everything, she answered. Isabel sat there looking up at her, without rising. Her face was almost a prayer to be enlightened. But the light of this woman's eyes seemed only a darkness. Oh, misery! She murmured at last, and she fell back, covering her face with her hands.

Starting point is 20:04:23 It had come over her like a high-surging wave that Mrs. Touchett was right. Madame Merle had married her. Before she uncovered her, face again, that lady had left the room. Isabel took a drive alone that afternoon. She wished to be far away, under the sky, where she could descend from her carriage and tread upon the daisies. She had long before this taken old Rome into her confidence, for in a world of ruins, the ruin

Starting point is 20:04:52 of her happiness seemed a less unnatural catastrophe. She rested her weariness upon things that had crumbled for centuries, and yet still were upright. She dropped her secret sadness into the silence of lonely places, where its very modern quality detached itself, and grew objective. So that as she sat in a sun-warmed angle on a winter's day, or stood in a moldy church to which no one came, she could almost smile at it and think of its smallness. Small it was in the large Roman record, and her haunting sense of the continuity of the human lot easily carried her from the less to the greater. She had become deeply, tenderly acquainted with Rome. It interfused and moderated her passion. But she had grown to think of it chiefly as

Starting point is 20:05:40 the place where people had suffered. This was what came to her in the starved churches, where the marble columns, transferred from pagan ruins, seemed to offer her a companionship in endurance, and the musty incense to be a compound of long unanswered prayers. There was no gentler nor less consistent heretic than Isabel. The firmest of worshippers, gazing at dark altar pictures or clustered candles, could not have felt more intimately the suggestiveness of these objects, nor have been more liable at such moments to a spiritual visitation. Pansy, as we know, was almost always her companion, and of late the Countess Gemini, balancing a pink parasol, had lent brilliancy to their equipage. But she still occasionally found herself alone when it suited

Starting point is 20:06:29 her mood and where it suited the place. On such occasions she had several resorts, the most accessible of which perhaps was a seat on the low parapet which edges the wide, grassy space before the high, cold front of St. John Lateran, whence you look across the Campania at the far trailing outline of the Albin Mount, and at that mighty plain between, which is still so full of all that his past from it. After the departure of her cousin and his companions, she roamed more than usual. She carried her sombre spirit from one familiar shrine to the other. Even when Pansy and the Countess were with her, she felt the touch of a vanished world. The carriage, leaving the walls of Rome behind, rolled through narrow lanes where the wild honeysuckle had begun to tangle

Starting point is 20:07:16 itself in the hedges, or waited for her in quiet places where the fields lay near. While she She strolled further and further over the flower-freckled turf, or sat on a stone that had once had a use, and gazed through the veil of her personal sadness at the splendid sadness of the scene. At the dense, warm light, the far gradations and soft confusions of color, the motionless shepherds and lonely attitudes, the hills where the cloud shadows had the lightness of a blush. On the afternoon I began with speaking of, she had taken a resolution not to think of Madame Merle, but the resolution proved vain, and this lady's image hovered constantly before her. She asked herself, with an almost childlike horror of the supposition, whether to this intimate friend of several years the great historical epithet of Wicked were to be applied. She knew the idea only by the Bible and other literary works,

Starting point is 20:08:14 to the best of her belief she had had no personal acquaintance with wickedness. She had desired a large acquaintance with human life, and in spite of her having flattered herself that she cultivated it with some success, this elementary privilege had been denied her. Perhaps it was not wicked, in the historic sense, to be even deeply false. For that was what Madame Merle had been. Deeply, deeply, deeply. Isabelle's Aunt Lydia had made this discovery long before and had mentioned it to her niece.

Starting point is 20:08:48 But Isabel had flattered herself at this time that she had a much richer view of things, especially of the spontaneity of her own career and the nobleness of her own interpretations, then poor, stiffly reasoning Mrs. Touchett. Madame Merle had done what she wanted. She had brought about the union of her two friends, a reflection which could not fail to make it a matter of wonder that she should so much have desired such an event. There were people who had the matchmaking passion, like the votaries of art for art, but Madame Merle, great artist as she was, was scarcely one of these.

Starting point is 20:09:24 She thought too ill of marriage, too ill even of life. She had desired that particular marriage but had not desired others. She had, therefore, had a conception of gain, and Isabel asked herself where she had found her prophet. It took her naturally a long time to discover, and even then her discovery was imperfect. It came back to her that Madame Merle, though she had seemed to like her from their first meeting at Garden Court, had been doubly affectionate after Mr. Touchett's death, and after learning that her young friend had been subject to the good old man's charity.

Starting point is 20:09:59 She had found her profit not on the gross device of borrowing money, but in the more refined idea of introducing one of her intimates to the young woman's fresh and ingenuous fortune. She had naturally chosen her closest intimate, and it was already vivid enough to Isabel that Gilbert occupied this position. She found herself confronted in this manner with the conviction that the man in the world whom she had supposed to be the least sorted had married her, like a vulgar adventurer, for her money. Strange to say, it had never before occurred to her. If she had sought a good deal of harm of Osmond, she had not done him this particular injury. This was the worst she could think of, and she had been saying to herself that the worst was still to come.

Starting point is 20:10:43 A man might marry a woman for her money perfectly well, the thing was often done. But at least he should let her know. She wondered whether, since he had wanted her money, her money would now satisfy him. Would he take her money and let her go? Ah, if Mr. Touchett's great charity would but help her today, it would be blessed indeed. It was not slow to occur to her that if Madame Merle had wished to do Gilbert's service, his recognition to her of the boon must have lost its warmth. What must be his feelings today in regard to his too zealous benefactress,

Starting point is 20:11:19 and what expression must they have found on the part of such a master of irony? It is a singular, but a characteristic fact, that before Isabel returned from her silent drive, she had broken its silence by the soft exclamation. Poor, poor, madame Merle. Her compassion would perhaps have been justified if on this same afternoon she had been concealed behind one of the valuable curtains of time softened Damask, which dressed the interesting little salon of the lady to whom it referred, the carefully arranged apartment to which we once paid a visit in company with the discreet Mr. Rosier.

Starting point is 20:11:53 In that apartment, towards six o'clock, Gilbert Osmond was seated, and his hostess stood before him, as Isabel had seen her stand on an occasion commemorated in this history, with an emphasis appropriate not so much to its apparent as to its real importance. "'I don't believe you're unhappy. I believe you like it,' said Madame Merle. "'Did I say I was unhappy?' Osmond asked, with a face grave enough to suggest that he might have been. No, but you don't say the contrary, as you ought in common gratitude. "'Don't talk about gratitude,' he returned dryly. "'And don't aggravate me,' he added in a moment.

Starting point is 20:12:39 "'Madame Merle slowly seated herself, with her arms folded, and her white hands arranged as a support to one of them, and an ornament, as it were, to the other. She looked exquisitely calm, but impressively sad. "'On your side, don't try to frighten me. I wonder if you guess some of my thoughts. I trouble about them no more than I can help. I've quite enough of my own.

Starting point is 20:13:05 That's because they're so delightful. Osmond rested his head against the back of his chair, and looked at his companion with a cynical directness, which seemed also partly an expression of fatigue. You do aggravate me, he remarked in a moment. I'm very tired. And me, don't, cried Madame Merle. With you, it's because you fatigue your feet,

Starting point is 20:13:29 With me, it's not my own fault. When I fatigue myself, it's for you. I've given you an interest. That's a great gift. Do you call it an interest? Osmond inquired with detachment. Certainly, since it helps you to pass your time. The time has never seemed longer to me than this winter.

Starting point is 20:13:53 You've never looked better. You've never been so agreeable, so brilliant. Damn my brilliancy. He thoughtfully murmured. How little, after all, you know me. If I don't know you, I know nothing, smiled Madame Merle. You've the feeling of complete success. No, I shall not have that till I've made you stop judging me.

Starting point is 20:14:18 I did that long ago. I speak from old knowledge. But you express yourself more, too. Asmund just hung fire. I wish you'd express yourself less. You wish to condemn me to silence? Remember that I've never been a chatterbox. At any rate, there are three or four things I should like to say to you first.

Starting point is 20:14:42 Your wife doesn't know what to do with herself. She went on with a change of tone. Pardon me. She knows perfectly. She has a line sharply drawn. She means to carry out her ideas. Her ideas today must be remarkable. "'Certainly they are. She has more of them than ever.'

Starting point is 20:15:01 "'She was unable to show me any this morning,' said Madame Merle. "'She seemed in a very simple, almost in a stupid state of mind. "'She was completely bewildered. "'You had better say it once that she was pathetic. "'Ah, no, I don't want to encourage you too much.' "'He still had his head against the cushion behind him. "'The ankle of one foot rested on the other knee. "'So he sat for a while.

Starting point is 20:15:28 I should like to know what's the matter with you, he said at last. The matter. The matter! And here, Madame Merle stopped. Then she went on with a sudden outbreak of passion, a burst of summer thunder in a clear sky. The matter is that I would give my right hand to be able to weep, and that I can't. What good would it do you to weep? It would make me feel as I felt before I knew you.

Starting point is 20:15:58 If I've dried your tears, that's something. But I've seen you shed them. Oh, I believe you'll make me cry still. I mean make me howl like a wolf. I've a great hope. Have a great need of that. I was vile this morning. I was horrid, she said.

Starting point is 20:16:18 If Isabel was in the stupid state of mind you mention, she probably didn't perceive it. Osmond returned. It was precisely my devilry that stupidly. I couldn't help it. I was full of something bad. Perhaps it was something good. I don't know. You've not only dried up my tears. You've dried up my soul. It's not I then that am responsible for my wife's condition, Osmond said. It's pleasant to think that I shall get the benefit of your influence upon her. Don't you know the soul is an immortal principle? How can it suffer alteration?

Starting point is 20:16:56 I don't believe at all that it's an immortal principle. I believe it can perfectly be destroyed. That's what has happened to mine, which was a very good one to start with, and it's you I have to thank for it. You're very bad. She added, with gravity in her emphasis. Is this the way we're to end?

Starting point is 20:17:17 Osmond asked with the same studied coldness. I don't know how we're to end. I wish I did. How do bad people? end, especially as to their common crimes. You have made me as bad as yourself. I don't understand you. You seem to me quite good enough, said Osmond, his conscious indifference giving an extreme effect to the words. Madame Merle's self-possession tended on the contrary to diminish, and she was nearer losing it than on any occasion on which we have had the pleasure of meeting

Starting point is 20:17:50 her. The glow of her eye turned sombre. Her smile betrayed a painful effort. "'Good enough for anything that I've done with myself? I suppose that's what you mean?' "'Good enough to be always charming,' Osmond exclaimed, smiling too. "'Oh, God!' his companion murmured, and sitting there in her ripe freshness, she had recourse to the same gesture she had provoked on Isabel's part in the morning. She bent her face and covered it with her hands. "'Are you going to weep after all?' Osmond asked. and on her remaining motionless he went on.

Starting point is 20:18:29 Have I ever complained to you? She dropped her hands quickly. No, you've taken your revenge otherwise. You have taken it on her. Osmond threw his head back further. He looked a while at the ceiling and might have been supposed to be appealing in an informal way to the heavenly powers.

Starting point is 20:18:49 Oh, the imagination of women. It's always vulgar at bottom. You talk of revenge like a third-rate novel Of course you haven't complained. You've enjoyed your triumph too much. I'm rather curious to know what you call my triumph. You've made your wife afraid of you. Osmond changed his position. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, and looking a while at a beautiful old Persian rug at his feet. He had an air of refusing to accept anyone's valuation of anything, even of time, and of preferring to abide by his own, a peculiarity which made him at moments an

Starting point is 20:19:28 irritating person to converse with. Isabelle's not afraid of me, and it's not what I wish, he said at last. To what do you want to provoke me when you say such things as that? I've thought over all of the harm you can do me, Madame Merle answered. Your wife was afraid of me this morning, but in me it was really you, she feared. You may have said things that were in very bad taste. I'm not responsible for that. I didn't see the use of you're going to see her at all.

Starting point is 20:19:58 You're capable of acting without her. I've not made you afraid of me that I can see. He went on. How then should I have made her? You're at least as brave. I can't think where you've picked up such rubbish. One might suppose you knew me by this time. He got up as he spoke and walked to the chimney,

Starting point is 20:20:17 where he stood a moment bending his eye, as if he had seen them for the first time, on the delicate specimens of rare porcelain with which it was covered. He took up a small cup and held it in his hand. Then, still holding it and leaning his arm on the mantle, he pursued, you always see too much in everything. You overdo it. You lose sight of the real. I'm much simpler than you think. I think you're very simple. And Madame Merle kept her eye on the cup. I've come to that with time. I judged you, as I say, of old, but it's only since your marriage that I've understood you. I've seen better what you have been to your wife than I ever saw what you were for me. Please be very careful

Starting point is 20:21:00 of that precious object. It already has a wee bit of a tiny crack, said Asmond dryly as he put it down. If you didn't understand me before I married, it was cruelly rash of you to put me into such a box. However, I took a fancy to my box myself. I thought it would be a comfortable fit. I asked very little. I only ask that it should like me. That she should like you so much. So much, of course. In such a case, one asks the maximum. That she should adore me, if you will. Oh, yes, I wanted that. I never adored you, said Madame Merle. Ah, but you pretended to. It's true that you never accused me of being a comfortable fit.

Starting point is 20:21:47 Madame Merle went on. My wife has declined, declined to do anything of the sort, said Osmond. If you're determined to make a tragedy of that, the tragedies hardly for her. The tragedies for me, Madame Merle exclaimed, rising with a long, low sigh, but having a glance at the same time for the contents of her mantle shelf. It appears that I am to be severely taught the disadvantages of a false position. You express yourself like a sentence in a copy-book. We must look for our comfort where we can find it.

Starting point is 20:22:22 If my wife doesn't like me, at least my child does. I shall look for compensations in Pansy. Fortunately, I haven't a fault to find with her. Ah, she said softly, if I had a child. Osmond waited, and then with a little formal air, The children of others may be a great interest, he announced. You're more like a copy-book than I. There's something, after all, that holds us together.

Starting point is 20:22:53 Is it the idea of the harm I may do you? Osmond asked. No. It's the idea of the good I may do for you. It's that, Madame Merle pursued, that made me so jealous of Isabel. I want it to be my work, she added with her. face which had grown hard and bitter, relaxing to its habit of smoothness. Her friend took up his hat and his umbrella, and after giving the former article two or three

Starting point is 20:23:22 strokes with his coat cuff, on the whole, I think, he said, you had better leave it to me. After he had left her, she went the first thing, and lifted from the mantel shelf the attenuated coffee cup, in which she had mentioned the existence of a crack, but she looked at rather abstractedly. Have I been so vile all for nothing? She vaguely wailed. End of Chapter 49. Chapter 50 of the Portrait of a Lady by Henry James.

Starting point is 20:24:06 This Librivox recording is in the public domain. As the Countess Gemini was not acquainted with the ancient monuments, Isabel occasionally offered to introduce her to these interesting relics, and to give their afternoon drive an antiquarian aim. The Countess, who professed to think her sister-in-law a prodigy of learning, never made an objection, and gazed at masses of Roman brickwork as patiently as if they had been mounds of modern drapery. She had not the historic sense, though she had in some directions the anecdotic, and as regards herself the apologetic, but she was so delighted to be in Rome that

Starting point is 20:24:45 she only desired to float with the current. She would gladly have passed an hour every day in the damp darkness of the baths of Titus, if it had been a condition of her remaining at Palazzo-Rocanera. Isabelle, however, was not a severe Ciceroon. She used to visit the ruins chiefly because they offered an excuse for talking about other matters than the love affairs of the ladies of Florence, as to which her companion was never weary of offering information. It must be added that, during these visits, the Countess forbade herself every form of active research. Her preference was to sit in the carriage and exclaim that everything was most interesting. It was in this manner that she had hitherto examined the Coliseum, to the infinite regret of her niece,

Starting point is 20:25:29 who, with all the respect that she owed her, could not see why she should not descend from the vehicle and enter the building. Pansy had so little chance to ramble that her view of the case was not wholly disinterested. It may be divined that she had a secret hope that, once inside, her parents' guest might be induced to climb to the upper tiers. There came a day when the Count has announced her willingness to undertake this feat, a mild afternoon in March when the windy month expressed itself in occasional puffs of spring. The three ladies went into the Coliseum together,

Starting point is 20:26:03 but Isabel left her companions to wander over the place. She had often ascended to those desolate ledges from which the Roman crowd used to bellow applause, and where now the wild flowers, when they are allowed, bloom in the deep crevices, and today she felt weary and disposed to sit in the despoiled arena. It made an intermission, too, for the Countess often asked more from one's attention than she gave in return, and Isabel believed that when she was alone with her niece, she let the dust gather for a moment on the ancient scandals of the Arnide. She so remained below, therefore, while Pansy guided her undiscriminating aunt to the steep brick staircase at the foot of which the custodian unlocks the tall wooden gate. The great enclosure was half in shadow. The western sun brought out the pale red tone of the

Starting point is 20:26:52 great blocks of Travertine, the latent color that is the only living element in the immense ruin. Here and there wandered a peasant or a tourist, looking up at the far skyline, where, in the clear stillness, a multitude of swallows kept circling and plunging. Isabel presently became aware that one of the other visitors, planted in the middle of the arena, had turned his attention to her own person, and was looking at her with a certain little poise of the head, which she had some weeks before perceived to be characteristic of baffled but indestructible purpose. Such an attitude today could only belong to Mr. Edward Rosier, and this gentleman proved, in fact, to have been considering the question of speaking to her. When he had assured himself that she was

Starting point is 20:27:36 unaccompanied, he drew near, remarking that though she would not answer his letters, she would perhaps not wholly close her ears to his spoken eloquence. She replied that her stepdaughter was close at hand, and that she could only give him five minutes, whereupon he took out his watch and sat down upon a broken block. It's very soon told, said Edward Rosier. I've sold all my bibelow. Isabel gave instinctively an exclamation of horror.

Starting point is 20:28:05 It was as if he had told her he had all his teeth drawn. I've sold them by auction athes. the Hotel D'Rueau. He went on. The sale took place three days ago, and they've telegraphed me the result. It's magnificent. I'm glad to hear it, but I wish you had kept your pretty things. I have the money instead. $50,000. Will Mr. Osmond think me rich enough now? Is it for that you did it? Isabel asked gently. For what else in the world could it be? That's the only thing I think of. I went to Paris and made my arrangements. I couldn't stop for the sale.

Starting point is 20:28:42 I couldn't have seen them going off. I think it would have killed me. But I put them into good hands, and they brought high prices. I should tell you I have kept my enamels. Now I have the money in my pocket, and he can't say I'm poor. The young man exclaimed defiantly. He'll say now that you're not wise, said Isabel, as if Gilbert Osmond had never said this before.

Starting point is 20:29:06 Rosier gave her a sharp look. Do you mean that without my bibelows I'm not? nothing? Do you mean that they were the best thing about me? That's what they told me in Paris. Oh, they were very frank about it. But they hadn't seen her. My dear friend, you deserve to succeed, said Isabel very kindly. You say that so sadly that it's the same as if you said I shouldn't. And he questioned her eyes with the clear trepidation of his own. He had the air of a man who knows he has been the talk of Paris for a week and his full half a head taller in consequence. but who also has a painful suspicion that in spite of this increase of stature,

Starting point is 20:29:45 one or two persons still have the perversity to think him diminutive. I know what happened here while I was away, he went on. What does Mr. Osmond expect after she has refused Lord Warburton? Isabelette. That shall marry another nobleman. What other nobleman? One that he'll pick out? Rosier slowly got up, putting his watch and his watch

Starting point is 20:30:10 to his waistcoat pocket. You're laughing at someone, but this time I don't think it's at me. I didn't mean to laugh, said Isabel. I laugh very seldom. Now you had better go away. I feel very safe, Rosier declared without moving. This might be, but it evidently made him feel more so to make the announcement in rather a loud voice, balancing himself a little complacently on his toes, and looking all round

Starting point is 20:30:38 the Coliseum, as if it were filled with an audience. Suddenly, Isabel saw him change color. There was more of an audience than he had suspected. She turned and perceived that her two companions had returned from their excursion. "'You must really go away,' she said quickly. "'Ah, my dear lady, pity me!' Edward Rosier murmured in a voice strangely at variance with the announcement I have just quoted. And then he added eagerly, like a man who in the midst of his misery is seized by a happy thought, "'Is that lady the Countess Gemini? I've a great desire to be presented to her.' Isabel looked at him a moment. She has no influence with her brother. Ah, what a monster you make him out! And Rosier faced the Countess, who advanced in front of Pansy with an animation partly

Starting point is 20:31:28 do, perhaps, to the fact that she perceived her sister-in-law to be engaged in a conversation with a very pretty young man. "'I'm glad you've kept your enamels,' Isabel called as she left him. She went straight to Pansy, who, on seeing Edward Rosier, had stopped short, with lowered eyes. "'We'll go back to the carriage,' she said gently. "'Yes, it's getting late,' Pansy returned more gently still, and she went on without a murmur, without faltering or glancing back. Isabel, however, allowing herself this last liberty,

Starting point is 20:32:04 saw that a meeting had immediately taken place between the countess and Mr. Rosier. He had removed his hat and was bowing and smiling. He had evidently introduced himself, while the countess's expressive back displayed to Isabel's eye a gracious inclination. These facts, nonetheless, were presently lost to sight, for Isabel and Pansy took their places again in the carriage. Pansy, who faced her stepmother, at first kept her eyes fixed on her lap. Then she raised them and rested them on Isabelle's.

Starting point is 20:32:35 They're shown out of each of them a little melancholy ray, a spark of timid passion which touched Isabel to the heart. At the same time a wave of envy passed over her soul, as she compared the tremulous longing, the definite ideal of the child with her own dry despair. Poor little Pansy, she affectionately said. "'Oh, never mind,' Pansy answered in the tone of eager apology. And then there was a silence. The Countess was a long time coming.

Starting point is 20:33:06 "'Did you show your aunt everything? And did she enjoy it?' Isabel asked at last. "'Yes, I showed her everything. I think she was very much pleased. And you're not tired, I hope. Oh, no, thank you. I'm not tired.' The Countess still remained behind, so that Isabel requested the footman to go into the Coliseum and tell her they were waiting. He presently returned with the announcement that the Signora Contessa begged them not to wait. She would come home in a cab. About a week after this lady's quick sympathies had enlisted themselves with Mr. Rosier,

Starting point is 20:33:41 Isabel, going rather late to dress for dinner, found Pansy sitting in her room. The girl seemed to have been awaiting her. She got up from her low chair. "'Pardon my taking the liberty,' she said in a small voice. it will be the last for some time. Her voice was strange, and her eyes widely opened, had an excited, frightened look. You're not going away, Isabel exclaimed. I'm going to the convent. To the convent?

Starting point is 20:34:13 Pansy drew nearer, till she was near enough to put her arms round Isabel and rest her head on her shoulder. She stood this way a moment perfectly still, but her companion could feel her tremble. The quiver of her little body expressed everything she was unable to say. Isabel nevertheless pressed her. Why are you going to the convent? Because Papa thinks it best. He says a young girl's better every now and then

Starting point is 20:34:38 for making a little retreat. He says the world, always the world, is very bad for a young girl. This is just a chance for a little seclusion, a little reflection. Pansy spoke in short, detached sentence as if she could scarce trust herself, and then she added with a triumph of self-control. I think Papa's right. I've been so much in the world this winter. Her announcement had a strange effect on Isabel. It seemed to carry a larger meaning than the girl herself knew.

Starting point is 20:35:11 When was this decided? she asked. I've heard nothing of it. Papa told me half an hour ago. He thought it better it shouldn't be talked too much about in advance. Madame Catherine's to come from me at a quarter past seven, and I'm only to take two frocks. It's only for a few weeks. I'm sure it will be very good. I shall find all those ladies who used to be so kind to me, and I shall see the little girls who are being educated. I'm very fond of little girls, said Pansy with an effect of diminutive grandeur. And I'm also very fond of Mother Catherine. I shall be very quiet and think a great deal. Isabel listened to her, holding her She was almost awestruck.

Starting point is 20:35:54 Think of me sometimes. Oh, come and see me soon, cried Pansy. And the cry was very different from the heroic remarks of which she had just delivered herself. Isabel could say nothing more. She understood nothing. She only felt how little she yet knew her husband. Her answer to his daughter was a long, tender kiss. Half an hour later she learned from her maid that Madame Kempark

Starting point is 20:36:21 Catherine had arrived in a cab and had departed again with the signorina. On going to the drawing-room before dinner, she found the Countess Gemini alone, and this lady characterized the incident by exclaiming, with a wonderful toss of the head, Envoila, ma cher, an pose. But if it was an affectation, she was at a loss to see what her husband affected. She could only dimly perceive that he had more traditions than she supposed. It had become her habit to be so careful as to what she said. said to him, that strange as it may appear, she hesitated, for several minutes after he had come in,

Starting point is 20:36:57 to allude to his daughter's sudden departure. She spoke of it only after they were seated at table. But she had forbidden herself ever to ask Osmond a question. All she could do was to make a declaration, and there was one that came very naturally. I shall miss Pansy very much. He looked a while, with his head inclined a little, at the basket of flowers in the middle of the table. "'Ah, yes,' he said at last. "'I had thought of that. "'You must go and see her, you know, but not too often. "'I dare say you wonder why I sent her to the good sisters,

Starting point is 20:37:32 "'but I doubt if I can make you understand. "'It doesn't matter. Don't trouble yourself about it. "'That's why I had not spoken of it. "'I didn't believe you would enter into it. "'But I've always had the idea. "'I've always thought it a part of the education of one's daughter. "'One's daughter should be fresh and fair. she should be innocent and gentle.

Starting point is 20:37:53 With the manners of the present time she is liable to become so dusty and crumpled. Pansy's a little dusty, a little disheveled. She has knocked about too much. This bustling, pushing rabble that calls itself society, one should take her out of it occasionally. Convents are very quiet, very convenient, very salutary. I like to think of her there, in the old garden, under the arcade, among those tranquil, virtuous women.

Starting point is 20:38:22 Many of them are gentle women born. Several of them are noble. She will have her books and her drawing. She will have her piano. I've made the most liberal arrangements. There is to be nothing ascetic. There's to be just a certain little sense of sequestration. She'll have time to think, and there's something I want her to think about.

Starting point is 20:38:41 Osmond spoke deliberately, reasonably, still with his head on one side, as if he were looking at the basket of flowers. His tone, however, was that of a man not so much offering an explanation as putting a thing into words, almost into pictures, to see himself how it would look. He considered a while the picture he had evoked and seemed greatly pleased with it, and then he went on. The Catholics are very wise, after all. The convent is a great institution. We can't do without it. It corresponds to an essential need in families, in society. It's a school of good manners. It's a school of repose. Oh, I don't want to detach my daughter from the world,' he added. I don't want to make her fix her thoughts on any other.

Starting point is 20:39:25 This one's very well, as she should take it, and she may think of it as much as she likes, only she must think of it in the right way. Isabel gave an extreme attention to this little sketch. She found it indeed intensely interesting. It seemed to show her how far her husband's desire to be effective was capable of going, to the point of playing theoretic tricks on the delicate organism of his daughter. She could not understand his purpose. No, not wholly. But she understood it better than he supposed or desired, inasmuch as she was convinced that the whole proceeding was an elaborate

Starting point is 20:40:02 mystification, addressed to herself, and designed to act upon her imagination. He had wanted to do something sudden and arbitrary, something unexpected and refined, to mark the difference between his sympathies and her own, and show that if he regarded his daughter as a precious work of art, it was natural he should be more and more careful about the finishing touches. If he wished to be effective, he had succeeded. The incident struck a chill into Isabel's heart. Pansy had known the convent in her childhood, and had found a happy home there. She was fond of the good sisters, who were very fond of her, and there was therefore, for the moment, no definite hardship in her lot. But all the same the girl had taken fright.

Starting point is 20:40:47 The impression her father desired to make would evidently be sharp enough. The old Protestant tradition had never faded from Isabel's imagination, and as her thoughts attached themselves to this striking example of her husband's genius, she sat looking like him at the basket of flowers. Poor little pansy became the heroine of a tragedy. Osmond wished it to be known that he shrank from nothing, and his wife found it hard to pretend to eat her dinner. There is a certain relief presently in hearing the high, strained voice of her sister-in-law.

Starting point is 20:41:20 The Countess, too, apparently, had been thinking the thing out, but had arrived at a different conclusion from Isabelle. "'It's very absurd, my dear Osmond,' she said, to invent so many pretty reasons for poor Pansy's banishment. Why don't you say at once that you want to get her out of my way? Haven't you discovered that I think very well of Mr. Rosier? I do indeed. He seems to me sympathisismo. He has made me believe in true love. I never did before. Of course you've made up your mind that with those convictions I'm dreadful company for Pansy. Osmond took a sip of a glass of wine. He looked perfectly good-humored.

Starting point is 20:41:57 My dear Amy, he answered, smiling as if he were uttering a piece of gallantry. I don't know anything about your convictions, but if I suspected that they interfered with mine, it would be much simpler to banish you. End of Chapter 50 Chapter 51 of the Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. The Countess was not banished, but she felt the insecurity of her tenure of her brother's hospitality. A week after this incident, Isabel received a telegram from England, dated from Garden Court, and bearing the stamp of Mrs. Touchett's authorship.

Starting point is 20:42:42 Ralph cannot last many days. It ran, and if convenient would like to see you. Wishes me to say that you must come only if you've not other duties. Say, for myself, that you used to talk a good deal about your duty and to wonder what it was. Shall be curious to see whether you've found it out. Ralph is really dying, and there's no other company. Isabelle was prepared for this news, having received from Henrietta Stackpole a detailed account of her journey to England with her appreciative patient. Ralph had arrived more dead than alive, but she had managed to convey him to Garden Court, where he had taken to his bed, which, as Miss Stackpole wrote, he evidently would never leave again. She added that she had really had two patients on her hands instead of one, inasmuch as Mr. Goodwood, who had been of no earthly use, was quite as ailing, in a different way, as Mr. Touchett. Afterwards she wrote that she had been obliged to surrender the field to Mrs. Touchett, who had just returned from America, and had promptly given her to understand that she didn't wish any interviewing at Garden Court.

Starting point is 20:43:50 Isabel had written to her aunt shortly after Ralph came to Rome, letting her know of his critical condition, and suggesting that she should lose no time in returning to Europe. Mrs. Touchett had telegraphed an acknowledgment of this admonition, and the only further news Isabel received from her was the second telegram I have just quoted. Isabel stood a moment looking at the latter missive. Then, thrusting it into her pocket, she went straight to the door of her husband's study. Here she again paused an instant, after which she opened the door and went in. Osmond was seated at the table near the window with a folio volume before him, propped against a pile of books. This volume was open at a page of

Starting point is 20:44:31 small-colored plates, and Isabel presently saw that he had been copying from it the drawing of an antique coin. A box of watercolors and fine brushes lay before him, and he had already transferred to a sheet of immaculate paper the delicate, finely tinted disc. His back was turned toward the door, but he recognized his wife without looking round. "'Excuse me for disturbing you,' she said. "'When I come to your room, I always knock.' he answered going on with his work i forgot i had something else to think of my cousin's dying ah i don't believe that said osmond looking at his drawing through a magnifying glass he was dying when we married he'll outlive us all Isabel gave herself no time, no thought, to appreciate the careful cynicism of this declaration. She simply went on quickly, full of her own intention.

Starting point is 20:45:31 My aunt has telegraphed for me. I must go to Garden Court. Why must you go to Garden Court? Osmond asked, in the tone of impartial curiosity. To see Ralph before he dies. To this for some time he made no rejoinder. He continued to give his chief attention to his work, which was of a sort that would brook no negligence. I don't see the need of it, he said at last.

Starting point is 20:45:57 He came to see you here. I didn't like that. I thought his being in Rome a great mistake. But I tolerated it because it was to be the last time you should see him. Now you tell me it's not to have been the last. Ha, you're not grateful. What am I to be grateful for? Gilbert Osmond laid down his little implements,

Starting point is 20:46:18 blew a speck of dust from his drawing, slowly got up, and for the first time looked at his wife, for my not having interfered while he was here. Oh, yes, I am. I remember perfectly how distinctly you let me know you didn't like it. I was very glad when he went away. Leave him alone then. Don't run after him. Isabel turned her eyes away from him. They rested upon his little drawing. I must go to England. She said, with a full consciousness that her tone might strike an irritable man of taste as stupidly obstinate.

Starting point is 20:46:55 I shall not like it if you do, Osmond remarked. Why should I mind that? You won't like it if I don't. You like nothing I do or don't do. You pretend to think I lie. Osmond turned slightly pale. He gave a cold smile. That's why you must go then. Not to see your cousin, but to take a revenge on me. I know nothing about revenge. I do, said Osmond. Don't give me an occasion. You're only too eager to take one. You wish immensely that I would commit some folly. I should be gratified in that case if you disobeyed me. If I disobeyed you, said Isabel, in a low tone which

Starting point is 20:47:40 had the effect of mildness. Let it be clear. If you leave Rome today, it'll be a piece of the most deliberate, the most calculated opposition. How can you call it calculated? I received my aunt's telegram but three minutes ago. You calculate rapidly. It's a great accomplishment. I don't see why we should prolong

Starting point is 20:48:01 our discussion. You know my wish. And he stood there, as if he expected to see her withdraw. But she never moved. She couldn't move, strange as it may seem. She still wished to justify herself. He had the power in an extraordinary degree. of making her feel this need. There was something in her imagination he could always appeal to against her judgment. You've no reason for such a wish, said Isabel, and I've every reason for going.

Starting point is 20:48:30 I can't tell you how unjust you seem to me. But I think you know. It's your own opposition that's calculated. It's malignant. She had never uttered her worst thought to her husband before, and the sensation of hearing it was evidently new to Osmond. But he showed no surprise, and his coolness was apparently a proof that he had believed his wife would in fact be unable to resist forever his ingenious endeavor to draw her out. It's all the more intense then, he answered. And he added almost as if he were giving her a friendly counsel. This is a very important matter.

Starting point is 20:49:10 She recognized that. She was fully conscious of the weight of the occasion. She knew that between them they had arrived at a crisis. Its gravity made her careful. She said nothing, and he went on. You say I have no reason. I have the very best. I dislike, from the bottom of my soul, what you intend to do.

Starting point is 20:49:31 It's dishonorable. It's indelicate. It's indecent. Your cousin is nothing whatever to me, and I'm under no obligation to make concessions to him. I've already made the very handsomest. Your relations with him while he was here kept me on pins and needles. But I let that pass, because from week to week I expected him to go.

Starting point is 20:49:52 I've never liked him, and he has never liked me. That's why you like him, because he hates me, said Asmond, with a quick, barely audible tremor in his voice. I have an ideal of what my wife should do and should not do. She should not travel across Europe alone, in defiance of my deepest desire, to sit at the bedside of other men. Your cousin's nothing to you. He's nothing to us. You smile most expressively when I talk about us, but I assure you that we, we, Mrs. Osmond, is all I know. I take our marriage seriously. You appear to have found a way of not doing so. I'm not aware that we're divorced or separated, for me we're indissolubly united. You are nearer to me than any human creature, and I'm nearer to you.

Starting point is 20:50:39 It may be a disagreeable proximity. It's one at any rate of our own deliberate making. You don't like to be reminded of that, I know, but I'm perfectly willing because—because—' And he paused a moment, looking as if he had something to say which would be very much to the point. Because I think we should accept the consequences of our actions, and what I value most in life is the honour of a thing. He spoke gravely and almost gently.

Starting point is 20:51:08 the accent of sarcasm had dropped out of his tone. It had a gravity which checked his wife's quick emotion. The resolution with which she had entered the room found itself caught in a mesh of fine threads. His last words were not a command. They constituted a kind of appeal, and though she felt that any expression of respect on his part could only be a refinement of egotism, they represented something transcendent and absolute, like the sign of the cross or the flag of one's country.

Starting point is 20:51:38 He spoke in the name of something sacred and precious, the observance of a magnificent form. They were as perfectly apart in feeling as two disillusioned lovers had ever been, but they had never yet separated in act. Isabel had not changed. Her old passion for justice still abode within her. And now, in the very thick of her sense of her husband's blasphemous sophistry, it began to throb to a tune, which for a moment promised him the victory. It came over her that in his wish to preserve appearances, he was, after all, sincere,

Starting point is 20:52:14 and that this, as far as it went, was a merit. Ten minutes before she had felt all the joy of irreflective action, a joy to which she had so long been a stranger. But action had been suddenly changed to slow renunciation, transformed by the blight of Osmond's touch. If she must renounce, however, she would let him know that she was a victim, rather than a dupe. know you're a master of the art of mockery, she said. How can you speak of an indissoluble union? How can you speak of your being contented? Where's our union when you accuse me of falsity?

Starting point is 20:52:51 Where is your contentment when you have nothing but hideous suspicion in your heart? It is in our living decently together, in spite of such drawbacks. We don't live decently together, cried Isabel. Indeed, we don't, if you go to England. "'That's very little. That's nothing. I might do much more.' He raised his eyebrows and even his shoulders a little. He had lived long enough in Italy to catch this trick. "'Hah, if you've come to threaten me, I prefer my drawing.' And he walked back to his table, where he took up the sheet of paper on which he'd been working and stood studying it. "'I suppose that if I go you'll not expect me to come back,' said Isabel.

Starting point is 20:53:36 He turned quickly round, and she could see. this movement at least was not designed. He looked at her a little, and then, Are you out of your mind? He inquired. How can it be anything but a rupture? She went on, especially if all you say is true. She was unable to see how it could be anything but a rupture. She sincerely wished to know what else it might be. He sat down before his table. I really can't argue with you on the hypothesis of your defying me, he said. And he took up one of his little brushes again. She lingered but a moment longer, long enough to embrace with her eye his whole deliberately indifferent yet most expressive figure, after which she quickly left the room.

Starting point is 20:54:20 Her faculties, her energy, her passion were all dispersed again. She felt as if a cold, dark mist had suddenly encompassed her. Osmond possessed in a supreme degree the art of eliciting any weakness. On her way back to her room she found the Countess Gemini standing in the open doorway of a little parlor, in which a small collection of heterogeneous books had been arranged. The Countess had an open volume in her hand. She appeared to have been glancing down a page which failed to strike her as interesting. At the sound of Isabel's step, she raised her head. "'Ah, my dear,' she said, "'you, who were so literary, do tell me some amusing book to read. Everything hears of a dreariness. Do you think this would do me any good?'

Starting point is 20:55:03 Isabel glanced at the title of the volume she held out, but without reading or understanding it. I'm afraid I can't advise you. I've had bad news. My cousin, Ralph Touchett, is dying. The Countess threw down her book. Oh, he was so sympathetico. I'm awfully sorry for you. You would be sorry or still if you knew. What is there to know? You look very badly, the Countess added. You must have been with Osmond. Half an hour before, Isabel would have listened very coldly to an intimation that she should ever feel a desire for the sympathy of her sister-in-law, and there could be no better proof of her present embarrassment than the fact that she almost clutched at this lady's fluttering attention.

Starting point is 20:55:46 "'I've been with Asmund,' she said, while the Countess's bright eyes glittered at her. "'I'm sure, then, he has been odious,' the Countess cried. "'Did he say he was glad, poor Mr. Touchett's dying?' He said it's impossible I should go to England. The Countess's mind, when her interests were concerned, was agile. She already foresaw the extinction of any further brightness in her visit to Rome. Ralph Touchett would die, Isabel would go into mourning, and then there would be no more dinner parties. Such a prospect produced for a moment in her countenance and expressive grimace,

Starting point is 20:56:22 but this rapid, picturesque play of feature was her only tribute to disappointment. After all, she reflected, the game was almost played out. She had already overstayed her invitation. And then she cared enough for Isabel's trouble to forget her own, and she saw that Isabel's trouble was deep. It seemed deeper than the mere death of a cousin, and the Countess had no hesitation in connecting her exasperating brother with the expression of her sister-in-law's eyes.

Starting point is 20:56:49 Her heart beat with an almost joyous expectation, for if she had wished to see Osmond overtopped, the conditions looked favorable now. Of course, if Isabel should go to England, She herself would immediately leave Palazzo Rocanera. Nothing would induce her to remain there with Osmond. Nevertheless, she felt an immense desire to hear that Isabel would go to England. Nothing's impossible for you, my dear, she said caressingly.

Starting point is 20:57:14 Why else are you rich and clever and good? Why indeed? I feel stupidly weak. Why does Osmond say it's impossible? The Countess asked, in a tone which sufficiently declared that she couldn't imagine. From the moment she thus began to question her, however, Isabel drew back. She disengaged her hand, which the Countess had affectionately taken. But she answered this inquiry with frank bitterness, because we're so happy together that we can't separate even for a fortnight.

Starting point is 20:57:46 Ah, cried the Countess while Isabel turned away. When I want to make a journey, my husband simply tells me I can have no money. Isabel went to her room, where she walked up and down for an hour. It may appear to some readers that she gave herself much trouble, and it is certain that for a woman of high spirit she had allowed herself easily to be arrested. It seemed to her that only now she fully measured the great undertaking of matrimony. Marriage meant that in such a case as this, when one had to choose, one shows as a matter of course for one's husband. I'm afraid. Yes, I'm afraid, she said to herself more than once, stopping short in her walk. But what she was afraid of was not her husband, his displeasure, his hatred, his revenge.

Starting point is 20:58:35 It was not even her own later judgment of her conduct a consideration which had often held her in check. It was simply the violence there would be in going when Osmond wished her to remain. A gulf of difference had opened between them. But nevertheless it was his desire that she should stay. It was a horror to him that she should go. She knew the nervous fineness with which he could feel an objection. What he thought of her she knew, what he was capable of saying to her she had felt.

Starting point is 20:59:03 Yet they were married for all that, and marriage meant that a woman should cleave to the man with whom, uttering tremendous vows, she had stood at the altar. She sank down on her sofa at last, and buried her head in a pile of cushions. When she raised her head again, the Countess Gemini hovered before her. She had come in all unperceived. She had a strange smile on her thin lips, and her whole face had grown in an hour a shining intimation. She lived assuredly, it might be said, at the window of her spirit, but now she was leaning far out.

Starting point is 20:59:39 I knocked, she began, but you didn't answer me, so I ventured in. I've been looking at you for the past five minutes. You're very unhappy. Yes, but I don't think you can comfort me. Will you give me leave to try? And the Countess sat down on the sofa beside her. She continued to smile, and there was something communicative and exultant in her expression. She appeared to have a deal to say, and it occurred to Isabel for the first time that her sister-in-law might say something really human.

Starting point is 21:00:10 She made play with her glittering eyes, in which there was an unpleasant fascination. After all, she soon resumed, I must tell you to begin with that I don't understand your state of mind. You seem to have so many scruples, so many reasons, so many ties. When I discovered ten years ago that my husband's dearest wish was to make me miserable, of late he has simply let me alone, it was a wonderful simplification. My poor Isabel, you're not simple enough. No, I'm not simple enough, said Isabel. There's something I want you to know, the Countess declared,

Starting point is 21:00:47 because I think you ought to know it. Perhaps you do. Perhaps you've guessed it. But if you have, all I can say is that I understand still less why you shouldn't do as you like. What do you wish me to know? Isabel felt a foreboding that made her heartbeat faster. The Countess was about to justify herself, and this alone was portentous. But she was nevertheless disposed to play a little with her subject. In your place I should have guessed it ages ago. Have you never really suspected? I've guessed nothing. What should I have suspected? I don't know what you mean. That's because you've such a beastly pure mind. I never saw a woman with such a pure mind, cried the Countess.

Starting point is 21:01:32 Isabel slowly got up. You're going to tell me something horrible. You can call it by whatever name you will. And the Countess rose also, while her gathered perversity grew vivid and dreadful. She stood a moment in a sort of glare of intention, and, as it seemed to Isabel even then, of ugliness, after which she said, My first sister-in-law had no children. Isabel stared back at her. The announcement was an anti-climax. Your first sister-in-law? I suppose you know at least, if one may mention it, that Osmond has been married before. I've never spoken to you of his wife. I thought it mightn't be decent or respectful. But others, less particular, must have done so.

Starting point is 21:02:17 The poor little woman lived hardly three years and died childless. It wasn't until after her death that Pansy arrived. Isabelle's brow had contracted to a frown. Her lips were parted in pale, vague wonder. She was trying to follow. There seemed so much more to follow than she could see. Pansy's not my husband's child, then. Your husband's imperfection, but no one else's husbands.

Starting point is 21:02:42 someone else's wives. Oh, my good Isabel, cried the Countess. With you one must dot one's eyes. I don't understand. Whose wives? Isabel asked. The wife of a horrid little Swiss who died, how long? A dozen more than 15 years ago.

Starting point is 21:03:04 He never recognized Miss Pansy, nor, knowing what he was about, would have anything to say to her. And there was no reason why he should. Osmond did, and that was better, though he had to fit on afterwards the whole rigmarole of his own wives having died in childbirth, and if his having, in grief and horror, banished the little girl from his sight for as long as possible before taking her home from nurse. His wife had really died, you know, of quite another matter and in quite another place, in the Piedmontese Mountains where they had gone one August, because her health appeared to require the air, but where she was suddenly taken worse, fatally ill.

Starting point is 21:03:39 The story passed sufficiently. It was covered by the appearances so long as nobody he did, as nobody cared to look into it. But of course I knew, without researches. The Countess lucidly proceeded, As also you'll understand without a word said between us, I mean between Osmond and me. Don't you see him looking at me in silence that way to settle it? That is to settle me if I should say anything.

Starting point is 21:04:03 I said nothing right or left, never a word to a creature, if you can believe that of me. "'On my honour, my dear, I speak of the thing to you now after all this time, "'as I've never, never spoken. "'It was to be enough for me from the first that the child was my niece, "'from the moment she was my brother's daughter. "'As for her veritable mother!' "'But with this, Pansy's wonderful aunt dropped, "'as involuntarily, from the impression of her sister-in-law's face,

Starting point is 21:04:30 "'out of which more eyes might have seemed to look at her "'than she had ever had to meet. "'She had spoken no name, yet Isabel could, but check on her own lips, an echo of the unspoken. She sank to her seat again, hanging her head. "'Why have you told me this?' she asked in a voice the Countess hardly recognized. "'Because I've been so bored with your not knowing. I've been bored, frankly, my dear, with not having told you, as if stupidly all this time I couldn't have managed. Samet de Passe, if you don't mind my saying so, the things all round you that you've appeared

Starting point is 21:05:07 to succeed in not knowing. It's a sort of assistance, aid to innocent ignorance, that I've always been a bad hand at rendering. And in this connection, that of keeping quiet from my brother, my virtue had at any rate finally found itself exhausted. It's not a black lie, moreover, you know. The count is inimitably added. The facts are exactly what I tell you. I had no idea, said Isabel presently, and looked up at her in a manner that doubtless matched the apparent witlessness of the

Starting point is 21:05:39 confession. So I believed, though it was hard to believe, had it never occurred to you that he was six or seven years her lover? I don't know. Things have occurred to me, and perhaps that was what they all meant. She has been wonderfully clever. She has been magnificent about Pansy. The Countess, before all this view of it, cried. Oh, no idea for me, Isabel went on. Ever definitely took that. form. She appeared to be making out to herself what had been and what hadn't. And as it is, I don't understand. She spoke as one troubled and puzzled, yet the poor countess seemed to have seen her revelation fall below its possibilities of effect. She had expected to kindle some

Starting point is 21:06:28 responsive blaze, but had barely extracted a spark. Isabel showed as scarce more impressed than she might have been, as a young woman of approved imagination, with some fun. fine, sinister passage of public history. Don't you recognize how the child could never pass for her husbands? That is with Monsieur Merle himself. Her companion resumed. They had been separated too long for that, and he had gone to some far country. I think to South America.

Starting point is 21:06:57 If she had ever had children, which I'm not sure of, she had lost them. The conditions happened to make it workable, under stress, I mean at so awkward a pinch, that Osmond should acknowledge. the little girl. His wife was dead, very true, but she had not been dead too long to put a certain accommodation of dates out of the question. From the moment, I mean that suspicion wasn't started, which was what they had to take care of. What was more natural than that poor Mrs. Osmond, at a distance, and for a world not troubling about trifles, should have left behind her, Poverina, the pledge of her brief happiness that had cost her her life. With the aid of a change of

Starting point is 21:07:35 residence. Osmond had been living with her at Naples at the time of their stay in the Alps, and he in due course left it forever. The whole history was successfully set going. My poor sister-in-law in her grave couldn't help herself, and the real mother, to save her skin, renounced all visible property in the child. Oh, poor, poor woman! cried Isabel, who herewith burst into tears. It was a long time since she had shed any. She had suffered a high reaction from weeping. But now they flowed with an abundance in which the Countess Gemini found only another discomfiture. It's very kind of you to pity her, she discordantly laughed. Yes, indeed, you have a way of your own. He must have been false to his

Starting point is 21:08:21 wife, and so very soon, said Isabel with a sudden shack. That's all that's wanting, that you should take up her cause, the Countess went on. I quite agree with you, however, that it was much too soon. But to me, to me? And Isabel hesitated, as if she had not heard, as if her question, though it was sufficiently there in her eyes, were all for herself. To you he has been faithful? Well, it depends, my dear, on what you call faithful. When he married you, he was no longer the lover of another woman. Such a lover as he had been, Karamia, between their risks and their precautions while the thing lasted. That's the state of affairs had passed away. The lady had repented, or at all events, for reasons of her own,

Starting point is 21:09:08 drawn back. She had always had, to a worship of appearances so intense that even Osmond himself had got bored with it. You may therefore imagine what it was, when he couldn't patch it on conveniently to any of those he goes in for. But the whole past was between them. Yes, Isabel mechanically echoed, the whole past is between them. Oh, this later past is nothing, but for six or seven years, as I say, they had kept it up. She was silent a little. Why then did she want him to marry me? Oh, my dear, that's her superiority, because you had money, and because she believed you would be good to Pansy.

Starting point is 21:09:49 Poor woman. And Pansy who doesn't like her? cried Isabel. That's the reason she wanted someone whom Pansy would like. She knows it. She knows everything. Will she know that you've told me this? That will depend upon whether you tell her.

Starting point is 21:10:06 She's prepared for it. And do you know what she counts upon for her defence? On your believing that I lie. Perhaps you do. Don't make yourself uncomfortable to hide it. Only as it happens this time. I don't. I've told plenty of little idiotic fibs, but they never heard anyone but myself.

Starting point is 21:10:24 Isabel sat staring at her companion's story, as at a bale of fantastic wear some strolling gypsy might have unpacked on the carpet at her feet. Why did Osmond never marry her? She finally asked. Because she has no money. The Countess had an answer for everything, and if she lied, she lied well. No one knows.

Starting point is 21:10:46 No one has ever known what she lives on, or how she has got all these beautiful things. I don't believe Osmond himself knows. Besides, she wouldn't have married him. How can she have loved him then? She doesn't love him in that way. She did at first, and then I suppose she would have married him, but at that time her husband was living.

Starting point is 21:11:08 By the time Monsieur Merle had rejoined—I won't say his ancestors because he never had any, her relations with Osmond had changed, and she had grown more ambitious. Besides, she has never had about him—the countess went on, leaving Isabel to wince for it so tragically afterwards. She had never had what you might call any illusions of intelligence. She hoped she might marry a great man. That has always been her idea. She has waited and watched and plotted and prayed, but she has never succeeded.

Starting point is 21:11:39 I don't call Madame Merle a success, you know. I don't know what she may accomplish yet, but at present she has very little to show. The only tangible result she has ever achieved, except, of course, getting to know everyone and staying with them free of expense, has been her bringing you and Osmond together. Oh, she did that, my dear. needn't look as if you doubted it. I've watched them for years. I know everything, everything. I'm thought a great scatterbrain, but I've had enough application of mind to follow up those two. She hates me, and her way of showing it is to pretend to be forever defending me. When people say

Starting point is 21:12:17 I've had 15 lovers, she looks horrified, and declares that quite half of them were never proved. She has been afraid of me for years, and she has taken great comfort in the vile, false things people have said about me. She has been afraid I'd expose her, and she threatened me one day when Osmond began to pay his court to you. It was at his house in Florence. Do you remember the afternoon she brought you there and we had tea in the garden? She let me know then that if I should tell tales, two could play at that game. She pretends there's a good deal more to tell about me than about her. It would be an interesting comparison.

Starting point is 21:12:52 I don't care of fig what she may say, simply because I know you don't care of fig. You can't trouble your head about me less than you do already. So she may take her revenge as she chooses. I don't think she'll frighten you very much. Her great idea has been to be tremendously irreproachable, a kind of full-blown lily, the incarnation of propriety. She has always worshipped that God. There should be no scandal about Caesar's wife, you know.

Starting point is 21:13:18 And as I say, she has always hoped to marry Caesar. That was one reason she wouldn't marry Osmond, the fear that on seeing her with Pansy, people would put things together, would even see a resemblance. She has had a terror lest the mother should betray herself. She has been awfully careful. The mother has never done so. Yes. Yes, the mother has done so, said Isabel, who had listened to all this with a face more and more wan.

Starting point is 21:13:47 She betrayed herself to me the other day, though I didn't recognize her. There appeared to have been a chance of Pansy's making a great marriage. And in her disappointment at its not coming off, she almost dropped the mask. Ah, that's where she'd dish herself, cried the Countess. She has failed so dreadfully that she's determined her daughter shall make it up. Isabel started at the words, her daughter, which her guest threw off so familiarly. It seems very wonderful, she murmured, and in this bewildering impression she had almost lost her sense of being personally touched by the story. Now don't go and turn against the poor innocent child,' the countess went on.

Starting point is 21:14:30 She's very nice, in spite of her deplorable origin. I myself have liked Pansy, not naturally because she was hers, but because she'd become yours. Yes, she has become mine. And how the poor woman must have suffered at seeing me. Isabel exclaimed while she flushed at the thought. I don't believe she has suffered. On the contrary, she is enjoyed. Osmond's marriage has given his daughter a great little lift.

Starting point is 21:14:57 Before that, she lived in a hole. And do you know what the mother thought? That you might take such a fancy to the child that you'd do something for her. Osmond, of course, could never give her a portion. Osmond was really extremely poor. But of course, you know all about that. Oh, my dear, cried the Countess. Why did you ever inherit money?

Starting point is 21:15:19 She stopped a moment as if she saw something singular in Isabel's face. Don't tell me now that you'll give her a dough. You're capable of that, but I would refuse to believe it. Don't try to be too good. Be a little easy and natural and nasty. Feel a little wicked for the comfort of it once in your life. It's very strange. I suppose I ought to know, but I'm sorry, Isabel said.

Starting point is 21:15:44 I'm much obliged to you. Yes, you seem to be, cried the Countess with a mocking laugh. Perhaps you are. Perhaps you're not. You don't take it. as I should have thought. How should I take it? Isabel asked. Well, I should say as a woman who was being made use of. Isabel made no answer to this. She only listened, and the countess went on. They've always been bound to each other. They remained so even after she broke off, or he did. But he's

Starting point is 21:16:15 always been more for her than she has been for him. When their little carnival was over, they made a bargain that each should give the other complete liberty, but that each should also do everything possible to help the other on. You may ask me how I know such a thing as that. I know it by the way they've behaved. Now see how much better women are than men. She has found a wife for Osmond, but Osmond has never lifted a little finger for her.

Starting point is 21:16:41 She has worked for him, plotted for him, suffered for him. She is even more than once found money for him. And the end of it is that he's still. tired of her. She's an old habit. There are moments when he needs her, but on the whole he wouldn't miss her if she were removed. And what's more? Today, she knows it. And so you needn't be jealous. The Count is added humorously. Isabel rose from her sofa again. She felt bruised and scant of breath. Her head was humming with new knowledge. I'm much obliged to you, she repeated. And then she added abruptly, in quite a different tone.

Starting point is 21:17:22 How do you know all this? This inquiry appeared to ruffle the Countess more than Isabel's expression of gratitude pleased her. She gave her companion a bold stare, with which, Let us assume that I've invented it, she cried. She too, however, suddenly changed her tone, and laying her hand on Isabel's arm, said with the penetration of her sharp, bright smile, "'Now will you give up your journey?'

Starting point is 21:17:47 Isabel started a little. She turned away. But she felt weak, and in a moment had to lay her arm upon the mantel shelf for support. She stood a minute so, and then upon her arm she dropped her dizzy head, with closed eyes and pale lips. "'I've done wrong to speak. I've made you ill,' the Countess cried. "'Ah, I must see Ralph,' Isabel wailed. Not in resentment, not in the quick passion her companion had looked for, but in a tone of far-reaching, infinite sadness. End of Chapter 51 Chapter 52 of the Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Librevox recording is in the public domain.

Starting point is 21:18:47 There was a train for Turin and Paris that evening, and after the Countess had left her, Isabelle had a rapid and decisive conference with her maid, who was discreet, devoted, and active. After this she thought, except of her journey, of only one thing. She must go and see Pansy, from her she couldn't turn away. She had not seen her yet, as Osmond had given her to understand that it was too soon to begin. She drove at five o'clock to a high floor in a narrow street in the quarter of the Piazza Navona, and was admitted by the portress of the convent. a genial and obsequious person. Isabel had been at this institution before.

Starting point is 21:19:28 She had come with Pansy to see the sisters. She knew they were good women, and she saw that the large rooms were clean and cheerful, and that the well-used garden had sun for winter and shade for spring. But she disliked the place, which affronted and almost frightened her. Not for the world would she have spent a night there. It produced today more than before the impression of a well-appointed prison. for it was not possible to pretend Pansy was free to leave it. This innocent creature had been presented to her in a new and violent light,

Starting point is 21:20:00 but the secondary effect of the revelation was to make her reach out a hand. The portress left her to wait in the parlor of the convent while she went to make it known that there was a visitor for the dear young lady. The parlor was a vast, cold apartment, with new-looking furniture, a large, clean stove of white porcelain, unlighted, a collection of wax flowers under glass and a series of engravings from religious pictures on the walls. On the other occasion, Isabel had thought it less like Rome than like Philadelphia, but today she made no reflections. The apartment only seemed to her very empty and very soundless.

Starting point is 21:20:39 The portraitress returned at the end of some five minutes, ushering in another person. Isabel got up, expecting to see one of the ladies of the sisterhood. But to her extreme surprise, found herself confronted with Madame Merle. The effect was strange, for Madame Merle was already so present to her vision that her appearance in the flesh was like suddenly, and rather awfully, seeing a painted picture move. Isabel had been thinking all day of her falsity, her audacity, her ability, her probable suffering, and these dark things seemed to flash with a sudden light as she entered the room.

Starting point is 21:21:18 Her being there at all had the character of ugly, evidence, of hand-writings, of profaned relics, of grim things produced in court. It made Isabel feel faint. If it had been necessary to speak on the spot, she would have been quite unable. But no such necessity was distinct to her. It seemed to her indeed that she had absolutely nothing to say to Madame Merle. In one's relations with this lady, however, there were never any absolute necessities. She had a manner which carried off not only her own deficiencies, but those of other people. But she was different from usual. She came in slowly behind the portress, and Isabel instantly perceived that she was not likely to depend upon her habitual resources.

Starting point is 21:22:03 For her, too, the occasion was exceptional, and she had undertaken to treat it by the light of the moment. This gave her a peculiar gravity. She pretended not even to smile, and though Isabel saw that she was more than ever playing a part, it seemed to her that on the whole, the one Wonderful woman had never been so natural. She looked at her young friend from head to foot, but not harshly nor defiantly, with a cold gentleness, rather, and an absence of any air of allusion to their last meeting. It was as if she had wished to mark a distinction. She had been irritated then.

Starting point is 21:22:40 She was reconciled now. You can leave us alone, she said to the portress. In five minutes this lady will ring for you. And then she turned to Isabelle, who, after noting what has just been mentioned, had ceased to notice, and had let her eyes wander as far as the limits of the room would allow. She wished never to look at Madame Merle again. You're surprised to find me here, and I'm afraid you're not pleased. This lady went on. You don't see why I should have come. It's as if I had anticipated you. I confess I've been rather indiscreet. I ought to have asked your permission. There was none of the oblique movement of irony in this. It was said simply and mildly. But Isabel, far afloat on a sea of wonder and pain, could not have told herself with what intention it was uttered.

Starting point is 21:23:34 But I've not been sitting long, Madame Merle continued. That is, I've not been long with Pansy. I came to see her because it occurred to me this afternoon that she must be rather lonely, and perhaps even a little miserable. It may be good for a small girl. I know so little about small girls, I can't tell. At any rate, it's a little dismal. Therefore I came, on the chance.

Starting point is 21:23:59 I knew, of course, that you'd come, and her father as well. Still, I had not been told other visitors were forbidden. The good woman—what's her name? Madame Catherine, made no objection whatever. I stayed twenty minutes with Pansy. She has a charming little room, not the least conventional, with a piano and flowers. She's arranged it delightfully. She has so much taste. Of course it's all none of my business, but I feel happier since I've seen her. She may even

Starting point is 21:24:28 have a maid if she likes, but of course she has no occasion to dress. She wears a little black frock. She looks so charming. I went afterwards to see Mother Catherine, who has a very good room, too. I assure you I don't find the poor sisters at all monastic. Mother Catherine has a most cackettish little toilet table, with something that looked uncommonly like a bottle of Ode Cologne. She speaks delightfully of Pansy, says it's a great happiness for them to have her. She's a little saint of heaven and a model of the oldest of them. Just as I was leaving Madame Catherine, the portress came to say to her that there was a lady

Starting point is 21:25:03 for the signorina. Of course I knew it must be you, and I asked her to let me go and receive you in her place. She demurred greatly, I must tell you that, and said it was her duty to notify the mother Superior. It was of such high importance that you should be treated with respect. I requested to her to let the Mother Superior alone, and asked her how she supposed I would treat you. So Madame Merle went on, with much of the brilliancy of a woman who had long been mistress of the art of conversation. But there were phrases and gradations in her speech, not one of which was lost upon Isabelle's ear, though her eyes were absent from her companion's face. She had not proceeded far before Isabel noted a

Starting point is 21:25:44 break in her voice, elapse in her continuity, which was in itself a complete drama. This subtle modulation marked a momentous discovery, the perception of an entirely new attitude on the part of her listener. Madame Merle had guessed in the space of an instant that everything was at an end between them, and in the space of another instant she had guessed the reason why. The person who stood there was not the same one she had seen hitherto, but was a very different person, a person who knew her secret. This discovery was tremendous, and from the moment she made it, the most accomplished of women faltered and lost her courage. But only for a moment.

Starting point is 21:26:28 Then the conscious stream of her perfect manner gathered itself again and flowed on as smoothly as might be to the end. But it was only because she had the end in view that she was able to proceed. She had been touched with a point that made her quiver, and she needed all the alertness of her will to repress her agitation. Her only safety was in her not betraying herself. She resisted this, but the startled quality of her voice refused to improve. She couldn't help it, while she heard herself say she hardly knew what. The tide of her confidence ebbed, and she was able only just to glide into port, faintly grazing the bottom. Isabel saw it all as distinctly as if it had been reflected in a large, clear glass. It might have been a great moment for her, for it might

Starting point is 21:27:16 have been a moment of triumph. That Madame Merle had lost her pluck, and saw before her the phantom of exposure. This in itself was a revenge. This in itself was almost the promise of a brighter day. and for a moment during which she stood apparently looking out of the window, with her back half turned, Isabel enjoyed that knowledge. On the other side of the window lay the garden of the convent. But this is not what she saw. She saw nothing of the budding plants and the glowing afternoon. She saw, in the crude light of that revelation which had already become a part of experience, and to which the very frailty of the vessel in which it had been offered her, only gave an intrinsic price, the dry, staring fact that she had been an applied, handled, hung-up tool,

Starting point is 21:28:03 as senseless and convenient as mere shaped wood and iron. All the bitterness of this knowledge surged into her soul again. It was as if she felt on her lips the taste of dishonor. There was a moment during which, if she had turned and spoken, she would have said something that would hiss like a lash. But she closed her eyes, and then the hideous vision dropped. What remained was the cleverest woman in the world standing there within a few feet of her, and knowing as little what to think as the meanest.

Starting point is 21:28:36 Isabel's only revenge was to be silent still, to leave Madame Merle in this unprecedented situation. She left her there for a period that must have seemed long to this lady, who at last seated herself for the movement, which was in itself a confession of helplessness. Then Isabel turned slow eyes, looking down at her. Madame Merle was very pale, her own eyes covered Isabelle's face. She might see what she would, but her danger was over. Isabel would never accuse her, never reproach her, perhaps because she never would give her the opportunity to defend herself. I'm come to bid pansy goodbye, our young woman said at last.

Starting point is 21:29:19 I go to England tonight. Go to England tonight. Madame Merle repeated, sitting there and looking up at her. I'm going to Garden Court. Ralph Touchett's dying. Ah, you'll feel that. Madame Merle recovered herself. She had a chance to express sympathy.

Starting point is 21:29:40 Do you go alone? Yes, without my husband. Madame Merle gave a low, vague murmur, a sort of recognition of the general sadness of things. Mr. Touchett never liked me, but I'm sorry he's dying. Shall you see his mother? Yes, she is returned from America. She used to be very kind to me, but she has changed.

Starting point is 21:30:05 Others, too, have changed, said Madame Merle with a quiet, noble pathos. She paused a moment, then added, And you'll see dear old Garden Court again. I shall not enjoy it much, Isabel answered. Naturally, in your grief. But it's on the whole of all the houses I know, and I know many, the one I should have liked best to live in. I don't venture to send a message to the people, Madame Merle said,

Starting point is 21:30:37 but I should like to give my love to the place. Isabel turned away. I had better go to Pansy. I've not much time. While she looked about her for the proper egress, the door opened and admitted one of the ladies of the house, who advanced with a discreet smile, gently rubbing, under her long, loose sleeves, a pair of plump white hands. Isabel recognized Madame Catherine, whose acquaintance she had already made,

Starting point is 21:31:05 and begged that she would immediately let her see Miss Osmond. Madame Catherine looked doubly discreet, but smiled very blandly and said, It will be good for her to see you. I'll take you to her myself. Then she directed her pleased, guarded vision to Madame Merle. Will you let me remain a little? This lady asked. It's so good to be here. You may remain always if you like, and the good sister gave a knowing laugh.

Starting point is 21:31:33 She led Isabel out of the room, through several corridors, and up a long staircase. All these departments were solid and bare, light and clean. So, thought Isabel, are the great penal establishments. Madame Catherine gently pushed open the door of Pansy's room and ushered in the visitor, then stood smiling with folded hands, while the two other. met and embraced. She's glad to see you, she repeated. It will do her good.

Starting point is 21:32:03 And she placed the best chair carefully for Isabel, but she made no movement to seat herself. She seemed ready to retire. How does this dear child look? She asked of Isabel, lingering a moment. She looks pale, Isabel answered. That's the pleasure of seeing you. She's very happy.

Starting point is 21:32:23 Elle is clear la Maison, said the good sister. Pansy wore, as Madame Merle had said, a little black dress. It was perhaps this that made her look pale. "'They're very good to me. They think of everything,' she exclaimed with all her customary eagerness to accommodate. "'We think of you always. You're a precious charge.' Madame Catherine remarked in the tone of a woman with whom benevolence was a habit and whose conception of duty was the acceptance of every care. It fell with a leaden weight on Isabel's ears. It seemed to represent the surrender of a personality, the authority of the church. When Madame Catherine had left them together, Pansy kneeled down and hid her head in her stepmother's lap.

Starting point is 21:33:08 So she remained some moments, while Isabel gently stroked her hair. Then she got up, averting her face and looking about the room. Don't you think I've arranged it well? Of everything I have at home? It's very pretty. You are very comfortable. Isabelle scarcely knew what she could say to her. On the one hand, she couldn't let her think she had come to pity her, and on the other, it would be a dull mockery to pretend to rejoice with her. So she simply added after a moment, I've come to bid you goodbye. I'm going to England. Pansy's white little face turned red.

Starting point is 21:33:46 To England? Not to come back? I don't know when I shall come back. Oh, I'm sorry, Pansy breathed with faintness. She spoke as if she had no right to criticize, but her tone expressed a depth of disappointment. My cousin, Mr. Touchett, is very ill. He'll probably die. I wish to see him, Isabel said. Ah, yes, you told me he would die. Of course you must go. And will Papa go?

Starting point is 21:34:18 No. I shall go alone. For a moment the girl said nothing. Isabel had often wondered what she thought of the apparent relations of her father with his wife, but never by a glance, by an intimation, had she let it be seen that she deemed them deficient in an air of intimacy. She made her reflections, Isabel was sure, and she must have had a conviction that there were husbands and wives who were more intimate than that.

Starting point is 21:34:44 But Pansy was not indiscreet even in thought. She would as little have ventured to judge her gentle stepmother as to criticize her magnificent father. Her heart may have stood almost as still as it would have done had she seen two of the saints in the great picture in the convent chapel, turn their painted heads and shake them at each other. But, as in this latter case she would, for very solemnity's sake, never have mentioned the awful phenomenon, so she put away all knowledge of the secrets of larger lives than her own. "'You'll be very far away,' she presently went on. "'Yes, I shall be far away.

Starting point is 21:35:22 "'But it will scarcely matter,' Isabel explained. "'Since so long as you are here I can't be called near you. "'Yes, but you can come and see me, "'though you've not come very often.' "'I've not come because your father forbade it. "'Today I bring nothing with me. "'I can't amuse you.' "'I'm not to be amused.

Starting point is 21:35:43 "'That's not what Papa wishes.' Then it hardly matters whether I'm in Rome or in England. You're not happy, Mrs. Osmond, said Pansy. Not very, but it doesn't matter. That's what I say to myself. What does it matter? But I should like to come out. I wish indeed you might. Don't leave me here, Pansy went on gently.

Starting point is 21:36:11 Isabel said nothing for a minute. Her heart beat fast. "'Will you come away with me now?' she asked. Pansy looked at her pleadingly. "'Did Papa tell you to bring me?' "'No. It's my own proposal.' "'I think I had better wait then. Did Papa send me no message?' "'I don't think he knew I was coming.'

Starting point is 21:36:35 "'He thinks I've not had enough,' said Pansy. "'But I have. "'The ladies are very kind to me "'and the little girls come to see me. There are some very little ones, such charming children. Then my room, you can see for yourself. All that's very delightful. But I've had enough.

Starting point is 21:36:56 Papa wished me to think a little, and I've thought a great deal. What have you thought? Well, that I must never displease Papa. You knew that before. Yes, but I know it better. I'll do anything, I'll do anything, I'll do anything, said Pansy. Then, as she heard her own words, a deep, pure blush came into her face. Isabel read the meaning of it.

Starting point is 21:37:22 She saw the poor girl had been vanquished. It was well that Mr. Edward Rosier had kept his enamels. Isabel looked into her eyes and saw there mainly a prayer to be treated easily. She laid her hand on pansies, as if to let her know that her look conveyed no diminution of esteem. for the collapse of the girl's momentary resistance, mute and modest though it had been, seemed only her tribute to the truth of things. She didn't presume to judge others, but she had judged herself. She had seen the reality. She had no vocation for struggling with combinations. In the solemnity of sequestration, there was something that overwhelmed her. She bowed her

Starting point is 21:38:05 pretty head to authority, and only asked of authority to be merciful. Yes, it was very very very well that Edward Rosier had reserved a few articles. Isabel got up. Her time was rapidly shortening. Goodbye then. I leave Rome tonight. Pansy took hold of her dress. There was a sudden change in the child's face. You look strange. You frighten me. Oh, I'm very harmless, said Isabel. Perhaps you won't come back?

Starting point is 21:38:37 Perhaps not. I can't tell. Oh, Mrs. Osmond, you won't leave me. Isabel now saw that she had guessed everything. My dear child, what can I do for you? She added. I don't know, but I'm happier when I think of you. You can always think of me.

Starting point is 21:38:57 Not when you're so far. I'm a little afraid, said Pansy. What are you afraid of? Of Papa, a little. And of Madame Merle. She's just been to see me. You must have. not say that, Isabel observed.

Starting point is 21:39:14 Oh, I'll do everything they want. Only if you're here, I shall do it more easily. Isabel considered, I won't desert you, she said at last. Goodbye, my child. Then they held each other a moment in a silent embrace, like two sisters, and afterwards Pansy walked along the corridor with her visitor to the top of the staircase. Madame Merle has been here, she remarked as they went. And as Isabel answered nothing, she added abruptly,

Starting point is 21:39:44 "'I don't like Madame Merle.' Isabel hesitated, then stopped. "'You must never say that, that you don't like Madame Merle.' Pansy looked at her in wonder. But wonder with Pansy had never been a reason for noncompliance. "'I never will again,' she said with exquisite gentleness. At the top of the staircase they had to separate, as it appeared to be part of the mild but very definite discipline.

Starting point is 21:40:11 under which Pansy lived, that she should not go down. Isabelle descended, and when she reached the bottom, the girl was standing above. You'll come back? She called out in a voice that Isabel remembered afterwards. Yes, I'll come back. Madame Catherine met Mrs. Osmond below, and conducted her to the door of the parlour, outside of which the two stood talking a minute. I won't go in, said the good sister,

Starting point is 21:40:39 Madame Merle's waiting for you. At this announcement, Isabel stiffened. She was on the point of asking if there were no other egress from the convent, but a moment's reflection assured her that she would do well not to betray to the worthy nun her desire to avoid Pansy's other friend. Her companion grasped her arm very gently, and fixing her a moment with wise, benevolent eyes, said in French and almost familiarly, "'Eh bien, she madame, componse you?'

Starting point is 21:41:07 "'About my stepdaughter. Oh, it would take long to tell you. "'We think it's enough,' Madame Catherine distinctly observed, and she pushed open the door of the parlour. Madame Merle was sitting just as Isabel had left her, like a woman so absorbed and thought that she had not moved a little finger. As Madame Catherine closed the door, she got up, and Isabel saw that she had been thinking to some purpose. She had recovered her balance. She was in full possession of her. her resources. I found I wished to wait for you, she said urbanly, but it's not to talk about Pansy. Isabel wondered what it could be to talk about, and in spite of Madame Merle's declaration, she answered after a moment. Madame Catherine says it's enough. Yes, it also seems to me enough.

Starting point is 21:42:00 I wanted to ask you another word about poor Mr. Touchett. Madame Merle added, have you reason to believe that he's really at his last? I have no information but a telegram. Unfortunately, it only confirms a probability. I'm going to ask you a strange question, said Madame Merle. Are you very fond of your cousin? And she gave a smile as strange as her utterance. Yes, I'm very fond of him.

Starting point is 21:42:30 But I don't understand you. She just hung fire. It's rather hard to explain. Something has occurred to me, which may not have occurred to you, and I give you the benefit of my idea. Your cousin did you once, a great service. Have you never guessed it? He has done me many services.

Starting point is 21:42:51 Yes, but one was much above the rest. He made you a rich woman. He made me. Madame Merle appearing to see herself successful, she went on more triumphantly. He imparted to you that extra lustre which was required to make you a brilliant match. At bottom, it's him you've to thank. She stopped. There was something in Isabel's eyes.

Starting point is 21:43:17 I don't understand you. It was my uncle's money. Yes, it was your uncle's money, but it was your cousin's idea. He brought his father over to it. Ah, my dear, the sum was large. Isabel stood staring. She seemed today to live in a world illumined by lurid flashes. I don't know why you say such things.

Starting point is 21:43:42 I don't know what you know. I know nothing but what I've guessed, but I've guessed that. Isabel went to the door, and when she had opened it, stood a moment with her hand on the latch. Then she said it was her only revenge. I believed it was you I had to thank. Madame Merle dropped her eyes. She stood there in a kind of proud penance. You're very unhappy, I know.

Starting point is 21:44:13 But I'm more so. Yes, I can believe that. I think I should like never to see you again. Madame Merle raised her eyes. I shall go to America, she quietly remarked, while Isabel passed out. End of Chapter 52. Chapter 53

Starting point is 21:44:42 Of the Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Librivox recording is in the public domain. It was not with surprise. It was with a feeling which in other circumstances would have had much of the effect of joy, that as Isabel descended from the Paris male at Charing Cross, she stepped into the arms, as it were,

Starting point is 21:45:04 or at any rate into the hands, of Henriette Estabye. She had telegraphed to her friend from Turin, and though she had not definitely said to herself that Henrietta would meet her, she had felt her telegram would produce some helpful result. On her long journey from Rome, her mind had been given up to vagueness. She was unable to question the future. She performed this journey with sightless eyes, and took little pleasure in the countries she traversed, decked out, though they were in the richest freshness of spring. Her thoughts followed their course through other countries, strange-looking, dimly lighted, pathless lambs, in which there was no change of seasons, but only, as it seemed, a perpetual dreariness of winter. She had plenty to think about, but it was neither reflection nor conscious purpose that filled her mind. Discontented visions passed through it, and sudden dull gleams of memory, of expectation. The past and the future came and went at their will, but she saw them only in fitful images, which rose and fell by a logic of their own. It was extraordinary the thing she remembered. Now that she was in the secret,

Starting point is 21:46:17 now that she knew something that so much concerned her, and the eclipse of which had made life resemble an attempt to play whilst with an imperfect pack of cards, the truth of things, their mutual relations, their meaning, and for the most part their horror, rose before her with a kind of architectural vastness. She remembered a thousand trifles. They started to life with the spontaneity of a shiver. She had thought them trifles at the time. Now she saw that they had been weighted with lead. Yet even now they were trifles after all, for of what use was it to her to understand them? Nothing seemed of use to her today. All purpose, all intention was suspended. all desire, too, save the single desire to reach her much-embracing refuge.

Starting point is 21:47:05 Garden Court had been her starting point, and to those muffled chambers it was at least a temporary solution to return. She had gone forth in her strength. She would come back in her weakness, and if the place had been a rest to her before, it would be a sanctuary now. She envied Ralph his dying, for if one were thinking of rest, that was the most perfect of all. To cease utterly, to give it all up and not know anything more. This idea was as sweet as the vision of a cool bath in a marble tank in a darkened chamber, in a hot land. She had moments indeed in her journey from Rome, which were almost as good as being dead.

Starting point is 21:47:47 She sat in her corner, so motionless, so passive, simply with the sense of being carried, so detached from hope and regret, that she recalled to herself one of those Etruscan figures couched upon the receptacle of their ashes. There was nothing to regret now. That was all over. Not only the time of her folly, but the time of her repentance was far. The only thing to regret was that Madame Merle had been so, well, so unimaginable. Just here her intelligence dropped, from literal inability to say what it was that Madame Merle had been. Whatever it was, it was for Madame Merle herself to regret it, and doubtless she would do so in America.

Starting point is 21:48:29 where she had announced she was going. It concerned Isabelle no more. She only had an impression that she should never again see Madame Merle. This impression carried her into the future, of which from time to time she had a mutilated glimpse. She saw herself in the distant years, still in the attitude of a woman who had her life to live, and these intimations contradicted the spirit of the present hour. It might be desirable to get quite a way, really a way,

Starting point is 21:48:59 further away than little grey-green England, but this privilege was evidently to be denied her. Deep in her soul, deeper than any appetite for renunciation, was the sense that life would be her business for a long time to come. And at moments there was something inspiring, almost enlivening in the conviction. It was a proof of strength, it was a proof she should someday be happy again. It couldn't be she was to live only to suffer. She was still young, after all, and a great many things might happen to her yet. To live only to suffer, only to feel the injury of life repeated and enlarged. It seemed to her she was too valuable, too capable for that.

Starting point is 21:49:45 Then she wondered if it were vain and stupid to think so well of herself. When had it even been a guarantee to be valuable? Wasn't all history full of the destruction of precious things? Wasn't it much more probable that if one were fine, would suffer? It involved then perhaps an admission that one had a certain grossness, but Isabel recognized, as it passed before her eyes, the quick, vague shadow of a long future. She should never escape. She should last to the end. Then the middle years wrapped about her again, and the gray curtain of her indifference closed her in. Henrietta kissed her, as Henrietta

Starting point is 21:50:25 usually kissed, as if she were afraid she should be caught doing it. And then Isabel stood there in the crowd, looking about her, looking for her servant. She asked nothing. She wished to wait. She had a sudden perception that she should be helped. She rejoiced Henrietta had come. There was something terrible in an arrival in London. The dusky, smoky, far-arching vault of the station, the strange, livid light, the dense, dark, pushing crowd, filled her with a nervous fear, and made her put her arm into her friends. She remembered she had once liked these things. They seemed part of a mighty spectacle in which there was something that touched her. She remembered as she walked away from Houston, in the winter dusk, in the crowded streets,

Starting point is 21:51:10 five years before. She could not have done that today, and the incident came before her as the deed of another person. "'It's too beautiful that you should have come,' said Henrietta, looking at her as if she thought Isabel might be prepared to challenge the proposition. If you hadn't, if you hadn't, well, I don't know, remarked Miss Stackpole, hinting ominously at her powers of disapproval. Isabel looked about without seeing her maid. Her eyes rested on another figure, however, which she felt she had seen before, and in a moment she recognized the genial countenance of Mr. Bantling.

Starting point is 21:51:48 He stood a little apart, and it was not in the power of the multitude that pressed about him, to make him yield an inch of the ground he had taken, that of abstracting himself discreetly, while the two ladies performed their embraces. "'There's Mr. Bantling,' said Isabel gently, irrelevantly, scarcely caring much now whether she should find her maid or not. "'Oh, yes, he goes everywhere with me. Come here, Mr. Bantling,' Henrietta exclaimed.

Starting point is 21:52:14 Whereupon the gallant bachelor advanced with a smile, a smile tempered, however, by the gravity of the occasion. "'Isn't it lovely she has come?' Henrietta asked. He knows all about it, she added. We had quite a discussion. He said you wouldn't. I said you would. I thought you always agreed. Isabel smiled in return. She felt she could smile now. She had seen in an instant in Mr. Bantling's brave eyes that he had good news for her. They seemed to say he wished her to remember he was an old friend of her cousin, that he understood that it was all right. Isabel gave him her hand. She thought of him, extravagantly as a beautiful, blameless knight. Oh, I always agree, said Mr. Bantling. But she doesn't, you know. Didn't I tell you that a maid was a nuisance?

Starting point is 21:53:05 Henrietta inquired. Your young lady has probably remained at Calais. I don't care, said Isabel, looking at Mr. Bantling, whom she had never found so interesting. Stay with her while I go and see, Henrietta commanded, leaving the two for a moment together. They stood there at first in silence, and then Mr. Bantling asked Isabel how it had been on the channel. Very fine.

Starting point is 21:53:30 No, I believe it was very rough, she said to her companion's obvious surprise, after which she added, You've been to Garden Court, I know. Now how do you know that? I can't tell you, except that you look like a person who has been to Garden Court. Do you think I look awfully sad? It's awfully sad, though, you know. I don't believe you ever look awfully sad. You look awfully kind, said Isabel, with a breadth that cost her no effort.

Starting point is 21:54:01 It seemed to her she should never again feel a superficial embarrassment. Poor Mr. Bantling, however, was still in this inferior stage. He blushed a good deal and laughed. He assured her that he was often very blue, and that when he was blue, he was awfully fierce. You can ask Miss Stackpole, you know. I was at Garden Court too much. days ago. Did you see my cousin? Only for a little, but he had been seeing people. Warburton had been there the day before. Ralph was just the same as usual, except that he was in bed and that he

Starting point is 21:54:32 looks tremendously ill, and that he can't speak. Mr. Bantling pursued. He was awfully jolly and funny all the same. He was just as clever as ever. It's awfully wretched. Even in the crowded, noisy station, this simple picture was vivid. Was that late in the day? Yes, I went on purpose. We thought you'd like to know. I'm greatly obliged to you. Can I go down tonight? Ah, I don't think she'll let you go, said Mr. Bantling. She wants you to stop with her. I made Touchett's man promised to telegraph me today, and I found the telegram an hour ago at my club. Quite and easy, that's what it says, and it's dated two o'clock. So, you see, you can wait till tomorrow. You must be awfully tired.

Starting point is 21:55:20 Yes, I'm awfully tired, and I thank you again. Oh, said Mr. Bantling, we was certain you would like the last news. On which Isabel vaguely noticed that he and Henrietta seemed, after all, to agree. Miss Stackpole came back with Isabelle's maid, whom she had caught in the act of proving her utility. This excellent person, instead of losing herself in the crowd, had simply attended to her mistress's luggage, so that the latter was now at liberty to leave the station. You know you're not to think of going to the country tonight, Henrietta remarked to her, it doesn't matter whether there's a train or not. You're to come straight to me in Wimpole Street.

Starting point is 21:56:00 There isn't a corner to be had in London, but I've got you one all the same. It isn't a Roman palace, but it will do for a night. I'll do whatever you wish, Isabel said. You'll come and answer a few questions, that's what I wish. She doesn't say anything about dinner, does she, Mrs. Olsman? Mr. Bantling inquired jocosely. Henrietta fixed him a moment with her speculative gaze. I see you're in a great hurry to get your own. You'll be at the Paddington Station tomorrow at ten. Don't come for my sake, Mr. Bantling, said Isabel. He'll come for mine, Henrietta declared, as she ushered her friend into a cab. And later, in a large, dusky parlor and wimple, Street. To do her justice, there had been dinner enough. She asked those questions to which she had

Starting point is 21:56:48 alluded at the station. Did your husband make you a scene about your coming? That was Miss Stackpole's first inquiry. No, I can't say he made a scene. He didn't object then? Yes, he objected very much, but it was not what you'd call a scene. What was it then? It was a very quiet conversation. Henrietta for a moment regarded her guest. It must have been hellish, she then remarked. And Isabel didn't deny that it had been hellish. But she confined herself to answering Henrietta's questions, which was easy, as they were tolerably definite. For the present, she offered her no new information.

Starting point is 21:57:33 Well, said Miss Stackpole at last, I've only one criticism to make. I don't see why you promised little Miss Osmond to go back. I'm not sure I myself see now, Isabel replied, but I did then. If you've forgotten your reason, perhaps you won't return. Isabel waited a moment. Perhaps I shall find another. You'll certainly never find a good one. In a default of a better my having promised will do, Isabel suggested.

Starting point is 21:58:03 Yes, that's why I hate it. Don't speak of it now. I have a little time. Coming away was a complication, but what will going back be? You must remember, after all, that he won't make you a scene, said Henrietta with much intention. He will, though, Isabel answered gravely. It won't be the scene of a moment. It will be a scene of the rest of my life. For some minutes the two women sat and considered this remainder, and then Miss Stackpole, to change the subject, as Isabel

Starting point is 21:58:36 had requested, announced abruptly, I've been to stay with late. Lady Pencil. Ah, the invitation came at last. Yes, it took five years, but this time she wanted to see me. Naturally enough. It was more natural than I think you know, said Henrietta, who fixed her eyes on a distant point. And then she added, turning suddenly, Isabel Archer, I beg your pardon. You don't know why? Because I criticized you, and yet I've gone further than you. Mr. Osmond at least was born on the other side. It was a moment before Isabel grasped her meaning. This sense was so modestly, or at least so ingeniously, veiled. Isabel's mind was not possessed at present with the comicality of things, but she greeted with a

Starting point is 21:59:26 quick laugh the image that her companion had raised. She immediately recovered herself, however, and with the right excess of intensity. "'Henrietta Stackpole,' she said. Are you going to give up your country? Yes, my poor Isabel, I am. I won't pretend to deny it. I look the fact in the face. I'm going to marry Mr. Bentley and locate right here in London.

Starting point is 21:59:52 It seems very strange, said Isabel, smiling now. Well, yes, I suppose it does. I've come to it little by little. I think I know what I'm doing, but I don't know as I can explain. One can't explain. explain one's marriage? Isabel answered. And yours doesn't need to be explained. Mr. Bantling isn't a riddle. No, he isn't a bad pun, or even a high flight of American humor. He has a beautiful nature. Henrietta went on. I've studied him for many years, and I see right through him. He's as clear as the

Starting point is 22:00:27 style of a good prospectus. He's not intellectual, but he appreciates intellect. On the other hand, he doesn't exaggerate its claims. I sometimes think we do in the United States. Ah, said Isabel, you are changed indeed. It's the first time I've ever heard you say anything against your native land. I only say that we're too infatuated with mere brain power. That, after all, isn't a vulgar fault. But I am changed. A woman has to change a good deal to marry. I hope you'll be very happy. You will at last. Over here see something of the inner life. Henrietta gave a little significant sigh. That's the key to the mystery, I believe.

Starting point is 22:01:09 I couldn't endure to be kept off. Now I've as good a right as anyone, she added with artless elation. Isabel was duly diverted, but there was a certain melancholy in her view. Henrietta, after all, had confessed herself human and feminine, Henrietta, whom she had hitherto regarded as a light keen flame, a disembodied voice. It was a disappointment to find she had put her. personal susceptibilities, that she was subject to common passions, and that her intimacy with Mr. Bantling had not been completely original. There was a want of originality in her marrying him.

Starting point is 22:01:46 There was even a kind of stupidity. And for a moment, to Isabel's sense, the dreariness of the world took on a deeper tinge. A little later, indeed, she reflected that Mr. Bantling himself, at least, was original. But she didn't see how Henrietta could give up her country. She herself had relaxed her hold of it, but it had never been her country as it had been Henrietta's. She presently asked her if she had enjoyed her visit to Lady Pencil. "'Oh, yes,' said Henrietta. "'She didn't know what to make of me.' "'And was that very enjoyable?'

Starting point is 22:02:20 "'Very much so, because she's supposed to be a mastermind. She thinks she knows everything, but she doesn't understand a woman of my modern type. It would be so much easier for her if I were only a little better or a little worse. She's so puzzled. I believe she thinks it's my duty to go and do something immoral. She thinks it's immoral that I should marry her brother. But after all, that isn't immoral enough. And she'll never understand my mixture. Never.

Starting point is 22:02:47 She's not so intelligent as her brother then, said Isabel. He appears to have understood. Oh, no, he hasn't, cried Miss Stackpole with decision. I really believe that's what he wants to marry me for, just to find out the mystery and the proportions of it. That's a fixed idea, a kind of fascination. It's very good in you to humor it. Oh, well, said Henrietta, I've something to find out, too.

Starting point is 22:03:13 And Isabel saw that she had not renounced an allegiance, but planned an attack. She was at last about to grapple in earnest with England. Isabel also perceived, however, on the morrow at the Paddington Station, where she found herself at ten o'clock, in the company both of Miss Stackpole and Mr. Bantling, that the gentleman bore his perplexities lightly. If he had not found out everything he had found out at least the great point, that Miss Stackpole would not be wanting an initiative. It was evident that in the selection of a wife he had been on his guard against this deficiency. Henrietta has told me, and I'm very glad, Isabel said, as she gave him her hand. I dare say you think it awfully odd,

Starting point is 22:03:58 Mr. Bantling replied, resting on his neat umbrella. Yes, I think it awfully odd. You can't think it so awfully odd as I do, but I've always rather liked striking out a line, said Mr. Bantling serenely. End of Chapter 53. Chapter 54 of the Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Librevox recording is in the public domain.

Starting point is 22:04:30 Isabelle's arrival at Garden Court on this second occasion was even quieter than it had been on the first. Ralph Touchett kept but a small household, and to the new servants Mrs. Osmond was a stranger, so that instead of being conducted to her own apartment, she was coldly shown into the drawing-room and left to wait while her name was carried up to her aunt. She waited a long time. Mrs. Touchett appeared in no hurry to come to her. She grim patient at last. She grew nervous and scared, as scared as if the objects about her had begun to show for conscious things, watching her trouble with grotesque grimaces.

Starting point is 22:05:14 The day was dark and cold. The dusk was thick in the corners of the wide brown rooms. The house was perfectly still. With a stillness that Isabel remembered, it had filled all the place for days before the death of her uncle. She left the drawing room and wandered. about, strolled into the library and along the gallery of pictures, where, in the deep silence, her footstep made an echo. Nothing was changed.

Starting point is 22:05:42 She recognized everything she had seen years before. It might have been only yesterday she had stood there. She envied the security of valuable pieces, which change by no hair's breadth, only grow in value, while their owners lose inch by inch, youth, happiness, Beauty. And she became aware that she was walking about as her aunt had done on the day she had come to see her in Albany. She was changed enough since then. That had been the beginning. It suddenly struck her that if her aunt Lydia had not come that day in just that way and found her alone, everything might have been different. She might have had another life, and she might have been a woman more blessed. She stopped in the gallery in front of a small picture. a charming and precious Bonington, upon which her eyes rested a long time.

Starting point is 22:06:37 But she was not looking at the picture. She was wondering whether if her aunt had not come that day in Albany, she would have married Casper Goodwood. Mrs. Touchett appeared at last, just after Isabel had returned to the big, uninhabited drawing-room. She looked a good deal older, but her eye was as bright as ever and her head as erect. Her thin lips seemed a repository of late. meanings. She wore a little gray dress of the most undecorated fashion, and Isabel wondered, as she had wondered the first time, if her remarkable kinswoman resembled more a queen regent

Starting point is 22:07:14 or the matron of a jail. Her lips felt very thin indeed on Isabel's hot cheek. I've kept you waiting because I've been sitting with Ralph, Mrs. Touchett said. The nurse had gone to luncheon and I had taken her place. He has a man who's supposed to look after him, the man's good for nothing. He's always looking out of the window, as if there were anything to see. I didn't wish to move because Ralph seemed to be sleeping, and I was afraid the sound would disturb him. I waited till the nurse came back. I remembered you knew the house. I find I know it better even than I thought. I've been walking everywhere, Isabel answered, and then she asked if Ralph slept much. He lies with his eyes closed. He doesn't move. But I'm not sure

Starting point is 22:08:01 that it's always sleep. Will he see me? Can he speak to me? Mrs. Touchett declined the office of saying, You can try him, was the limit of her extravagance. And then she offered to conduct Isabel to her room. I thought they had taken you there,

Starting point is 22:08:20 but it's not my house, it's Ralph's, and I don't know what they do. They must at least have taken your luggage. I don't suppose you've brought much. Not that I care, however. I believe they've given you the same room. you had before. When Ralph heard you were coming, he said you must have that one. Did he say anything else? Oh, my dear, he doesn't chatter as he used, cried Mrs. Touchett, as she preceded her niece

Starting point is 22:08:44 up the staircase. It was the same room, and something told Isabelle it had not been slept in since she occupied it. Her luggage was there and was not voluminous. Mrs. Touchett sat down a moment with her eyes upon it. Is there really no hope? Our young woman asked as she stood before her. None whatever. There never has been. It has not been a successful life. No, it has only been a beautiful one. Isabel found herself already contradicting her aunt. She was irritated by her dryness. I don't know what you mean by that. There's no beauty without health. That is a very odd dress to travel in.

Starting point is 22:09:28 Isabel glanced at her garment. I left Rome at an hour's notice. I took the first that came. Your sisters in America wish to know how you dress. That seemed to be their principal interest. I wasn't able to tell them, but they seemed to have the right idea that you never wear anything less than black brocade. They think I'm more brilliant than I am.

Starting point is 22:09:53 I'm afraid to tell them the truth, said Isabel. Lily wrote me, you had dined. with her. She invited me four times, and I went once. After the second time, she should have let me alone. The dinner was very good. It must have been expensive. Her husband has a very bad manner. Did I enjoy my visit to America? Why should I have enjoyed it? I didn't go for my pleasure. These were interesting items, but Mrs. Touchett soon left her niece, whom she was to meet in half an hour at the midday meal. For this repast, the two ladies faced each other at an abbreviated table in the melancholy dining room. Here, after a little, Isabel saw her aunt not to be so dry as she

Starting point is 22:10:38 appeared, and her old pity for the poor woman's inexpressiveness, her want of regret, of disappointment, came back to her. Unmistakably, she would have found it a blessing today to be able to feel a defeat, a mistake, even a shame or two. She wondered if she were not even missing those enrichments of consciousness and privately trying, reaching out for some aftertaste of life, dregs of the banquet, the testimony of pain or the cold recreation of remorse. On the other hand, perhaps she was afraid. If she should begin to know remorse at all, it might take her too far. Isabel could perceive, however, how it had come over her dimly that she had failed of something, that she saw herself in the future as an old woman without memories.

Starting point is 22:11:26 Her little sharp face looked tragical. She told her niece that Ralph had as yet not moved, but that he probably would be able to see her before dinner. And then in a moment she added that he had seen Lord Warburton the day before. An announcement which startled Isabel a little, as it seemed an intimation. that this personage was in the neighborhood, and that an accident might bring them together. Such an accident would not be happy. She had not come to England to struggle again with Lord Warburton. She nonetheless presently said to her aunt that he had been very kind to Ralph. She had seen something of that in Rome. He has something else to think of now. Mrs. Touchett returned, and she paused with a gaze like a gimlet.

Starting point is 22:12:11 Isabel saw she meant something, and instantly guessed what she meant. But her reply concealed her guess, her heart beat faster and she wished to gain a moment. Ah, yes, the House of Lords and all that. He's not thinking of the Lords. He's thinking of the ladies. At least he's thinking of one of them. He told Ralph he's engaged to be married. Oh, to be married, Isabel mildly exclaimed. Unless he breaks it off, he seemed to think Ralph would like to know. Poor Ralph can't go to the wedding, though I believe.

Starting point is 22:12:45 believe it's to take place very soon. And who's the young lady? A member of the aristocracy. Lady Flora, Lady Felicia, something of that sort. I'm very glad, Isabel said. It must be a sudden decision. Sudden enough, I believe, a courtship of three weeks. It has only just been made public.

Starting point is 22:13:08 I'm very glad. Isabel repeated with a larger emphasis. She knew her aunt was watching her. Looking for the signs of some imputed soreness, and the desire to prevent her companion from seeing anything of this kind, enabled her to speak in the tone of quick satisfaction, the tone almost of relief. Mrs. Touchett, of course, followed the tradition that ladies, even married ones, regard the marriage of their old lovers as an offence to themselves.

Starting point is 22:13:36 Isabel's first care, therefore, was to show that, however, that might be in general, she was not offended now. But meanwhile, as I say, her heart beat faster, and if she sat for some moments thoughtful, she presently forgot Mrs. Touchett's observation. It was not because she had lost an admirer. Her imagination had traversed half Europe. It halted, panting, and even trembling a little, in the city of Rome. She figured herself announcing to her husband that Lord Warburton was to lead a bride to the altar, and she was of course not aware how extreme one she must have looked while she made this intellectual effort. But at last she collected herself

Starting point is 22:14:18 and said to her aunt, he was sure to do it sometime or other. Mrs. Touchett was silent. Then she gave a little sharp shake of the head. "'Ha, my dear, you're beyond me,' she cried suddenly. They went on with their luncheon in silence. Isabel felt as if she had heard of Lord Warburton's death. She had known him only as a suitor, and now that was all over. He was dead for poor Pansy. By Pansy he might have lived. A servant had been hovering about. At last Mrs. Tutt had requested him to leave them alone. She had finished her meal. She sat with her hands folded on the edge of the table. I should like to ask you three questions, she observed when the servant had gone. Three are a great many.

Starting point is 22:15:09 I can't do with less. I've been thinking. They're all very good ones. That's what I'm afraid of. The best questions are the worst, Isabel answered. Mrs. Touchett had pushed back her chair, and as her niece left the table and walked, rather consciously, to one of the deep windows, she felt herself followed by her eyes. Have you ever been sorry you didn't marry Lord Warburton? Mrs. Touchett inquired. "'Isabelle shook her head slowly, but not heavily. "'No, dear aunt. "'Good. I ought to tell you that I propose to believe what you say.'

Starting point is 22:15:48 "'You're believing me is an immense temptation,' she declared, smiling still. "'A temptation to lie! I don't recommend you to do that, "'for when I'm misinformed I'm as dangerous as a poisoned rat. "'I don't mean to crow over you.' "'It's my husband who doesn't have. get on with me, said Isabel. I could have told him he wouldn't. I don't call that crowing over you.

Starting point is 22:16:14 Mrs. Touchett added. Do you still like Serena Merle? She went on. Not as I once did, but it doesn't matter, for she's going to America. To America? She must have done something very bad. Yes, very bad. May I ask what it is?

Starting point is 22:16:34 She made a convenience of me. "'Ah,' cried Mrs. Touchett, "'so she did of me. She does of everyone.' "'She'll make a convenience of America,' said Isabel, smiling again, and glad that her aunt's questions were over. It was not till the evening that she was able to see Ralph. He had been dozing all day. At least he had been lying unconscious.

Starting point is 22:17:00 The doctor was there, but after a while went away. the local doctor who had attended his father and whom Ralph liked. He came three or four times a day. He was deeply interested in his patient. Ralph had had Sir Matthew Hope, but he had got tired of this celebrated man, to whom he had asked his mother to send word he was now dead and was therefore without further need of medical advice. Mrs. Touchett had simply written to Sir Matthew that her son disliked him.

Starting point is 22:17:30 On the day of Isabelle's arrival, Ralph gave no sign, as I have related, for many hours, but toward evening he raised himself and said he knew that she had come. How he knew was not apparent, inasmuch as for fear of exciting him no one had offered the information. Isabel came in and sat by his bed in the dim light. There was only a shaded candle in the corner of the room. She had told the nurse she might go. She herself would sit with him for the rest of the evening. He had opened his eyes and recognized her, and had moved his hand, which lay helpless beside him, so that she might take it. But he was unable to speak. He closed his eyes again and remained perfectly still, only keeping her hand in his own.

Starting point is 22:18:19 She sat with him a long time, till the nurse came back, but he gave no further sign. He might have passed away while she looked at him. He was already the figure and pattern of death. She had thought him far gone in Rome, and this was worse. There was but one change possible now. There was a strange tranquility in his face. It was as still as the lid of a box. With this he was a mere lattice of bones. When he opened his eyes to greet her, it was as if she were looking into immeasurable space. It was not till midnight that the nurse came back, but the hours to Isabel had not seemed long. It was exactly what she had. had come for. If she had come simply to wait, she found ample occasion, for he lay three days in a kind of grateful silence. He recognized her, and at moments seemed to wish to speak, but he found no voice. Then he closed his eyes again, as if he too were waiting for something, for something that would certainly come. He was so absolutely quiet that it seemed to her what was coming had already

Starting point is 22:19:28 arrived, and yet she never lost the sense that they were still together. But they were not always together. There were other hours that she passed in wandering through the empty house and listening for a voice that was not poor Ralph's. She had a constant fear. She thought it possible her husband would write to her. But he remained silent, and she only got a letter from Florence and from the Countess Gemini. Ralph, however, spoke at last, on the evening of the third. day. I feel better tonight, he murmured abruptly, in the soundless dimness of her vigil. I think I can say something.

Starting point is 22:20:09 She sank upon her knees beside his pillow, took his thin hand in her own, begged him not to make an effort, not to tire himself. His face was of necessity serious. It was incapable of the muscular play of a smile, but its owner apparently had not lost a perception of incongruities. What does it matter if I'm tired, when I've all eternity to rest? There's no harm in making an effort when it's the very last of all. Don't people always feel better just before the end?

Starting point is 22:20:40 I've often heard that. It's what I was waiting for. Ever since you've been here, I thought it would come. I tried two or three times. I was afraid you'd get tired of sitting there. He spoke slowly, with painful breaks and long, pauses. His voice seemed to come from a distance. When he ceased, he lay with his face turned to Isabel, and his large, unwinking eyes open into her own. It was very good of you to come. He went on.

Starting point is 22:21:13 I thought you would, but I wasn't sure. I was not sure either till I came, said Isabel. You've been like an angel beside my bed. You know they talk about the angel of death. It's the most beautiful of all. You've been like that, as if you were waiting for me. I was not waiting for your death. I was waiting for... For this. This is not death, dear Ralph.

Starting point is 22:21:45 Not for you, no. There's nothing makes us feel so much alive as to see others die. That's the sensation of life, the sense that we remain. I've had it. even I. But now I'm of no use but to give it to others. With me, it's all over. And then he paused.

Starting point is 22:22:09 Isabel bowed her head further, till it rested on the two hands that were clasped upon his own. She couldn't see him now, but his faraway voice was close to her ear. Isabel, he went on suddenly. I wish it were over for you. She answered nothing. She had burst into sobs. She remained so with her buried face. He lay silent, listening to her sobs. At last he gave a long groan. Ah, what is it you have done for me? What is it you did for me? She cried. Her now extreme agitation half-smothered by her attitude.

Starting point is 22:22:54 She had lost all her shame, all wish to hide things. Now he must know. She wished him to know, for it brought them supremely together, and he was beyond the reach of pain. You did something once. You know it. Oh, Ralph, you've been everything. What have I done for you? What can I do today? I would die if you could live. But I don't wish you to live. I would die myself not to lose you. Her voice was as broken as his own and full of tears and anguish. You won't lose me. You'll keep me. Keep me in your heart. I shall be nearer to you than I've ever been. Dear Isabel, life is better, for in life there's love. Death is good, but there's no love. I never thanked you. I never spoke. I never was what I

Starting point is 22:23:54 should be, Isabel went on. She felt a passionate need to cry out and accuse herself to let her sorrow possess her. All her troubles for the moment became single and melted together into this present pain. What must you have thought of me? Yet how could I know? I never knew, and I only know today because there are people less stupid than I. Don't mind people, said Ralph. I think I'm glad to leave people. She raised her head and her clasped hands. She seemed for a moment to pray to him. Is it true? Is it true? She asked. True that you've been stupid? Oh no, said Ralph with a sensible intention of wit. That you made me rich, that all I have is yours? He turned away his head and for some time said nothing. Then at last. Oh, don't speak of that. That was not happy.

Starting point is 22:25:03 Slowly he moved his face toward her again, and they once more saw each other. But for that, but for that. And he paused. I believe I ruined you, he wailed. She was full of the sense that he was beyond the reach of pain. He seemed already so little of this world. But even if she had not had it, she would have still spoken, for nothing mattered now but the only knowledge that was not pure anguish, the knowledge that they were looking at the truth together. He married me for the money, she said. She wished to say everything. She was afraid he might die before she had done so. He gazed at her a little, and for the first time his fixed eyes lowered their lids. But he was afraid.

Starting point is 22:25:53 raised them in a moment. And then, he was greatly in love with you, he answered. Yes, he was in love with me, but he wouldn't have married me if I had been poor. I don't hurt you in saying that. How can I? I only want you to understand. I always tried to keep you from understanding, but that's all over. I always understood, said Ralph. I thought you did, and I didn't like it. But now I like it. You don't hurt me. You make me very happy. And as Ralph said this, there was an extraordinary gladness in his voice.

Starting point is 22:26:36 She bent her head again and pressed her lips to the back of his hand. I always understood, he continued, though it was so strange, so pitiful. You wanted to look at life for yourself, but you were not allowed. You were punished for your wish. You were ground in the very mill of the conventional. Oh, yes, I've been punished, Isabel sobbed. He listened to her a little, and then continued. Was he very bad about your coming?

Starting point is 22:27:10 He made it very hard for me, but I don't care. It is all over then between you. Oh, no, I don't think anything's over. Are you going back to him? Ralph gasped. I don't know. I can't tell. I shall stay here as long as I may.

Starting point is 22:27:31 I don't want to think. I needn't think. I don't care for anything but you, and that's enough for the present. It will last a little yet. Here, on my knees, with you dying in my arms, I'm happier than I have been for a long time. And I want you to be happy,

Starting point is 22:27:51 not to think of anything sad. only to feel that I'm near you, and I love you. Why should there be pain? In such hours as this, what have we to do with pain? That's not the deepest thing. There's something deeper. Ralph evidently found from moment to moment greater difficulty in speaking. He had to wait longer to collect himself.

Starting point is 22:28:19 At first he appeared to make no response to these last words. He let a long time elapse. Then he murmured simply, You must stay here. I should like to stay, as long as seems right. As seems right, as seems right. He repeated her words. Yes, you think a great deal about that.

Starting point is 22:28:45 Of course, one must. You're very tired, said Isabel. I'm very tired. You said just now. that pain's not the deepest thing. No. No, but it's very deep. If I could stay. For me, you'll always be here. She softly interrupted. It was easy to interrupt him. But he went on after a moment. It passes, after all. It's passing now. But love remains. I don't know why we should suffer so much. Perhaps I shall find out. There are many things in life. You're very young.

Starting point is 22:29:34 I feel very old, said Isabel. You'll grow young again. That's how I see you. I don't believe. I don't believe. But he stopped again. His strength failed him. She begged him to be quiet now. didn't speak to understand each other, she said. I don't believe that such a generous mistake as yours can hurt you for more than a little. Oh, Ralph, I'm very happy now, she cried through her tears. And remember this, he continued, that if you've been hated, you've also been loved. Oh, but Isabel adored. He just audibly and lingeringly breathed. Oh, my brother, she cried, with a movement of still deeper prostration.

Starting point is 22:30:40 End of Chapter 54. Chapter 55 of The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. This Librovoc's recording is in the public domain. He had told her the first evening she ever spent at Garden Court, that if she should live to suffer enough, she might some day see the ghost with which the old house was duly provided. She apparently had fulfilled the necessary condition. For the next morning in the cold, faint dawn, she knew that a spirit was standing by her bed. She had lain down without undressing, it being her belief that Ralph would not outlast the night.

Starting point is 22:31:25 She had no inclination to sleep. She was waiting, and such waiting was wakeful. But she closed her eyes. She believed that as the night wore on, she should hear a knock at her door. She heard no knock, but at the time the darkness began vaguely to grow gray, she started up from her pillow, as abruptly as if she had received a summons. It seemed to her for an instant that he was standing there, a vague, hovering figure in the vagueness of the room. She stared a moment. She saw his white face, his kind eyes. Then she saw there was nothing. She was not afraid. She was only sure. She quitted the place and in her certainty passed through dark corridors and down a flight of oaken steps that shone in the vague light of a hall window. Outside Ralph's door she stopped a moment, listening. But she seemed to hear only the hush that filled it. She opened the door with a hand as gentle as if she were lifting a veil from the face of the dead, and saw Mrs. Touchett sitting motionless and upright beside the couch of her son, with one of his hands in her own. The doctor was on the other side, with poor Ralph's

Starting point is 22:32:44 further wrist resting in his professional fingers. The two nurses were at the foot between them. Mrs. Touchett took no notice of Isabel, but the doctor, looked at her very hard. Then he gently placed Ralph's hand in a proper position, close beside him. The nurse looked at her very hard, too, and no one said a word. But Isabel only looked at what she had come to see. It was fairer than Ralph had ever been in life, and there was a strange resemblance to the face of his father, which six years before she had seen lying on the same pillow. She went to her aunt and put her arm around her, and Mrs. Touchett, who, as a general thing neither invited nor enjoyed caresses, submitted for a moment to this one, rising as might be,

Starting point is 22:33:36 to take it. But she was stiff and dry-eyed. Her acute white face was terrible. Dear Aunt Lydia, Isabel murmured, Go, and thank God you've no child, said Mrs. Touchett, disengaging herself. Three days after this a considerable number of people found time, at the height of the London season, to take a morning train down to a quiet station in Berkshire and spend half an hour in a small, grey church, which stood within an easy walk. It was in the green burial place of this edifice that Mrs. Touchett consigned her son to earth. She stood herself at the edge of the grave, and Isabel stood beside her. The sexton himself had not a more practical interest in the scene

Starting point is 22:34:26 than Mrs. Touchett. It was a solemn occasion, but neither a harsh nor a heavy one. There was a certain geniality in the appearance of things. The weather had changed to fair. The day, one of the last of the treacherous may-time, was warm and windless, and the airless, and the airings of the air had the brightness of the hawthorn and the blackbird. If it was sad to think of poor touch it was not too sad, since death for him had had no violence. He had been dying so long, he was so ready, everything had been so expected and prepared. There were tears in Isabelle's eyes, but they were not tears that blinded. She looked through them at the beauty of the day, the splendor of nature, the sweetness of the old English churchyard, the bowed heads of

Starting point is 22:35:14 of good friends. Lord Warburton was there, and a group of gentlemen all unknown to her, several of whom, as she afterwards learned, were connected with the bank, and there were others whom she knew. Miss Stackpole was among the first, with honest Mr. Bentley beside her, and Casper Goodwood, lifting his head higher than the rest, bowing it rather less. During much of the time Isabel was conscious of Mr. Goodwood's gaze. He looked at her somewhat harder than he usually looked in public, while the others had fixed their eyes upon the churchyard turf. But she never let him see that she saw him. She thought of him only to wonder that he was still in England. She found she had taken for granted that after accompanying Ralph to Garden Court,

Starting point is 22:36:01 he had gone away. She remembered how little it was a country that pleased him. He was there, however, very distinctly there. And something in his attitude seemed to say that he was there with a complex intention. She wouldn't meet his eyes, though there was doubtless sympathy in them. He made her rather uneasy. With the dispersal of the little group, he disappeared,

Starting point is 22:36:25 and the only person who came to speak to her, though several spoke to Mrs. Touchett, was Henrietta's stackpole. Henrietta had been crying. Ralph had said to Isabel that he hoped she would remain at Garden Court, and she made no immediate motion to leave the place. She said to herself that it was but common charity to stay a little with her aunt.

Starting point is 22:36:47 It was fortunate she had so good a formula, otherwise she might have been greatly in want of one. Her errand was over. She had done what she had left her husband to do. She had a husband in a foreign city, counting the hours of her absence. In such a case, one needed an excellent motive. He was not one of the best husbands, but that didn't alter the case. Certain obligations were involved in the very fact of marriage and were quite independent of the quantity of enjoyment extracted from it. Isabel thought of her husband as little as might be,

Starting point is 22:37:21 but now that she was at a distance, beyond its spell, she thought with a kind of spiritual shudder of Rome. There was a penetrating chill in the image, and she drew back into the deepest shade of Garden Court. She lived from day to day, postponing, closing her eyes, trying not to think. She knew she must decide, but she decided nothing. Her coming itself had not been a decision. On that occasion she had simply started. Osmond gave no sound and now evidently would give none, he would leave it all to her. From Pansy she heard nothing, but that was very simple.

Starting point is 22:38:00 Her father had told her not to write. Mrs. Touch had accepted Isabelle's company, but offered her no assistance. She appeared to be absorbed in considering, without enthusiasm but with perfect lucidity, the new conveniences of her own situation. Mrs. Touchett was not an optimist, but even from painful occurrences, she managed to extract a certain utility. This consisted in the reflection that, after all, such things happened to other people and not to herself. Death was disagreeable, but in this case it was her son's death, not her own. She had never flattered herself that her own would be disagreeable to anyone but Mrs. Touchett. She was better off than poor Ralph, who had left all the commodities of life behind him, and indeed all the security, since the worst of dying was, to Mrs. Touchett's

Starting point is 22:38:51 mind, that it exposed one to be taken advantage of. For herself, she was on the spot. There was nothing so good as that. She made known to Isabelle very punctually. It was the evening her son was buried, several of Ralph's testamentary arrangements. He had told her everything, had consulted her about everything. He left her no money. Of course she had no need of money. He left her the furniture of Garden Court, exclusive of the pictures and books and the use of the place for a year, after which it was to be sold. The money produced by the sale was to constitute an endowment for a hospital for poor persons suffering from the malady of which he had died, and of this portion of the will, Lord Warburton was appointed executor. The rest of his property, which was to be

Starting point is 22:39:38 withdrawn from the bank, was disposed of in various bequests, several of them to those cousins in Vermont, to whom his father had already been so bountiful. Then there were a number of small legacies. Some of them are extremely peculiar, said Mrs. Touchett. He has left considerable sums to persons I never heard of. He gave me a list, and I asked then who some of them were, and he told me they were people who at various times had seemed to like him. Apparently he thought you didn't like him, for he hasn't left you a penny. It was his opinion that you had been handsomely treated by his father, which I'm bound to say I think you were, though I don't mean that I ever heard him complain of it.

Starting point is 22:40:18 The pictures are to be dispersed. He has distributed them about one by one as little keepsakes. The most valuable of the collection goes to Lord Warburton. And what do you think he has done with his library? It sounds like a practical joke. He is left it to your friend Miss Stackpole, in recognition of her services to literature. Does he mean her following him up from Rome? Was that a service to literature? It contains a great many rare and valuable books, and as she can't carry it about the world in her trunk,

Starting point is 22:40:48 he recommends her to sell it at auction. She will sell it, of course, at Christie's, and with the proceeds she'll set up a newspaper. Will that be a service to literature? This question, Isabel forbore to answer, as it exceedingly. the little interrogatory to which she had deemed it necessary to submit on her arrival. Besides, she had never been less interested in literature than today, as she found when she occasionally took down from the shelf one of the rare and valuable volumes of which Mrs. Touchett had spoken. She was quite unable to read. Her attention had never been so little at her command.

Starting point is 22:41:24 One afternoon in the library about a week after the ceremony in the churchyard, she was trying to fix it for an hour. her eyes often wandered from the book in her hand to the open window, which looked down the long avenue. It was in this way that she saw a modest vehicle approach the door, and perceived Lord Warburton sitting, in a rather uncomfortable attitude, in a corner of it. He had always had a high standard of courtesy, and it was therefore not remarkable, under the circumstances, that he should have taken the trouble to come down from London to call on

Starting point is 22:41:57 Mrs. Touchett. It was, of course, Mrs. Tuchity had come to see, and not Mrs. Osmond. And to prove to herself the validity of this thesis, Isabel presently stepped out of the house and wandered away into the park. Since her arrival at Garden Court, she had been but little out of doors, the weather being unfavorable for visiting the grounds. This evening, however, was fine, and at first it struck her as a happy thought to have come out. The theory I have just mentioned was plausible enough, but it brought to her.

Starting point is 22:42:27 her little rest, and if you had seen her pacing about, you would have said she had a bad conscience. She was not pacified when at the end of a quarter of an hour, finding herself in view of the house, she saw Mrs. Touchett emerge from the portico accompanied by her visitor. Her aunt had evidently proposed to Lord Warburton that they should come in search of her. She was in no humor for visitors, and if she had had a chance, would have drawn back behind one of the great trees. But she saw she had been seen, and that she had been seen, and that nothing was left to her but to advance. As the lawn at Garden Court was a vast expanse, this took some time. During which she observed that, as he walked beside his hostess,

Starting point is 22:43:09 Lord Warburton kept his hands rather stiffly behind him, and his eyes upon the ground. Both persons apparently were silent, but Mrs. Touchett's thin little glance, as she directed it toward Isabel, had even at a distance an expression. It seemed to say with cutting sharpness, Here's the eminently amenable nobleman you might have married. When Lord Warburton lifted his own eyes, however, that was not what they said. They only said, This is rather awkward, you know, and I depend upon you to help me. He was very grave, very proper, and, for the first time since Isabel had known him,

Starting point is 22:43:49 greeted her without a smile. Even in his days of distress he had always begun with a smile. He looked extremely self-conscious. "'Lord Warburton has been so good as to come out to see me,' said Mrs. Tuchet. "'He tells me he didn't know you were still here. "'I know he's an old friend of yours, and as I was told you were not in the house, "'I brought him out to see for himself.' "'Oh, I saw there was a good trade at 6.40, that would get me back in time for dinner.'

Starting point is 22:44:18 Mrs. Tuchet's companion rather irrelevantly explained, "'I'm so glad to find you've not gone.' "'I'm not here for long, you know,' Isabel said with a certain an eagerness. I suppose not, but I hope it's for some weeks. You came to England sooner than—uh, than you thought? Yes, I came very suddenly. Mrs. Touchett turned away, as if she were looking at the condition of the grounds, which indeed was not what it should be, while Lord Warburton hesitated a little. Isabel fancied he had been on the point of asking about her husband, rather confusedly, and then had checked himself. He continued immidicably grave, either because he thought it

Starting point is 22:45:00 becoming in a place over which death had just passed, or for more personal reasons. If he was conscious of personal reasons it was very fortunate that he had the cover of the former motive, he could make the most of that. Isabel thought of all this. It was not that his face was sad, for that was another matter, but it was strangely inexpressive. My sisters would have been so glad to come if they had known you were still here, if they had thought you would see them. Lord Warburton went on. Do kindly let them see you before you leave England. It would give me great pleasure. I have such a friendly recollection of them. I don't know whether you would come to Lockley for a day or two. You know there's always that old promise. And his lordship coloured a

Starting point is 22:45:46 little as he made this suggestion, which gave his face a somewhat more familiar air. Perhaps I'm not right in saying that just now. Of course you're not thinking of visiting. But I meant what would hardly be a visit. My sisters are to be at Lockley at Whitson Tide for five days. And if you could come, then, as you say you're not to be very long in England, I would see that there should be literally no one else. Isabel wondered if not even the young lady he was to marry would be there with her mama, but she did not express this idea. Thank you extremely, she contented herself with saying, I'm afraid I hardly know about Witson Tide. But I have your promise, haven't I, for some other time?

Starting point is 22:46:29 There is an interrogation in this, but Isabel let it pass. She looked at her interlocutor a moment, and the result of her observation was that, as had happened before, she felt sorry for him. Take care you don't miss your train, she said. And then she added, I wish you every happiness. He blushed again, more than before, and he looked at his watch. Ah, yes, 6.40, I haven't much time, but I have a fly at the door. Thank you very much.

Starting point is 22:47:04 It was not apparent whether the thanks applied to her having reminded him of his train or to the more sentimental remark. Goodbye, Mrs. Osmond, goodbye. He shook hands with her, without meeting her eyes, and then he turned to Mrs. Touchett, who had wandered back to them. With her his parting was equally brief, and in a moment the two ladies saw him move with long steps across the lawn. Are you sure he's to be married? Isabel asked of her aunt. I can't be sure than he, but he seems sure. I congratulated him and he accepted it. Ah, said Isabel, I give it up. While her aunt returned to the house and to those avocations which the visitor had interrupted. She gave it up.

Starting point is 22:47:50 But she still thought of it, thought of it while she strolled again under the great oaks, whose shadows were long upon the acres of turf. At the end of a few minutes she found herself near a rustic bench, which a moment after she had looked at it, struck her as an object recognized. It was not simply that she had seen it before, nor even that she had sat upon it. It was that, on this spot, something important had happened to her, that the place had an heir of association. Then she remembered that she had been sitting there six years before, when a servant brought her from the house the letter, in which Casper Goodwood informed her that

Starting point is 22:48:29 he had followed her to Europe, and that when she had read the letter, she looked up to hear Lord Warburton announcing that he should like to marry her. It was indeed an historical, an interesting bench. She stood and looked at it, as if it might have something to say to her. She wouldn't sit down on it now. She felt rather afraid of it. He only stood before it, and while she stood, the past came back to her in one of those rushing waves of emotion by which persons of sensibility are visited at odd hours. The effect of this agitation was a sudden sense of being very tired, under the influence of which she overcame her scruples and sank into the rustic seat.

Starting point is 22:49:10 I have said that she was restless and unable to occupy herself, and whether or no if you had seen her there you would have admired the justice of the former epithet, you would at least have allowed that at this moment she was the image of a victim of idleness. Her attitude had a singular absence of purpose. Her hands, hanging at her sides, lost themselves in the folds of her black dress. Her eyes gazed vaguely before her. There was nothing to recall her to the house. The two ladies in their seclusion dined early and had tea at an indefinite hour. How long she had sat in this position she could not have told you, but the twilight had grown thick when she became aware that she was not alone. She quickly

Starting point is 22:49:54 straightened herself, glancing about, and then saw what had become of her solitude. She was sharing it with Casper Goodwood, who stood looking at her, a few yards off, and whose footfall on the unresonant turf as he came near, she had not heard. It occurred to her in the midst of this that it was just so Lord Warburton had surprised her of old. She instantly wrote, rose, and as soon as Goodwood saw he was seen, he started forward. She had had time only to rise when, with a motion that looked like violence, but felt like, she knew not what, he grasped her by the wrist and made her sink again into the seat. She closed her eyes. He had not hurt her, it was only a touch, which she had obeyed. But there was something in his face that she wished

Starting point is 22:50:43 not to see. That was the way he had looked at her the other day in the churchyard. only at present it was worse. He said nothing at first. She only felt him close to her, beside her on the bench, and pressingly turned to her. It almost seemed to her that no one had ever been so close to her as that.

Starting point is 22:51:04 All this, however, took but an instant, at the end of which she had disengaged her wrist, turning her eyes upon her visitant. You frightened me, she said. I didn't mean to, he answered. But if I did a little, no matter. I came from London a while ago by the train, but I couldn't come here directly. There was a man at the station who got ahead of me.

Starting point is 22:51:26 He took a fly that was there, and I heard him give the order to drive here. I don't know who he was, but I didn't want to come with him. I wanted to see you alone. So I've been waiting and walking about. I've walked all over, and I was just coming to the house when I saw you here. There was a keeper or someone who met me, but that was all right, because I had made his acquaintance when I came here with your cousin. cousin. Is that gentleman gone? Are you really alone? I want to speak to you." Goodwood spoke very fast. He was as excited as when they had parted in Rome. Isabel had hoped that condition would

Starting point is 22:52:00 subside, and she shrank into herself as she perceived that, on the contrary, he had only let out sail. She had a new sensation. He had never produced it before. It was a feeling of danger. There was indeed something really formidable in his resolution. She gazed straight before her. He, with a hand on each knee, leaned forward, looking deeply into her face. The twilight seemed to darken round them. "'I want to speak to you,' he repeated. "'I have something particular to say. "'I don't want to trouble you as I did the other day in Rome. That was of no use. It only distressed you. I couldn't help it. I knew I was wrong. But I'm not wrong now. Please don't think I am.'

Starting point is 22:52:46 He went on with his hard, deep voice melting a moment into entreaty. I came here today for a purpose. It's very different. It was vain for me to speak to you then, but now I can help you. She couldn't have told you whether it was because she was afraid, or because such a voice in the darkness seemed of necessity a boon. But she listened to him as she had never listened before. His words dropped deep into her soul.

Starting point is 22:53:13 They produced a sort of stillness in all her being. And it was with an effort in a moment that she answered him. How can you help me? She asked in a low tone, as if she were taking what he had said seriously enough to make the inquiry in confidence. By inducing you to trust me. Now I know. Today I know. Do you remember what I asked you in Rome?

Starting point is 22:53:37 Then I was quite in the dark. But today I know on good authority. Everything's clear to me today. It was a good thing when you made me come away with your cousin. He was a good man, a fine man, one of the best. He told me how the case stands for you. He explained everything. He guessed my sentiments. He was a member of your family and he left you, so long as you should be in England, to my care, said Goodwood, as if he were making a great point. Do you know what he said to me the last time I saw him, as he lay there where he died? He said,

Starting point is 22:54:12 do everything you can for her, do everything she'll let you. Isabel suddenly got up. You had no business to talk about me. Why not? Why not when we talked in that way? He demanded following her fast. And he was dying. When a man's dying, it's different.

Starting point is 22:54:32 She checked the movement she had made to leave him. She was listening more than ever. It was true that he was not the same as that last time. That had been aimless, fruitless passion. But at present he had an idea, which he scented in all her being. But it doesn't matter, he exclaimed, pressing her still harder, though now without touching a hem of her garment. If touch it had never opened his mouth, I should have known all the same.

Starting point is 22:55:01 I had only to look at you at your cousin's funeral to see what's the matter with you. You can't deceive me any more. For God's sake, be honest with a man who's so honest with you. You're the most unhappy of women, and your husband's the deadliest of fiends. She turned on him as if he had struck her. Are you mad? she cried. I've never been so sane. I see the whole thing. Don't think it necessary to defend him.

Starting point is 22:55:28 But I won't say another word against him. I'll speak only of you. Goodwood added quickly. How can you pretend you're not heartbroken? You don't know what to do. You don't know where to turn. It's too late to play a play a little. apart. Didn't you leave all that behind in Rome? Touchett knew all about it, and I knew it too, but it would cost you to come here. It will have cost you your life. Say it will. And he flared almost into anger. Give me one word of truth. When I know such a horror as that, how can I keep

Starting point is 22:56:00 myself from wishing to save you? What would you think of me if I should stand still and see you go back to your reward? It's awful what you'll have to pay for it. That's what Touchett said to me. I may tell you that, mayn't I? He was such a near relation, cried Goodwood, making his queer grim point again. I'd sooner have been shot than let another man say those things to me, but he was different. He seemed to me to have the right. It was after he got home, when he saw he was dying, and when I saw it too. I understand all about it.

Starting point is 22:56:33 You're afraid to go back. You're perfectly alone. You don't know where to turn. You can't turn anywhere. You know that perfectly. Now it is, therefore, that I want you to think of me." To think of you? Isabel said, standing before him in the dusk.

Starting point is 22:56:50 The idea of which she had caught a glimpse a few moments before now loomed large. She threw back her head a little. She stared at it as if it had been a comet in the sky. You don't know where to turn. Turn straight to me. I want to persuade you to trust me. Goodwood repeated. and then he paused with his shining eyes.

Starting point is 22:57:13 Why should you go back? Why should you go through that ghastly form? To get away from you, she answered. But this expressed only a little of what she felt. The rest was that she had never been loved before. She had believed it, but this was different. This was the hot wind of the desert, at the approach of which the others dropped dead,

Starting point is 22:57:37 like mere sweet airs of the garden. It wrapped her about, it lifted her off her feet, while the very taste of it, as of something potent, acrid and strange, forced open her set teeth. At first, in rejoinder to what she had said, it seemed to her that he would break out into greater violence. But after an instant he was perfectly quiet. He wished to prove he was sane that he had reasoned it all out. I want to prevent that, and I think I may, if you'll only for once listen to me.

Starting point is 22:58:15 It's too monstrous of you to think of sinking back into that misery, of going to open your mouth to that poisoned air. It's you that are out of your mind. Trust me as if I had the care of you. Why shouldn't we be happy, when it's here before us, when it's so easy? I'm yours forever, forever and ever. Here I stand. I'm as firm as a rock.

Starting point is 22:58:40 What have you to care about? You've no children. That perhaps would be an obstacle. As it is, you've nothing to consider. You must save what you can of your life. You mustn't lose it all simply because you've lost a part. It would be an insult to you to assume that you care for the look of the thing, for what people will say, for the bottomless idiocy of the world.

Starting point is 22:59:04 We've nothing to do with all that. We're quite out of it. We look at things as they are. You took the great step in coming away. The next is nothing. It's the natural one. I swear, as I stand here, that a woman deliberately made to suffer

Starting point is 22:59:20 is justified in anything in life, and going down into the streets if that will help her. I know how you suffer, and that's why I'm here. We can do absolutely as we please. To whom under the sun do we owe anything? What is it that holds us? us, what is it that has the smallest right to interfere in such a question as this? Such a question

Starting point is 22:59:43 is between ourselves, and to say that is to settle it. Were we born to rot in our misery? Were we born to be afraid? I never knew you afraid. If you'll only trust me, how little you will be disappointed. The world's all before us, and the world's very big. I know something about that. Isabel gave a long murmur, like a creature in pain. It was as if he were pressing something that hurt her. The world's very small, she said at random. She had an immense desire to appear to resist. She said it at random to hear herself say something, but it was not what she meant. The world in truth had never seemed so large. It seemed to open out all round her to take the form of a mighty sea where she floated in fathomless waters.

Starting point is 23:00:41 She had wanted help, and here was help, it had come in a rushing torrent. I know not whether she believed everything he said, but she believed just then that to let him take her in his arms would be the next best thing to her dying. This belief, for a moment, was a kind of rapture, in which she felt herself sink and sink. In the movement she seemed to beat with her feet in order to catch herself to feel something to rest on. Ah, be mine as I'm yours, she heard her companion cry. He had suddenly given up argument, and his voice seemed to come, harsh and terrible, through a confusion of vaguer sounds. This, however, of course, was but a subjective fact, as the metaphysician say.

Starting point is 23:01:34 The confusion, the noise of waters, all the rest of it, were in her own swimming head. In an instant she became aware of this. Do me the greatest kindness of all, she panted. I beseech you to go away. Oh, don't say that. Don't kill me, he cried. She clasped her hands. Her eyes were streaming with tears. Has you love me? Has you pity me? leave me alone he glared at her a moment through the dusk and the next instant she felt his arms about her

Starting point is 23:02:12 and his lips on her own lips his kiss was like white lightning a flash that spread and spread again and stayed and it was extraordinarily as if while she took it she felt each thing in his hard manhood that had least pleased her each aggressive fact of his face face, his figure, his presence, justified of its intense identity, and made one with this act of possession. So had she heard of those wrecked and underwater, following a train of images before they sink. But when darkness returned, she was free. She never looked about her. She only darted from the spot. There were lights in the windows of the house. They shone far across the lawn. In an extraordinarily short time, for the distance was considerable, she had moved through the

Starting point is 23:03:09 darkness, for she saw nothing, and reached the door. Here only she paused. She looked all about her. She listened a little. Then she put her hand on the latch. She had not known where to turn, but she knew now. There was a very straight path. Two days afterwards, Casper Goodwood knocked at the door of the house in Wimpole Street, in which Henrietta Stackpole occupied furnished lodgings. He had hardly removed his hand from the knocker when the door was opened, and Miss Stackpole herself stood before him. She had on her hat and jacket. She was on the point of going out. Oh, good morning, he said. I was in hopes I should find Mrs. Osmond. Henrietta kept him waiting a moment for her reply, but there was a good deal of expression about Miss Stackpole, even when she was silent.

Starting point is 23:04:07 Pray, what led you to suppose she was here? I went down to garden court this morning, and the servant told me she had come to London. He believed she was come to you. Again Miss Stackpole held him, with an intention of perfect kindness, in suspense. She came here yesterday and spent the night, but this morning she started for Rome. Casper Goodwood was not looking at her. His eyes were fastened on the doorstep. Oh, she started, he stammered. And without finishing his phrase or looking up, he stiffly averted himself. But he couldn't otherwise move. Henrietta had come out, closing the door behind her, and now she put out her hand and grasped his arm.

Starting point is 23:04:58 Look here, Mr. Goodwood, she said. Just you wait. On which he looked up at her, but only to guess from her face with a revulsion that she simply meant he was young. She stood shining at him with that cheap comfort, and it added, on the spot. thought thirty years to his life she walked him away with her however as if she had given him now the key to patience end of chapter fifty five end of the portrait of a lady written by henry james

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