Chương Chương 41 · Chapter XLI

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 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

Lockleigh, though at first it had not 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, 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 any

one--any one at least but Lord Warburton. 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;

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 that 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 to-day 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--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; still, if a statesman admired her, that was his affair, and

she would make a perfect little pearl of a peeress.

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 levelling secondary obstacles. Isabel was perfectly

aware that she had not taken the measure of Pansy’s tenacity, which

might prove to be inconveniently great; but she inclined to see her

as rather letting go, under suggestion, 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--Isabel noticed that for herself,

as she also observed that he talked to her not in the least in a

patronising 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 barytone. He was careful only to be

kind--he was as kind as he had been to another fluttered young chit at

Gardencourt. 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 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 pellagra, 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. Rosier’s. But Isabel contented herself at such

moments with wondering where this gentleman was; he came no more at all

to Palazzo Roccanera. 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. 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 practise such manoeuvres 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. 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 she

pronounced--always mentally--that when their distinguished visitor

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 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 to say that it was allied to that of self-defence, 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; 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?”

“He talked almost only to her.”

“It seems to me he’s attentive. Isn’t that what you call it?”

“I don’t call it anything,” said Isabel; “I’ve waited for you to give it

a name.”

“That’s a consideration you don’t always show,” Osmond answered after a

moment.

“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. 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

daughter’s,” 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. 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; 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.”

“There’s no use talking of 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 recognise 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 Osmonds. 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 should escape his equivalent might

not be found; with which moreover it was another of his customary

implications that he was never inconsistent. 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--all the more so that he was also

capable of waiting for great opportunities 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 honourably. “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 friends.”

“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 frankly. “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!”

Osmond appeared to give no heed to this; he sat gazing at the fire.

“Pansy would like to be a great lady,” 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.

“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.”

Osmond turned his head quickly, but at first he said nothing. Then, “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 has offered.”

“Did you speak to him of Rosier?”

“Oh yes, a little.”

“That was hardly necessary.”

“I thought it best he should know, 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.”

“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; 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, 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 Osmond 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 good-will you may manage it. Think

that over and remember how much I count on you.” He waited a little,

to give her time to answer; but she answered nothing, and he presently

strolled out of the room.