Page:The Portrait of a Lady (1882).djvu/140

132 132 THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY than those that were printed there words that Ealph had spoken to her in the afternoon. Suddenly the well-muffled knuckle of the waiter was applied to the door, which presently admitted him, bearing the card of a visitor. This card, duly considered, offered to Isabel's startled vision the name of Mr. Caspar Goodwood. She let the servant stand before her inquiringly for some instants, without signifying her wishes. " Shall I show the gentleman up, ma'am 1 " he asked at last, with a slightly encouraging inflection. Isabel hesitated still, and while she hesitated she glanced at the mirror. " He may come in," she said at last ; and waited for him with some emotion. Caspar Goodwood came in and shook hands with her. He said nothing till the servant had left the room again, then he said " Why didn't you answer my letter 1 ? " He spoke in a quick, full, slightly peremptory tone the tone of a man whose questions were usually pointed, and who was capable of much insistence. Isabel answered him by a question. '* How did you know I was here 1 ?" " Miss Stackpole let me know," said Caspar Goodwood. " She told me that 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 of them had seated themselves ; they stood there with a certain air of defiance, or at least of contention. " Henrietta never told me that she was writing to you," Isabel 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." " Do you ca 11 this meeting ? I hoped I should not see you. In so large a place as London it seemed to me very possible." " Apparently.it was disagreeable to you even to write to me," said Mr. Goodwood. Isabel made no answer to this ; the sense of Henrietta Stackpole' s treachery, as she momentarily qualified it, waa strong within her.