Page:The Portrait of a Lady (1882).djvu/167

159 THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY. 159 take care of. You say you have got so many interests ; but I can't make them out." Kalph 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 take a great interest in my cousin," he said, " but not the sort of interest you desire. I shall not live many years ; but I hope I shall live long enough to see what she does with herself. She is 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 1 " " I should like to put a little wind in her sails." " What do you mean by that 1 " " I should like to put it into her power to do some of the things she wants. She wants to see the world, for instance. I should like to put money in her purse." " Ah, I am glad you have thought of that," said the old man. " But I have thought of it too. I have left her a legacy five thousand pounds." " That is capital ; it is very kind of you. 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. " Isabel is poor, then. My mother tells me that she has but a few hundred dollars a year. I should like to make her rich." " What do you mean by rich?" " I call people rich when they are able to gratify their imagin- ation. 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 and give it to Isabel. Divide my inheritance into two equal halves, and give the second half to her." " To do what she likes with ]" " Absolutely what she likes." "And without an equivalent?" " What equivalent could there be 1 " " The one I harve already mentioned." "Her marrying some one or other 1 ? It's just to do away with anything of that sort that I make my suggestion. If she