Page:The Portrait of a Lady (1882).djvu/180

172 172 THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY. who lives 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 water-colours, like me, only better than I. His painting is pretty bad ; on the whole I am rather glad of that. Fortunately he is very indolent, so indolent that it amounts to a sort of position. He can say, c Oh, I do nothing ; I am too deadly lazy. You can do nothing to-day unless you get up at five o'clock in the morning.' In that way he becomes a sort of exception ; you feel that he might do something if he wouL I only rise early. He never speaks of his painting to people at large ; he is too clever for that. But he has a little girl a dear little girl ; he does speak of her. He is devoted to her, and if it were a career to be an excellent father he would be very dis- tinguished. But I am afraid that is 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 reflec- tions, which are presented in a cluster for the convenience of the reader. 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-a-terre^ with some rather good old damask. She talked of places, of people, and even, as the phrase is, of " subjects " ; and from time to time sho 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 which she took of the measure of his remainder of life. One evening she announced definitely that he would not live. " Sir Matthew Hope told me so, as plainly as was proper," she said; "standing there, near the fire, before dinner. He makes himself very agreeable, the great doctor. 1 don't mean that his saying that has anything to do with it. But he says such things with great tact. I had said to him that I felt ill at my ease, staying here at such a time ; it seemed to me so indiscreet it was not as if I could nurse. ' You must remain, you must remain/ he answered; 'your office will come later.' Was not that a very delicate way both of saying that poor Mr. Touchett would go, and that I might be of some use as a consoler 1 In fact, however, I shall not be of the slightest use. Your aunt will console herself ; she, and she alone, knows just how much consolation she will 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 will miss