Page:The Portrait of a Lady (1882).djvu/32

24 24 THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY. lawyer, a young mail with a loud voice and an enthusiasm for his profession ; the match was not brilliant, any more than Edith's had been, but Lilian 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, aid the mistress of a house which presented a narrowness of new brown stone to Fifty-third Street, she had quite justified her claim to matrimony. She was short and plump, and, as people said, had improved since her marriage ; the two things in life of which she was mo.st distinctly conscious were her husband's force in argument and her sister Isabel's originality. " I have never ielt like Isabel's sister, and I am sure I never shall," she had said to an intimate friend ; a declaration which made it all the more creditable that she had been prolific in sisterly offices. " I want to see her safely married that's what I want to see," she frequently remarked 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 have against her, except that she is so original." " Well, I don't like originals ; I like translations," Mr. Ltidlow had more than once replied. " Isabel is written in a foreign tongue. I can't make her out. She ought to marry an Armenian, or a Portuguese." " That's just what I am afraid she will do ! " cried Lilian, who thought Isabel capable of anything. She listened with great interest to the. girl's account of Mrs. Touchett's visit, and in the evening prepared to comply with her commands. Of what Isabel said to her no report has remained, but her sister's words must have prompted a remark that she made to her husband in the conjugal chamber as the two were getting ready to go to the hotel. " I do hope immensely she will do something handsome for Isabel ; she has evidently taken a great fancy to her." " What is it you wish her to do 1 " Edmund Ludlow asked ; " make her a big present 1 " " No, indeed ; nothing of the sort. But take an interest in her sympathise with her. She is evidently just the sort of person to appreciate Isabel. She has lived so much in foreign society ; she told Isabel all about it. You know you have always thought Isabel rather foreign."