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321 THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY. 321 keenness of this gentleman's eyes. " Madame Merle has told him, and he doesn't like it," Rosier said to himself. He had hoped Madame Merle would be there but she was not within sight ; perhaps she was in one of the other rooms, or would come later. He had never especially delighted in Gilbert Osmond ; he had a fancy that he gave himself airs. But Rosier was not quickly resentful, and where politeness was concerned he had an inveterate wish to be in the right. He looked round him, smiling, and then, in a moment, he said " I saw a jolly good piece of Capo di Monte to-day." Osmond answered nothing at first; but presently, while he warmed his boot-sole, " I don't care a fig for Capo di Monte ! " he returned. " I hope you are not losing your interest ? " " In old pots and plates ? Yes, I am losing my interest/' Rosier for a moment forgot the delicacy of his position. " You are not thinking of parting with a a piece or two 1 " " No, I am not thinking of parting with anything at all, Mr. Rosier," said Osmond, with his eyes still on the eyes of his visitor. "Ah, you want to keep, but not to add," Rosier remarked, brightly. "Exactly. I have nothing that I wish to match." Poor Rosier was aware that he had blushed, and he was dis- tressed at his want of assurance. " Ah, well, I have ! " was all that he could murmur ; and he knew that his murmur was partly lost as he turned away. He took his course to the adjoin- ing room, and met Mrs. Osmond coming out of the deep door- way. She was dressed in black velvet ; she looked brilliant and noble. "We know what Mr. Rosier thought of her, and the terms in which, to Madame Merle, he had expressed his admir- ation. Like his appreciation of her dear little step-daughter, it was based partly on his fine sense of the plastic ; but also on a relish for a more impalpable sort of merit that merit of a bright spirit, which Rosier' s devotion to brittle wares had not made him cease to regard as a quality. Mrs. Osmond, at present, might well have gratified such tastes. The years had touched her only to enrich her ; the flower of her youth had not faded, it only hung more quietly on its stem. She had lost something of that quick eagerness to which her husband had privately taken exception she had more the air of being able to wait. Now, at all events, framed in the gilded doorway, she struck our young man as the picture of a gracious lady. Y