Page:The Portrait of a Lady (1882).djvu/356

348 348 THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY. " My dear Warburton, I never expected you to come further than this," Ralph cried. " I should have gone with you and seen you settled," said Lord Warburton. " You are a very good fellow. You are very kind." " Then I should have come back here." " And then you would have gone to England." " ISTo, no ; I should have stayed." " "Well," said Ealph, " if that's what we are both up to, I don't see where Sicily comes in ! " His companion was silent ; he sat staring at the fire. At last, looking up " I say, tell me this," he broke out ; " did you really mean to go to Sicily when we started ] " " Ah, vous m'.en demandez trop ! Let me put a question first. Did you come with me quite platonically 1 " " I don't know what you mean by that. I wanted to come abroad." " I suspect we have each been playing our little game." " Speak for yourself. I made no secret whatever of my wanting to be here a while." "Yes, I remember you said you wished to see the Minister of Foreign Affairs." "I have seen him three times ; he is very amusing." " I think you have forgotten what you came for," said Ealph. "Perhaps I have," his companion answered, rather gravely. These two gentlemen were children of a race which is not distinguished by the absence of reserve, and they had travelled together from London to Rome without an allusion to matters that were uppermost in the mind of each. There was an old subject that they had once discussed, but it had lost its recognised place in their attention, and even after their arrival in Rome, where many things led back to it, they had kept the same half- diffident, half-confident silence. " I recommend you to get the. doctor's consent, all the same," Lord Warburton went on, abruptly, after an interval. " The doctor's consent will spoil it ; I never have it when I can help it ! " " What does Mrs. Osmond think ? " "I have not told her. She will probably say that Rome is too cold, and even offer to go with me to Catania. She is capable of that." " In your place I should like it." " Her husband won't like it."