Page:The Portrait of a Lady (1882).djvu/393

385 THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY. 385 " No, indeed. I know how one cares for her. But you must have done a great deal for her." " I have taken her out with me," said Isabel, smiling still. "And I have seen that she has proper clothes." " Your society must have been a great benefit to her. You have talked to her, advised her, helped her to develop." "Ah, yes, if she isn't the rose, she has lived near it." Isabel laughed, and her companion smiled ; but there was a certain visible preoccupation in his face which interfered with complete hilarity. " We all try to live as near it as we can," he said, tfter a moment's hesitation. Isabel turned away ; Pansy was about to be restored to her, and she welcomed the diversion. We know how much she liked Lord Warburton ; she thought him delightful; there was some- thing in his friendship which appeared a kind of resource in case of indefinite need ; it was like having a large balance at the bank. She felt happier when he was in the room ; there was something reassuring in his approach ; the sound of his voice reminded her of the beneficence of nature. Yet for all that it did not please her that he should be too near to her, that he should take too much of her good- will for granted. She was afraid of that ; she averted herself from it ; she wished he wouldn't. She felt that if he should come too near, as it Avere, it was in her to flash out and bid him keep his distance. Pansy came back to Isabel with another rent in her skirt, which was the inevitable consequence of the first, and which she displayed to Isabel with serious eyes. There were too many gentlemen in uniform ; they wore those dreadful spurs, which were fatal to the dresses of young girls. It hereupon became apparent that the resources of women are innumerable. Isabel devoted herself to Pansy's desecrated drapery ; she fumbled for a pin and repaired the injury ; she smiled and listened to her account of her 'adventures. Her attention, her sympathy, were most active ; and they were in direct proportion to a sentiment with which they were in no way connected a lively conjecture as to whether Lord War- burton was trying to make love to her. It was n< >t simply his words just then ; it was others as well ; it was the reference and the continuity. This was what she thought about while she pinned up Pansy's dress. If it were so, as she feared, he was of course unconscious ; he himself had not taken account of his intention. But this made it none the more auspicious, made the situation none the less unacceptable. The sooner Lord Wa.r- burton should come to self -consciousness thn better. He im- mediately began to talk to Pansy on whom it was certainly c o