Page:The Portrait of a Lady (1882).djvu/404

396 396 THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY. " She has not asked me. I wrote to her I was commg, and she answered that she would engage a room for me at a pension" The Countess listened with extreme interest. " That's Osmond," she remarked, pregnantly. " Isabel ought to resist," said Miss Stackpole. " I am afraid she has changed a great deal. I told her she would." "I am sorry to hear it; I hoped she would have her own way. "Why doesn't my brother like you 1 " the Countess added, ingenuously. " I don't know, and I don't care. He is perfectly welcome not to like me ; I don't want every one to like me ; I should think less of myself if some people did. A journalist can't hope to do much good unless he gets a good deal hated ; that's the way he knows how his work goes on. And it's just the same for a lady. But I didn't expect it of Isabel." "Do you mean that she hates you 1 ?" the Countess inquired. " I don't know ; I want to see. That's what I am going to Rome for." " Dear me, what a tiresome errand ! " the Countess exclaimed. " She doesn't write to me in the same way ; it's easy to see there's a difference. If you know anything," Miss Stackpole went on, "I should like to hear it beforehand, so as to decide on the line I shall take." The Countess thrust out her under lip and gave a gradual shrug. " I know very little ; I see and hear very little of Osmond. He doesn't like me any better than he appears to like you." "Yet you are not a lady -correspondent." said Henrietta, pensively. " Oh, he has plenty of reasons. Nevertheless they have in- dited me I am to stay in the house ! " And the Countess smiled almost fiercely ; her exultation, for the moment, took little account of Miss Stackpole's disappointment. This lady, however, regarded it very placidly. " I should not have gone if she had asked me. That is, I think I should not ; and I am glad I hadn't to make up my mind. It would have been a very difficult question. I should not have liked to turn away from her, and yet I should not have been happy under her roof. A pension will suit me very well. But that is not all." "Rome is very good just now," said the Countess; "there are all sorts of smart people. Did you ever hear of Lord Warburtonr