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410 410 THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY. tongue. It was difficult to interrogate without appearing to suggest ; Pansy's supreme simplicity, an innocence even more complete than Isabel had yet judged it, gave to the most tenta- tive inquiry something of the effect of an admonition. As she knelt there in the vague firelight, with her pretty dress vaguely shining, her hands folded half in appeal and half in submission, her soft eyes, raised and fixed, full of the seriousness of the situation, she looked to Isabel like a childish martyr decked out for sacrifice and scarcely presuming even to hope to avert it. When Isabel said to her that she had never yet spoken to her of what might have been going on in relation to her getting married, but that her silence had not been indifference or ignor- ance, had only been the desire to leave her at liberty, Pansy bent forward, raised her face nearer and nearer to Isabel's, and with a little murmur which evidently expressed a deep longing, answered that she had greatly wished her to speak, and that she begged her to advise her now. " It's difficult for me to advise you," Isabel rejoined. " I don't know how I can undertake that. That's for your father ; you must get his advice, and, above all, you must act upon it." At this Pansy dropped her eyes; for a moment she said nothing. " I think I should like your advice better than papa's/' she presently remarked. "That's not as it should be," said Isabel, coldly. "I love you very much, but your father loves you better." " It isn't because you love me it's because you're a lady," Pansy answered, with the air of saying something very reason- able. " A lady can advise a young girl better than a man." " I advise you, then, to pay the greatest respect to your father's wishes." " Ah, yes," said Pansy, eagerly, " I must do that." " But if I speak to you now about your getting married, it's not for your own sake, it's for mine," Isabel went on. " If I try to learn from you what you expect, what you desire, it is only that I may act accordingly." Pansy stared, and then, very quickly "Will you do everything I desire 1 ?" she asked. " Before I say yes, I must know what such things are." Pansy presently told her that the only thing she wished in life was to marry Mr. Rosier. He had asked her, and she had told him that she would do so if her papa would allow it. Now her papa wouldn't allow it. " Very well, then, it's impossible," said Isabel.