Page:The Portrait of a Lady (1882).djvu/426

418 418 THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY. smoke, he was obliged to sit and smile and twirl his thumbs. Not that he troubled himself to smile very brightly ; he treated Lord Warburton, on the whole, to as vacant a countenance as so clever a man could very well wear. It was indeed a part of Osmond's cleverness that he could look consummately uncom- promised. His present appearance, however, was not a confes- sion of disappointment ; it was simply a part of Osmond's habitual system, which was to be inexpressive exactly in pro- portion as he was really intent. He had been intent upon Lord Warburton from the first ; but he had never allowed his eager- ness to irradiate his refined face. He had treated bis possible son- in-law as he treated every one with an air of being interested in him only for his own advantage, not for Gilbert Osmond's. He would give no sign now of an inward rage which was the result of a vanished prospect of gain not the faintest nor subtlest. Isabel could be sure of that, if it was any satisfaction to her. Strangely, very strangely, it was a satisfaction ; she wished Lord Warburton to triumph before her husband, and at the same time she wished her husband to be very superior before Lord Warburton. Osmond, in his way, was admirable ; he had, like their visitor, the advantage of an acquired habit. It was not that of succeeding, but it was something almost as good that of not attempting. As lie leaned back in his place, listen- ing but vaguely to Lord Wurburton's friendly offers and sup- pressed explanations as it' it were only proper to assume that they were, addressed essentially to his wife he had at least (since so little else was left him) the comfort of thinking how well he personally had kept nut of it, and how the air of indifference, which he was now able to wear, had the added beauty of consistency. It was something to be able to look as if their visitor's movements had no reLition to his own mind. Their visitor did well, certainly ; but Osmond's performance was in its very nature more finished. Lord Warburton's position was after all an easy one ; there was no reason in the world why he should not leave Koine. He had beneficent inclinations ; but they had stopped short of fruition ; he had never committed himself, and his honour was safe. Osmond appeared to take but a moderate interest in the proposal that they should go and stay with him, and in his allusion to the success Pansy might extract from ' their visit. He murmured a recognition, but left Isabel to say that it was a matter requiring grave consideration. Isabel, even while she made this remark, could see the givat vista which had suddenly opened out in her husband's mind, with Pansy's little figure marching up the middle of it.