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434 434 THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY. who was ill at the Hotel de Paris, alone, and be as kind to him as possible. Mr. Goodwood had never seen him, but he would know who the poor fellow was ; if she was not mistaken, Ealph had once invited him to Gardencourt. Caspar remembered the invitation perfectly, and, though he was not supposed to be a man of imagination, had enough to put himself in the place of a poor gentleman who lay dying at a Roman inn. He called at the Hotel de Paris, and on being shown into the presence of the master of Gardencourt, found Miss Stackpole sitting beside his sofa. A singular change had, in fact, occurred in this lady's relations with Ralph Touchett. She had not been asked by Isabel to go and see him, but on hearing that he was too ill to come out had immediately gone of her own motion. After this she had paid him a daily visit always under the conviction that they were great enemies. " Oh yes, we are intimate enemies," Ralph used to say ; and he accused her freely as freely as the humour of it would allow of coming to worry him to death, In reality they became excellent friends, and Henrietta wondered that she should never have liked him before, Ralph liked her exactly as much as he had always done ; he had never doubted for a moment that she was an excellent fellow. They talked about everything, and always diifered ; about everything, that is, but Isabel a topic as to which Ralph always had a thin forefinger on his lips. On the other hand, Mr. Bantling was a great resource ; Ralph was capable of discussing Mr. Bantling with Henrietta for hours. Discussion was stimulated of course by their inevitable difference- of view Ralph having amused himself with taking the ground that the genial ex-guardsman was a regular Machiavelli. Caspar Goodwood could contribute nothing to such a debate ; but after he had been left alone with Touchett, he found there were various other matters they could talk about. It must be admitted that the lady who had just gone out was not one of these ; Caspar granted all Miss Stack- pole's merits in advance, but had no further remark to make about her. Neither, after the first allusions, did the two men expatiate upon Mrs. Osmond a theme in which Goodwood perceived as many dangers as his host. He felt very sorry for Ralph ; he couldn't bear to see a pleasant man so helpless. There was help in Goodwood, when once the fountain had been tapped; and he repeated several times his visit to the Hotel de Paris. It seemed to Isabel that she had been very clever ; she had disposed of the superfluous Caspar. She had given him an occupation; she had converted him into a care-taker of Ralph.