Page:The Portrait of a Lady (1882).djvu/453

445 THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY. 445 Ho had not even the satisfaction of knowing the truth ; appar- ently he could not even be trusted to respect her if she were unhappy. He was hopeless, he was helpless, he was superfluous. To this last fact she had called his attention by her ingenious plan for making him leave Eome. He had no objection what- ever to doing what he could for her cousin, but it made him grind his teeth to think that of all the services she might have asked of him this was the one she had been eager to select. There had been no danger of her choosing one that would have kept him in Eome ! To-night what he was chiefly thinking of was that he was to leave her to-morrow, and that he had gained nothing by coming but the knowledge that he was as superfluous as ever. About herself he had gained no knowledge ; she was imperturbable, impenetrable. He felt the old bitterness, which he had tried so hard to swallow, rise again in his throat, and he knew that there are disappointments which last as long as life. Osmond went on talking ; Goodwood was vaguely aware that he was touching again upon his perfect intimacy with his wife. It seemed to him for a moment that Osmond had a kind of demoniac imagin- ation; it was impossible that without malice he should have selected so unusual a topic. But what did it matter, after all, whether he were demoniac or not, and whether she loved him or hated him 1 She might hate him .to the death without Good- wood's gaining by it. " You travel, by the by, with Touchett," Osmond said. " I suppose that means that you will move slowly 1 " " I don't know ; I shall do just as he likes." " You are very accommodating. We are immensely obliged to you ; you must really let me say it. My wife has probably expressed to you what we feel. Touchett has been on our minds all winter ; it has looked more than once as if he would never leave Eome. He ought never to have come ; it's worse than an imprudence for people in that state to travel ; it's a kind of indelicacy. I wouldn't for the world be under such an obligation to Touchett as he has been to to my wife and me. Other people inevitably have to look after him, and every one isn't so generous as you." " I have nothing else to do," said Caspar, dryly. Osmond looked at him a moment, askance. " You ought to marry, and then you would have plenty to do ! It is true that in that case you wouldn't be quite so available for deeds of mercy." " Do you find that as a married man you are so much occupied?"