Page:The Portrait of a Lady (1882).djvu/459

451 THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY. 451 a disappointment which excited Isabel's surprise our heroine naving no knowledge of her zealous interest in Pansy's marriage ; and she betrayed it in a manner which quickened Mrs. Osmond's alarm. More clearly than ever before, Isabel heard a cold, mocking voice proceed from she knew not where, in the dim void that surrounded her, and declare that this bright, strong, definite, worldly woman, this incarnation of the practical, the personal, the immediate, was a powerful agent in her destiny. She was nearer to her than Isabel had yet discovered, and her nearness was not the charming accident that she had so long thought. The sense of accident indeed had died within her that, day when she happened to be struck with the manner in which Madame Merle and her own husband sat together in private. No definite suspicion had as yet taken its place ; but it was enough to make her look at this lady with a different eye, to have been led to reflect that there was more intention in her past behaviour than she had allowed for at the time. Ah, yes, there had been intention, there had been intention, Isabel said to herself ; and she seemed to wake from a long, pernicious dream. What was it that brought it home to her that Madame Merle's intention had n>t been good? Nothing but the mistrust which had lately taken body, and which married itself now to the fruitful wonder produced by her visitor's challenge on behalf of poor Pansy. There was something in this challenge which at the very outset excited an answering defiance ; a nameless vitality which Isabel now saw to have been absent from her friend's professions of delicacy and caution. Madame Merle has been unwilling to interfere, certainly, but only so long as there was nothing to interfere with. It will perhaps seem to the reader that Isabel went fast in casting doubt, on mere suspicion, on a sincerity proved by several years of good offices. She moved quickly, indeed, and with reason, for a strange truth was filtering into her soul. Madame Merle's interest was identical with Osmond's ; that was enough. " I think Pansy will tell you nothing that will make you more angry," she said, in answer to her companion's last remark. "I am not in the least angry. I have only a great desire to retrieve the situation. Do you think his lordship has left us for ever ? " "I can't tell you; I don't understand you. It's all over; please let it rest. Osmond has talked to me a great deal about it, and I have nothing more to say or to hear. I have no doubt," Isabel added, " that he will be very happy to discuss the subject with you."