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457 THE PORTEAIT OF A LADY. 457 ornament, as it were, to the other. She looked exquisitely calm, but impressively sad. "On your side, don't try to frighten me," she said. "I wonder whether you know some of my thoughts." " !N"o more than I can help. I have quite enough of my own." " That's because they are so delightful." Osmond rested his head against the back of his chair and looked at his companion for a long time, with a kind of cynical directness which seemed also partly an expression of fatigue. " You do aggravate me," he remarked in a moment. " I am very tired." " Eh moi, done ! " cried Madame Merle. " With you, it's because you fatigue yourself. With me, it's not my own fault." " When I fatigue myself it's f < r you. I have given you an interest ; that's a great gift." " Do you call it an interest ? " Osmond inquired, languidly. " Certainly, since it helps you to pass your time." ".The time has never seemed longer to me than this winter." " You fyave never looked better ; you have never been so agreeable, so brilliant." " Damn my brilliancy ! " Osmond murmured, thoughtfully. " How little, after all, you know me ! " " If I don't know you, I know nothing," said Madame Merle, smiling. " You have the feeling of complete success." " No, I shall not have that till I have made you stop judging me." " I did that long ago. I speak from old knowledge. But you express yourself more, too." Osmond hesitated a moment. "I wish you would express yourself less ! " " You wish to condemn me to silence 1 Eemember that I have never been a chatterbox. At any rate, there are three or four things that I should like to say to you first. Your wife doesn't know what to do with herself," she went on, with a change of tone. "Excuse me; she knows perfectly. She has a line sharply marked out. She means to carry out her ideas." " Her ideas, to-day, must be remarkable." " Certainly they are. She has more of them than ever." " She was unable to show me any this morning," said Madame Merle. " She seemed in a very simple, almost in a stupid, state of mind. She was completely bewildered." " You had better say at once that she was pathetic."