Page:The Portrait of a Lady (1882).djvu/86

78 78 THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY. " Shall you not believe me to be so on the day that I tell you I desire to give up the practice of going round alone 1 " Miss Stackpole looked at him for a moment in a manner which seemed to announce a reply that might technically be called encouraging. But to his great surprise this expression suddenly resolved itself into an appearance of alarm, and even of resentment. " No, not even then," she answered, dryly. After which she walked away. " I have not fallen in love with your friend," Ralph said that evening to Isabel, " though we talked some time this morning about it." "And you said something she didn't like," the girl replied. Ralph stared. " Has she complained of me 1 " " She told me she thinks there is something very low in the tone of Europeans towards women." "Does she call me a European 1 ?" " One of the worst. She told me you had said to her some- thing that an American never would have said. But she didn't repeat it." Ralph treated himself to a burst of resounding laughter. " She is an extraordinary combination. Did she think I was making love to her 1 " " No ; I believe even Americans do that. But she apparently thought you mistook the intention of something she had said, and put an unkind construction on it." " I thought she was proposing marriage to me, and I accepted her. Was that unkind 1 " Isabel smiled. " It was unkind to me. I don't want you to marry." " My dear cousin, what is one to do among you all? " Ralph demanded. " Miss Stackpole tells me it's my bounden duty, and that it's hers to see I do mine ! " " She has a great sense of duty," said Isabel gravely. " She has, indeed, and it's the motive of everything she says. That's what I like her for. She thinks it's very frivolous for you to be single; that's what she meant to express to you. If you thought she was trying to to attract you, you were very wrong." " It is true it was an odd way ; but I did think she was trying to attract me. Excuse my superficiality." " You are very conceited. She had no interested views, and never supposed you would think she had." " One must be very modest, then, to talk with such women/