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84 84 THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY. idea with regard to Mr. Goodwood ' And then she paused ; Henrietta's bright eyes seemed to her to grow enormous. "My dear child, you certainly encouraged him," said Miss Stackpole. Isabel appeared for the moment to be on the point of denying this charge, but instead of this she presently answered " It is very true; I did encourage him." And then she inquired whether her companion had learned from Mr. Goodwood what he intended to do. This inquiry was a concession to curiosity, for she did not enjoy discussing the gentleman with Henrietta Stackpole, and she thought that in her treatment of the subject this faithful friend lacked delicacy. " I asked him, and he said he meant to do nothing," Miss Stackpole answered. " But I don't believe that ; he's not a man to do nothing. He is a man of action. Whatever happens to him, he will always do something, and whatever he does will be right." " 1 quite believe that," said Isabel. Henrietta might be wanting in delicacy ; but it touched the girl, all the same, to hear this rich assertion made. "Ah, you do care for him," Henrietta murmured. " Whatever he does will be right," Isabel repeated. " When a man is of that supernatural mould, what does it matter to him whether one cares for him 1 " "It may not matter to him, but it matters to one's self." " Ah, what it matters to me, that is not what we are discuss- ing," said Isabel, smiling a little. This time her companion was grave. " Well, I don't care ; you have changed," she replied. " You are not the girl you were a few short weeks ago, and Mr. Goodwood will see it. I expect him here any day." " I hope he will hate me, then," said Isabel. " I believe that you hope it about as much as I believe that he is capable of it. " To this observation our heroine made no rejoinder she was absorbed in the feeling of alarm given her by Henrietta's intim- ation that Caspar Goodwood would present himself at Garden- court. Alarm is perhaps a violent term to apply to the uneasiness with which she regarded this contingency ; but her uneasiness was keen, and there were various good reasons for it. She pretended to herself that she thought the event impossible, and, later, she communicated her disbelief to her friend ; but for the next forty-eight hours, nevertheless, she stood prepared to hear the young man's name announced. The feeling was oppressive ;