Page:The Portrait of a Lady (1882).djvu/97

89 THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY. 89 comes for such a course it is not discredited by irritating associations. " I hope you had a pleasant ride," said Isabel, who observed her companion's hesitancy. " It would have been pleasant if for nothing else than that it brought me here," Lord Warburton answered. " Are you so fond of Gardencourt ? " the girl asked ; more and more sure that he meant to make some demand of her ; wishing not to challenge him if he hesitated, and yet to keep all the quietness of her reason if he proceeded. It suddenly came upon her that her situation was one which a few weeks ago she would have deemed deeply romantic ; the park of an old English country-house, with the foreground embellished by a local nobleman in the act of making love to a young lady who, on careful inspection, should be found to present remarkable analogies with herself. But if she were now the heroine of the situation, she succeeded scarcely the less in looking at it from the outside. " I care nothing for Gardencourt," said Lord Warburton; "I care only for you." " You have known me too short a time to have a right to say that, and I cannot believe you are serious." These words of IsabelVwere not perfectly sincere, for she had no doubt whatever that he was serious. They were simply a tribute to the fact, of which she was perfectly aware, that those he himself had just uttered would have excited surprise on the part of the public at large. And, moreover, if anything beside the sense she had already acquired that Lord Warburton was not a frivolous person had been needed to convince her, the tone in which he replied to her would quite Irave served the purpose. " One's right in such a matter is not measured by the time, Miss Archer ; it is measured by the feeling itself. If I were to wait three months, it would make no difference ; I shall not be more sure of what I mean than I am to-day. Of course I have seen you very little; but my impression dates from the very first hour we met. I lost no time ; I fell in love with you then. It was at first sight, as the novels say; I know now that is not a fancy-phrase, and I shall think better of novels for evermore. Those two days I spent here settled it ; I don't know whether you suspected I was doing so, but I paid mentally speaking, I mean the greatest possible attention to you. Nothing you said, nothing you did, was lost upon me. When you came to Gardencourt the other day or rather, when