Page 584 - the-portrait-of-a-lady

wished not to appear to exult in it. ‘You seem to have had an
excellent informant in my aunt,’ she simply returned.
‘She let me know you had declined an offer of marriage
from Lord Warburton, because she was greatly vexed and
was full of the subject. Of course I think you’ve done better
in doing as you did. But if you wouldn’t marry Lord War-
burton yourself, make him the reparation of helping him to
marry some one else.’
Isabel listened to this with a face that persisted in not
reflecting the bright expressiveness of Madame Merle’s.
But in a moment she said, reasonably and gently enough:
‘I should be very glad indeed if, as regards Pansy, it could
be arranged.’ Upon which her companion, who seemed to
regard this as a speech of good omen, embraced her more
tenderly than might have been expected and triumphantly
withdrew.

584 The Portrait of a Lady