Page 616 - the-portrait-of-a-lady

Chapter 43

Three nights after this she took Pansy to a great party, to
which Osmond, who never went to dances, did not accom-
pany them. Pansy was as ready for a dance as ever; was not of
a generalizing turn and had not extended to other pleasures
the interdict she had seen placed on those of love. If she was
biding her time or hoping to circumvent her father she must
have had a prevision of success. Isabel thought this unlikely;
it was much more likely that Pansy had simply determined
to be a good girl. She had never had such a chance, and she
had a proper esteem for chances. She carried herself no less
attentively than usual and kept no less anxious an eye upon
her vaporous skirts; she held her bouquet very tight and
counted over the flowers for the twentieth time. She made
Isabel feel old; it seemed so long since she had been in a
flutter about a ball. Pansy, who was greatly admired, was
never in want of partners, and very soon after their arrival
she gave Isabel, who was not dancing, her bouquet to hold.
Isabel had rendered her this service for some minutes when
she became aware of the near presence of Edward Rosier.
He stood before her; he had lost his affable smile and wore
a look of almost military resolution. The change in his ap-
pearance would have made Isabel smile if she had not felt
his case to be at bottom a hard one: he had always smelt so
much more of heliotrope than of gunpowder. He looked at

616 The Portrait of a Lady