Page 626 - the-portrait-of-a-lady

quiet corner where we may sit down and talk.’
‘Oh,’ said Isabel gravely, ‘you’re much too considerate of
me.’
When the cotillion came Pansy was found to have en-
gaged herself, thinking, in perfect humility, that Lord
Warburton had no intentions. Isabel recommended him
to seek another partner, but he assured her that he would
dance with no one but herself. As, however, she had, in spite
of the remonstrances of her hostess, declined other invita-
tions on the ground that she was not dancing at all, it was
not possible for her to make an exception in Lord Warbur-
ton’s favour.
‘After all I don’t care to dance,’ he said; ‘it’s a barbarous
amusement: I’d much rather talk.’ And he intimated that he
had discovered exactly the corner he had been looking for-a
quiet nook in one of the smaller rooms, where the music
would come to them faintly and not interfere with conver-
sation. Isabel had decided to let him carry out his idea; she
wished to be satisfied. She wandered away from the ball-
room with him, though she knew her husband desired she
should not lose sight of his daughter. It was with his daugh-
ter’s pretendant, however; that would make it right for
Osmond. On her way out of the ball-room she came upon
Edward Rosier, who was standing in a doorway, with folded
arms, looking at the dance in the attitude of a young man
without illusions. She stopped a moment and asked him if
he were not dancing.
‘Certainly not, if I can’t dance with her!’ he answered.
‘You had better go away then,’ said Isabel with the man-

626 The Portrait of a Lady