Page 666 - the-portrait-of-a-lady

a moment looking into the fire. ‘Lord Warburton has shown
you great attention,’ she resumed; ‘of course you know it’s
of him I speak.’ She found herself, against her expectation,
almost placed in the position of justifying herself; which led
her to introduce this nobleman more crudely than she had
intended.
‘He has been very kind to me, and I like him very much.
But if you mean that he’ll propose for me I think you’re mis-
taken.’
‘Perhaps I am. But your father would like it extremely.’
Pansy shook her head with a little wise smile. ‘Lord War-
burton won’t propose simply to please papa.’
‘Your father would like you to encourage him,’ Isabel
went on mechanically.
‘How can I encourage him?’
don’t know. Your father must tell you that.’
Pansy said nothing for a moment; she only continued
to smile as if she were in possession of a bright assurance.
‘There’s no danger-no danger!’ she declared at last.
There was a conviction in the way she said this, and a
felicity in her believing it, which conduced to Isabel’s awk-
wardness. She felt accused of dishonesty, and the idea was
disgusting. To repair her self-respect she was on the point
of saying that Lord Warburton had let her know that there
was a danger. But she didn’t; she only said-in her embar-
rassment rather wide of the mark-that he surely had been
most kind, most friendly.
‘Yes, he has been very kind,’ Pansy answered. ‘That’s
what I like him for.’

666 The Portrait of a Lady