Page 678 - the-portrait-of-a-lady

‘Everything’s changed since then,’ said Isabel.
‘Not changed for the worse, surely-as far as we’re con-
cerned. To see you under my roof’-and he hung fire but an
instant-”would be a great satisfaction.’
She had feared an explanation; but that was the only one
that occurred. They talked a little of Ralph, and in another
moment Pansy came in, already dressed for dinner and with
a little red spot in either cheek. She shook hands with Lord
Warburton and stood looking up into his face with a fixed
smile-a smile that Isabel knew, though his lordship prob-
ably never suspected it, to be near akin to a burst of tears.
‘I’m going away,’ he said. ‘I want to bid you good-bye.’
‘Good-bye, Lord Warburton.’ Her voice perceptibly
trembled.
‘And I want to tell you how much I wish you may be very
happy.’
‘Thank you, Lord Warburton,’ Pansy answered.
He lingered a moment and gave a glance at Isabel. ‘You
ought to be very happy-you’ve got a guardian angel.’
‘I’m sure I shall be happy,’ said Pansy in the tone of a per-
son whose certainties were always cheerful.
‘Such a conviction as that will take you a great way. But
if it should ever fail you, remember-remember-’ And her in-
terlocutor stammered a little. ‘Think of me sometimes, you
know!’ he said with a vague laugh. Then he shook hands
with Isabel in silence, and presently he was gone.
When he had left the room she expected an effusion of
tears from her stepdaughter; but Pansy in fact treated her to
something very different.

678 The Portrait of a Lady