Page 705 - the-portrait-of-a-lady

and close his eyes upon the summer dawn.
That same day Caspar Goodwood came to see him, and
he informed his visitor that Miss Stackpole had taken him
up and was to conduct him back to England. ‘Ah then,’ said
Caspar, ‘I’m afraid I shall be a fifth wheel to the coach. Mrs.
Osmond has made me promise to go with you.’
‘Good heavens-it’s the golden age! You’re all too kind.’
‘The kindness on my part is to her; it’s hardly to you.’
‘Granting that, she’s kind,’ smiled Ralph.
‘To get people to go with you? Yes, that’s a sort of kind-
ness,’ Goodwood answered without lending himself to the
joke. ‘For myself, however,’ he added, ‘I’ll go as far as to say
that I would much rather travel with you and Miss Stack-
pole than with Miss Stackpole alone.’
‘And you’d rather stay here than do either,’ said Ralph.
‘There’s really no need of your coming. Henrietta’s extraor-
dinarily efficient.’
‘I’m sure of that. But I’ve promised Mrs. Osmond.’
‘You can easily get her to let you off.’
‘She wouldn’t let me off for the world. She wants me to
look after you, but that isn’t the principal thing. The princi-
pal thing is that she wants me to leave Rome.’
‘Ah, you see too much in it,’ Ralph suggested.
‘I bore her,’ Goodwood went on; ‘she has nothing to say
to me, so she invented that.’
‘Oh then, if it’s a convenience to her I certainly will take
you with me. Though I don’t see why it should be a conve-
nience,’ Ralph added in a moment.
‘Well,’ said Caspar Goodwood simply, ‘she thinks I’m

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