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‘I can’t do that. I shall never make another promise. I
made such a solemn one four years ago, and I’ve succeeded
so ill in keeping it.’
‘You’ve had no encouragement. In this case I should
give you the greatest. Leave your husband before the worst
comes; that’s what I want you to promise.’
‘The worst? What do you call the worst?’
‘Before your character gets spoiled.’
‘Do you mean my disposition? It won’t get spoiled,’ Isabel
answered, smiling. ‘I’m taking very good care of it. I’m ex-
tremely struck,’ she added, turning away, ‘with the off-hand
way in which you speak of a woman’s leaving her husband.
It’s easy to see you’ve never had one!’
‘Well,’ said Henrietta as if she were beginning an argu-
ment, ‘nothing is more common in our Western cities, and
it’s to them, after all, that we must look in the future.’ Her
argument, however, does not concern this history, which
has too many other threads to unwind. She announced to
Ralph Touchett that she was ready to leave Rome by any
train he might designate, and Ralph immediately pulled
himself together for departure. Isabel went to see him at
the last, and he made the same remark that Henrietta had
made. It struck him that Isabel was uncommonly glad to get
rid of them all.
For all answer to this she gently laid her hand on his, and
said in a low tone, with a quick smile: ‘My dear Ralph-!’
It was answer enough, and he was quite contented. But
he went on in the same way, jocosely, ingenuously: ‘I’ve seen
less of you than I might, but it’s better than nothing. And

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