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only to take two frocks. It’s only for a few weeks; I’m sure it
will be very good. I shall find all those ladies who used to be
so kind to me, and I shall see the little girls who are being ed-
ucated. I’m very fond of little girls,’ said Pansy with an effect
of diminutive grandeur. ‘And I’m also very fond of Mother
Catherine. I shall be very quiet and think a great deal.’
Isabel listened to her, holding her breath; she was almost
awe-struck.
‘Think of me sometimes.’
‘Ah, come and see me soon!’ cried Pansy; and the cry was
very different from the heroic remarks of which she had just
delivered herself.
Isabel could say nothing more; she understood nothing;
she only felt how little she yet knew her husband. Her answer
to his daughter was a long, tender kiss.
Half an hour later she learned from her maid that Ma-
dame Catherine had arrived in a cab and had departed again
with the signorina. On going to the drawing-room before
dinner she found the Countess Gemini alone, and this lady
characterized the incident by exclaiming, with a wonder-
ful toss of the head, ‘En voila, ma chere, une pose!’ But if it
was an affectation she was at a loss to see what her husband
affected. She could only dimly perceive that he had more tra-
ditions than she supposed. It had become her habit to be so
careful as to what she said to him that, strange as it may ap-
pear, she hesitated, for several minutes after he had come in,
to allude to his daughter’s sudden departure: she spoke of it
only after they were seated at table. But she had forbidden
herself ever to ask Osmond a question. All she could do was

750 The Portrait of a Lady