Page 764 - the-portrait-of-a-lady

what he was capable of saying to her she had felt; yet they
were married, for all that, and marriage meant that a woman
should cleave to the man with whom, uttering tremendous
vows, she had stood at the altar. She sank down on her sofa
at last and buried her head in a pile of cushions.
When she raised her head again the Countess Gemini
hovered before her. She had come in all unperceived; she
had a strange smile on her thin lips and her whole face had
grown in an hour a shining intimation. She lived assuredly,
it might be said, at the window of her spirit, but now she
was leaning far out. ‘I knocked,’ she began, ‘but you didn’t
answer me. So I ventured in. I’ve been looking at you for the
last five minutes. You’re very unhappy.’
‘Yes; but I don’t think you can comfort me.’
‘Will you give me leave to try?’ And the Countess sat
down on the sofa beside her. She continued to smile, and
there was something communicative and exultant in her ex-
pression. She appeared to have a deal to say, and it occurred
to Isabel for the first time that her sister-in-law might say
something really human. She made play with her glittering
eyes, in which there was an unpleasant fascination. ‘After
all,’ she soon resumed, ‘I must tell you, to begin with, that
I don’t understand your state of mind. You seem to have so
many scruples, so many reasons, so many ties. When I dis-
covered, ten years ago, that my husband’s dearest wish was
to make me miserable of late he has simply let me alone-ah,
it was a wonderful simplification! My poor Isabel, you’re not
simple enough.’
‘No, I’m not simple enough,’ said Isabel.

764 The Portrait of a Lady