Page 128 - the-portrait-of-a-lady

even of resentment. ‘No, not even then,’ she answered dryly.
After which she walked away.
‘I’ve not conceived a passion for your friend,’ Ralph said
that evening to Isabel, ‘though we talked some time this
morning about it.’
‘And you said something she didn’t like,’ the girl replied.
Ralph stared. ‘Has she complained of me?’
‘She told me she thinks there’s something very low in the
tone of Europeans towards women.’
‘Does she call me a European?’
‘One of the worst. She told me you had said to her some-
thing that an American never would have said. But she
didn’t repeat it.’
Ralph treated himself to a luxury of laughter. ‘She’s an ex-
traordinary combination. Did she think I was making love
to her?’
‘No; I believe even Americans do that. But she apparent-
ly thought you mistook the intention of something she had
said, and put an unkind construction on it.’
‘I thought she was proposing marriage to me and I ac-
cepted her. Was that unkind?’
Isabel smiled. ‘It was unkind to me. I don’t want you to
marry.’
‘My dear cousin, what’s one to do among you all?’ Ralph
demanded. ‘Miss Stackpole tells me it’s my bounden duty,
and that it’s hers, in general, to see I do mine!’
‘She has a great sense of duty,’ said Isabel gravely. ‘She
has indeed, and it’s the motive of everything she says. That’s
what I like her for. She thinks it’s unworthy of you to keep so

128 The Portrait of a Lady