Page 386 - the-portrait-of-a-lady

Chapter 26

Gilbert Osmond came to see Isabel again; that is he came
to Palazzo Crescentini. He had other friends there as well,
and to Mrs. Touchett and Madame Merle he was always im-
partially civil; but the former of these ladies noted the fact
that in the course of a fortnight he called five times, and
compared it with another fact that she found no difficulty in
remembering. Two visits a year had hitherto constituted his
regular tribute to Mrs. Touchett’s worth, and she had never
observed him select for such visits those moments, of almost
periodical recurrence, when Madame Merle was under her
roof. It was not for Madame Merle that he came; these two
were old friends and he never put himself out for her. He
was not fond of Ralph—Ralph had told her so—and it was
not supposable that Mr. Osmond had suddenly taken a fan-
cy to her son. Ralph was imperturbable—Ralph had a kind
of loose-fitting urbanity that wrapped him about like an ill-
made overcoat, but of which he never divested himself; he
thought Mr. Osmond very good company and was willing
at any time to look at him in the light of hospitality. But he
didn’t flatter himself that the desire to repair a past injustice
was the motive of their visitor’s calls; he read the situation
more clearly. Isabel was the attraction, and in all conscience
a sufficient one. Osmond was a critic, a student of the ex-
quisite, and it was natural he should be curious of so rare

386 The Portrait of a Lady