Page 482 - the-portrait-of-a-lady

determined not to help Ralph to utter a word that should
not be to the honour of her high decision. ‘I think I’ve hard-
ly got over my surprise,’ he went on at last. ‘You were the last
person I expected to see caught.’
‘I don’t know why you call it caught.’
‘Because you’re going to be put into a cage.’
‘If I like my cage, that needn’t trouble you,’ she an-
swered.
‘That’s what I wonder at; that’s what I’ve been thinking
of.’
‘If you’ve been thinking you may imagine how I’ve
thought! I’m satisfied that I’m doing well.’
‘You must have changed immensely. A year ago you val-
ued your liberty beyond everything. You wanted only to see
life.’
‘I’ve seen it,’ said Isabel. ‘It doesn’t look to me now, I ad-
mit, such an inviting expanse.’
‘I don’t pretend it is; only I had an idea that you took a ge-
nial view of it and wanted to survey the whole field.’
‘I’ve seen that one can’t do anything so general. One
must choose a corner and cultivate that.’
‘That’s what I think. And one must choose as good a cor-
ner as possible. I had an idea, all winter, while I read your
delightful letters, that you were choosing. You said nothing
about it, and your silence put me off my guard.’
‘It was not a matter I was likely to write to you about. Be-
sides, I knew nothing of the future. It has all come lately. If
you had been on your guard, however,’ Isabel asked, ‘what
would you have done?’

482 The Portrait of a Lady