Page 500 - the-portrait-of-a-lady

had made such a pretty little speech-”Oh, then I shall have
a beautiful sister!’
She was neither surprised nor alarmed; she had not cried,
as he expected.
‘Perhaps she had guessed it,’ said Isabel.
‘Don’t say that; I should be disgusted if I believed that. I
thought it would be just a little shock; but the way she took
it proves that her good manners are paramount. That’s also
what I wished. You shall see for yourself; to-morrow she
shall make you her congratulations in person.’
The meeting, on the morrow, took place at the Countess
Gemini’s, whither Pansy had been conducted by her father,
who knew that Isabel was to come in the afternoon to re-
turn a visit made her by the Countess on learning that they
were to become sisters-in-law. Calling at Casa Touchett the
visitor had not found Isabel at home; but after our young
woman had been ushered into the Countess’s drawing-room
Pansy arrived to say that her aunt would presently appear.
Pansy was spending the day with that lady, who thought her
of an age to begin to learn how to carry herself in company.
It was Isabel’s view that the little girl might have given les-
sons in deportment to her relative, and nothing could have
justified this conviction more than the manner in which
Pansy acquitted herself while they waited together for the
Countess. Her father’s decision, the year before, had finally
been to send her back to the convent to receive the last grac-
es, and Madame Catherine had evidently carried out her
theory that Pansy was to be fitted for the great world.
‘Papa has told me that you’ve kindly consented to marry

500 The Portrait of a Lady