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knew how good he was, and if such a fallacy had not been
so pernicious he could have laughed at it. He searched again
for Pansy, but she had disappeared, and his main desire was
now to get out of the house. Before doing so he spoke once
more to Isabel; it was not agreeable to him to reflect that he
had just said a rude thing to her-the only point that would
now justify a low view of him.
‘I referred to Mr. Osmond as I shouldn’t have done, a
while ago,’ he began. ‘But you must remember my situa-
tion.’
‘I don’t remember what you said,’ she answered coldly.
‘Ah, you’re offended, and now you’ll never help me.’
She was silent an instant, and then with a change of tone:
‘It’s not that I won’t; I simply can’t!’ Her manner was almost
passionate.
‘If you could, just a little, I’d never again speak of your
husband save as an angel.’
‘The inducement’s great,’ said Isabel gravely-inscruta-
bly, as he afterwards, to himself, called it; and she gave him,
straight in the eyes, a look which was also inscrutable. It
made him remember somehow that he had known her as a
child; and yet it was keener than he liked, and he took him-
self off.

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