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ever, now that he was face to face with her, was plainly quite
sure of his own sense of the matter; though his grey eyes had
still their fine original property of keeping recognition and
attestation strictly sincere. He was ‘heavier’ than of yore and
looked older; he stood there very solidly and sensibly.
‘I suppose you didn’t expect to see me,’ he said; ‘I’ve but
just arrived. Literally, I only got here this evening. You see
I’ve lost no time in coming to pay you my respects. I knew
you were at home on Thursdays.’
‘You see the fame of your Thursdays has spread to Eng-
land,’ Osmond remarked to his wife.
‘It’s very kind of Lord Warburton to come so soon; we’re
greatly flattered,’ Isabel said.
‘Ah well, it’s better than stopping in one of those horrible
inns,’ Osmond went on.
‘The hotel seems very good; I think it’s the same at which
I saw you four years since. You know it was here in Rome
that we first met; it’s a long time ago. Do you remember
where I bade you good-bye?’ his lordship asked of his host-
ess. ‘It was in the Capitol, in the first room.’
‘I remember that myself,’ said Osmond. ‘I was there at
the time.’
‘Yes, I remember you there. I was very sorry to leave
Rome-so sorry that, somehow or other, it became almost a
dismal memory, and I’ve never cared to come back till to-
day. But I knew you were living here,’ her old friend went
on to Isabel, ‘and I assure you I’ve often thought of you. It
must be a charming place to live in,’ he added with a look,
round him, at her established home, in which she might

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