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she expected, she would have nothing but contempt for the
man who had attempted, in advance, to undermine a bless-
ing so dear; and if on the other hand his warning should be
justified the vow she had taken that he should never know
it would lay upon her spirit such a burden as to make her
hate him. So dismal had been, during the year that followed
his cousin’s marriage, Ralph’s prevision of the future; and if
his meditations appear morbid we must remember he was
not in the bloom of health. He consoled himself as he might
by behaving (as he deemed) beautifully, and was present at
the ceremony by which Isabel was united to Mr. Osmond,
and which was performed in Florence in the month of June.
He learned from his mother that Isabel at first had thought
of celebrating her nuptials in her native land, but that as
simplicity was what she chiefly desired to secure she had fi-
nally decided, in spite of Osmond’s professed willingness to
make a journey of any length, that this characteristic would
be best embodied in their being married by the nearest cler-
gyman in the shortest time. The thing was done therefore
at the little American chapel, on a very hot day, in the pres-
ence only of Mrs. Touchett and her son, of Pansy Osmond
and the Countess Gemini. That severity in the proceedings
of which I just spoke was in part the result of the absence of
two persons who might have been looked for on the occa-
sion and who would have lent it a certain richness. Madame
Merle had been invited, but Madame Merle, who was un-
able to leave Rome, had written a gracious letter of excuses.
Henrietta Stackpole had not been invited, as her departure
from America, announced to Isabel by Mr. Goodwood, was

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