Page 602 - the-portrait-of-a-lady

would give him many pretexts, she would often put herself
in the wrong. There were times when she almost pitied him;
for if she had not deceived him in intention she understood
how completely she must have done so in fact. She had ef-
faced herself when he first knew her; she had made herself
small, pretending there was less of her than there really was.
It was because she had been under the extraordinary charm
that he, on his side, had taken pains to put forth. He was not
changed; he had not disguised himself, during the year of
his courtship, any more than she. But she had seen only half
his nature then, as one saw the disk of the moon when it was
partly masked by the shadow of the earth. She saw the full
moon now-she saw the whole man. She had kept still, as it
were, so that he should have a free field, and yet in spite of
this she had mistaken a part for the whole.
Ah, she had been immensely under the charm! It had not
passed away; it was there still: she still knew perfectly what
it was that made Osmond delightful when he chose to be.
He had wished to be when he made love to her, and as she
had wished to be charmed it was not wonderful he had suc-
ceeded. He had succeeded because he had been sincere; it
never occurred to her now to deny him that. He admired
her-he had told her why: because she was the most imagina-
tive woman he had known. It might very well have been true;
for during those months she had imagined a world of things
that had no substance. She had had a more wondrous vision
of him, fed through charmed senses and oh such a stirred
fancy!-she had not read him right. A certain combination of
features had touched her, and in them she had seen the most

602 The Portrait of a Lady