Page 94 - the-portrait-of-a-lady

Chapter 8

As she was devoted to romantic effects Lord Warburton
ventured to express a hope that she would come some day
and see his house, a very curious old place. He extracted
from Mrs. Touchett a promise that she bring her niece to
Lockleigh, and Ralph signified his willingness to attend
the ladies if his father should be able to spare him. Lord
Warburton assured our heroine that in the mean time
his sisters, would come and see her. She knew something
about his sisters, having sounded him, during the hours
they spent together while he was at Gardencourt, on many
points connected with his family. When Isabel was interest-
ed she asked a great many questions, and as her companion
was a copious talker she urged him on this occasion by
no means in vain. He told her he had four sisters and two
brothers and had lost both his parents. The brothers and
sisters were very good people—‘not particularly clever, you
know,’ he said, ‘but very decent and pleasant”; and he was
so good as to hope Miss Archer might know them well. One
of the brothers was in the Church, settled in the family liv-
ing, that of Lockleigh, which was a heavy, sprawling parish,
and was an excellent fellow in spite of his thinking differ-
ently from himself on every conceivable topic. And then
Lord Warburton mentioned some of the opinions held by
his brother, which were opinions Isabel had often heard

94 The Portrait of a Lady