Youre not conventional? Isabel gravely asked.
I like the way you utter that word! No, Im not conventional: Im convention itself. You dont understand that? And he paused a moment, smiling. I should like to explain it. Then with a sudden, quick, bright naturalness, Do come back again, he pleaded. There are so many things we might talk about.
She stood there with lowered eyes. What service did you speak of just now?
Go and see my little daughter before you leave Florence. Shes alone at the villa; I decided not to send her to my sister, who hasnt at all my ideas. Tell her she must love her poor father very much, said Gilbert Osmond gently.
It will be a great pleasure to me to go, Isabel answered. Ill tell her what you say. Once more good-bye.
On this he took a rapid, respectful leave. When he had gone she stood a moment looking about her and seated herself slowly and with an air of deliberation. She sat there till her companions came back, with folded hands, gazing at the ugly carpet. Her agitationfor it had not diminishedwas very still, very deep. What had happened was something that for a week past her imagination had been going forward to meet; but here, when it came, she stoppedthat sublime principle somehow broke down. The working of this young ladys spirit was strange, and I can only give it to you as I see it, not hoping to make it seem altogether natural. Her imagination, as I say, now hung back: there was a last vague space it couldnt crossa dusky, uncertain tract which looked ambiguous and even slightly treacherous, like a moorland seen in the winter twilight. But she was to cross it yet.
CHAPTER XXX
She returned on the morrow to Florence, under her cousins escort, and Ralph Touchett, though usually restive under railway discipline, thought very well of the successive hours passed in the train that hurried his companion away from the city now distinguished by Gilbert Osmonds preferencehours that were to form the first stage in a larger scheme of travel. Miss Stackpole had remained behind; she was planning a little trip to Naples, to be carried out with Mr. Bantlings aid. Isabel was to have three days in Florence before the 4th of June, the date of Mrs. Touchetts departure, and she determined to devote the last of these to her promise to call on Pansy Osmond. Her plan, however, seemed for a moment likely to modify itself in deference to an idea of Madame Merles. This lady was still at Casa Touchett; but she too was on the point of leaving Florence, her next station being an ancient castle in the mountains of Tuscany, the residence of a noble family of that country, whose acquaintance (she had known them, as she said, forever) seemed to Isabel, in the light of certain photographs of their immense crenellated dwelling which her friend was able to show her, a precious privilege. She mentioned to this fortunate woman that Mr. Osmond had asked her to take a look at his daughter, but didnt mention that he had also made her a declaration of love.
Ah, comme cela se trouve! Madame Merle exclaimed. I myself have been thinking it would be a kindness to pay the child a little visit before I go off.
We can go together then, Isabel reasonably said: reasonably because the proposal was not uttered in the spirit of enthusiasm. She had prefigured her small pilgrimage as made in solitude; she should like it better so. She was nevertheless prepared to sacrifice this mystic sentiment to her great consideration for her friend.
That personage finely meditated. After all, why should we both go; having, each of us, so much to do during these last hours?
Very good; I can easily go alone.
I dont know about your going aloneto the house of a handsome bachelor. He has been marriedbut so long ago!
Isabel stared. When Mr. Osmonds away what does it matter?
They dont know hes away, you see.
They? Whom do you mean?
Every one. But perhaps it doesnt signify.
If you were going why shouldnt I? Isabel asked.
Because Im an old frump and youre a beautiful young woman.
Granting all that, youve not promised.
How much you think of your promises! said the elder woman in mild mockery.
I think a great deal of my promises. Does that surprise you?
Youre right, Madame Merle audibly reflected. I really think you wish to be kind to the child.
I wish very much to be kind to her.
Go and see her then; no one will be the wiser. And tell her Id have come if you hadnt. Or rather, Madame Merle added, Dont tell her. She wont care.
As Isabel drove, in the publicity of an open vehicle, along the winding way which led to Mr. Osmonds hill-top, she wondered what her friend had meant by no ones being the wiser. Once in a while, at large intervals, this lady, whose voyaging discretion, as a general thing, was rather of the open sea than of the risky channel, dropped a remark of ambiguous quality, struck a note that sounded false. What cared Isabel Archer for the vulgar judgements of obscure people? and did Madame Merle suppose that she was capable of doing a thing at all if it had to be sneakingly done? Of course not: she must have meant something elsesomething which in the press of the hours that preceded her departure she had not had time to explain. Isabel would return to this some day; there were sorts of things as to which she liked to be clear. She heard Pansy strumming at the piano in another place as she herself was ushered into Mr. Osmonds drawing-room; the little girl was practising, and Isabel was pleased to think she performed this duty with rigour. She immediately came in, smoothing down her frock, and did the honours of her fathers house with a wide-eyed earnestness of courtesy. Isabel sat there half an hour, and Pansy rose to the occasion as the small, winged fairy in the pantomime soars by the aid of the dissimulated wirenot chattering, but conversing, and showing the same respectful interest in Isabels affairs that Isabel was so good as to take in hers. Isabel wondered at her; she had never had so directly presented to her nose the white flower of cultivated sweetness. How well the child had been taught, said our admiring young woman; how prettily she had been directed and fashioned; and yet how simple, how natural, how innocent she had been kept! Isabel was fond, ever, of the question of character and quality, of sounding, as who should say, the deep personal mystery, and it had pleased her, up to this time, to be in doubt as to whether this tender slip were not really all-knowing. Was the extremity of her candour but the perfection of self-consciousness? Was it put on to please her fathers visitor, or was it the direct expression of an unspotted nature? The hour that Isabel spent in Mr. Osmonds beautiful empty, dusky roomsthe windows had been half-darkened, to keep out the heat, and here and there, through an easy crevice, the splendid summer day peeped in, lighting a gleam of faded colour or tarnished gilt in the rich gloomher interview with the daughter of the house, I say, effectually settled this question. Pansy was really a blank page, a pure white surface, successfully kept so; she had neither art, nor guile, nor temper, nor talentonly two or three small exquisite instincts: for knowing a friend, for avoiding a mistake, for taking care of an old toy or a new frock. Yet to be so tender was to be touching withal, and she could be felt as an easy victim of fate. She would have no will, no power to resist, no sense of her own importance; she would easily be mystified, easily crushed: her force would be all in knowing when and where to cling. She moved about the place with her visitor, who had asked leave to walk through the other rooms again, where Pansy gave her judgement on several works of art. She spoke of her prospects, her occupations, her fathers intentions; she was not egotistical, but felt the propriety of supplying the information so distinguished a guest would naturally expect.
Please tell me, she said, did papa, in Rome, go to see Madame Catherine? He told me he would if he had time. Perhaps he had not time. Papa likes a great deal of time. He wished to speak about my education; it isnt finished yet, you know. I dont know what they can do with me more; but it appears its far from finished. Papa told me one day he thought he would finish it himself; for the last year or two, at the convent, the masters that teach the tall girls are so very dear. Papas not rich, and I should be very sorry if he were to pay much money for me, because I dont think Im worth it. I dont learn quickly enough, and I have no memory. For what Im told, yesespecially when its pleasant; but not for what I learn in a book. There was a young girl who was my best friend, and they took her away from the convent, when she was fourteen, to makehow do you say it in English?to make a dot. You dont say it in English? I hope it isnt wrong; I only mean they wished to keep the money to marry her. I dont know whether it is for that that papa wishes to keep the moneyto marry me. It costs so much to marry! Pansy went on with a sigh; I think papa might make that economy. At any rate Im too young to think about it yet, and I dont care for any gentleman; I mean for any but him. If he were not my papa I should like to marry him; I would rather be his daughter than the wife ofof some strange person. I miss him very much, but not so much as you might think, for Ive been so much away from him. Papa has always been principally for holidays. I miss Madame Catherine almost more; but you must not tell him that. You shall not see him again? Im very sorry, and hell be sorry too. Of everyone who comes here I like you the best. Thats not a great compliment, for there are not many people. It was very kind of you to come to-dayso far from your house; for Im really as yet only a child. Oh, yes, Ive only the occupations of a child. When did you give them up, the occupations of a child? I should like to know how old you are, but I dont know whether its right to ask. At the convent they told us that we must never ask the age. I dont like to do anything thats not expected; it looks as if one had not been properly taught. I myselfI should never like to be taken by surprise. Papa left directions for everything. I go to bed very early. When the sun goes off that side I go into the garden. Papa left strict orders that I was not to get scorched. I always enjoy the view; the mountains are so graceful. In Rome, from the convent, we saw nothing but roofs and bell-towers. I practise three hours. I dont play very well. You play yourself? I wish very much youd play something for me; papa has the idea that I should hear good music. Madame Merle has played for me several times; thats what I like best about Madame Merle; she has great facility. I shall never have facility. And Ive no voicejust a small sound like the squeak of a slate-pencil making flourishes.
Isabel gratified this respectful wish, drew off her gloves and sat down to the piano, while Pansy, standing beside her, watched her white hands move quickly over the keys. When she stopped she kissed the child good-bye, held her close, looked at her long. Be very good, she said; give pleasure to your father.
I think thats what I live for, Pansy answered. He has not much pleasure; hes rather a sad man.
Isabel listened to this assertion with an interest which she felt it almost a torment to be obliged to conceal. It was her pride that obliged her, and a certain sense of decency; there were still other things in her head which she felt a strong impulse, instantly checked, to say to Pansy about her father; there were things it would have given her pleasure to hear the child, to make the child, say. But she no sooner became conscious of these things than her imagination was hushed with horror at the idea of taking advantage of the little girlit was of this she would have accused herselfand of exhaling into that air where he might still have a subtle sense for it any breath of her charmed state. She had comeshe had come; but she had stayed only an hour. She rose quickly from the music-stool; even then, however, she lingered a moment, still holding her small companion, drawing the childs sweet slimness closer and looking down at her almost in envy. She was obliged to confess it to herselfshe would have taken a passionate pleasure in talking of Gilbert Osmond to this innocent, diminutive creature who was so near him. But she said no other word; she only kissed Pansy once again. They went together through the vestibule, to the door that opened on the court; and there her young hostess stopped, looking rather wistfully beyond. I may go no further. Ive promised papa not to pass this door.
Youre right to obey him; hell never ask you anything unreasonable.
I shall always obey him. But when will you come again?
Not for a long time, Im afraid.
As soon as you can, I hope. Im only a little girl, said Pansy, but I shall always expect you. And the small figure stood in the high, dark doorway, watching Isabel cross the clear, grey court and disappear into the brightness beyond the big portone, which gave a wider dazzle as it opened.
CHAPTER XXXI
Isabel came back to Florence, but only after several months; an interval sufficiently replete with incident. It is not, however, during this interval that we are closely concerned with her; our attention is engaged again on a certain day in the late spring-time, shortly after her return to Palazzo Crescentini and a year from the date of the incidents just narrated. She was alone on this occasion, in one of the smaller of the numerous rooms devoted by Mrs. Touchett to social uses, and there was that in her expression and attitude which would have suggested that she was expecting a visitor. The tall window was open, and though its green shutters were partly drawn the bright air of the garden had come in through a broad interstice and filled the room with warmth and perfume. Our young woman stood near it for some time, her hands clasped behind her; she gazed abroad with the vagueness of unrest. Too troubled for attention she moved in a vain circle. Yet it could not be in her thought to catch a glimpse of her visitor before he should pass into the house, since the entrance to the palace was not through the garden, in which stillness and privacy always reigned. She wished rather to forestall his arrival by a process of conjecture, and to judge by the expression of her face this attempt gave her plenty to do. Grave she found herself, and positively more weighted, as by the experience of the lapse of the year she had spent in seeing the world. She had ranged, she would have said, through space and surveyed much of mankind, and was therefore now, in her own eyes, a very different person from the frivolous young woman from Albany who had begun to take the measure of Europe on the lawn at Gardencourt a couple of years before. She flattered herself she had harvested wisdom and learned a great deal more of life than this light-minded creature had even suspected. If her thoughts just now had inclined themselves to retrospect, instead of fluttering their wings nervously about the present, they would have evoked a multitude of interesting pictures. These pictures would have been both landscapes and figure-pieces; the latter, however, would have been the more numerous. With several of the images that might have been projected on such a field we are already acquainted. There would be for instance the conciliatory Lily, our heroines sister and Edmund Ludlows wife, who had come out from New York to spend five months with her relative. She had left her husband behind her, but had brought her children, to whom Isabel now played with equal munificence and tenderness the part of maiden-aunt. Mr. Ludlow, toward the last, had been able to snatch a few weeks from his forensic triumphs and, crossing the ocean with extreme rapidity, had spent a month with the two ladies in Paris before taking his wife home. The little Ludlows had not yet, even from the American point of view, reached the proper tourist-age; so that while her sister was with her Isabel had confined her movements to a narrow circle. Lily and the babies had joined her in Switzerland in the month of July, and they had spent a summer of fine weather in an Alpine valley where the flowers were thick in the meadows and the shade of great chestnuts made a resting-place for such upward wanderings as might be undertaken by ladies and children on warm afternoons. They had afterwards reached the French capital, which was worshipped, and with costly ceremonies, by Lily, but thought of as noisily vacant by Isabel, who in these days made use of her memory of Rome as she might have done, in a hot and crowded room, of a phial of something pungent hidden in her handkerchief.