She returned on the morrow to Florence, under her cousin's 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 Osmond's preference- hours 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.
Bantling's aid.Isabel was to have three days in Florence before the 4th of June, the date of Mrs.Touchett's 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 Merle's.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 didn't 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 don't know about your going alone- to the house of a handsome bachelor.He has been married- but so long ago!"Isabel stared."When Mr.Osmond's away what does it matter?""They don't know he's away, you see."
"They? Whom do you mean?"
"Every one.But perhaps it doesn't signify.""If you were going why shouldn't I?" Isabel asked.
"Because I'm an old frump and you're a beautiful young woman.""Granting all that, you've 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?""You're 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 I'd have come if you hadn't.Or rather," Madame Merle added, "don't tell her.She won't care."As Isabel drove, in the publicity of an open vehicle, along the winding way which led to Mr.Osmond's hill-top, she wondered what her friend had meant by no one's 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 else- something 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.Osmond's 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 father's 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 wire- not chattering, but conversing, and showing the same respectful interest in Isabel's affairs that Isabel was so good 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 father's visitor, or was it the direct expression of an unspotted nature? The hour that Isabel spent in Mr.
Osmond's beautiful empty, dusky rooms- the 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 gloom- her interview with the daughter of the house, I say, effectually settled this question.