THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY. 97 "Ah, well, I guess you do like him !" Mr. Touchett declared. {t You needn't pretend you don't." " I like him extremely ; I am very free to admit that. But I don't wish to marry any one just now." "You think some one may come along whom you may like better. Well, that's very likely," said Mr. Touchett, who appeared to wish to show his kindness to the girl by easing off her decision, as it were, and finding cheerful reasons for it. " I don't care if I don't meet any one else ; I like Lord Warburton quite well enough," said Isabel, with that appearance of a sudden change of point of view with which she sometimes startled and even displeased her interlocutors. Her uncle, however, seemed proof against either of these sensations. "He's a very fine man," he resumed, in a tone which might have passed for that of encouragement. " His letter was one of the pleasantest letters I have received for some weeks. I suppose one of the reasons I liked it was that it was all about you ; that is, all except the part which was about himself. I suppose he told you all that." " He would have told me everything I wished to ask him," Isabel said. " But you didn't feel curious 1 " " My curiosity would have been idle once I had determined to decline his offer." "You didn't find it sufficiently attractive 1 ?" Mr. Touchett inquired. The girl was silent a moment. "I suppose it was that," she presently admitted. "But I don't know why." " Fortunately, ladies are not obliged to give reasons," said her uncle. "There's a great deal that's attractive about such an idea ; but I don't see why the English should want to entice us away from our native land. I know that we try to attract them over there ; but that's because our population is insufficient. Here, you know, they are rather crowded. However, I suppose there is room for charming young ladies everywhere." " There seems to have been room here for you," said Isabel, whose eyes had been wandering over the large pleasure-spaces of the park. Mr. Touchett gave a shrewd, conscious smile. " There is room everywhere, my dear, if you will pay for it. I sometimes think I have paid too much for this. Perhaps you also might have to pay too much." H
