THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY. 227 " I'll tell you in a moment," she answered. " One is Machia- velli, the other is Vittoria Colonna, the next is Metastasio." " Ah, with me," said Madame Merle, passing her arm into the Countess Gemini's, as if to guide her course to the garden, " Mr. Osmond is never so historical." " Oh you," the Countess answered as they moved away, " you yourself are Machiavelli you yourself are Vittoria Colonna ! " " We shall hear next that poor Madame Merle is Metastasio ! " Gilbert Osmond murmured, with a little melancholy smile. Isabel had got up, on the assumption that they too were to go into the garden ; but Mr. Osmond stood there, with no apparent inclination to leave the room, with his hands in the pockets of his jacket, and his daughter, who had now locked her arm into one of his own, clinging to him and looking up, while her eyes moved from his own face to Isabel's. Isabel waited, with a certain unuttered contentedness, to have her movements directed ; she liked Mr. Osmond's talk, his company; she felt that she was being entertained. Through the open doors of the great room she saw Madame Merle and the Countess stroll across the deep grass of the garden ; then she turned, and her eyes wandered over the things that were scattered about her. The understanding had been that her host should show her his treasures ; his pictures and cabinets all looked like treasures. Isabel, after a moment, went toward one of the pictures to see it better ; but just as she had done so Mr. Osborne said to her abruptly "Miss Archer, what do you think of my sister ?" Isabel turned, with a good deal of surprise. "Ah, don't ask me that I have seen your sister too little." "Yes, you have seen her very little; but you must have observed that there is not a great deal of her to see. What do you think of out family tone?" Osmond went on, smiling. "I should like to know how it strikes a fresh, unprejudiced mind. I know what you are going to say you have had too little observation of it. Of course this is only a glimpse. But just take notice, in future, if you have a chance. I sometimes think we have got into a rather bad way, living off here among things and people not our own, without responsibilities or attachments, with nothing to hold us together or keep us up ; marrying foreigners, forming artificial tastes, playing tricks with our natural mission. Let me add, though, that I say that much more for myself than for my sister. She's a very good woman better than she seems. She is rather unhappy, and as she is not of a very serious disposition, she doesn't tend to show it Q 2
