242 THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY. sacrifice herself and that, to prove it, she must first become one." " She would make a charming stepmother," said Madame Merle, smiling ; " but I quite agree with you that she had better not decide upon her mission too hastily. Changing one's mission is often awkward ! I will investigate and report to you." All this went on quite over Isabel's head ; she had no sus- picion that her relations with Mr. Osmond were being discussed. Madame Merle had said nothing to put her on her guard ; she alluded no more pointedly to Mr. Osmond than to the other gentlemen of Florence, native and foreign, who came in consider- able numbers to pay their respects to Miss Archer's aunt. Isabel thought him very pleasant ; she liked to think of him. She had carried away an image from her visit to his hill-top which her subsequent knowledge of him did nothing to efface and which happened to take her fancy particularly the image of a quiet, clever, sensitive, distinguished man, strolling on a moss-grown terrace above the sweet Val d'Arno, and holding by the hand a little girl whose sympathetic docility gave a new aspect to child- hood. The picture was not brilliant, but she liked its lowness of tone, and the atmosphere of summer twilight that pervaded it. It seemed to tell a story a story of the sort that touched her most easily ; to speak of a serious choice, a choice between things of a shallow, and things of a deep, interest ; of a lonely, studious life in a lovely land ; of an old sorrow that sometimes ached to-day ; a feeling of pride that was perhaps exaggerated, but that had an element of nobleness ; a care for beauty and perfection so natural and so cultivated together, that it had been the main occupation of a lifetime of which the arid places were watered with the sweet sense of a quaint, half-anxious, half- helpless fatherhood. At the Palazzo Crescentini Mr. Osmond's manner remained the same ; shy at first, and full of the effort (visible only to a sympathetic eye) to overcome this disadvan- tage ; an effort which usually resulted in a great deal of easy, lively, very positive, rather aggressive, and always effective, talk. Mr. Osmond's talk was not injured by the indication of an eager- ness to shine ; Isabel found no difficulty in believing that a person was sincere who had so many of the signs of strong con- viction as, for instance, an explicit and graceful appreciation of anything that might be said on his own side, said perhaps by Miss Archer in particular. "What continued to please this young lady was his extraordinary subtlety. There was such a fine intellectual intention in what he said, and the movement of his wit was like that of a quick-flashing blade. One day he brought
