THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY. 587 so, however ; she only said to - him, t after a minute, -looking up " Please to let me understand." " Understand what?" " You told me ten days ago that you should like to marry my step-daughter. You have not forgotten it ! " " Forgotten it ? I wrote to Mr. Osmond about it this morning." "Ah," said Isabel, "he didn't mention to me that he had heard from you." Lord Warburton stammered a little. " I I didn't send my letter." " Perhaps you forgot that." ' " No, I wasn't satisfied with it. It's an awkward sort of letter to write, you know. But I shall send it to-night." " At three o'clock in the morning ? " " I mean later, in the course of the day." "Very good. You still wish, then, to marry her?" "Very much indeed." "Aren't you afraid that you will bore her?" And as her companion stared at this inquiry, Isabel added "If she can't dance with you for half-an-hour, how will she be able to dance with you for life?" "Ah," said Lord Warburton, readily, "I will let her dance with other people ! About the cotillion, the fact is I thought that you that you " " That I would dance with you'? I told you I would dance nothing." " Exactly ; so that while it is going on I might find some quiet corner where we might sit down and talk." "Oh," said Isabel gravely, "you are much too considerate of me." When the cotillion came, Pansy was found to have engaged herself, thinking, in perfect humility, that Lord Warburton had no intentions. Isabel recommended him to seek another partner, but he assured her that he would dance with no one but herself. As, however, she had, -in spite of the remonstrances of her hostess, declined other invitations on the ground that she was not dancing at all, it was not possible for her to make an exception in Lord Warburton's favour. " After all, I don't care to dance," he said, " it's a barbarous amusement ; I would much rather talk." And he intimated that he had discovered exactly the corner he had been looking for a quiet nook in one of the smaller rooms, where the music would come to them faintly and not interfere with conversation. Isabel had decided to let him carry out his idea ; she wished c u 2
