THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY. 517 scented his idea in all her being. " But it doesn't matter ! " he exclaimed, pressing her close, though now without touching a hem of her garment. If Touchett had never opened his mouth, I should have known all the same. I had only to look at you at your cousin's funeral to see what's the matter with you. You can't deceive me any more ; for God's sake be honest with a man who is so honest with you. You are the most unhappy of women, and your husband's a devil ! " She turned on him as if he had struck her. " Are you mad 1 " she cried. " I have never been so sane ; I see the whole thing. Don't think it's necessary to defend him. But I won't say another word against him ; I will speak only of you," Goodwood added, quickly. " How can you pretend you are not heart-broken. 1 You don't know what to do you don't know where to turn. It's too late to play a part ; didn't you leave all that behind you in Rome 1 ? Touchett knew all about it and I knew it too what it would cost you to come here. It will cost you your life 1 When I know that, how can I keep myself from wishing to save you ? What would you think of me if I should stand still and see yon go back to your reward 1 l It's awful, what she'll have to pay for it ! ' that's what Touchett said to me. I may tell you that, mayn't 1 1 He was such a near relation ! " cried Good- wood, making his point again. " I would sooner have been shot than let another man say those things to me ; but he was differ- ent ; he seemed to me to have the right. It was after he got home when he saw he was dying, and when I saw it too. I understand all about it : you are afraid to go back. You are perfectly alone ; you don't know where to turn. Now it is that I want you to think of me." " To think of you 1 " Isabel said, standing before him in the dusk. The idea of which she had caught a glimpse a few moments before now loomed large. She threw back her head a little ; she stared at it as if it had been a comet in the sky. " You don't know where to turn ; turn to me ! I want to persuade you to trust me," Goodwood repeated. And then he paused a moment, with his shining eyes. " Why should you go back why should you go ' through that ghastly form?" " To get away from you ! " she answered. But this expressed only a little of what she felt. The rest was that she had never been loved before. It wrapped her about ; it lifted her ot jier feet.
