THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY. 37 making no rejoinder, he offered his mother his arm. This put it into his power, as they descended together, to stop her a moment on the middle landing of the staircase the broad, low, wide-armed staircase of time-stained oak which was one of the most striking ornaments of Gardencourt. "You have no plan of marrying her? " he said, smiling. " Marry her 1 I should be sorry to play her such a trick ! But apart from that, she is perfectly able to marry herself ; she has every facility." " Do you mean to say she has a husband picked out 1 " "I don't know about a husband, but there is a young man in Boston " Ralph went on; he had no desire to hear about the young man in Boston. " As my father says," lie exclaimed, " they are always engaged ! " His mother had told him that he must extract his information about his cousin from the girl herself, and it soon became evident to him that he should not want for opportunity. He had, for instance, a good deal of talk with her that same evening, when the two had been left alone together in the drawing-room. Lord Warburton, who had ridden over from his own house, some ten miles distant, remounted and took his departure before dinner ; and an hour after this meal was concluded, Mr. and Mrs. Touchett, who appeared to have exhausted each other's convers- ation, withdrew, under the valid pretext of fatigue, to their respective apartments. The young man spent an hour with his cousin ; though she had been travelling half the day she appeared to have no sense of weariness. She was really tired; she knew it, and knew that she should pay for it on the morrow ; but it was her habit at this pe.riod to carry fatigue to the furthest point, and confess to it only when dissimulation had become impossible. For the present it was perfectly possible ; she was interested and excited. She asked Ralph to show her the pictures ; there were a great many of them in the house, most of them of his own choosing. The best of them were arranged in an oaken gallery of charming proportions, which had a sitting- room at either end of it, and which in the evening was usually lighted. The light was insufficient to show the pictures to advantage, and the visit might have been deferred till the morrow. This suggestion Ralph had ventured to make ; but Isabel looked disappointed smiling still, however and said, " If you please, I should like to see them just a little." She was eager, she knew that she was eager and that she seemed so ; but she could not help it. " She doesn't take suggestions," Ralph
