THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY. 463 off ; I think it would have killed me. But I put them into good hands, and they brought high prices. I should tell you I have kept my enamels. Now I have got the money in my pocket, and he can't say I'm poor ! " the young man exclaimed, defiantly. " He will say now that you are not wise," said Isabel, as if Gilbert Osmond had never said this before. Rosier gave her a sharp look. " Do you mean that without my bibelots I am nothing 1 Do you mean that they were the best thing about me ? That's what they told me in Paris ; oh, they were very frank about it. But they hadn't seen her!" " My dear friend, you deserve to succeed," said Isabel, very kindly. " You say that so sadly that it's the same as if you said I shouldn't." And he questioned her eye with the clear trepid- ation of his own. He had the air of a man who knows he has been the talk of Paris for a week and is full half a head taller in consequence ; but who also has a painful suspicion that in spite of this increase of stature one or two persons still have the per- versity to think him diminutive. " I know what happened here while I was away," he went on. " What does Mr. Osmond expect, after she has refused Lord Warburton 1 " Isabel hesitated a moment. " That she will marry another nobleman." " What other nobleman 1 " " One that he will pick out." Eosier slowly got up, putting his watch into his waistcoat- pocket. " You are laughing at some one ; but this time I don't think it's at me." " I didn't mean to laugh," said Isabel. " I laugh very seldom. Now you had better go away." " I feel very safe ! " Rosier declared, without moving. This might be; but it evidently made him feel more so to make the announcement in rather a loud voice, balancing himself a little CDmplacently, on his toes, and looking all around the Coliseum, as if it were filled with an audience. Suddenly Isabel saw him change colour; there was more of an audience than he had suspected. She turned, and perceived that her two companions had returned from their excursion. " You must really go away," she said, quickly. ' Ah, my dear lady, pity me ! " Edward Rosier murmured, in voice strangely at variance with the announcement I have just
