He strolled toward her
slowly, with his hands behind him and his usual enquiring, yet not
quite appealing smile. "I'm surprised to find you alone, I thought you
had company."
"So I have- the best." And she glanced at the Antinous and the Faun.
"Do you call them better company than an English peer?"
"Ah, my English peer left me some time ago." She got up, speaking
with intention a little dryly.
Mr. Osmond noted her dryness, which contributed for him to the
interest of his question. "I'm afraid that what I heard the other
evening is true: you're rather cruel to that nobleman."
Isabel looked a moment at the vanquished Gladiator. "It's not
true. I'm scrupulously kind."
"That's exactly what I mean!" Gilbert Osmond returned, and with such
happy hilarity that his joke needs to be explained. We know that he
was fond of originals, of rarities, of the superior and the exquisite;
and now that he had seen Lord Warburton, whom he thought a very fine
example of his race and order, he perceived a new attraction in the
idea of taking to himself a young lady who had qualified herself to
figure in his collection of choice objects by declining so noble a
hand.
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