She came back by the
last of March from Egypt and Greece and made another stay in Rome. A
few days after her arrival Gilbert Osmond descended from Florence
and remained three weeks, during which the fact of her being with
his old friend Madame Merle, in whose house she had gone to lodge,
made it virtually inevitable that he should see her every day. When
the last of April came she wrote to Mrs. Touchett that she should
now rejoice to accept an invitation given long before, and went to pay
a visit at Palazzo Crescentini, Madame Merle on this occasion
remaining in Rome. She found her aunt alone; her cousin was still at
Corfu. Ralph, however, was expected in Florence from day to day, and
Isabel, who had not seen him for upwards of a year, was prepared to
give him the most affectionate welcome.
CHAPTER 32
It was not of him, nevertheless, that she was thinking while she
stood at the window near which we found her a while ago, and it was
not of any of the matters I have rapidly sketched. She was not
turned to the past, but to the immediate, impending hour. She had
reason to expect a scene, and she was not fond of scenes. She was
not asking herself what she should say to her visitor; this question
had already been answered.
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