The
simple truth is I'm dying to have a little talk with Miss Osmond."
"Ah," said Isabel, turning away, "I can't help you there!"
Five minutes later, while he handed a tea-cup to the damsel in pink,
whom he had conducted into the other room, he wondered whether, in
making to Mrs. Osmond the profession I have just quoted, he had broken
the spirit of his promise to Madame Merle. Such a question was capable
of occupying this young man's mind for a considerable time. At last,
however, he became-comparatively speaking-reckless; he cared little
what promises he might break. The fate to which he had threatened to
abandon the damsel in pink proved to be none so terrible; for Pansy
Osmond, who had given him the tea for his companion-Pansy was as
fond as ever of making tea-presently came and talked to her. Into this
mild colloquy Edward Rosier entered little; he sat by moodily,
watching his small sweetheart. If we look at her now through his
eyes we shall at first not see much to remind us of the obedient
little girl who, at Florence, three years before, was sent to walk
short distances in the Cascine while her father and Miss Archer talked
together of matters sacred to elder people.
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