"
"As little as possible? Who's to measure the possibility?"
"Let me measure it. Go on Thursday evenings with the rest of the
world, but don't go at all at odd times, and don't fret about Pansy.
I'll see that she understands everything. She's a calm little
nature; she'll take it quietly."
Edward Rosier fretted about Pansy a good deal, but he did as he
was advised, and awaited another Thursday evening before returning
to Palazzo Roccanera. There had been a party at dinner, so that though
he went early the company was already tolerably numerous. Osmond, as
usual, was in the first room, near the fire, staring straight at the
door, so that, not to be distinctly uncivil, Rosier had to go and
speak to him.
"I'm glad that you can take a hint," Pansy's father said, slightly
closing his keen, conscious eyes.
"I take no hints. But I took a message, as I supposed it to be."
"You took it? Where did you take it?"
It seemed to poor Rosier he was being insulted, and he waited a
moment, asking himself how much a true lover ought to submit to.
"Madame Merle gave me, as I understood it, a message from you-to the
effect that you declined to give me the opportunity I desire, the
opportunity to explain my wishes to you.
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