"Is there so much already?"
"There's complete preparation for it. Her going off with me would
make the explosion. Osmond isn't fond of his wife's cousin."
"Then of course he'd make a row. But won't he make a row if you stop
here?"
"That's what I want to see. He made one the last time I was in Rome,
and then I thought it my duty to disappear. Now I think it's my duty
to stop and defend her."
"My dear Touchett, your defensive powers-!" Lord Warburton began
with a smile. But he saw something in his companion's face that
checked him.
"Your duty, in these premises, seems to me rather a nice
question," he observed instead.
Ralph for a short time answered nothing. "It's true my defensive
powers are small," he returned at last; "but as my aggressive ones are
still smaller Osmond may after all not think me worth his gunpowder.
At any rate," he added, "there are things I'm curious to see."
"You're sacrificing your health to your curiosity then?"
"I'm not much interested in my health, and I'm deeply interested
in Mrs. Osmond."
"So am I. But not as I once was," Lord Warburton added quickly. This
was one of the allusions he had not hitherto found occasion to make.
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