She succeeded after a fashion, but she fell short of the point I
mention. After all she couldn't rise to it; something held her and
made this impossible. It was not exactly that it would be base or
insidious; for women as a general thing practise such manoeuvres
with a perfectly good conscience, and Isabel was instinctively much
more true than false to the common genius of her sex. There was a
vague doubt that interposed-a sense that she was not quite sure. So
she remained in the drawing-room, and after a while Lord Warburton
went off to his party, of which he promised to give Pansy a full
account on the morrow. After he had gone she wondered if she had
prevented something which would have happened if she had absented
herself for a quarter of an hour; and then she pronounced-always
mentally-that when their distinguished visitor should wish her to go
away he would easily find means to let her know it. Pansy said nothing
whatever about him after he had gone, and Isabel studiously said
nothing, as she had taken a vow of reserve until after he should
have declared himself. He was a little longer in coming to this than
might seem to accord with the description he had given Isabel of his
feelings.
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