Caspar Goodwood took to riding on the Campagna and devoted much time
to this exercise; it was therefore mainly in the evening that Isabel
saw him. She bethought herself of saying to him one day that if he
were willing he could render her a service. And then she added
smiling:
"I don't know, however, what right I have to ask a service of you."
"You're the person in the world who has most right," he answered.
"I've given you assurances that I've never given any one else."
The service was that he should go and see her cousin Ralph, who
was ill at the Hotel de Paris, alone, and be as kind to him as
possible. Mr. Goodwood had never seen him, but he would know who the
poor fellow was; if she was not mistaken Ralph had once invited him to
Gardencourt. Caspar remembered the invitation perfectly, and, though
he was not supposed to be a man of imagination, had enough to put
himself in the place of a poor gentleman who lay dying at a Roman inn.
He called at the Hotel de Paris and, on being shown into the
presence of the master of Gardencourt, found Miss Stackpole sitting
beside his sofa. A singular change had in fact occurred in this lady's
relations with Ralph Touchett.
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