He was
there, however, very distinctly there; and something in his attitude
seemed to say that he was there with a complex intention. She wouldn't
meet his eyes, though there was doubtless sympathy in them; he made
her rather uneasy. With the dispersal of the little group he
disappeared, and the only person who came to speak to her-though
several spoke to Mrs. Touchett-was Henrietta Stackpole. Henrietta
had been crying.
Ralph had said to Isabel that he hoped she would remain at
Gardencourt, and she made no immediate motion to leave the place.
She said to herself that it was but common charity to stay a little
with her aunt. It was fortunate she had so good a formula; otherwise
she might have been greatly in want of one. Her errand was over; she
had done what she had left her husband to do. She had a husband in a
foreign city, counting the hours of her absence; in such a case one
needed an excellent motive. He was not one of the best husbands, but
that didn't alter the case. Certain obligations were involved in the
very fact of marriage, and were quite independent of the quantity of
enjoyment extracted from it. Isabel thought of her husband as little
as might be; but now that she was at a distance, beyond its spell, she
thought with a kind of spiritual shudder of Rome.
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