ant for you to remember this, but your pain will be in your own
thoughts. I shall never reproach you."

"I don't think you ever will," said Ralph. "It's not in the least the
sort of marriage I thought you'd make."

"What sort of marriage was that, pray?"

"Well, I can hardly say. I hadn't exactly a positive view of it, but I
had a negative. I didn't think you'd decide for--well, for that type."

"What's the matter with Mr. Osmond's type, if it be one? His being
so independent, so individual, is what I most see in him," the girl
declared. "What do you know against him? You know him scarcely at all."

"Yes," Ralph said, "I know him very little, and I confess I haven't
facts and items to prove him a villain. But all the same I can't help
feeling that you're running a grave risk."

"Marriage is always a grave risk, and his risk's as grave as mine."

"That's his affair! If he's afraid, let him back out. I wish to God he
would."

Isabel reclined in her chair, folding her arms and gazing a while at her
cousin. "I don't think I understand you," she said at last coldly. "I
don't know what you're talking about."

"I believed you'd marry a man of more importance."

Cold, I say, her tone had been, but at this a colour like a flame leaped
into her face. "Of more importance to whom? It seems to me enough that
one's husband should be of importance to one's self!"

Ralph blushed as well; his attitude embarrassed him. Physically speaking
he proceeded to change it; he straightened himself, then leaned forward,
resting a hand on each knee. He fixed his eyes on the ground; he had an
air of the most respectful deliberation.

"I'll tell you in a moment what I mean," he presently said. He felt
agitated, intensely eager; now that he had opened the discussion he
wished to discharge his mind. But he wished also to be superlatively
gentle.

Isabel waited a little--then she went on with majesty. "In everything
that makes one care for people Mr. Osmond is pre-eminent. There may
be nobler natures, but I've never had the pleasure of meeting one. Mr.
Osmond's is the finest I know; he's good enough for me, and interesting
enough, and clever enough. I'm far more struck with what he has and what
he represents than with what he may lack."

"I had treated myself to a charming vision of your future," Ralph
observed without answering this; "I had amused myself with planning out
a high destiny for you. There was to be nothing of this sort in i