that he would stop
there till something should have been decided. Mr. Osmond had had higher
expectations; it was very true that as he had no intention of giving his
daughter a portion such expectations were open to criticism or even, if
one would, to ridicule. But she would advise Mr. Rosier not to take that
tone; if he would possess his soul in patience he might arrive at his
felicity. Mr. Osmond was not favourable to his suit, but it wouldn't be
a miracle if he should gradually come round. Pansy would never defy
her father, he might depend on that; so nothing was to be gained by
precipitation. Mr. Osmond needed to accustom his mind to an offer of a
sort that he had not hitherto entertained, and this result must come of
itself--it was useless to try to force it. Rosier remarked that his own
situation would be in the meanwhile the most uncomfortable in the world,
and Madame Merle assured him that she felt for him. But, as she justly
declared, one couldn't have everything one wanted; she had learned that
lesson for herself. There would be no use in his writing to Gilbert
Osmond, who had charged her to tell him as much. He wished the matter
dropped for a few weeks and would himself write when he should have
anything to communicate that it might please Mr. Rosier to hear.

"He doesn't like your having spoken to Pansy, Ah, he doesn't like it at
all," said Madame Merle.

"I'm perfectly willing to give him a chance to tell me so!"

"If you do that he'll tell you more than you care to hear. Go to the
house, for the next month, as little as possible, and leave the rest to
me."

"As little as possible? Who's to measure the possibility?"

"Let me measure it. Go on Thursday evenings with the rest of the world,
but don't go at all at odd times, and don't fret about Pansy. I'll see
that she understands everything. She's a calm little nature; she'll take
it quietly."

Edward Rosier fretted about Pansy a good deal, but he did as he was
advised, and awaited another Thursday evening before returning to
Palazzo Roccanera. There had been a party at dinner, so that though he
went early the company was already tolerably numerous. Osmond, as usual,
was in the first room, near the fire, staring straight at the door, so
that, not to be distinctly uncivil, Rosier had to go and speak to him.

"I'm glad that you can take a hint," Pansy's father said, slightly
closing his keen, conscious eyes.

"I take no hints. But I took a message, as