here were no dukes and marquises there now; she remembered
on the contrary one day when there were five American families, walking
all round. Mr. Bantling was very anxious that she should take up the
subject of England again, and he thought she might get on better with it
now; England had changed a good deal within two or three years. He was
determined that if she went there he should go to see his sister, Lady
Pensil, and that this time the invitation should come to her straight.
The mystery about that other one had never been explained.

Caspar Goodwood came at last to Palazzo Roccanera; he had written Isabel
a note beforehand, to ask leave. This was promptly granted; she would be
at home at six o'clock that afternoon. She spent the day wondering what
he was coming for--what good he expected to get of it. He had presented
himself hitherto as a person destitute of the faculty of compromise, who
would take what he had asked for or take nothing. Isabel's hospitality,
however, raised no questions, and she found no great difficulty in
appearing happy enough to deceive him. It was her conviction at
least that she deceived him, made him say to himself that he had
been misinformed. But she also saw, so she believed, that he was not
disappointed, as some other men, she was sure, would have been; he had
not come to Rome to look for an opportunity. She never found out what he
had come for; he offered her no explanation; there could be none but the
very simple one that he wanted to see her. In other words he had come
for his amusement. Isabel followed up this induction with a good deal of
eagerness, and was delighted to have found a formula that would lay the
ghost of this gentleman's ancient grievance. If he had come to Rome
for his amusement this was exactly what she wanted; for if he cared
for amusement he had got over his heartache. If he had got over his
heartache everything was as it should be and her responsibilities were
at an end. It was true that he took his recreation a little stiffly, but
he had never been loose and easy and she had every reason to believe
he was satisfied with what he saw. Henrietta was not in his confidence,
though he was in hers, and Isabel consequently received no side-light
upon his state of mind. He was open to little conversation on general
topics; it came back to her that she had said of him once, years before,
"Mr. Goodwood speaks a good deal, but he doesn't talk." He spoke a good
deal now, bu