all gone then."

She hesitated a moment. "Ah, that will be delightful!" she exclaimed.

And he waited, though it took a long time yet. There were several
people, at the end, who seemed tethered to the carpet. The Countess
Gemini, who was never herself till midnight, as she said, displayed no
consciousness that the entertainment was over; she had still a little
circle of gentlemen in front of the fire, who every now and then broke
into a united laugh. Osmond had disappeared--he never bade good-bye to
people; and as the Countess was extending her range, according to her
custom at this period of the evening, Isabel had sent Pansy to bed.
Isabel sat a little apart; she too appeared to wish her sister-in-law
would sound a lower note and let the last loiterers depart in peace.

"May I not say a word to you now?" Goodwood presently asked her. She
got up immediately, smiling. "Certainly, we'll go somewhere else if you
like." They went together, leaving the Countess with her little circle,
and for a moment after they had crossed the threshold neither of them
spoke. Isabel would not sit down; she stood in the middle of the room
slowly fanning herself; she had for him the same familiar grace. She
seemed to wait for him to speak. Now that he was alone with her all the
passion he had never stifled surged into his senses; it hummed in his
eyes and made things swim round him. The bright, empty room grew dim and
blurred, and through the heaving veil he felt her hover before him with
gleaming eyes and parted lips. If he had seen more distinctly he would
have perceived her smile was fixed and a trifle forced--that she was
frightened at what she saw in his own face. "I suppose you wish to bid
me goodbye?" she said.

"Yes--but I don't like it. I don't want to leave Rome," he answered with
almost plaintive honesty.

"I can well imagine. It's wonderfully good of you. I can't tell you how
kind I think you."

For a moment more he said nothing. "With a few words like that you make
me go."

"You must come back some day," she brightly returned.

"Some day? You mean as long a time hence as possible."

"Oh no; I don't mean all that."

"What do you mean? I don't understand! But I said I'd go, and I'll go,"
Goodwood added.

"Come back whenever you like," said Isabel with attempted lightness.

"I don't care a straw for your cousin!" Caspar broke out.

"Is that what you wished to tell me?"

"No, no; I didn't want to tell you anything;