nient, very
salutary. I like to think of her there, in the old garden, under
the arcade, among those tranquil virtuous women. Many of them are
gentlewomen born; several of them are noble. She will have her books
and her drawing, she will have her piano. I've made the most liberal
arrangements. There is to be nothing ascetic; there's just to be a
certain little sense of sequestration. She'll have time to think, and
there's something I want her to think about." Osmond spoke deliberately,
reasonably, still with his head on one side, as if he were looking at
the basket of flowers. His tone, however, was that of a man not so
much offering an explanation as putting a thing into words--almost into
pictures--to see, himself, how it would look. He considered a while the
picture he had evoked and seemed greatly pleased with it. And then he
went on: "The Catholics are very wise after all. The convent is a great
institution; we can't do without it; it corresponds to an essential need
in families, in society. It's a school of good manners; it's a school
of repose. Oh, I don't want to detach my daughter from the world," he
added; "I don't want to make her fix her thoughts on any other. This
one's very well, as SHE should take it, and she may think of it as much
as she likes. Only she must think of it in the right way."

Isabel gave an extreme attention to this little sketch; she found
it indeed intensely interesting. It seemed to show her how far her
husband's desire to be effective was capable of going--to the point of
playing theoretic tricks on the delicate organism of his daughter. She
could not understand his purpose, no--not wholly; but she understood it
better than he supposed or desired, inasmuch as she was convinced
that the whole proceeding was an elaborate mystification, addressed to
herself and destined to act upon her imagination. He had wanted to do
something sudden and arbitrary, something unexpected and refined; to
mark the difference between his sympathies and her own, and show that
if he regarded his daughter as a precious work of art it was natural
he should be more and more careful about the finishing touches. If he
wished to be effective he had succeeded; the incident struck a chill
into Isabel's heart. Pansy had known the convent in her childhood and
had found a happy home there; she was fond of the good sisters, who were
very fond of her, and there was therefore for the moment no definite
hardship in her lot. B