Chapter 18

CHAPTER XVIII

It had occurred to Ralph that, in the conditions, Isabel's
parting with her friend might be of a slightly embarrassed
nature, and he went down to the door of the hotel in advance of
his cousin, who, after a slight delay, followed with the traces
of an unaccepted remonstrance, as he thought, in her eyes. The
two made the journey to Gardencourt in almost unbroken silence,
and the servant who met them at the station had no better news to
give them of Mr. Touchett--a fact which caused Ralph to
congratulate himself afresh on Sir Matthew Hope's having promised
to come down in the five o'clock train and spend the night. Mrs.
Touchett, he learned, on reaching home, had been constantly with
the old man and was with him at that moment; and this fact made
Ralph say to himself that, after all, what his mother wanted was
just easy occasion. The finer natures were those that shone at
the larger times. Isabel went to her own room, noting throughout
the house that perceptible hush which precedes a crisis. At the
end of an hour, however, she came downstairs in search of her
aunt, whom she wished to ask about Mr. Touchett. She went into
the library, but Mrs. Touchett was not there, and as the weather,
which had been damp and chill, was now altogether spoiled, it was
not probable she had gone for her usual walk in the grounds.
Isabel was on the point of ringing to send a question to her
room, when this purpose quickly yielded to an unexpected sound--
the sound of low music proceeding apparently from the saloon. She
knew her aunt never touched the piano, and the musician was
therefore probably Ralph, who played for his own amusement. That
he should have resorted to this recreation at the present time
indicated apparently that his anxiety about his father had been
relieved; so that the girl took her way, almost with restored
cheer, toward the source of the harmony. The drawing-room at
Gardencourt was an apartment of great distances, and, as the
piano was placed at the end of it furthest removed from the door
at which she entered, her arrival was not noticed by the person
seated before the instrument. This person was neither Ralph nor
his mother; it was a lady whom Isabel immediately saw to be a
stranger to herself, though her back was presented to the door.
This back--an ample and well-dressed one--Isabel viewed for some
moments with surprise. The lady was of course a visitor who had
arrived during her absence and who had not been mentioned by
either of the servants--one of them her aunt's maid--of whom she
had had speech since her return. Isabel had already learned,
however, with what treasures of reserve the function of receiving
orders may be accompanied, and she was particularly conscious