He went to see Madame Merle on the morrow, and to his surprise she let him off rather easily.But she made him promise 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 Mad 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 I supposed it to be.""You took it? Where did you take it?"
It seemed to poor Rosier he was being insulted, and he waited a moment, asking himself how much a true lover ought to submit to.
"Madame Merle gave me, as I understood it, a message from you-to the effect that you declined to give me the opportunity I desire, the opportunity to explain my wishes to you." And he flattered himself he spoke rather sternly.
"I don't see what Madame Merle has to do with it.Why did you apply to Madame Merle?""I asked her for an opinion-for nothing more.I did so because she had seemed to me to know you very well.""She doesn't know me so well as she thinks," said Osmond.
"I'm sorry for that, because she has given me some little ground for hope."Osmond stared into the fire a moment."I set a great price on my daughter.""You can't set a higher one than I do.Don't I prove it by wishing to marry her?""I wish to marry her very well," Osmond went on with a dry impertinence which, in another mood, poor Rosier would have admired.
"Of course I pretend she'd marry well in marrying me.She couldn't marry a man who loves her more-or whom, I may venture to add, she loves more.""I'm not bound to accept your theories as to whom my daughter loves"-and Osmond looked up with a quick, cold smile.
"I'm not theorizing.Your daughter has spoken.""Not to me," Osmond continued, now bending forward a little and dropping his eyes to his boot-toes.
"I have her promise, sir!" cried Rosier with the sharpness of exasperation.
As their voices had been pitched very low before, such a note attracted some attention from the company.Osmond waited till this little movement had subsided; then he said, all undisturbed: "Ithink she has no recollection of having given it."They had been standing with their faces to the fire, and after he had uttered these last words the master of the house turned round again to the room.Before Rosier had time to reply he perceived that a gentleman-a stranger-had just come in, unannounced, according to the Roman custom, and was about to present himself to his host.The latter smiled blandly, but somewhat blankly; the visitor had a handsome face and a large, fair beard, and was evidently an Englishman.
"You apparently don't recognize me," he said with a smile that expressed more than Osmond's.
"Ah yes, now I do.I expected so little to see you."Rosier departed and went in direct pursuit of Pansy.He sought her, as usual, in the neighbouring room, but he again encountered Mrs.
Osmond in his path.He gave his hostess no greeting-he was too righteously indignant, but said to her crudely: "Your husband's awfully cold-blooded."She gave the same mystical smile he had noticed before."You can't expect every one to be as hot as yourself.""I don't pretend to be cold, but I'm cool.What has he been doing to his daughter?""I've no idea."
"Don't you take any interest?" Rosier demanded with his sense that she too was irritating.
For a moment she answered nothing; then, "No!" she said abruptly and with a quickened light in her eyes which directly contradicted the word.