'You ought indeed to be a Pope!' Isabel exclaimed, remembering something he had referred to in Florence.
'Ah, I should have enjoyed that!' said Gilbert Osmond.
Lord Warburton meanwhile had joined Ralph Touchett, and the two strolled away together. 'Who's the fellow speaking to Miss Archer?' his lordship demanded.
'His name's Gilbert Osmond—he lives in Florence,' Ralph said.
'What is he besides?'
'Nothing at all. Oh yes, he's an American; but one forgets that—he's so little of one.'
'Has he known Miss Archer long?'
'Three or four weeks.'
'Does she like him?'
'She's trying to find out.'
'And will she?'
'Find out—?' Ralph asked.
'Will she like him?'
'Do you mean will she accept him?'
'Yes,' said Lord Warburton after an instant; 'I suppose that's what I horribly mean.'
'Perhaps not if one does nothing to prevent it,' Ralph replied.
His lordship stared a moment, but apprehended. 'Then we must be perfectly quiet?'
'As quiet as the grave. And only on the chance!' Ralph added.
'The chance she may?'
'The chance she may not?'
Lord Warburton took this at first in silence, but he spoke again. 'Is he awfully clever?'
'Awfully,' said Ralph.
His companion thought. 'And what else?'
'What more do you want?' Ralph groaned.
'Do you mean what more does SHE?'
Ralph took him by the arm to turn him: they had to rejoin the others. 'She wants nothing that WE can give her.'
'Ah well, if she won't have You—!' said his lordship handsomely as they went.
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