Chapter XLVII

 

It was from Henrietta Stackpole that she learned how Caspar Goodwood had come to Rome; an event that took place three days after Lord Warburton’s departure. This latter fact had been preceded by an incident of some importance to Isabel — the temporary absence, once again, of Madame Merle, who had gone to Naples to stay with a friend, the happy possessor of a villa¹ at Posilippo. Madame Merle had ceased to minister to Isabel’s happiness, who found herself wondering whether the most discreet² of women might not also by chance be the most dangerous. Sometimes, at night, she had strange visions; she seemed to see her husband and her friend — his friend — in dim, indistinguishable combination. It seemed to her that she had not done with her; this lady had something in reserve. Isabel’s imagination applied³ itself actively⁴ to this elusive⁵ point, but every now and then it was checked by a nameless dread⁶, so that when the charming woman was away from Rome she had almost a consciousness of respite⁷. She had already learned from Miss Stackpole that Caspar Goodwood was in Europe, Henrietta having written to make it known to her immediately after meeting him in Paris. He himself never wrote to Isabel, and though he was in Europe she thought it very possible he might not desire to see her. Their last interview, before her marriage, had had quite the character of a complete rupture⁹; if she remembered rightly he had said he wished to take his last look at her. Since then he had been the most discordant¹⁰ survival of her earlier time — the only one in fact with which a permanent pain was associated. He had left her that morning with a sense of the most

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