she left indelible traces. She was capable of being wounded by the discovery that she had been forgotten; but
of all liberties the one she herself found sweetest was the liberty to forget. She had not given her last
shilling, sentimentally speaking, either to Caspar Goodwood or to Lord Warburton, and yet couldnt but
feel them appreciably in debt to her. She had of course reminded herself that she was to hear from
Mr Goodwood again; but this was not to be for another year and a half, and in that time a great many
things might happen. She had indeed failed to say to herself that her American suitor might find some
other girl more comfortable to woo; because, though it was certain many other girls would prove so, she
had not the smallest belief that this merit would attract him. But she reflected that she herself might
know the humiliation of change, might really, for that matter, come to the end of the things that were
not Caspar (even though there appeared so many of them), and find rest in those very elements of his
presence which struck her now as impediments to the finer respiration. It was conceivable that these
impediments should some day prove a sort of blessing in disguisea clear and quiet harbour enclosed
by a brave granite breakwater. But that day could only come in its order, and she couldnt wait for it with
folded hands. That Lord Warburton should continue to cherish her image seemed to her more than a
noble humility or an enlightened pride ought to wish to reckon with. She had so definitely undertaken
to preserve no record of what had passed between them that a corresponding effort on his own part
would be eminently just. This was not, as it may seem, merely a theory tinged with sarcasm. Isabel
candidly believed that his lordship would, in the usual phrase, get over his disappointment. He had been
deeply affectedthis she believed, and she was still capable of deriving pleasure from the belief; but it
was absurd that a man both so intelligent and so honourably dealt with should cultivate a scar out of
proportion to any wound. Englishmen liked moreover to be comfortable, said Isabel, and there could be
little comfort for Lord Warburton, in the long run, in brooding over a self-sufficient American girl who had
been but a casual acquaintance. She flattered herself that, should she hear from one day to another
that he had married some young woman of his own country who had done more to deserve him, she
should receive the news without a pang even of surprise. It would have proved that he believed she was
firmwhich was what she wished to seem to him. That alone was grateful to her pride.