at this moment Mr Bantling emerged from the choir, cleaving the crowd with British valour and followed by Miss Stackpole and Ralph Touchett. I say fortunately, but this is perhaps a superficial view of the matter; since on perceiving the gentleman from Florence Ralph Touchett appeared to take the case as not committing him to joy. He didn’t hang back, however, from civility, and presently observed to Isabel, with due benevolence, that she would soon have all her friends about her. Miss Stackpole had met Mr Osmond in Florence, but she had already found occasion to say to Isabel that she liked him no better than her other admirers—than Mr Touchett and Lord Warburton, and even than little Mr Rosier in Paris. ‘I don’t know what it’s in you,’ she had been pleased to remark, ‘but for a nice girl you do attract the most unnatural people. Mr Goodwood’s the only one I’ve any respect for, and he’s just the one you don’t appreciate.’

‘What’s your opinion of Saint Peter’s?’ Mr Osmond was meanwhile enquiring of our young lady.

‘It’s very large and very bright,’ she contented herself with replying.

‘It’s too large; it makes one feel like an atom.’

‘Isn’t that the right way to feel in the greatest of human temples?’ she asked with rather a liking for her phrase.

‘I suppose it’s the right way to feel everywhere, when one is nobody. But I like it in a church as little as anywhere else.’

‘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?’