Salamis; deep and memorable as these emotions had remained. She came back by the last of March
from Egypt and Greece and made another stay in Rome. A few days after her arrival Gilbert Osmond
descended from Florence and remained three weeks, during which the fact of her being with his old
friend Madame Merle, in whose house she had gone to lodge, made it virtually inevitable that he should
see her every day. When the last of April came she wrote to Mrs Touchett that she should now rejoice
to accept an invitation given long before, and went to pay a visit at Palazzo Crescentini, Madame Merle
on this occasion remaining in Rome. She found her aunt alone; her cousin was still at Corfu. Ralph,
however, was expected in Florence from day to day, and Isabel, who had not seen him for upwards of
a year, was prepared to give him the most affectionate welcome.