"You can't help it--of course not. You would if you could, but you
can't, unfortunately. Unfortunately for me, I mean. I ask nothing
--nothing, that is, I shouldn't. But I do ask one sole
satisfaction:--that you tell me--that you tell me--!"

"That I tell you what?"

"Whether I may pity you."

"Should you like that?" Isabel asked, trying to smile again.

"To pity you? Most assuredly! That at least would be doing
something. I'd give my life to it."

She raised her fan to her face, which it covered all except her
eyes. They rested a moment on his. "Don't give your life to it;
but give a thought to it every now and then." And with that she
went back to the Countess Gemini.



CHAPTER XLIX

Madame Merle had not made her appearance at Palazzo Roccanera on
the evening of that Thursday of which I have narrated some of the
incidents, and Isabel, though she observed her absence, was not
surprised by it. Things had passed between them which added no
stimulus to sociability, and to appreciate which we must glance a
little backward. It has been mentioned that Madame Merle returned