Concerning Isabel Carnaby

by Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler

So Paul Seaton and Isabel Carnaby saw each other face to face once more. Because they were well-bred people—and, moreover, a man and woman of the world—they met apparently with perfect ease and without any disquieting emotion; although Paul's heart beat like a regimental drum all the time, and Isabel felt as if a little bird were fluttering in the middle of her throat. A casual observer would have thought that they were ordinary acquaintances, who had seen each other the day before; and the only difference that the most experienced eye could have detected was that they were neither quite as clever as usual. They did not seem to look at one another with any special attention; and yet in the first ten seconds that they were together, Paul knew that Isabel was thinner than of old, and that there had come a tired look into the blue eyes; and Isabel perceived that there were many grey hairs round Paul's temples, and that she and Time together had managed to plough some deep furrows across his forehead.

"How do you do?" began Isabel, talking a shade faster than her wont, "it is very good of such a busy man to spare the time to come and see me."

"It is very good of you to let me come," replied Paul, "but it is so much easier to talk over plans than to write about them."

"Then let us get to business at once," suggested Isabel hurriedly, "as I daresay you have not much time to spare."

She really meant that she had not much courage to spare; but we so rarely say what we actually mean. And why should we? The understanding people know without our saying, and it doesn't matter whether the stupid ones know or not.

"Certainly," agreed Paul, who happened to be one of the understanding people, "I know it is very bad manners to be in a hurry, but unfortunately I nearly always am. I believe my health will be permanently impaired by the scalding state in which I always have to swallow cups of tea during afternoon calls. Long and bitter experience has taught me that unless you can fly before you hear the distant rattle of the tea-cups, you are lost; if once tea is within ear-shot, escape becomes impossible till the cup is drained to the dregs. If you leave in the interval between the sound of tea and its outpouring, you somehow cast a slur upon the quickness of your hostess's servant."

Paul knew perfectly well about that little bird fluttering in Isabel's throat, and he talked on at random in order to give her time to recover herself.

She laughed. "Well, I am glad that the tea is here now, so that you can have a cup at once and drink it at your leisure."

"Thank you. And now, about Joanna. I cannot tell you how grateful I am to you for your most kind suggestion; but before we go into that, I want you to consider what it will mean to you. At present I think you have no idea of the sacrifice which it will involve on your part."

"I don't mind that; the greater the sacrifice the better it will be for me. You see, I have done nothing but help myself for thirty years, and now I think it is time I began to help other people."