“I’m glad, at any rate, to hear you talk of settling. Madame Merle had given me an idea that you were of a rather roving disposition. I thought she spoke of your having some plan of going round the world.”
“I’m rather ashamed of my plans; I make a new one every day.”
“I don’t see why you should be ashamed; it’s the greatest of pleasures.”
“It seems frivolous, I think,” said Isabel. “One ought to choose something very deliberately, and be faithful to that.”
“By that rule then, I’ve not been frivolous.”
“Have you never made plans?”
“Yes, I made one years ago, and I’m acting on it to-day.”
“It must have been a very pleasant one,” Isabel permitted herself to observe.
“It was very simple. It was to be as quiet as possible.”
“As quiet?” the girl repeated.