Isabel came back to Florence, but only after several months; an interval sufficiently replete with incident.

It is not, however, during this interval that we are closely concerned with her; our attention is engaged again on a certain day in the late spring-time, shortly after her return to Palazzo Crescentini and a year from the date of the incidents just narrated.

She was alone on this occasion, in one of the smaller of the numerous rooms devoted by Mrs.Touchett to social uses, and there was that in her expression and attitude which would have suggested that she was expecting a visitor.

The tall window was open, and though its green shutters were partly drawn the bright air of the garden had come in through a broad interstice and filled the room with warmth and perfume.

Our young woman stood near it for some time, her hands clasped behind her; she gazed abroad with the vagueness of unrest.
Too troubled for attention she moved in a vain circle.