Touchett. He had driven over from his own
place with a portmanteau and had asked, as the father and son often
invited him to do, for a dinner and a lodging. Isabel, seeing him
for half an hour on the day of her arrival, had discovered in this
brief space that she liked him; he had indeed rather sharply
registered himself on her fine sense and she had thought of him
several times. She had hoped she should see him again- hoped too
that she should see a few others. Gardencourt was not dull; the
place itself was sovereign, her uncle was more and more a sort of
golden grandfather, and Ralph was unlike any cousin she had ever
encountered- her idea of cousins having tended to gloom. Then her
impressions were still so fresh and so quickly renewed that there
was as yet hardly a hint of vacancy in the view. But Isabel had need
to remind herself that she was interested in human nature and that her
foremost hope in coming abroad had been that she should see a great
many people. When Ralph said to her, as he had done several times,
"I wonder you find this endurable; you ought to see some of the
neighbours and some of our friends, because we have really got a
few, though you would never suppose it"- when he offered to invite
what he called a "lot of people" and make her acquainted with
English society, she encouraged the hospitable impulse and promised in
advance to hurl herself into the fray.
Pages:
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117