"
"I thought you disliked the English so much."
"So I do; but it's all the greater reason for making use of them."
"Is that your idea of marriage?" And Isabel ventured to add that her
aunt appeared to her to have made very little use of Mr. Touchett.
"Your uncle's not an English nobleman," said Mrs. Touchett,
"though even if he had been I should still probably have taken up my
residence in Florence."
"Do you think Lord Warburton could make me any better than I am?"
the girl asked with some animation. "I don't mean I'm too good to
improve. I mean- I mean that I don't love Lord Warburton enough to
marry him."
"You did right to refuse him then," said Mrs. Touchett in her
smallest, sparest voice. "Only, the next great offer you get, I hope
you'll manage to come up to your standard."
"We had better wait till the offer comes before we talk about it.
I hope very much I may have no more offers for the present. They upset
me completely."
"You probably won't be troubled with them if you adopt permanently
the Bohemian manner of life. However, I've promised Ralph not to
criticize."
"I'll do whatever Ralph says is right," Isabel returned.
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