"
"So that you mean you've a wild side that's unknown to her?"
"Ah no, I fear my darkest sides are my tamest. I mean that having no
faults, for your aunt, means that one's never late for dinner- that is
for her dinner. I was not late, by the way, the other day, when you
came back from London; the clock was just at eight when I came into
the drawing-room; it was the rest of you that were before the time. It
means that one answers a letter the day one gets it and that when
one comes to stay with her one doesn't bring too much luggage and is
careful not to be taken ill. For Mrs. Touchett those things constitute
virtue; it's a blessing to be able to reduce it to its elements."
Madame Merle's own conversation, it will be perceived, was
enriched with bold, free touches of criticism, which, even when they
had a restrictive effect, never struck Isabel as ill-natured. It
couldn't occur to the girl for instance that Mrs. Touchett's
accomplished guest was abusing her; and this for very good reasons. In
the first place Isabel rose eagerly to the sense of her shades; in the
second Madame Merle implied that there was a great deal more to say;
and it was clear in the third that for a person to speak to one
without ceremony of one's near relations was an agreeable sign of that
person's intimacy with one's self.
Pages:
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340