You can go and come, you
can travel alone, you can have your own establishment: I mean of
course if you'll take a companion- some decayed gentlewoman, with a
darned cashmere and dyed hair, who paints on velvet. You don't think
you'd like that? Of course you can do as you please; I only want you
to understand how much you're at liberty. You might take Miss
Stackpole as your dame de compagnie; she'd keep people off very
well. I think, however, that it's a great deal better you should
remain with me, in spite of there being no obligation. It's better for
several reasons, quite apart from your liking it. I shouldn't think
you'd like it, but I recommend you to make the sacrifice. Of course
whatever novelty there may have been at first in my society has
quite passed away, and you see me as I am- a dull, obstinate,
narrow-minded old woman."
"I don't think you're at all dull," Isabel had replied to this.
"But you do think I'm obstinate and narrow-minded? I told you so!"
said Mrs. Touchett with much elation at being justified.
Isabel remained for the present with her aunt, because, in spite
of eccentric impulses, she had a great regard for what was usually
deemed decent, and a young gentlewoman without visible relations had
always struck her as a flower without foliage.
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