Osmond for the beauty of his opinions or for
his autograph of Michael Angelo. She wants to be disinterested: as
if she were the only person who's in danger of not being so! Will he
be so disinterested when he has the spending of her money? That was
her idea before your father's death, and it has acquired new charms
for her since. She ought to marry some one of whose
disinterestedness she shall herself be sure; and there would be no
such proof of that as his having a fortune of his own."
"My dear mother, I'm not afraid," Ralph answered. "She's making
fools of us all. She'll please herself, of course; but she'll do so by
studying human nature at close quarters and yet retaining her liberty.
She has started on an exploring expedition, and I don't think she'll
change her course, at the outset, at a signal from Gilbert Osmond. She
may have slackened speed for an hour, but before we know it she'll
be steaming away again. Excuse another metaphor."
Mrs. Touchett excused it perhaps, but was not so much reassured as
to withhold from Madame Merle the expression of her fears. "You who
know everything," she said, "you must know this: whether that
curious creature's really making love to my niece.
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