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on Mr. Rosier I won’t admit that she deserves it. That will be
too perverse.’
‘Mr. Rosier’s a nuisance!’ Isabel cried abruptly.
‘I quite agree with you, and I’m delighted to know that
I’m not expected to feed his flame. For the future, when he
calls on me, my door shall be closed to him.’ And gathering
her mantle together Madame Merle prepared to depart. She
was checked, however, on her progress to the door, by an in-
consequent request from Isabel.
‘All the same, you know, be kind to him.’
She lifted her shoulders and eyebrows and stood look-
ing at her friend. ‘I don’t understand your contradictions!
Decidedly I shan’t be kind to him, for it will be a false kind-
ness. I want to see her married to Lord Warburton.’
‘You had better wait till he asks her.’
‘If what you say’s true, he’ll ask her. Especially,’ said Ma-
dame Merle in a moment, ‘if you make him.’
‘If I make him?’
‘It’s quite in your power. You’ve great influence with
him.’
Isabel frowned a little. ‘Where did you learn that?’
‘Mrs. Touchett told me. Not you-never!’ said Madame
Merle, smiling.
‘I certainly never told you anything of the sort.’
‘You might have done far as opportunity went-when we
were by way of being confidential with each other. But you
really told me very little; I’ve often thought so since.’
Isabel had thought so too, and sometimes with a certain
satisfaction. But she didn’t admit it now-perhaps because she

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