Page 272 - the-portrait-of-a-lady

all the distinguished people her friend had known and with
her having lived, as Mrs. Touchett said, in the best company
in Europe. Isabel thought the better of herself for enjoying
the favour of a person who had so large a field of comparison;
and it was perhaps partly to gratify the sense of profiting by
comparison that she often appealed to these stores of remi-
niscence. Madame Merle had been a dweller in many lands
and had social ties in a dozen different countries. ‘I don’t
pretend to be educated,’ she would say, ‘but I think I know
my Europe”; and she spoke one day of going to Sweden to
stay with an old friend, and another of proceeding to Malta
to follow up a new acquaintance. With England, where she
had often dwelt, she was thoroughly familiar, and for Isa-
bel’s benefit threw a great deal of light upon the customs of
the country and the character of the people, who ‘after all,’
as she was fond of saying, were the most convenient in the
world to live with.
‘You mustn’t think it strange her remaining here at such
a time as this, when Mr. Touchett’s passing away,’ that gen-
tleman’s wife remarked to her niece. ‘She is incapable of a
mistake; she’s the most tactful woman I know. It’s a favour
to me that she stays; she’s putting off a lot of visits at great
houses,’ said Mrs. Touchett, who never forgot that when she
herself was in England her social value sank two or three
degrees in the scale. ‘She has her pick of places; she’s not in
want of a shelter. But I’ve asked her to put in this time be-
cause I wish you to know her. I think it will be a good thing
for you. Serena Merle hasn’t a fault.’
‘If I didn’t already like her very much that description

272 The Portrait of a Lady