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might alarm me,’ Isabel returned.
‘She’s never the least little bit ‘off.’ I’ve brought you out
here and I wish to do the best for you. Your sister Lily told
me she hoped I would give you plenty of opportunities. I
give you one in putting you in relation with Madame Merle.
She’s one of the most brilliant women in Europe.’
‘I like her better than I like your description of her,’ Isa-
bel persisted in saying.
‘Do you flatter yourself that you’ll ever feel her open to
criticism? I hope you’ll let me know when you do.’
‘That will be cruel—to you,’ said Isabel.
‘You needn’t mind me. You won’t discover a fault in her.’
‘Perhaps not. But I dare say I shan’t miss it.’
‘She knows absolutely everything on earth there is to
know,’ said Mrs. Touchett.
Isabel after this observed to their companion that she
hoped she knew Mrs. Touchett considered she hadn’t a
speck on her perfection. On which ‘I’m obliged to you,’ Ma-
dame Merle replied, ‘but I’m afraid your aunt imagines, or
at least alludes to, no aberrations that the clock-face doesn’t
register.’
‘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

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