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tell by the expression of your faceyou’ve got a wonderful-
ly expressive face. I hope you don’t mind my saying that; I
mean it as a kind of warning. You think I ought to do some-
thing, and so do I, so long as you leave it vague. But when
you come to the point you see you have to stop. I can’t go
home and be a shopkeeper. You think I’m very well fitted?
Ah, Miss Archer, you overrate me. I can buy very well, but
I can’t sell; you should see when I sometimes try to get rid
of my things. It takes much more ability to make other peo-
ple buy than to buy yourself. When I think how clever they
must be, the people who make me buy! Ah no; I couldn’t
be a shopkeeper. I can’t be a doctor; it’s a repulsive busi-
ness. I can’t be a clergyman; I haven’t got convictions. And
then I can’t pronounce the names right in the Bible. They’re
very difficult, in the Old Testament particularly. I can’t be a
lawyer; I don’t understandhow do you call it?—the Ameri-
can procedure. Is there anything else? There’s nothing for a
gentleman in America. I should like to be a diplomatist; but
American diplomacy—that’s not for gentlemen either. I’m
sure if you had seen the last min-.’
Henrietta Stackpole, who was often with her friend when
Mr. Rosier, coming to pay his compliments late in the after-
noon, expressed himself after the fashion I have sketched,
usually interrupted the young man at this point and read
him a lecture on the duties of the American citizen. She
thought him most unnatural; he was worse than poor Ralph
Touchett. Henrietta, however, was at this time more than
ever addicted to fine criticism, for her conscience had been
freshly alarmed as regards Isabel. She had not congratulat-

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