Page 340 - the-portrait-of-a-lady

‘I’m not so heartless as you think. Every now and then
something touches me—as for instance your saying just
now that your ambitions are for me. I don’t understand it; I
don’t see how or why they should be. But it touches me, all
the same.’
‘You’ll probably understand it even less as time goes on.
There are some things you’ll never understand. There’s no
particular need you should.’
‘You, after all, are the most remarkable of women,’ said
Osmond. ‘You have more in you than almost any one. I don’t
see why you think Mrs. Touchett’s niece should matter very
much to me, when—when-’ But he paused a moment.
‘When I myself have mattered so little?’
‘That of course is not what I meant to say. When I’ve
known and appreciated such a woman as you.’
‘Isabel Archer’s better than I,’ said Madame Merle.
Her companion gave a laugh. ‘How little you must think
of her to say that!’
‘Do you suppose I’m capable of jealousy? Please answer
me that.’
‘With regard to me? No; on the whole I don’t.’
‘Come and see me then, two days hence. I’m staying at
Mrs. Touchett’s—Palazzo Crescentini—and the girl will be
there.’
‘Why didn’t you ask me that at first simply, without
speaking of the girl?’ said Osmond. ‘You could have had her
there at any rate.’
Madame Merle looked at him in the manner of a woman
whom no question he could ever put would find unpre-

340 The Portrait of a Lady