Page 38 - the-portrait-of-a-lady

which was all she had known, had ever been as interesting.
No one certainly had on any occasion so held her as this
little thin-lipped, bright-eyed, foreign-looking woman, who
retrieved an insignificant appearance by a distinguished
manner and, sitting there in a well-worn waterproof, talked
with striking familiarity of the courts of Europe. There was
nothing flighty about Mrs. Touchett, but she recognized no
social superiors, and, judging the great ones of the earth
in a way that spoke of this, enjoyed the consciousness of
making an impression on a candid and susceptible mind.
Isabel at first had answered a good many questions, and it
was from her answers apparently that Mrs. Touchett de-
rived a high opinion of her intelligence. But after this she
had asked a good many, and her aunt’s answers, whatever
turn they took, struck her as food for deep reflexion. Mrs.
Touchett waited for the return of her other niece as long as
she thought reasonable, but as at six o’clock Mrs. Ludlow
bad not come in she prepared to take her departure.
‘Your sister must be a great gossip. Is she accustomed to
staying out so many hours?’
‘You’ve been out almost as long as she,’ Isabel replied;
‘she can have left the house but a short time before you came
in.’
Mrs. Touchett looked at the girl without resentment; she
appeared to enjoy a bold retort and to be disposed to be gra-
cious. ‘Perhaps she hasn’t had so good an excuse as I. Tell
her at any rate that she must come and see me this evening
at that horrid hotel. She may bring her husband if she likes,
but she needn’t bring you. I shall see plenty of you later.’

38 The Portrait of a Lady