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it’s because I’ve had a considerable degree of success. When
you’re successful you naturally feel more at home.’
‘Do you suppose that if I’m successful I shall feel at
home?’ Isabel asked.
‘I should think it very probable, and you certainly will
be successful. They like American young ladies very much
over here; they show them a great deal of kindness. But you
mustn’t feel too much at home, you know.’
‘Oh, I’m by no means sure it will satisfy me,’ Isabel judi-
cially emphasized. ‘I like the place very much, but I’m not
sure I shall like the people.’
‘The people are very good people; especially if you like
them.’
‘I’ve no doubt they’re good,’ Isabel rejoined; ‘but are they
pleasant in society? They won’t rob me nor beat me; but will
they make themselves agreeable to me? That’s what I like
people to do. I don’t hesitate to say so, because I always ap-
preciate it. I don’t believe they’re very nice to girls; they’re
not nice to them in the novels.’
‘I don’t know about the novels,’ said Mr. Touchett. ‘I
believe the novels have a great deal of ability, but I don’t
suppose they’re very accurate. We once had a lady who
wrote novels staying here; she was a friend of Ralph’s and
he asked her down. She was very positive, quite up to every-
thing; but she was not the sort of person you could depend
on for evidence. Too free a fancy—I suppose that was it.
She afterwards published a work of fiction in which she was
understood to have given a representation—something in
the nature of a caricature, as you might say—of my unwor-

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