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two, my dear Isabel, you belong to the first.’
‘I’m much obliged to you,’ said the girl quickly. Her way
of taking compliments seemed sometimes rather dry; she
got rid of them as rapidly as possible. But as regards this
she was sometimes misjudged, she was thought insensible
to them, whereas in fact she was simply unwilling to show
how infinitely they pleased her. To show that was to show
too much. ‘I’m sure the English are very conventional,’ she
added.
‘They’ve got everything pretty well fixed,’ Mr. Touchett
admitted. ‘It’s all settled beforehand—they don’t leave it to
the last moment.’
‘I don’t like to have everything settled beforehand,’ said
the girl. ‘I like more unexpectedness.’
Her uncle seemed amused at her distinctness of pref-
erence. ‘Well, it’s settled beforehand that you’ll have great
success,’ he rejoined. ‘I suppose you’ll like that.’
‘I shall not have success if they’re too stupidly conven-
tional. I’m not in the least stupidly conventional. I’m just the
contrary. That’s what they won’t like.’
‘No, no, you’re all wrong,’ said the old man. ‘You can’t
tell what they’ll like. They’re very inconsistent; that’s their
principal interest.’
‘Ah well,’ said Isabel, standing before her uncle with her
hands clasped about the belt of her black dress and looking
up and down the lawn—‘that will suit me perfectly!’

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