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151 THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY. 151 quite alone, and have got rather tired of my own society. I have not chosen a good moment for my visit." A servant had come in with lamps, and was presently followed by another, bearing the tea-tray. On the appearance of this repast Mrs. Touchett had apparently been notified, for she now arrived and addressed herself to the tea-pot. Her greeting to her niece did not differ materially from her manner of raising the lid of this receptacle in order to glance at the contents : in neither act was it becoming to make a show of avidity. Questioned about her husband, she was unable to say that he was better ; but the local doctor was with him, and much light was expected from this gentleman's consultation with Sir Matthew Hope. " I suppose you two ladies have made acquaintance 1 " she said. " If you have not, I recommend you to do so ; for so long as we continue Ralph and I to cluster about Mr. Touchett's bed, you are not likely to have much society but each other." " I know nothing about you but that you are a great musician," Isabel said to the visitor. " There is a good deal more than that to know," Mrs. Touchett affirmed, in her little dry tone. " A very little of it, I am sure, will content Miss Archer ! " the lady exclaimed, with a light laugh. " I am an old friend of your aunt's I have lived much in Florence I am Madame Merle." She made this last announcement as if she were referring to a person of tolerably distinct identity. For Isabel, however, it represented but little ; she could only continue to feel that Madame Merle had a charming manner. " She is not a foreigner, in spite of her name," said Mrs. Touchett. "She was born I always forget where you were born." "It is hardly worth while I should tell you, then." " On the contrary," said Mrs. Touchett, who rarely missed a logical point ; " if I remembered, your telling me would be quite superfluous." Madame Merle glanced at Isabel with a fine, frank smile. " I was born under the shadow of the national banner." " She is too fond of mystery," said Mrs. Touchett ; " that is her great fault." " Ah," exclaimed Madame Merle, " I have great faults, but I don't think that is one of them ; it certainly is not the greatest. I came into the world in the Brooklyn navy-yard. My father was a high officer in the United States navy, and had a post a post of responsibility in that establishment at the time. I