Page:The Portrait of a Lady (1882).djvu/228

220 220 THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY. little black speck ; if I were to take half-an-hour to it, some day, I have no doubt I should be able to find one on yours. For my own, of course, I am spotted like a leopard. But on Madame Merle's nothing, nothing, nothing ! " " That is just what I think ! " said Isabel, with a toss of her head. " That is why I like her so much." " She is a capital person for you to know. Since you wish to see the world you couldn't have a better guide." " I suppose you mean by that that she is worldly 1 " " Worldly 1 No," said Ralph, " she is the world itself ! " It had certainly not, as Isabel for the moment took it into her head to believe, been a refinement of malice in him to say that he delighted in Madame Merle. Ralph Touchett took his entertainment wherever he could find it, and he would not have forgiven himself if he had not been able to find a great deal in the society of a woman in whom the social virtues existed in polished perfection. There are deep-lying sympathies and antipathies ; and it may have been that in spite of the intel- lectual justice he rendered her, her absence from his mother's house would not have made life seem barren. But Ralph Touchett had learned to appreciate, and there could be no better field for such a talent than the table-talk of Madame Merle. He talked with her largely, treated her 'with conspicuous civility, occupied himself with her and let her alone, with an opportune- ness which she herself could not have surpassed. There were moments when he felt almost sorry for her ; and these, oddly enough, were the moments when his kindness was least demon- strative. He was sure that she had been richly ambitious, and that what she had visibly accomplished was far below her ambition. She had got herself into perfect training, but she had won none of the prizes. She was always plain Madame Merle, the widow of a Swiss negotiant, with a small income and a large acquaintance, who stayed with people a great deal, and was universally liked. The contrast between this position and any one of some half-dozen others which he vividly imagined her to have had her eyes upon at various moments, had an element of the tragical. His mother thought he got on beauti- fully with their pliable guest ; to Mrs. Touchett's sense two people who dealt so largely in factitious theories of conduct would have much in common. He had given a great deal of consideration to Isabel's intimacy with Madame Merle having long since made up his mind that he could not, without opposi- tion, keep his cousin to himself; and he regarded it on the whole with philosophic tolerance. He believed it would take