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47 THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY. 47 fine country on the whole finer perhaps than what we give it credit for on the other side. There are several improvements that I should like to see introduced; but the necessity of them doesn't seem to be generally felt as yet. When the necessity of a thing is generally felt, they usually manage to accomplish it ; but they seem to feel pretty comfortable about waiting till then. I certainly feel more at home among them than I expected to when I first came over; I suppose it's because I have had a considerable degree of success. When you are successful you naturally feel more at home." " Do you suppose that if I am successful I shall feel at home 1 ?" 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." 1 Oh, I am by no means sure I shall like it/' said Isabel, somewhat judicially. " I like the place very much, but I am not sure I shall like the people." " The people are very good people ; especially if you like them." " I have no doubt they are good," Isabel rejoined ; " but are they pleasant in society 1 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 appreciate it. I don't believe they are very nice to girls ; they are 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 are 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, very positive ; but she was not the sort of person that you could depend on her testimony. Too much imagination 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 unworthy self. I didn't read it, but Kalph just handed me the book, with the principal passages marked. It was understood to be a description of my convers- ation; American peculiarities, nasal twang, Yankee notions, stars and stripes. Well, it was not at all accurate ; she couldn't have listened very attentively. I had no objection to her giving a report of my conversation, if she liked ; but I didn't like the idea that she hadn't taken the trouble to listen to it. Of course I talk like an American I can't talk like a Hottentot. How-