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48 48 THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY. ever I talk, I have made them understand me pretty well over here. But I don't talk like the old gentleman in that lady's novel. He wasn't an American ; we wouldn't have him over there ! I just mention that fact to show you that they are not always accurate. Of course, as I have 110 daughters, and as Mrs. Touchett resides in Florence, I haven't had much chance to notice about the young ladies. It sometimes appears as if the young women in the lower class were not very well treated ; but I guess their position is better in the upper class." "Dear me!" Isabel exclaimed; "how many classes have they? About fifty, I suppose." " Well, I don't know that I ever counted them. I never took much notice of the classes. That's the advantage of being an American here ; you don't belong to any class." " I hope so," said Isabel. " Imagine one's belonging to an English class ! " "Well, I guess some of them are pretty comfortable especially towards the top. But for me there are only two classes : the people I trust, and the people I don't. Of those two, my dear Isabel, you belong to the first." " I am much obliged to you," said the young 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 am sure the English are very conventional," she added. "They have 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 preference. " Well, it's settled beforehand that you will have great success," he rejoined. " I suppose you will like that." 11 1 shall not have success if they are conventional. I am not in the least conventional. I am just the contrary. That's what they won't like." " No, no, you are all wrong," said the old man. " You can't tell what they will like. They are 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 ! "