he said, "we must find out her special line. Is it by chance for
flirting?"

"I don't think so. You may suspect that at first, but you'll be wrong.
You won't, I think, in anyway, be easily right about her."

"Warburton's wrong then!" Ralph rejoicingly exclaimed. "He flatters
himself he has made that discovery."

His mother shook her head. "Lord Warburton won't understand her. He
needn't try."

"He's very intelligent," said Ralph; "but it's right he should be
puzzled once in a while."

"Isabel will enjoy puzzling a lord," Mrs. Touchett remarked.

Her son frowned a little. "What does she know about lords?"

"Nothing at all: that will puzzle him all the more."

Ralph greeted these words with a laugh and looked out of the window.
Then, "Are you not going down to see my father?" he asked.

"At a quarter to eight," said Mrs. Touchett.

Her son looked at his watch. "You've another quarter of an hour then.
Tell me some more about Isabel." After which, as Mrs. Touchett declined
his invitation, declaring that he must find out for himself, "Well," he
pursued, "she'll certainly do you credit. But won't she also give you
trouble?"

"I hope not; but if she does I shall not shrink from it. I never do
that."

"She strikes me as very natural," said Ralph.

"Natural people are not the most trouble."

"No," said Ralph; "you yourself are a proof of that. You're extremely
natural, and I'm sure you have never troubled any one. It takes trouble
to do that. But tell me this; it just occurs to me. Is Isabel capable of
making herself disagreeable?"

"Ah," cried his mother, "you ask too many questions! Find that out for
yourself."

His questions, however, were not exhausted. "All this time," he said,
"you've not told me what you intend to do with her."

"Do with her? You talk as if she were a yard of calico. I shall do
absolutely nothing with her, and she herself will do everything she
chooses. She gave me notice of that."

"What you meant then, in your telegram, was that her character's
independent."

"I never know what I mean in my telegrams--especially those I send from
America. Clearness is too expensive. Come down to your father."

"It's not yet a quarter to eight," said Ralph.

"I must allow for his impatience," Mrs. Touchett answered. Ralph knew
what to think of his father's impatience; but, making no rejoinder, he
offered his mother his arm. This put it in his power, as they
descended together, to stop her a