d. "Don't put it into her head. The thing would be
to ask Mr. Osmond."

"I can't do that," said Mrs. Touchett. "I won't have him enquire
of me--as he perfectly may with that air of his, given Isabel's
situation--what business it is of mine."

"I'll ask him myself," Madame Merle bravely declared.

"But what business--for HIM--is it of yours?"

"It's being none whatever is just why I can afford to speak. It's so
much less my business than any one's else that he can put me off with
anything he chooses. But it will be by the way he does this that I shall
know."

"Pray let me hear then," said Mrs. Touchett, "of the fruits of your
penetration. If I can't speak to him, however, at least I can speak to
Isabel."

Her companion sounded at this the note of warning. "Don't be too quick
with her. Don't inflame her imagination."

"I never did anything in life to any one's imagination. But I'm always
sure of her doing something--well, not of MY kind."

"No, you wouldn't like this," Madame Merle observed without the point of
interrogation.

"Why in the world should I, pray? Mr. Osmond has nothing the least solid
to offer."

Again Madame Merle was silent while her thoughtful smile drew up her
mouth even more charmingly than usual toward the left corner. "Let us
distinguish. Gilbert Osmond's certainly not the first comer. He's a man
who in favourable conditions might very well make a great impression. He
has made a great impression, to my knowledge, more than once."

"Don't tell me about his probably quite cold-blooded love-affairs;
they're nothing to me!" Mrs. Touchett cried. "What you say's precisely
why I wish he would cease his visits. He has nothing in the world that
I know of but a dozen or two of early masters and a more or less pert
little daughter."

"The early masters are now worth a good deal of money," said Madame
Merle, "and the daughter's a very young and very innocent and very
harmless person."

"In other words she's an insipid little chit. Is that what you mean?
Having no fortune she can't hope to marry as they marry here; so that
Isabel will have to furnish her either with a maintenance or with a
dowry."

"Isabel probably wouldn't object to being kind to her. I think she likes
the poor child."

"Another reason then for Mr. Osmond's stopping at home! Otherwise, a
week hence, we shall have my niece arriving at the conviction that her
mission in life's to prove that a stepmother may sacrifice herself--a