de no reflexions; the apartment
only seemed to her very empty and very soundless. The portress returned
at the end of some five minutes, ushering in another person. Isabel got
up, expecting to see one of the ladies of the sisterhood, but to her
extreme surprise found herself confronted with Madame Merle. The effect
was strange, for Madame Merle was already so present to her vision
that her appearance in the flesh was like suddenly, and rather awfully,
seeing a painted picture move. Isabel had been thinking all day of her
falsity, her audacity, her ability, her probable suffering; and these
dark things seemed to flash with a sudden light as she entered the
room. Her being there at all had the character of ugly evidence, of
handwritings, of profaned relics, of grim things produced in court. It
made Isabel feel faint; if it had been necessary to speak on the spot
she would have been quite unable. But no such necessity was distinct to
her; it seemed to her indeed that she had absolutely nothing to say to
Madame Merle. In one's relations with this lady, however, there were
never any absolute necessities; she had a manner which carried off
not only her own deficiencies but those of other people. But she was
different from usual; she came in slowly, behind the portress, and
Isabel instantly perceived that she was not likely to depend upon her
habitual resources. For her too the occasion was exceptional, and she
had undertaken to treat it by the light of the moment. This gave her a
peculiar gravity; she pretended not even to smile, and though Isabel saw
that she was more than ever playing a part it seemed to her that on the
whole the wonderful woman had never been so natural. She looked at her
young friend from head to foot, but not harshly nor defiantly; with a
cold gentleness rather, and an absence of any air of allusion to their
last meeting. It was as if she had wished to mark a distinction. She had
been irritated then, she was reconciled now.

"You can leave us alone," she said to the portress; "in five minutes
this lady will ring for you." And then she turned to Isabel, who, after
noting what has just been mentioned, had ceased to notice and had let
her eyes wander as far as the limits of the room would allow. She wished
never to look at Madame Merle again. "You're surprised to find me here,
and I'm afraid you're not pleased," this lady went on. "You don't see
why I should have come; it's as if I had anticipated you. I con