She made this last announcement as if she were referring to a person of tolerably distinct identity.
For Isabel, however, it represented but little; she could only continue to feel that Madame Merle had a charming manner.
"She is not a foreigner, in spite of her name," said Mrs. Touchett. "She was born—I always forget where you were born."
"It is hardly worth while I should tell you then."
"On the contrary," said Mrs. Touchett, who rarely missed a logical point; "if I remembered, your telling me would be quite superfluous."
Madame Merle glanced at Isabel with a fine, frank smile.
"I was born under the shadow of the national banner."
"She is too fond of mystery," said Mrs. Touchett; "that is her great fault."
"Ah," exclaimed Madame Merle, "I have great faults, but I don't think that is one of them; it certainly is not the greatest. I came into the world in the Brooklyn navy-yard. My father was a high officer in the United States navy, and had a post—a post of responsibility—in that establishment at the time. I suppose I ought to love the sea, but I hate it. That's why I don't return to America. I love the land; the great thing is to love something."
Isabel, as a dispassionate witness, had not been struck with the force of Mrs. Touchett's characterisation of her visitor, who had an expressive, communicative, responsive face, by no means of the sort which, to Isabel's mind, suggested a secretive disposition. It was a face that told of a rich nature and of quick and liberal impulses, and though it had no regular beauty was in the highest degree agreeable to contemplate.
Madame Merle was a tall, fair, plump woman; everything in
