THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY. 153 of the great doctor from London, who had been immediately ushered into the drawing-room. Mrs. Touchett took him off to the library, to confer with him in private ; and then Madame Merle and Isabel parted, to meet again at dinner. The idea of seeing more of this interesting woman did much to mitigate Isabel's perception of the melancholy that now hung over Gardencourt. When she came into the drawing-room before dinner she found the place empty ; but in the course of a moment Ralph arrived. His anxiety about his father had been lightened ; Sir Matthew Hope's view of his condition was less sombre than Ralph's had been. The doctor recommended that the nurse alone should remain with the old man for the next three or four hours ; so that Ralph, his mother, and the great physician him- self, were free to dine at table. Mrs. Touchett and Sir Matthew came in ; Madame Merle was the last to appear. Before she came, Isabel spoke of her to Ralph, who was standing before the fireplace. " Pray who is Madame Merle ? " " The cleverest woman I know, not excepting yourself," said Ralph. " I thought she seemed very pleasant." " I was sure you would think her pleasant," said Ralph. " Is that why you invited her 1 " " I didn't invite her, and when we came back from London I didn't know she was here. No one invited her. She is a friend of my mother's, and just after you and I went to town, my mother got a note from her. She had arrived in England (she usually lives abroad, though she has first and last spent a good deal of time here), and she asked leave to come down for a few days. Madame Merle is a woman who can make such proposals with perfect confidence ; she is so welcome wherever she goes. And with my mother there could be no question of hesitating ; she is the one person in the world whom my mother very much admires. If she were not herself (which she after all much prefers), she would like to be Madame Merle. It would, indeed, be a great change." " Well, she is very charming," said Isabel. " And she plays beautifully." " She does everything beautifully. She is complete." Isabel looked at her cousin a moment. " You don't like her." " On the contrary, I was once in love with her." " And she didn't care for you, and that's why you don't like her."
