70 THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY. be delighted to receive her at Gardencourt. " Though she is a literary lady," he said, " I suppose that, being an American, she won't reproduce me, as that other one did. She has seen others like me." " She has seen no other so delightful ! " Isabel answered ; but she was not altogether at ease about Henrietta's reproductive instincts, which belonged to that side of her friend's character which she regarded with least complacency. She wrote to Miss Stackpole, however, that she would be very welcome under Mr. Touchett's roof; and this enterprising young woman lost no time in signifying her intention of arriving. She had gone up to London, and it was from the metropolis that she took the train for the station nearest to Gardencourt, where Isabel and Ralph were in waiting to receive the visitor. "Shall I love her, or shall I hate her?" asked Ealph, while they stood on the platform, before the advent of the train. "Whichever you do will matter very little to her," said Isabel. " She doesn't care a straw what men think of her." "As a man I am bound to dislike her, then. She must be a kind of monster. Is she very ugly 1 " " No, she is decidedly pretty." " A female interviewer, a reporter in petticoats 1 I am very curious to see her," Ealph declared. "It is very easy to laugh at her, but it is not easy to be as brave as she." " I should think not ; interviewing requires bravery. ])o you suppose she will interview me?" "Never in the world. She will not think you of enough importance." " You will see," said Ralph. " She will send a description of us all, including Bunchie, to her newspaper." " I shall ask her not to," Isabel answered. " You think she is capable of it, then." " Perfectly." "And yet you have made her your bosom-friend?" " I have not made her my bosom-friend ; but I like her, in spite of her faults." "Ah, well," said Ralph, "I am afraid I shall dislike her, in spite of her merits." " You will probably fall in love with her at the end of three days." "And have my love-letters published in the Interviewer 9 Never ! " cried the young man. The train presently arrived, and Miss Stackpole, promptly
