Though her listeners passed for people kept exemplarily genial by their cooks and dressmakers, two or three of them thought her cleverness, which was generally admitted, inferior to that of the new theatrical pieces.

"You all live here this way, but what does it lead to ?" she was pleased to ask.

"It doesn't seem to lead to anything, and I should think you'd get very tired of it." Mrs.Touchett thought the question worthy of Henrietta Stackpole.

The two ladies had found Henrietta in Paris, and Isabel constantly saw her; so that Mrs.Touchett had some reason for saying to herself that if her niece were not clever enough to originate almost anything, she might be suspected of having borrowed that style of remark from her journalistic friend.

The first occasion on which Isabel had spoken was that of a visit paid by the two ladies to Mrs.Luce, an old friend of Mrs.
Touchett's and the only person in Paris she now went to see.