"You know I never understand you very well," she smiled.
"No one can understand better than you when you wish.

I see that just now you DON'T wish." "You say things to me that no one else does," said Madame Merle gravely, yet without bitterness.
"You mean things you don't like?
Doesn't Osmond sometimes say such things ?" "What your brother says has a point." "Yes, a poisoned one sometimes.

If you mean that I'm not so clever as he you mustn't think I shall suffer from your sense of our difference.

But it will be much better that you should understand me." "Why so ?" asked Madame Merle.

"To what will it conduce ?" "If I don't approve of your plan you ought to know it in order to appreciate the danger of my interfering with it." Madame Merle looked as if she were ready to admit that there might be something in this; but in a moment she said quietly: "You think me more calculating than I am." "It's not your calculating I think ill of; it's your calculating wrong.
You've done so in this case." "You must have made extensive calculations yourself to discover that." "No, I've not had time.