Madame Merle surveyed her with a single glance, took her in from head to foot, and after a pang of despair determined to endure her.

She determined indeed to delight in her.

She mightn't be inhaled as a rose, but she might be grasped as a nettle.

Madame Merle genially squeezed her into insignificance, and Isabel felt that in foreseeing this liberality she had done justice to her friend's intelligence.

Henrietta's arrival had been announced by Mr.Bantling, who, coming down from Nice while she was at Venice, and expecting to find her in Florence, which she had not yet reached, called at Palazzo Crescentini to express his disappointment.