And tell her I'd have come if you hadn't.

Or rather," Madame Merle added, "DON'T tell her.

She won't care." As Isabel drove, in the publicity of an open vehicle, along the winding way which led to Mr.Osmond's hill-top, she wondered what her friend had meant by no one's being the wiser.

Once in a while, at large intervals, this lady, whose voyaging discretion, as a general thing, was rather of the open sea than of the risky channel, dropped a remark of ambiguous quality, struck a note that sounded false.

What cared Isabel Archer for the vulgar judgements of obscure people?
and did Madame Merle suppose that she was capable of doing a thing at all if it had to be sneakingly done?
Of course not: she must have meant something else--something which in the press of the hours that preceded her departure she had not had time to explain.