"I＇ll ask him myself," Madame Merle bravely declared.
"But what business—for him—is it of yours?"
"It＇s being none whatever is just why I can afford to speak. It＇s so much less my business than any one＇s else that he can put me off with anything he chooses. But it will be by the way he does this that I shall know."
"Pray let me hear then," said Mrs. Touchett, "of the fruits of your penetration. If I can＇t speak to him,however, at least I can speak to Isabel."