"For Mrs.Verver to be known to people so intensely and exclusively as her husband's wife, something is wanted that, you know, they haven't exactly got.

He should manage to be known--or at least to be seen--a little more as his wife's husband.

You surely must by this time have seen for yourself that he has his own habits and his own ways, and that he makes, more and more--as of course he has a perfect right to do--his own discriminations.

He's so perfect, so ideal a father, and, doubtless largely by that very fact, a generous, a comfortable, an admirable father-in-law, that I should really feel it base to avail myself of any standpoint whatever to criticise him.

To YOU, nevertheless, I may make just one remark; for you're not stupid--you always understand so blessedly what one means." He paused an instant, as if even this one remark might be difficult for him should she give no sign of encouraging him to produce it.