Mrs.Touchett had defined her to Isabel as both an adventuress and a bore--adventuresses usually giving one more of a thrill; she had expressed some surprise at her niece's having selected such a friend, yet had immediately added that she knew Isabel's friends were her own affair and that she had never undertaken to like them all or to restrict the girl to those she liked.
"If you could see none but the people I like, my dear, you'd have a very small society," Mrs.Touchett frankly admitted; "and I don't think I like any man or woman well enough to recommend them to you.

When it comes to recommending it's a serious affair.

I don't like Miss Stackpole--everything about her displeases me; she talks so much too loud and looks at one as if one wanted to look at her--which one doesn't.

I'm sure she has lived all her life in a boarding-house, and I detest the manners and the liberties of such places.

If you ask me if I prefer my own manners, which you doubtless think very bad, I'll tell you that I prefer them immensely.