CHAPTER III.
Mrs.Touchett was certainly a person of many oddities, of which her behaviour on returning to her husband's house after many months was a noticeable specimen.

She had her own way of doing all that she did, and this is the simplest description of a character which, although by no means without liberal motions, rarely succeeded in giving an impression of suavity.

Mrs.Touchett might do a great deal of good, but she never pleased.

This way of her own, of which she was so fond, was not intrinsically offensive--it was just unmistakeably distinguished from the ways of others.

The edges of her conduct were so very clear-cut that for susceptible persons it sometimes had a knife-like effect.