She had played no social part as mistress of Gardencourt, and it was not to be supposed that, in the surrounding country, a minute account should be kept of her comings and goings.

But it is by no means certain that she did not feel it to be wrong that so little notice was taken of them and that her failure (really very gratuitous) to make herself important in the neighbourhood had not much to do with the acrimony of her allusions to her husband's adopted country.

Isabel presently found herself in the singular situation of defending the British constitution against her aunt; Mrs.Touchett having formed the habit of sticking pins into this venerable instrument.

Isabel always felt an impulse to pull out the pins; not that she imagined they inflicted any damage on the tough old parchment, but because it seemed to her her aunt might make better use of her sharpness.

She was very critical herself--it was incidental to her age, her sex and her nationality; but she was very sentimental as well, and there was something in Mrs.Touchett's dryness that set her own moral fountains flowing.
"Now what's your point of view ?" she asked of her aunt.