[The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James]@TWC D-Link book
The Portrait of a Lady

CHAPTER XXXVII
17/26

"Did you say papa knows ?" "You told me just now he knows everything." "I think you must make sure," said Pansy.
"Ah, my dear, when once I'm sure of YOU!" Rosier murmured in her ear; whereupon she turned back to the other rooms with a little air of consistency which seemed to imply that their appeal should be immediate.
The other rooms meanwhile had become conscious of the arrival of Madame Merle, who, wherever she went, produced an impression when she entered.
How she did it the most attentive spectator could not have told you, for she neither spoke loud, nor laughed profusely, nor moved rapidly, nor dressed with splendour, nor appealed in any appreciable manner to the audience.

Large, fair, smiling, serene, there was something in her very tranquillity that diffused itself, and when people looked round it was because of a sudden quiet.

On this occasion she had done the quietest thing she could do; after embracing Mrs.Osmond, which was more striking, she had sat down on a small sofa to commune with the master of the house.

There was a brief exchange of commonplaces between these two--they always paid, in public, a certain formal tribute to the commonplace--and then Madame Merle, whose eyes had been wandering, asked if little Mr.Rosier had come this evening.
"He came nearly an hour ago--but he has disappeared," Osmond said.
"And where's Pansy ?" "In the other room.

There are several people there." "He's probably among them," said Madame Merle.
"Do you wish to see him ?" Osmond asked in a provokingly pointless tone.
Madame Merle looked at him a moment; she knew each of his tones to the eighth of a note.


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