For me you'll always be the most important woman in the world." Isabel looked at herself in this character--looked intently, thinking she filled it with a certain grace.

But what she said was not an expression of any such complacency.

"You don't offend me; but you ought to remember that, without being offended, one may be incommoded, troubled." "Incommoded," she heard herself saying that, and it struck her as a ridiculous word.

But it was what stupidly came to her.
"I remember perfectly.

Of course you're surprised and startled.