"I like them in that position better than in some others," proclaimed Mrs. Touchett with much meaning.
"Should you like me better if I were your butler,dear?" her husband asked.
"I don't think I should: you wouldn't at all have the tenue."
"The companions of freemen—I like that, Miss Stackpole," said Ralph. "It's a beautiful description."
"When I said freemen I didn't mean you, sir!"
And this was the only reward that Ralph got for his compliment. Miss Stackpole was baf昀ed; she evidently thought there was something treasonable in Mrs.Touchett's appreciation of a class which she privately judged to be a mysterious survival of feudalism. It was perhaps because her mind was oppressed with this image that she suffered some days to elapse before she took occasion to say to Isabel: "My dear friend, I wonder if you're growing faithless."