"Heaven forbid!" cried Ralph with ardour.
"I mean to try and imitate them," said Isabel. "I want very much
to see them at home."
She had this pleasure a few days later, when, with Ralph and his
mother, she drove over to Lockleigh. She found the Misses
Molyneux sitting in a vast drawing-room (she perceived afterwards
it was one of several) in a wilderness of faded chintz; they were
dressed on this occasion in black velveteen. Isabel liked them
even better at home than she had done at Gardencourt, and was
more than ever struck with the fact that they were not morbid. It
had seemed to her before that if they had a fault it was a want
of play of mind; but she presently saw they were capable of deep
emotion. Before luncheon she was alone with them for some time,
on one side of the room, while Lord Warburton, at a distance,
talked to Mrs. Touchett.
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