Read "The Bostonians, Volume II" by Henry James online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
"You won't speak to me in my own house -- that I have almost grown used to; but if you are going to pass me over in public I think you might give me warning first. " This was only her archness, and he knew what to make of that now; she was dressed in yellow and looked very plump and gay. He wondered at the unerring instinct by which she had discovered his exposed quarter. The outer room was completely empty; she had come in at the further door and found the field free for her operations. He offered to find her a place where she could see and hear Miss Tarrant, to get her a chair to stand on, even, if she wished to look over the heads of the gentlemen in the doorway; a proposal which she greeted with the inquiry -- "Do you suppose I came here for the sake of that chatterbox? haven't I told you what I think of her?"
"Well, you certainly did not come here for my sake," said Ransom, anticipating this insinuation; "for you couldn't possibly have known I was coming."