"Her merits are large then. You contradict yourself."
"Her merits are immense," said Ralph. "She＇s indescribably blameless; a pathless desert of virtue;the only woman I know who never gives one a chance."
"A chance for what?"
"Well, say to call her a fool! She＇s the only woman I know who has but that one little fault."
Isabel turned away with impatience. "I don＇t understand you; you＇re too paradoxical for my plain mind."
"Let me explain. When I say she exaggerates I don＇t mean it in the vulgar sense—that she boasts,overstates, gives too 昀ne an account of herself. I mean literally that she pushes the search for perfection too far—that her merits are in themselves overstrained.She＇s too good, too kind, too clever, too learned, too accomplished, too everything. She＇s too complete, in a word. I confess to you that she acts on my nerves and that I feel about her a good deal as that intensely human Athenian felt about Aristides the Just."