"A beginning of what?"
Madame Merle was silent a little. "I want you of course to marry her."
"The beginning of the end? Well, I＇ll see for myself. Have you told her that?"
"For what do you take me? She＇s not so coarse a piece of machinery—nor am I."
"Really," said Osmond after some meditation, "I don＇t understand your ambitions."