In a partner, what virtue would be preferable to a lively and imaginative mind that saves you the pain of having to repeat yourself? A mind that mirrors your thoughts as an untarnished crystalline surface would. However, Osmond hated to see his thoughts mirrored thus since it made their profound stupidity all too obvious to him. He would have much rather preferred to have been presented with an improved and fresher version of his own thoughts. A reproduction of his thoughts that refined them in the same way in which lyrics are refined by music. His egocentrism had never led him to desire a dull woman. Yet, he would have preferred a woman whose intelligence could accommodate his thoughts as a shimmering silver bowl accommodates a basketful of ripe apples. That is, without bestowing on them anything but a decorative value. Isabel was such a woman. He was sure of it. He could easily perceive the way in which her gifted intellect resonated with his thoughts and was shaped by them. A conversation with her was to him like an exquisite dessert ready to be devoured.