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CHAPTER IX. LADY JANE GRAY. It seemed upon the whole
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even absurd that after a shock so awful and a
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panic wild enough to cause people to expose their very
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souls— for there were, of course, endless anecdotes to be related afterwards,
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illustrative of grotesque terror, cowardice, and utter abandonment of all
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shadows of convention— that all should end in an anticlimax of
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trifling danger, upon which in a day or two jokes
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might be made. Even the tramp-steamer had not been seriously injured,
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though its injuries were likely to be less easy of
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repair than those of the Meridiana. Still, a passenger remarked
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when she steamed into the dock at Liverpool, we might
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all be at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean this morning.
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Just think what columns there would have been in the newspapers.
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Imagine Miss Vanderpool's being drowned. I was very rude to
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Louise when I found her wringing her hands over you'
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And I was rude to Blanche,' Bettina said to Mrs. Worthington.'
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In fact, I believe I was rude to a number
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of people that night.' I am rather ashamed.'' You called
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me a donkey,' said Blanche.' But it was the best
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thing you could have done.' You frightened me into putting
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on my shoes' instead of trying to comb my hair
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with them.' It was startling to see you march into
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the stateroom,' the only person who had not been turned
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into a gibbering idiot.' I know I was gibbering, and
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I know Mari was.' We both gibbered at the red-haired
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man when he came in, said Mari. We clutched at
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him and gibbered together. Where is the red-haired man, Betty?
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Perhaps we made him ill. I've not seen him since
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that moment. He's in the second cabin, I suppose, Bettina answered,
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but I have not seen him either. We ought to
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get up a testimonial and give it to him, because
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he did not gibber, said Blanche. He was rude and
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as sensible as you were, Betty. They did not see
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him again, in fact, at that time. he had reasons
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of his own for preferring to remain unseen. The truth
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was that the nearer his approach to his native shores,
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the nastier he was perfectly conscious his temper became, and
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he did not wish to expose himself by any incident
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which might cause him stupidly and obviously to lose it.
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The maid Louise, however, recognised him among her companions in
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the third-class carriage in which she travelled to town. To
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her mind, whose opinions were regulated by neatly arranged standards,
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he looked morose and shabbily dressed. Some of the other
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second-cabin passengers had made themselves quite smart in various, not
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too distinguished ways. He had not changed his dress at all,
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and the large valise upon the luggage-rack was worn and
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battered as if with long and rough usage. The woman
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wondered a little if he would address her, and inquire
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after the health of her mistress, but being an astute
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creature she only wondered this for an instant. The next
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she realised that, for one reason or another, it was
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clear that he was not of the tribe of second-rate
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persons who pursue an accidental acquaintance with their superiors in
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fortune through sociable interchange with their footmen or maids. When
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the train slackened its speed at the platform of the station,
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he got up, reaching down his valise and leaving the carriage,
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strode to the nearest handsome cab, waving the porter aside.
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Charing Cross, he called out to the driver, jumped in
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and was rattled away. During the years which had passed
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since Rosalie Vanderpool first came to London as Lady Anstruthers,
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numbers of huge, luxurious hotels had grown up, principally as
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it seemed that Americans should swarm into them and live
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at an expense which reminded them of their native land.
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Such establishments would never have been built for English people,
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whose habit it is merely to stop at hotels, not
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to live in them. The tendency of the American is
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to live in his
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hotel, even though his intention may
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be only to remain in it two days. he is
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accustomed to doing himself extremely well in proportion to his resources,
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whether they be great or small, and the comforts, as
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also the luxuries he allows himself and his domestic appendages,
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are in a proportion much higher in its relation to
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these resources than it would be were he English, French, German,
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or Italian. As a consequence, he expects when he goes forth,
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whether holiday-making or on business, that his hostelry shall surround him,
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either with holiday luxuries and gaiety, or with such lavishness
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of comfort as shall alleviate the wear and tear of
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business cares and fatigues. The rich man demands something almost
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as good as he has left at home. The man
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of moderate means something much better. Certain persons, given to
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regarding public wants and desires as foundations for the fortune
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of business schemes, having discovered this, the enormous and sumptuous
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hotel evolved itself from their astute knowledge of common facts.
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At the entrances of these hotels, omnibuses and cabs laden
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with trunks and packages frequently bearing labels marked with red
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letters s s so-and-so stateroom hold baggage-room drew up and
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deposited their contents and burdens at regular intervals then men
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with keen and often humorous faces or almost painfully anxious
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ones their exceedingly well-dressed wives and more or less attractive
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and vivacious-looking daughters their eager little girls and un-english-looking little
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boys passed through the corridors in flocks and took possession
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of suites of rooms sometimes for twenty-four hours sometimes for
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six weeks the worthingtons took possession of such a suite
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in such a hotel betty vanderpoel's apartments faced the embankment
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from her window she could look out at the broad
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splendid muddy thames slowly rolling in its grave stately way
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beneath its bridges bearing with it heavy lumbering barges excited
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tooting little penny steamers and craft of various
shapes and sizes,
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the errand or burden of each meaning a different story.
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It had been to Bettina one of her pleasures of
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the finest Epicurean flavour, to reflect that she had never
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had any brief and superficial knowledge of England, as she
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had never been to the country at all in those
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earlier years, when her knowledge of places must necessarily have
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been always the incomplete one of either a schoolgirl traveller
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or a schoolgirl resident, whose views were limited by the
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walls of restriction built around her. if relations of the
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usual ease and friendliness had existed between lady anstruthers and
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her family bettina would doubtless have known her sister's adopted
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country well it would have been a thing so natural
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as to be almost inevitable that she would have crossed
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the channel to spend her holidays at stornham as matters
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had stood however The child herself, in the days when
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she had been a child, had had most definite private
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views on the subject of visits to England. She had
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made up her young mind absolutely that she would not,
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if it were decently possible to avoid it, set her
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foot upon English soil until she was old enough and
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strong enough to carry out what had been at first
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her passionately romantic plans for discovering and facing the truth
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of the reason for the apparent change in Rosie. When
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she went to England she would go to Rosie. As
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she had grown older, having in the course of education
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and travel seen most continental countries, she had liked to
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think that she had saved, put aside for less hasty
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consumption and more delicate appreciation of flavours, as it were,
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the country she was conscious she cared for most.' It
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is England we love, we Americans,' she had said to
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her father.' What could be more natural? We belong to it,
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it belongs to us. I could never be convinced that
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the old tie of blood does not count.' All nationalities
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have come to us since we became a nation, but
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most of us in the beginning came from England. We
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are touching about it, too. We trifle with France and
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labour with Germany, we sentimentalise over Italy and ecstasise over Spain,
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but England we love. How it moves us when we
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go to it, how we gush if we are simple
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and effusive, how we are stirred imaginatively if we are
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of the perceptive class— I have heard the commonest little
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half-educated woman say the prettiest clumsy emotional things about what
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she has seen there. A New England schoolma'am who has
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made a cook's tour will almost have tears in her
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voice as she wanders on with the commonplaces about hawthorn
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hedges and thatched cottages and white or red farms. Why
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are we not unconsciously pathetic about German cottages and Italian villas?
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Because we have not in centuries past had the habit
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of being born in them, It is only an English
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cottage in an English lane, whether white with hawthorn blossoms
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or bare with winter, that wakes in us that little yearning,
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grovelling tenderness that is so sweet. It is only nature
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calling us home. Mrs. Worthington came in during the course
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of the morning to find her standing before her window
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looking out at the Thames, the embankment, the handsome cabs themselves,
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with an absolutely serious absorption. This changed to a smile
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as she turned to greet her.' I' m delighted,' she said.'
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I could scarcely tell you how much. The impression is
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all new, and I'm excited a little by everything. I'm
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so intensely glad that I have saved it so long,
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and that I have known it only as part of literature.
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I am even charmed that it rains, and that the
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cabman's macintoshes are shining and wet.' She drew forward a chair,
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and Mrs. Worthington sat down, looking at her with involuntary admiration.'
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You look as if you were delighted,' she said. Your eyes,
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you have amazing eyes, Betty. I'm trying to
picture to
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myself what Lady Anstruthers will feel when she sees you.
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What were you like when she married?' Bettina sat down, smiling,
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and looking indeed quite incredibly lovely. She was capable of
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a warmth and a sweetness which were as embracing as
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other qualities she possessed were powerful.' I was eight years old,'
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she said.' I was a rude little girl, with long
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legs and a high, determined voice. I know I was rude,
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I remember, answering back. I seem to have heard that
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you did not like your brother-in-law, and that you were
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opposed to the marriage. Imagine the undisciplined audacity of a
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girl of eight opposing the marriage of her grown-up sister.
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I was quite capable of it. You see, in those
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days we had not been trained at all, one had
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only been allowed tremendous liberty, and interfered conversationally with one's
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elders and betters at any moment. I was an American
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little girl, and American little girls were really— they really were— with
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a laugh whose musical sound was, after all, wholly non-committal.
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You did not treat Sir Nigel Amstruthers as one of
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your betters? He was one of my elders at all events,
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and becomingness of bearing should have taught me to hold
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my little tongue. I am giving some thought now to
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the kind of thing I must invent as a suitable
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apology when I find him a really delightful person full
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of virtues and accomplishments. Perhaps he has a horror of me.''
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I should like to be present at your first meeting,' Mrs.
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Worthington reflected.' You' re going down to Stornham to-morrow?'' That is
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my plan. When I write to you on my arrival,
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I will tell you if I encountered the horror. Then,
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with a swift change of subject and a lifting of
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her slender velvet line of eyebrow, I am only deploring
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that I have not time to visit the Tower.' Mrs.
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Worthington was betrayed into a momentary glance of uncertainty and
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almost verging in its significance
on a gasp the tower
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of london dear betty bettina's laugh was mellow with revelation
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ah she said you don't know my point of view
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it's plain enough you see when i delight in these
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things i think i delight most in my delight in
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them it means that i am almost having the kind
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of feeling the fresh american souls had who landed here
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thirty years ago and revelled in the resemblance to dickens's
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characters they met with in the streets and were historically
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thrilled by the places where people's heads were chopped off.
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Imagine their reflections on Charles I when they stood in
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Whitehall gazing on the very spot where that poor last
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word was uttered,' Remember,' and think of their joy when
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each crossing-sweeper they gave disproportionate largesse to seemed Joe Allalone's
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in the slightest disguise.' You don't mean to say,' Mrs.
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Worthington was vaguely awakening to the situation, that the charm
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of my visit to myself is that I realise that
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I am rather like that. I have positively preserved something
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because I have kept away. You have been here so
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often and know things so well, and you were even
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so sophisticated when you began that you have never really
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had the flavours and emotions. I am sophisticated too, sophisticated
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enough to have cherished my flavours as a gourmet tries
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to save the bouquet of old wine. You think that
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the Tower is the pleasure of housemaids on a bank holiday,
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but it quite makes me quiver to think of it,
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laughing again. That I laugh is the sign that I
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am not as beautifully freshly capable of enjoyment as those
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genuine first Americans were, and in a way I am
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sorry for it. Mrs. Worthington laughed also, and with an enjoyment.'
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You' re very clever, Betty,' she said.' No, no,' answered Bettina,'
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or if I am, almost everybody is clever in these days.
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We are nearly all of us comparatively intelligent.' you are
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very interesting at all events and the Anstruthers will exult
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in you. If they are dull in the country, you
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will save them.'' I am very interested at all events,'
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said Bettina,' and interest like mine is quite passé. A
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clever American, who lives in England and is the pet
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of duchesses, once said to me— he always speaks of Americans
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as if they were a distant and recently discovered species—' When
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they first came over they were a novelty. Their enthusiasm
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amused people.' but now you see it has become vieux jeu,
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young women whose specialty was to be excited by the
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Tower of London and Westminster Abbey, and not novelties any longer.
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In fact it's been done, and it's done for as
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a specialty. And I am excited about the Tower of London.
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I may be able to restrain my feelings at the
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sight of the bee-feeders, but they will upset me a little,
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and I must brace myself, I must indeed.' Truly, Betty,'
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said Mrs. Worthington, regarding her with curiosity, arising from a
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faint doubt of her entire seriousness, mingled with a fainted
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out of her entire levity. Betty flung out her hands
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in a slight but very involuntary-looking gesture, and shook her head.' Ah,'
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she said,' it was all true, you know. They were
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all horribly real, the things that were shuddered over and
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sentimentalised about.' Sophistication, combined with imagination, makes them materialise again.
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To me, at least, now I am here. The gulf
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between a historical figure and a man or woman who
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could bleed and cry out inhuman words was broad when
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one was at school. Lady Jane Grey, for instance, how
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nebulous she was and how little one cared. She seemed
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invented merely to add a detail to one's lesson in
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English history. But as we drove across Waterloo Bridge I
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caught a glimpse of the tower— and what do you
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suppose I began to think of? It was monstrous. I
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saw a door in the tower, and the stone steps
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in the square space, and in the chill clear early
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morning a little slender helpless girl led out, a little
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fair real thing like Rosie, all alone, every one she
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belonged to far away, not a man near who dared
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utter a word of pity when she turned her awful
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meek young desperate eyes upon him. She was a pious child,
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and no doubt she lifted her eyes to the sky.
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I wonder if it was blue, and its blueness broke
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her heart, because it looked as if it might have
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pitied such a young, patient girl thing led out in
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the fair morning to walk to the hacked block and
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give her trembling pardon to the black-visored man with the axe,
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and then, commending her soul to God, to stretch her sweet,
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slim neck out upon it.' Oh, Betty dear!' Mrs. Worthington expostulated.
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Bettina sprang to her and took her hand in pretty appeal.
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I beg pardon, I beg pardon, I really do, she exclaimed.
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I did not intend deliberately to be painful, but that,
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beneath the sophistication, is something of what I bring to England.
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End of chapter 9