' And think of their joy when each crossing
sweeper they gave disproportionate largess to, seemed Joe All Alones in
the slightest disguise."
"You don't mean to say----" Mrs. Worthington was vaguely awakening to
the situation.
"That the charm of my visit, to myself, is that I realise that I am
rather like that. I have positively preserved something because I have
kept away. You have been here so often and know things so well, and you
were even so sophisticated when you began, that you have never really
had the flavours and emotions. I am sophisticated, too, sophisticated
enough to have cherished my flavours as a gourmet tries to save the
bouquet of old wine. You think that the Tower is the pleasure of
housemaids on a Bank Holiday. But it quite makes me quiver to think
of it," laughing again. "That I laugh, is the sign that I am not
as beautifully, freshly capable of enjoyment as those genuine first
Americans were, and in a way I am sorry for it."
Mrs. Worthington laughed also, and with an enjoyment.
"You are very clever, Betty," she said.
"No, no," answered Bettina, "or, if I am, almost everybody is clever in
these days. We are nearly all of us comparatively intelligent."
"You are very interesting at all events, and the Anstruthers will exult
in you.
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