If they are dull in the country, you will save them."
"I am very interested, at all events," said Bettina, "and interest like
mine is quite passe. A clever American who lives in England, and is the
pet of duchesses, once said to me (he always speaks of Americans as if
they were a distant and recently discovered species), 'When they first
came over they were a novelty. Their enthusiasm amused people, but now,
you see, it has become vieux jeu. Young women, whose specialty was to be
excited by the Tower of London and Westminster Abbey, are not novelties
any longer. In fact, it's been done, and it's done FOR as a specialty.'
And I am excited about the Tower of London. I may be able to restrain
my feelings at the sight of the Beef Eaters, but they will upset me a
little, and I must brace myself, I must indeed."
"Truly, Betty?" said Mrs. Worthington, regarding her with curiosity,
arising from a faint doubt of her entire seriousness, mingled with a
fainter doubt of her entire levity.
Betty flung out her hands in a slight, but very involuntary-looking,
gesture, and shook her head.
"Ah!" she said, "it was all TRUE, you know. They were all horribly
real--the things that were shuddered over and sentimentalised about.
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