The great idea was to say things WITHOUT
saying them, to set your hearer's mind to saying them for you.
"What strikes one most is a sort of commercial brilliance in her,"
taking up his thread again after a smilingly reflective pause. "It quite
exhilarates one by its novelty. There's spice in it. We English have not
a look-in when we are dealing with Americans, and yet France calls us
a nation of shopkeepers. My impression is that their women take little
inventories of every house they enter, of every man they meet. I heard
her once speaking to my wife about this place, as if she had lived in
it. She spoke of the closed windows and the state of the gardens--of
broken fountains and fallen arches. She evidently deplored the
deterioration of things which represented capital. She has inventoried
Dunholm, no doubt. That will give Westholt a chance. But she will do
nothing until after her next year's season in London--that I'd swear.
I look forward to next year. It will be worth watching. She has been
training my wife. A sister who has married an Englishman and has at
least spent some years of her life in England has a certain established
air. When she is presented one knows she will be a sensation.
Pages:
673
674
675
676
677
678
679
680
681
682
683
684
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693
694
695
696
697