They don't try to make the least love to you or say things with two
meanings, and they are perfectly brotherly and serious, unless they are
telling anecdotes with American humour--and that is not subtle. It is
something that makes you laugh the moment you hear it, you have not to
think a scrap. When they are not practically English, like the ones we see
in London every season, they wear such funny clothes--often velvet collars
on their coats! and the shoulders padded out so that every man is perfectly
square; but everything looks extraordinarily well sewn and ironed and
everybody is clean shaven; and Octavia says it takes at least two hundred
years of gently bred ancestors to look like a gentleman clean shaven in
evening dress, so perhaps that is why lots of them have the appearance of
actors. Tom, with his ugly face and his long lean limbs, seemed as some
other species of animal, or a Derby winner let loose among a pen of prize
hackneys and cobs. Many of them are splendid of their kind, but it is
perfectly absurd to pretend they look thoroughbred. One would not expect it
of animals, with their mixed ancestry, so why of human beings.
Octavia says they would be insulted to hear me saying that, but I am sure
they are far too sensible and logical; for if you were a mixture of cart
horse, hunter, thoroughbred, Shetland and cob, you might have the good
qualities of all and be a magnificent splendid creature, but you could not
expect to look like one of the direct descendants of the Godolphin Arabian,
could you, Mamma?
I don't mind that part in the least, but I would rather they had a more
outdoor expression.
Pages:
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37