Jim is a great gardener, so Octavia
and he became absorbed at once. He has not got much business to do, and
only has to go in to Philadelphia about once a week, so his time is
spent with Kitty and books and horses and the trees and flowers; and if
you could see the difference it makes, Mamma, in a man! His eyes do not
have a bit the look of a terrier after a rat, and he does not always
answer literally to everything you say, and if you speak about books or
art or anything of other countries, he is familiar with it all, and
listens and isn't bored, and hardly attending, so anxious to get his
anecdote in, as lots of them were in New York. But on the other hand
the Americans would never be the splendid successful nation they are if
they were all peaceful and cultivated like Jim Bond; so all is as it
should be, and both kinds are interesting.
Kitty is a darling, an immense sense of humour, perfectly indifferent
about dress, and as lanky and unshaped a figure as any sporting
Englishwoman; when she comes to stay with us at Valmond she only brings
two frocks for even a big party! But she is like Octavia, a character,
and everyone loves her, and would not mind if she did not wear any
clothes at all.
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