But I see you are in earnest, and I
should like to help you."
"Who the deuce is it, darling, that you are going to put upon him?"
Tristram cried. "We know a good many pretty girls, thank Heaven, but
magnificent women are not so common."
"Have you any objections to a foreigner?" his wife continued, addressing
Newman, who had tilted back his chair and, with his feet on a bar of the
balcony railing and his hands in his pockets, was looking at the stars.
"No Irish need apply," said Tristram.
Newman meditated a while. "As a foreigner, no," he said at last; "I have
no prejudices."
"My dear fellow, you have no suspicions!" cried Tristram. "You don't
know what terrible customers these foreign women are; especially the
'magnificent' ones. How should you like a fair Circassian, with a dagger
in her belt?"
Newman administered a vigorous slap to his knee. "I would marry a
Japanese, if she pleased me," he affirmed.
"We had better confine ourselves to Europe," said Mrs. Tristram. "The
only thing is, then, that the person be in herself to your taste?"
"She is going to offer you an unappreciated governess!" Tristram
groaned.
"Assuredly. I won't deny that, other things being equal, I should prefer
one of my own countrywomen. We should speak the same language, and
that would be a comfort.
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