Josephine was thoughtful for
several minutes, then she said: "Do you know, Fred, I have a feeling
that if you had managed your own campaign without the aid of a reformer
you would have got just as many votes--and--and we should have had
money enough left to go to Japan."
If a woman has a prejudice against a man he might be spotless as the
Archangel Gabriel, and she would be able to pick a flaw in him.
IX
Six months ago an astonishing piece of news was revealed to me.
Astonishing at least to me, though Josephine says that I need not have
been astonished had I kept my eyes open, inasmuch as the affair was
going on under my very nose, and everybody in town except myself knew
how it was likely to end. I refer to my daughter Josie's engagement.
Yesterday I gave her away--a euphemistic way of stating that she was
torn from my arms--to a young man of whom I know next to nothing,
though I hear on all sides that he is a very nice fellow, which might
mean that he is utterly without principle and an easy-going, idle,
selfish hound. In appearance he does not seem to me to differ from
nine-tenths of the young men who in the course of the last five years
have said, "How d'y do?" or "Good-by" to me (rarely more or less) when
they have run across me in my own drawing-room.
Pages:
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144