It was a singular interview, in that old-fashioned
colonial room, with the spindle-legged furniture, the silhouettes,
the miniatures, the portrait of General Braddock, and the smell of
lavender. You see, the two poor maiden ladies were in
agonies--and they could not say one single thing direct. They
would almost wring their hands and ask if I had considered such a
thing as different temperaments. I assure you they were almost
affectionate, concerned for me even, as if Florence were too
bright for my solid and serious virtues.
For they had discovered in me solid and serious virtues. That
might have been because I had once dropped the remark that I
preferred General Braddock to General Washington. For the
Hurlbirds had backed the losing side in the War of Independence,
and had been seriously impoverished and quite efficiently
oppressed for that reason. The Misses Hurlbird could never forget
it.
Nevertheless they shuddered at the thought of a European career
for myself and Florence. Each of them really wailed when they
heard that that was what I hoped to give their niece. That may
have been partly because they regarded Europe as a sink of
iniquity, where strange laxities prevailed.
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