Pemberton judged that what she
kept back was an approval of many of their ways; therefore it was to be
supposed that she too was of a good type, and that Mr. and Mrs. Moreen
and Ulick and Paula and Amy might easily have been of a better one if
they would.
But that they wouldn't was more and more perceptible from day to day.
They continued to "chivey," as Morgan called it, and in due time became
aware of a variety of reasons for proceeding to Venice. They mentioned a
great many of them--they were always strikingly frank and had the
brightest friendly chatter, at the late foreign breakfast in especial,
before the ladies had made up their faces, when they leaned their arms on
the table, had something to follow the demitasse, and, in the heat of
familiar discussion as to what they "really ought" to do, fell inevitably
into the languages in which they could tutoyer. Even Pemberton liked
them then; he could endure even Ulick when he heard him give his little
flat voice for the "sweet sea-city." That was what made him have a
sneaking kindness for them--that they were so out of the workaday world
and kept him so out of it.
Pages:
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70