Fanny watched with interest for the
appearance of the unruly lock which had been wont to
straggle over his white forehead in his schoolboy days. The
new and well-cut American clothes effected surprisingly
little change. Fanny, surveying him, shook her head.
"When you stepped off the ship you looked like a German in
German clothes. Now you look like a German in American
clothes. I don't know--I do believe it's your face, Ted. I
wouldn't have thought that ten years or so in any country
could change the shape of one's nose, and mouth and
cheekbones. Do you suppose it's the umlauts?"
"Cut it out!" laughed Ted, that being his idea of modern
American slang. He was fascinated by these crisp phrases,
but he was ten years or so behind the times, and he
sometimes startled his hearers by an exhibition of slang so
old as to be almost new. It was all the more startling in
contrast with his conversational English, which was as
carefully correct as a born German's.
As for the rest, it was plain that he was interested, but
unhappy.
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