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Miss Bretherton by Mrs. Humphry Ward
page 47 of 185 (25%)
sympathy. But she is kindly, womanly, soft; she has no small jealousies
and none of that petty self-consciousness which makes so many women
wearisome to the great majority of plain men, who have no wish to take
their social exercises too much _au sérieux._

'I was curious to see what sort of a relationship she and Miss Bretherton
had developed towards each other. Mrs. Stuart is nothing if not
cultivated; her light individuality floats easily on the stream of London
thought, now with this current, now with that, but always in movement,
never left behind. She has the usual literary and artistic topics at her
fingers' end, and as she knows everybody, whenever the more abstract
sides of a subject begin to bore her, she can fall back upon an endless
store of gossip as lively, as brightly-coloured, and, on the whole, as
harmless as she herself is. Miss Bretherton had till a week or two ago
but two subjects--Jamaica and the stage--the latter taken in a somewhat
narrow sense. Now, she has added to her store of knowledge a great number
of first impressions of London notorieties, which naturally throw her
mind and Mrs. Stuart's more frequently into contact with each other. But
I see that, after all, Mrs. Stuart had no need of any bridges of this
kind to bring her on to common ground with Isabel Bretherton. Her strong
womanliness and the leaven of warm-hearted youth still stirring in her
would be quite enough of themselves, and, besides, there is her critical
delight in the girl's beauty, and the little personal pride and
excitement she undoubtedly feels at having, in so creditable and natural
a manner, secured a hold on the most interesting person of the season. It
is curious to see her forgetting her own specialities, and neglecting to
make her own points, that she may bring her companion forward and set her
in the best light. Miss Bretherton takes her homage very prettily; it is
natural to her to be made much of, and she does not refuse it, but she in
her turn evidently admires enormously her friend's social capabilities
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