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The American by Henry James
page 52 of 484 (10%)

"Ah, her name is Claire? I give it up."

"Does your friend wish to marry?" asked Newman.

"Not in the least. It is for you to make her change her mind. It will
not be easy; she has had one husband, and he gave her a low opinion of
the species."

"Oh, she is a widow, then?" said Newman.

"Are you already afraid? She was married at eighteen, by her parents, in
the French fashion, to a disagreeable old man. But he had the good taste
to die a couple of years afterward, and she is now twenty-five."

"So she is French?"

"French by her father, English by her mother. She is really more English
than French, and she speaks English as well as you or I--or rather much
better. She belongs to the very top of the basket, as they say here.
Her family, on each side, is of fabulous antiquity; her mother is the
daughter of an English Catholic earl. Her father is dead, and since her
widowhood she has lived with her mother and a married brother. There is
another brother, younger, who I believe is wild. They have an old hotel
in the Rue de l'Universite, but their fortune is small, and they make a
common household, for economy's sake. When I was a girl I was put into a
convent here for my education, while my father made the tour of Europe.
It was a silly thing to do with me, but it had the advantage that it
made me acquainted with Claire de Bellegarde. She was younger than I
but we became fast friends. I took a tremendous fancy to her, and she
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