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Pandora by Henry James
page 27 of 68 (39%)
order to her parents, quite in the same manner in which she had
introduced the Captain of the ship. Mr. and Mrs. Day got up and
shook hands with him and they evidently all prepared to have a
little talk. "I should like to introduce you to my brother and
sister," he heard the girl say, and he saw her look about for these
appendages. He caught her eye as she did so, and advanced with his
hand outstretched, reflecting the while that evidently the
Americans, whom he had always heard described as silent and
practical, rejoiced to extravagance in the social graces. They
dawdled and chattered like so many Neapolitans.

"Good-bye, Count Vogelstein," said Pandora, who was a little flushed
with her various exertions but didn't look the worse for it. "I
hope you'll have a splendid time and appreciate our country."

"I hope you'll get through all right," Vogelstein answered, smiling
and feeling himself already more idiomatic.

"That gentleman's sick that I wrote to," she rejoined; "isn't it too
bad? But he sent me down a letter to a friend of his--one of the
examiners--and I guess we won't have any trouble. Mr. Lansing, let
me make you acquainted with Count Vogelstein," she went on,
presenting to her fellow-passenger the wearer of the straw hat and
the breastpin, who shook hands with the young German as if he had
never seen him before. Vogelstein's heart rose for an instant to
his throat; he thanked his stars he hadn't offered a tip to the
friend of a gentleman who had often been mentioned to him and who
had also been described by a member of Pandora's family as Pandora's
lover.

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