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Ragged Lady — Volume 2 by William Dean Howells
page 8 of 210 (03%)

"What did she say?" he asked Clementina, slanting the down-pulled brim of
his soft hat purblindly toward her.

She said she had not understood, and then Milray asked, "What sort of
person is that Boston youth of Mrs. Milray's? Is he a donkey or a lamb?"

Clementina said ingenuously, "Oh, she's walking with that English
gentleman now--that lo'd."

"Ah, yes," said Milray. "He's not very much to look at, I hear."

"Well, not very much," Clementina admitted; she did not like to talk
against people.

"Lords are sometimes disappointing, Clementina," Milray said, "but then,
so are other great men. I've seen politicians on our side who were
disappointing, and there are clergymen and gamblers who don't look it."
He laughed sadly. "That's the way people talk who are a little
disappointing themselves. I hope you don't expect too much of yourself,
Clementina?"

"I don't know what you mean," she said, stiffening with a suspicion that
he might be going to make fun of her.

He laughed more gayly. "Well, I mean we must hold the other fellows up to
their duty, or we can't do our own. We need their example. Charity may
begin at home, but duty certainly begins abroad." He went on, as if it
were a branch of the same inquiry, "Did you ever meet my sisters? They
came to the hotel in New York to see Mrs. Milray."
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