"
"No, these are blameless enough, unless they are to be blamed for being
too flattering. That girl seems to be sole of her kind, unless the girl
that she 'got together with' was really like her."
"I don't believe there was any other girl. I never thought there was
more than one."
"There seemed to be two styles and two grades of culture, such as they
were."
"Oh, she could easily imitate two manners. She must have been a clever
girl," Mrs. Verrian said, with that admiration for any sort of cleverness
in her sex which even very good women cannot help feeling.
"Well, perhaps she was punished enough for both the characters she
assumed," Verrian said, with a smile that was not gay.
"Don't think about her!" his mother returned, with a perception of his
mood. "I'm only thankful that she's out of our lives in every sort of
way."
VI.
Verrian said nothing, but he reflected with a sort of gloomy amusement
how impossible it was for any woman, even a woman so wide-minded and
high-principled as his mother, to escape the personal view of all things
and all persons which women take. He tacitly noted the fact, as the
novelist notes whatever happens or appears to him, but he let the
occasion drop out of his mind as soon as he could after it had dropped
out of his talk.
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