Now, even if I didn't know how much trouble
you'd made in the world, I'd divine it all the instant that you were
willing to admit being unsophisticated. People always crave to be the
opposite of what they are; the drug shops couldn't sell any peroxide of
hydrogen if that wasn't so."
He laughed and forgot his previous vexation.
"Now, look at me," she continued. "Oh, I didn't mean really--I mean
figuratively; but never mind. Now, I'm nothing but a bubble and a toy, and
I ache to be considered a philosopher. Don't you remember my telling you
what a philosopher I was, the very first conversation that we ever had
together? I do try so hard to delude myself into thinking I am one, that
some days I'm almost sure that I really am one. Last night, for instance,
I was thinking how nice it would be for my Cousin Maude to marry you."
"Ye gods!" cried Jack.
"She's so very rich," Mrs. Rosscott pursued calmly; "and you know the law
of heredity is an established scientific fact now, so you could feel quite
safe as to her nose skipping the next generation."
Jack was audibly amused.
"It's not anything to laugh over," his companion continued gravely. "It's
something to ponder and pray over. If I were Maude I should be on my knees
about it most of the time."
"Nothing can help her now," said Jack. "Her parents have been and gone and
done it, as far as she's concerned, forever. Prayer won't change her nose,
although age may broaden it still more.
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