Americans -- Italy -- Fiction; New England -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction
Clementina had rather it had been too late to go with the Milrays, but
she felt bound to own her decision when she reached it; and Mrs. Milray,
whatever her real wish was, made it a point of honor to help get Mrs.
Lander berths on her steamer. It did not require much effort; there
are plenty of berths for the latest-comers on a winter passage, and
Clementina found herself the fellow passenger of Mrs. Milray.
XVI.
As soon as Mrs. Lander could make her way to her state-room, she
got into her berth, and began to take the different remedies for
sea-sickness which she had brought with her. Mrs. Milray said that was
nice, and that now she and Clementina could have a good time. But before
it came to that she had taken pity on a number of lonely young men whom
she found on board. She cheered them up by walking round the ship with
them; but if any of them continued dull in spite of this, she dropped
him, and took another; and before she had been two days out she had
gone through with nearly all the lonely young men on the list of cabin
passengers. She introduced some of them to Clementina, but at such times
as she had them in charge; and for the most part she left her to Milray.
Once, as the girl sat beside him in her steamer-chair, Mrs. Milray shed
a wrap on his knees in whirring by on the arm of one of her young men,
with some laughed and shouted charge about it.
“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.”
“Yes, I was in the room once when they came in.”
“Did you like them?”
“Yes--I sca'cely spoke to them--I only stayed a moment.”
“Would you like to see any more of the family?”
“Why, of cou'se!” Clementina was amused at his asking, but he seemed in
earnest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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