" There was a lump in his voice. It was the
first time he had been able to speak of it.
"Yes;" her own throat was so strained that for a moment she could not go
on. "But," it struck her again, "I don't suppose an unbiased observer would
think it exactly festive for you."
And, to be sure, when one came to think of it, how, pray, was he to blame?
From that day there began to be more than necessity to her work, and more
than work to carry her out of herself.
In the present of commercial femininity we have two types--one, the
business man; the other, an individual without gender, impersonal, capable.
She never does anything ill-bred, certainly, but one no more thinks of
specifying that she is a lady than that her hair is black; it isn't the
point.
Mrs. Osbourne, however, was always first of all a lady. With her, men kept
their hats off and their coats on, and had an inclination to soften
business with bows, and bargains with figures of speech. She was at once so
patrician and so gracious that women felt it a kind of social function to
deal with her. The drawl of the light voice with its rising inflection was
only gently plaintive.
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