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Howells, William Dean, 1837-1920

"Complete March Family Trilogy"

March there;
and would he introduce her?
She asked Mrs. March for her address, and whether she had a day; and she
said she would come to see her, if she would let her. Mrs. March could
not be so enthusiastic about her as March was, but as they walked home
together they talked the girl over, and agreed about her beauty and her
amiability. Mrs. March said she seemed very unspoiled for a person who
must have been so much spoiled. They tried to analyze her charm, and they
succeeded in formulating it as a combination of intellectual
fashionableness and worldly innocence. "I think," said Mrs. March, "that
city girls, brought up as she must have been, are often the most innocent
of all. They never imagine the wickedness of the world, and if they marry
happily they go through life as innocent as children. Everything combines
to keep them so; the very hollowness of society shields them. They are
the loveliest of the human race. But perhaps the rest have to pay too
much for them."
"For such an exquisite creature as Miss Vance," said March, "we couldn't
pay too much."
A wild laughing cry suddenly broke upon the air at the street-crossing in
front of them. A girl's voice called out: "Run, run, Jen! The copper is
after you.


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