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Read Online Textbook International Relations 10Th Edition 2013 2014 Update Joshua S Goldstein Ebook All Chapter PDF
Read Online Textbook International Relations 10Th Edition 2013 2014 Update Joshua S Goldstein Ebook All Chapter PDF
Miss Eleanor Morrison to Reginald Montrose, Esq., Murray Hill Hotel, New
York City.
November 19th.
Dear Mr. Montrose: Thank you so much for that lovely philopena
present. How charming of you to have thought of that! Won’t you take
dinner with us next Thursday, at half after eight, and let me thank you in
person? After dinner you may dance the cotillon with Miss Fairfax. There! is
not that an inducement? I have a cousin whom I want you to meet, too—she
is just returning to America and is very learned, and not quite your style, I
fear, but she will doubtless be good for you after me!
Most cordially yours,
Eleanor Morrison.
Mrs. Olmsted Morrison to Mrs. Franklin Bennett, care of Brown, Shipley &
Co., London.
November 25th.
My Dear Alma: What a surprise! I can scarcely collect my thoughts
sufficiently to write intelligently on the subject. I really was never more
surprised in all my life—more intensely and thoroughly surprised. But I
must try and tell you connectedly all about it. To begin with—Helen did not
come on the twentieth as we had expected, but telegraphed us that she was
detained in Boston and would not reach Baltimore until the morning of the
twenty-fourth. This was very annoying, as I was most anxious about her
gown for the dinner, and then I imagined that she would be utterly dragged
out after travelling all night. Dear Eleanor would have been, I am quite sure.
But Helen seems to be one of those distressingly healthy people—no nerves,
no sensitiveness. She quite laughed when I asked her if she were not tired!
Well—she came on the eleven-five train, and, Alma, she is not at all the
kind of person I had expected. She is even handsome after a certain style of
her own—not one that I admire—not at all Eleanor’s style. But certainly it
could be much worse. The men even seemed to find her quite good-looking.
She has certainly preserved her complexion wonderfully well—and as for
her being short-sighted! Between ourselves I am sure it is only an excuse for
using a very beautiful lorgnon, and for looking rather intently at one in a sort
of meditative way which I consider rather offensive, but which Percy
Beaufort told me he found most attractive. He is very disappointing, by the
way; I had expected so much of him, but I find him quite an ordinary young
man.
I was really shocked at Helen’s levity. I had expected from her superior
education that her mind would be above trivialities, but the way she laughed
and seemed to enjoy the conversation of Reggie Montrose and Jerry Fairfax!
and if she had confined her attentions to those boys! But, Alma, she even
tried to infatuate Colonel Gray and Professor Radnor! Two such men! She is
far from being the quiet, thoughtful student I had expected to so enjoy. Why,
she had the audacity to say to Colonel Gray, after one of his irascible
explosions at things in general—“My dear Colonel, you are a living example
of squaring the circle—quite round yet full of angles!” You know how
rotund the Colonel is, Alma. Think of it! To Colonel Gray, whose irritability
is simply proverbial. And he actually seemed to enjoy it! Men of a certain
age seem to be only too willing to make fools of themselves if a young girl
looks at them. And Percival Beaufort, who is so interested in London
charities, could not extract one word from her on the subject, I believe; at
any rate I distinctly heard her giving him an animated account of the last
“Eights Week,” and he was inquiring solicitously who was the coxswain for
Magdalen! Even Professor Radnor seemed to lose his head, though I believe
she talked more sensibly to him than to the others, for he told me that she
was one of the few women he had ever met who seemed to thoroughly
understand Abel’s demonstration of the impossibility of solving a quintic
equation by means of radicals—whatever that means.
By the way, we need not have worried about her gown at all. It was quite
presentable, and had in it a quantity of rare old point d’Alençon which Helen
says Henry picked up in Paris. It quite vexed me to think that I have none of
that pattern—it is especially beautiful.
Eleanor would add a word, but she is feeling quite ill this morning, dear
child! She was so worried over the dinner. At the very last moment Grace
Fairfax failed her, and she was obliged to invite Marie de Rochemont in her
place. We were especially sorry that Grace could not come, and that Jerry
did. He is getting completely spoiled; his assurance and inconsiderateness
are truly wonderful.
By the way, we have changed our plans for the winter slightly. We are
going to the Bermudas for a month, and Helen will visit friends in Boston
for the rest of the winter. Write soon and let me know how Mr. Bennett is
feeling. Address here, all our mail will be forwarded.
As ever, your devoted friend,
Marian Morrison.