differer

Updated: June 12, 2025

All his friends were, he added, a little helplessly; but he seemed not to dislike my saying I knew one of his friends who was not: in fact, as I have told, he never disliked a plump difference unless he disliked the differer. For several years he went back to England every summer, and it was not until he took up his abode at Elmwood again that he spent a whole year at home.

William Dean Howells - Studies of Lowell (from Literary Friends and Acquaintance)

All his friends were, he added, a little helplessly; but he seemed not to dislike my saying I knew one of his friends who was not: in fact, as I have told, he never disliked a plump difference unless he disliked the differer. For several years he went back to England every summer, and it was not until he took up his abode at Elmwood again that he spent a whole year at home.

William Dean Howells - Literary Friends and Acquaintance; a Personal Retrospect of American Authorship