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Even the great-grandmothers have a certain austere dignity sinewy, indestructible old witches, with tawny hide and eyes that glow like lamps. And yet San Giovanni is as dirty as can well be; it has the accumulated filth of an Eastern town, while lacking all its glowing tints or harmonious outlines.
It was about five in the afternoon when they started out together under Virginia's white parasol, Eugenie's slimmer courage upheld by her friend's bearing. We must remember that Virginia was young, and that her feelings were akin to those our great-grandmothers experienced when the British held New York. It was as if she had been born to wear the red and white of the South.
Since no human memory can retain the great-grandmothers of three cities, we are practically as well off as if we had no great-grandmothers at all. But in Oldport, as elsewhere, the spice of conversation is apt to be in inverse ratio to family tree and income-tax, and one can hear better repartees among the boat-builders' shops on Long Wharf than among those who have made the grand tour.
It was only the other day that I sent out a copy of verses about my great-grandmother's picture, and I was surprised to find how many other people had portraits of their great-grandmothers or other progenitors, about which they felt as I did about mine, and for whom I had spoken, thinking I was speaking for myself only.
Then all the great-grandmothers and the aunts cried out with astonishment. "She doesn't know how to spin!" they said to one another. Letitia felt dreadfully ashamed. "You must have been strangely brought up," said Goodwife Hopkins. "Well, take this stocking and round out the toe. There will be just about time enough for that before breakfast." "I don't know how to knit," stammered Letitia.
Some of the unhappiest people in the world are bramble-bush kings. Our great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers used to talk much about where heaven was. And some thought it was up above the clouds, and others thought it would be here on earth, after all the wickedness and selfishness were done away.
She was one of those women, rare in these days, who, though still young, prefer to be prematurely old; in whom their great-grandmothers, and the 'elegant' lackadaisical ways of a generation that knew nothing of exercise, thick boots and short skirts, seem to become once more incarnate.
The point is certainly well taken, and I can only reply that while the ladies of the twentieth century are lovely demonstrations of the effect of appropriate drapery in accenting feminine graces, my recollection of their great-grandmothers enables me to maintain that no deformity of costume can wholly disguise them.
She knows not only all their own peccadillos, but the sins of their great-grandmothers as well. She fears nothing on the earth, or under the earth, and respects no one not even me. Only about half an hour ago she informed me that I was a well, she told me precisely what I was, and she can be painfully blunt, Beverley, just because Cleone happens to have refused me again."
The damsels were charming in the big caps, flowered gowns, and high-heeled shoes of their great-grandmothers, as they sat about a spider-legged table talking over the tax, and pledging themselves to drink no more tea till it was taken off.
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