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Updated: June 22, 2025
He reared haughtily and looked about with arrogant, disdainful eyes. "Will you have tea?" said Miss Severence, as Arkwright moved away. "No, thanks," replied Craig. "Tea's for the women and the children." Miss Severence's expression made him still more uncomfortable. "Well," said she, "if you should feel dry as you tell me about yourself, there's whiskey over on that other table. A cigarette? No?
"I want a wife, not a social ornament. I want a woman, not a toilette. I want a home, not a fashionable hotel. I want love and sympathy and children. I want substance, not shadow; sanity, not silliness." "And your socks darned and your shirts mended." "That, of course." Josh accepted these amendments with serene seriousness. "And Miss Severence isn't fit for the job.
What a ridiculous, loutish figure he would cut in her eyes! Why, not only did he not have the articles necessary to a gentleman's wardrobe, he did not even know the names of them, nor their uses! It was all very well to pretend that these matters were petty. In a sense they were. But that sort of trifles played a most important part in life as it was led by Margaret Severence.
In the Severence family, at the homestead, there were, besides five servants, but three persons the widowed Roxana and her two daughters, Margaret and Lucia Lucia so named by Madam Bowker because with her birth ended the Severence hopes of a son to perpetuate in the direct line the family Christian name for its chief heir.
But in Washington the boarding house class cannot afford children; so, few indeed were the small forms that paused before the big iron Severence gates to gaze into the mysterious maze of green as far as might be which was not far, because the walk and the branching drives turn abruptly soon after leaving the gates.
The Severances were no poorer; simply, other people of their class had grown richer, enormously richer. The Severence homestead, taken by itself and apart from its accidental setting of luxurious grounds, was a third-rate American dwelling-house, fine for a small town, but plain for a city.
"Sit down.... Jackie" this to a rosy, eager-faced youth beside her "run away and amuse yourself. I want to talk seriously to this elderly person." "I'm only seven years older than you," said Arkwright, as he seated himself where Jackie had been vainly endeavoring to induce Miss Severence to take him seriously. "And I am twenty-eight, and have to admit to twenty-four," said Margaret.
And, Betty, you must go at once and make yourself neat. You've had on that cap two days." "No, indeed, ma'am!" protested Betty. "Then it was badly done up. Roxana, how can you bear to live in such a slovenly way?" "Will you have tea now, Mamma?" was Roxana's diplomatic reply. "Yes," answered the old lady. "Tea, Mr. Arkwright?" "Thanks, no, Mrs. Severence. I'm just going.
I should consider a connection between such a man and a Severence as a mere vulgar intrigue. You might as well run away with a coachman. I have known few coachmen so ill- bred so repellent as this Craig." Margaret laughed cheerfully. "He isn't what you'd call polished, is he?" Her grandmother studied her keenly. "Margaret," she finally said, "this is some scheme of yours.
Josh's lip curled. "Introduce me to her," he said commandingly. Arkwright looked amused and alarmed. "Not tonight. All in good time. She's the grandmother of a young woman I want you to meet. She's Madam Bowker, and the girl's name is Severence." "I want to meet that old woman," persisted Josh.
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