The American Claimant


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be certain as to whether he remembered her at all or not. The speech  
made him her friend; it couldn't well help it.  
In truth the beauty of this fair creature was of a rare type, and may  
well excuse a moment of our time spent in its consideration. It did not  
consist in the fact that she had eyes, nose, mouth, chin, hair, ears, it  
consisted in their arrangement. In true beauty, more depends upon right  
location and judicious distribution of feature than upon multiplicity of  
them. So also as regards color. The very combination of colors which in  
a volcanic irruption would add beauty to a landscape might detach it from  
a girl. Such was Gwendolen Sellers.  
The family circle being completed by Gwendolen's arrival, it was decreed  
that the official mourning should now begin; that it should begin at six  
o'clock every evening, (the dinner hour,) and end with the dinner.  
"It's a grand old line, major, a sublime old line, and deserves to be  
mourned for, almost royally; almost imperially, I may say. Er--Lady  
Gwendolen--but she's gone; never mind; I wanted my Peerage; I'll fetch it  
myself, presently, and show you a thing or two that will give you a  
realizing idea of what our house is. I've been glancing through Burke,  
and I find that of William the Conqueror's sixty-four natural ah--  
my dear, would you mind getting me that book? It's on the escritoire in  
our boudoir. Yes, as I was saying, there's only St. Albans, Buccleugh  
and Grafton ahead of us on the list--all the rest of the British nobility  
are in procession behind us. Ah, thanks, my lady. Now then, we turn to  
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