It's a sickening situation; but if I can save
it I'll do it. I'll be well bred if it takes a leg!"
So, wearing the manner of one who has been accustomed all his life
to finishing off his dinner with a mess of string-beans, I used my
putting-iron; and from the edge of the fair green I holed out in
three. My last stroke was a dandy, if I do say it myself. The
others were game too--I could see that. They were eating beans
as though beans were particularly what they had come for. Out of
the tail of my eye I glanced at our hostess, sitting next to me
on the left. She was placid, calm, perfectly easy. Again addressing
myself mentally I said:
"There's a thoroughbred for you! You take a woman who got prosperous
suddenly and is still acutely suffering from nervous culture, and
if such a shipwreck had occurred at her dinner table she'd be
utterly prostrated by now--she'd be down and out--and we'd all be
standing back to give her air; but when they're born in the purple
it shows in these big emergencies. Look at this woman now--not a
ripple on the surface--balmy as a summer evening! But in about one
hour from now, Central European time, I can see her accepting that
fool butler's resignation before he's had time to offer it!"
After the beans had been cleared off the right-of-way we had the
dessert and the cheese and the coffee and the rest of it.
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