Time had added
to the sallowness of her complexion, and certain cracks in the canvas
but intensified her ugliness. Artistic cracks they were, too, for they
fell in just the right places, and heightened the general effect
amazingly.
"Doubtless it was from this person, thought I, that I inherited my
rather nasty temper and other moral and mental infirmities. I gazed at
the lady long and earnestly, for as an ardent believer in heredity I
felt that here I had the key to a problem which often worried me. I
resolved to look her up at once in the family records.
"But I was saved that trouble.
"'Young man,' piped a high, thin voice close at hand, 'in my day it was
considered boorish in the extreme to stare at any one as you are now
doing. No gentleman, I am sure, would have been guilty of such a thing.
But these modern manners, and modern ways are quite beyond me. Perhaps
it is the mode nowadays to ape the rude youths who hung about the London
playhouses in my time. N'est'ce pas?'
"I felt decidedly uncomfortable.
"'Pardon me, I----'
"'Stop!' said the voice, which came from the ugly one in the corner,
'stop, if you please! Don't attempt to apologize or explain; it takes
too much time, and time with me is very precious just now. You see,' she
added in milder tones, 'when one is allowed to have a say only once in a
century, and but fifteen minutes at that, one naturally wants to do all
the talking.
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