Abrasions on the elbows are not
generally understood, it is true, to range within that class of
personal charms called beauty-spots. But, it is better, going
through the world, to have the arms chafed in that narrow passage,
than the temper: and Clemency's was sound and whole as any
beauty's in the land.
'Nothing an't the matter with me,' said Clemency, entering, 'but -
come a little closer, Mister.'
The Doctor, in some astonishment, complied with this invitation.
'You said I wasn't to give you one before them, you know,' said
Clemency.
A novice in the family might have supposed, from her extraordinary
ogling as she said it, as well as from a singular rapture or
ecstasy which pervaded her elbows, as if she were embracing
herself, that 'one,' in its most favourable interpretation, meant a
chaste salute. Indeed the Doctor himself seemed alarmed, for the
moment; but quickly regained his composure, as Clemency, having had
recourse to both her pockets - beginning with the right one, going
away to the wrong one, and afterwards coming back to the right one
again - produced a letter from the Post-office.
'Britain was riding by on a errand,' she chuckled, handing it to
the Doctor, 'and see the mail come in, and waited for it. There's
A. H. in the corner. Mr. Alfred's on his journey home, I bet.
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