As security-minded as the next one, I replied that I was visiting Devonshire for my health. “Really,” she said, “I wasn’t quite born yesterday, you know.” I said I’d bet she hadn’t been, at that. I drank my tea for a moment. I was getting a trifle posture-conscious and I sat up somewhat straighter in my seat. “You seem quite intelligent for an American,” my guest mused. I told her that was a pretty snobbish thing to say, if you thought about it at all, and that I hoped it was unworthy of her. She blushed—automatically conferring on me the social poise I’d been missing. “Well. Most of the
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