12/38 Miss Dare listened with an expression of superiority not unmixed with patience, and then she enlightened him as follows: "All you have been saying is perfect stuff--excuse the vulgarity of the expression. When I am a Countess I will correct my language. The truth is that General Washington was a raw-boned country farmer, very hard-featured, very awkward, very illiterate and very dull; very bad tempered, very profane, and generally tipsy after dinner." "You shock me, Miss Dare!" exclaimed Dunbeg. My grandfather knew him intimately, and often stayed at Mount Vernon for weeks together. You must not believe what you read, and not a word of what Mr.Carrington will say. |