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II.]
THE EUROPEANS.
77
She looked at him a while, smiling with her lips, but not with her eyes. "You have scruples?" she asked.
"Scruples?" said Clifford.
"You young people, here, are very singular; one doesn't know where to expect you. When you are not extremely improper you are so terribly proper. I dare say you think that, owing to my irregular marriage, I live with loose people. You were never more mistaken. I have been all the more particular."
"Oh, no," said Clifford, honestly distressed. "I never thought such a thing as that."
"Are you very sure? I am convinced that your father does, and your sisters.
