From the informal companion and the tamer of
mules she had miraculously developed into the public celebrity, the
peeress of the realm, and the inaugurator-general of philanthropic
schemes and buildings. Not one of the important male personages but
would have looked down on Denry!
And yet, while treating Denry as a jolly equal, the Countess with all
her embroidered and stiff politeness somehow looked down on the
important male personages--and they knew it. And the most curious thing
was that they seemed rather to enjoy it. The one who seemed to enjoy it
the least was Sir Jehoshophat Dain, a white-bearded pillar of terrific
imposingness.
Sir Jee--as he was then beginning to be called--had recently been
knighted, by way of reward for his enormous benefactions to the
community. In the _role_ of philanthropist he was really much more
effective than the Countess. But he was not young, he was not pretty, he
was not a woman, and his family had not helped to rule England for
generations--at any rate, so far as anybody knew. He had made more money
than had ever before been made by a single brain in the manufacture of
earthenware, and he had given more money to public causes than a single
pocket had ever before given in the Five Towns.
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