When Claude came to Edgewood for a Sunday, or to spend a vacation with his
aunt, he brought with him something of the magic of a metropolis. Suddenly, to
Rose's eye, Stephen looked larger and clumsier, his shoes were not the proper
sort, his clothes were ordinary, his neckties were years behind the fashion.
Stephen's dancing, compared with Claude's, was as the deliberate motion of an
ox to the hopping of a neat little robin. When Claude took a girl's hand in
the "grand right-and-left," it was as if he were about to try on a delicate
glove; the manner in which he "held his lady" in the polka or schottische made
her seem a queen. Mite Shapley was so affected by it that when Rufus attempted
to encircle her for the mazurka she exclaimed, "Don't act as if you were
spearing logs, Rufus!"
Of the two men, Stephen had more to say, but Claude said more. He was thought
brilliant in conversation; but what wonder, when one considered his advantages
and his dazzling experiences! He had customers who were worth their thousands;
ladies whose fingers never touched dish-water; ladies who would n't buy a
glove of anybody else if they went bare-handed to the grave. He lived with his
sister Maude Arthurlena in a house where there were twenty-two other boarders
who could be seated at meals all at the same time, so immense was the
dining-room.
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