Henry James: Washington Square

"She's going to stick, by Jove! she's going to stick." "Do you mean that she is going to marry him?" Mrs. Almond inquired. "I don't know that; but she is not going to break down. She is going to drag out the engagement, in the hope of making me relent." "And shall you not relent?" "Shall a geometrical proposition relent? I am not so superficial." "Doesn't geometry treat of surfaces?" asked Mrs. Almond, who, as we know, was clever, smiling. "Yes; but it treats of them profoundly. Catherine and her young man are my surfaces; I have taken their measure." "You speak as if it surprised you." "It is immense; there will be a great deal to observe." "You are shockingly cold-blooded!" said Mrs. Almond. "I need to be with all this hot blood about me. Young Townsend indeed is cool; I must allow him that merit."

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