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Mrs. Dobbs' dull boy
R. and Mrs. Dobbs had three sons and three daughters : and I may state on the best authority (for surely a mother ought to know her own children) that every individual son and daughter was uncommonly clever, save one.
That one was Jem, the dull boy. The young Dobbses were more than clever (I still speak on the best authority). They were equally remarkable for personal beauty as for mental endowments ; and above all, as Mrs. Dobbs was never weary of adding, they were " eminently genteel." Genteel is a word selected by Mrs. Dobbs, not by me. It is not a favourite of mine. It always implies, to my ear, a certain amount of sham and pretension, but Mrs. Dobbs believed in being genteel, worshipped genteel people, and would
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