"They are dissenters from the church of Christ!"
Fortunately, at that moment the daughter came in from tennis, and I
hoped that by giving a more worldly turn to the conversation I might
fare better, so said:
"I have been trying to induce your mother to pay your brother a
visit, but she does not seem to like the idea. Perhaps you might
enjoy it more."
"Indeed I should not," she cried. "I hear the hotels are dreadful."
I thought of London! but meekly replied that I did not think she
would find them unbearable.
"I am sure I should. A friend of mine--Bessie Salter, you know,
Mumsie--went over to the 'States' a year ago, and told me, when she
returned, that if one wished to have one's boots blacked, one must go
down into the cellar and cock one's feet up on two iron pegs, and
have them brushed by a grinning 'nigger.'"
I now gave up "for keeps," and wondered why I had come! However, I
consoled myself with the thought that it was part of one's education.
I felt that I had got to the heart of the great middle class of
England. It is religious, kindly, and self-satisfied to a degree
unequalled in the world.
I was rather depressed that evening as I gave an account of my day to
Ruth. But she laughed till the tears came.
"If only I had been there to see your face! Why, it is perfect. If
one read it in a book one would think the writer was trying to parody
Dickens on America. Honestly, did it really happen, or have you
embroidered it?"
"I give you my word, it is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing
but the truth!"
"Well, I hope it will be blest to you! A hundred years and more of
independence, and the dear old things think of us as an unworthy
'colony,' with dissenters and brigands and boot-blacks! My dear, I
hope I may never hear you brag of that unhappy country again! And
now come down and get some dinner. They are going to have cherry
tart and custard--for a change!"