Volume I Part 12 (2/2)
”Well, until he drove you away, at any rate. I was often surprised that you could endure it as long as you did. But happily, Louisa cooled him off after a while; though I had a strong inclination to undertake the job myself.”
”It was much better as it was; it was Louisa's place to do it,”
observed Miss Agnes.
”But I thought you liked the English,” said Elinor, with some surprise. ”You were speaking very highly of several of your English friends, last night.”
”I do like the better sort very much. They are fine, manly fellows, as ever breathed.”
”What people did you like best?” asked Miss Agnes.
”A man who does not cherish prejudice, must naturally like the best qualities and the best individuals of all nations.”
”But have you no preference?”
”There cannot be a doubt, that society is more agreeable in France, in Paris, than elsewhere.”
”Are not the French too artificial?”
”I honestly do not think them more so than the English. English simplicity often has a very artificial twist; with the French it is just the reverse; art becomes a second-nature, with them.”
”We hear the French accused of selfishness--”
”I think you would find both French and English more selfish than we are. But they have different ways of showing it. The Englishman is exclusive, and reserved; the Frenchman egotistical.
Reserve may seem dignified; but it often covers a great deal of cold self-love; while French egotism--not EGOISME--is often mingled with much naivete and bonhommie {sic}. Both nations, however, are more selfish than the Italians, or Germans, I should say.”
”Still, you seem to like the French the best of the two.”
”Well, the French generally treat Americans more civilly than the English. John Bull is very fond of giving himself airs of superiority, after a disagreeable fas.h.i.+on of his own. Now a Frenchman fancies himself so much more civilized than the rest of the world, that he has a good-natured feeling towards everybody but John Bull: he thinks he can afford to be amiable and friendly.”
”If you are speaking of the best people in each country, however,” said Mr. Wyllys; ”that is not the surest way of judging national character. We must take the average.”
”I am aware of that, sir.”
”At any rate, you don't seem to have liked this Mr. Ellery,” said Elinor.
”Not in the least; I used to think him excessively impertinent,”
exclaimed Harry, and as his choler rose, while certain recollections pa.s.sed through his mind, he coloured again. To change the subject, he took up the bag the young ladies had been admiring.
”What fanciful name may belong to this piece of finery; for, of course, it is not a bag?” he asked.
”Oh, it is too useful, not to have a straight-forward, common name; you may call it a sac, though, if you like. I could not think of anything more imaginative; can you, Jane?”
”I dare say, there is another name; but I have forgotten it; everything has a name of its own, in Paris.”
”Your table looks like a fancy-shop, Aunt Agnes,” continued Hazlehurst; ”gloves, bags, purses, boxes, muslins, portfolios, and twenty other things, jumbled together.”
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