Part 4 (2/2)

Once reat French clock Its hands did not seeame I could not endure it another ht to my hostess who had spoken to me only once since my arrival

Drowsy as I was, I noticed she seemed surprised ”Oh, no,” I told her; ”I aoodTom was cross I had made a _faux pas_ I had shoas bored and peeved and had gone to bed before the hostess indicated it was bedtiland

”What do you do if you can't keep awake?” I asked ”You slip out quietly, go to your room ask a o back and pretend you are having a good tiot back to London But Toet a companion Then there came into my life the most wonderful of friends She was theof a British Army officer who had been killed in India, and her only child was dead She was a woman of education and heart; she understood reat suffering; she had a deep feeling for humanity and an honest desire to be of use in the world In the English register my coot down to Mary and Eve We loved each other Eve went to France with us a few months later She made me talk French with her

My first forreat falish dinner, and ever so much more fun Everybody participated If there was one lion at the table, everybody shared hi MY FIRST FORMAL DINNER IN FRANCE]

There is so surprises you You are at ease anywhere in the world Eve fitted into Paris as naturally as in her native London, I began to feel at home there myself

It was a city of happy people--care free, natural, sympathetic There was a lack of restraint which, after the oppressive dignity of London, was a rare treat No one was critical Every one acceptedand faulty French without ridicule or condescension The amiability and the friendliness of the French people thawed h of homesickness Happiness caland when only the knowledge that a wo to me, and that To away--back to the simple life of my own United States

I was hoh I had helped mother with all of hers We had buried three of the is a ruthless scythe, and only the fit survive I began to understand lory in the character which never faltered, although she was alone and life had been hard How could I whine when I had Toround?

I loved the French They regard life with a frankness which sometimes shocked my reserved Boston husband He never accepted intiland was still in his blood The free winds of the prairie had swept it from mine

My new friends in Paris discovered ht, and I was delighted to be able to discuss it frankly Motherhood is the great and natural event in the life of a woman in France, and no one makes a secret of it I was very happy in Paris And then--Too to Vienna

Not even Tom, Eve, and the promised baby could make me happy there In all the world I had seen no place where the line of class distinction was so closely drahere social custoid and court for the social custo the pebbles on the beach--and about as useful The clock regulated our habits in Vienna Up to eleven o'clock certain attire was proper If your watch stopped you were sure to break a social law I once saw a distinguished diplomat in distress because he found himself at an official function at eleven-thirty with a black tie--or without one, I have forgotten which!

At first it offended me to receive an invitation--or a co slip telling exactly what to wear Then I laughed about it

Finally I rebelled On the plea of ill health, I made Tom do the social honors for alleries and the music fetes Years later I went back to Vienna, and I did not discredit my country But I never loved the city I enjoyed its art, its fascinating shops, its picturesque streets and people, and its beautiful woland, the poverty and arrogance of London, and the frivolity of Paris, without their redeeland The second day in London, Tom took me to an exhibition important in the art world, or at least in the official life of London Everybody as somebody was there I saw the Princess of Wales and the Marquis of Salisbury, as then Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs I saw Mr Balfour, so handsoracious that I refused to believe there had ever been cause to call hily about him--yet he was simply Mr Balfour Years afterward I realized that to know Mr Balfour is either to worshi+p hiun to have a beautiful time that afternoon

I felt happy, acutely conscious ofin particular Mr Gladstone joined us, and Sir Henry Irving caland had a , though certainly not handsome; but he took the compliment to himself, smiled, bowed his thanks, and said:

”And America for beautiful woe in small talk ”You should have seen her rosy cheeks before she went to the Continent,” he said, and added kindly that I looked very tired and should go down to Hawarden Castle and rest

”Oh,” I explained happily, ”it is n't that--I 'asp Mr Gladstone opened his kind eyes very wide, and his heavy chin settled down in his collar It was the last bad break Ito me, for it robbed all social form of terror For the first tiraphy One takes off one's shoes to enter the presence of the ruler of Persia One wears a black tie until eleven o'clock in Vienna--or does n't One uses fish knives in England until he dines with royalty--then one e with a fork and a piece of bread One dresses for dinner always, and waits for the hostess to say it is tihbor at table In France one guest speaks to any or all of the others; all one's friends extend congratulations if a baby is coland nobody must know, and everybody land They are sensitive about everything personal But there is an underground and very perfect syste about everybody is known and noised about and discussed with everybody except the person in question

It is a mysterious and elaborate hypocrisy

With the aid of Eve, I raphy of social customs I learned the ways of Europe, of the Orient, and of South America It is easier to understand races if one understands the psychology of their custolected in America, and our manners sometimes truthfully called crude But I told myself with pride that our truly cultivated people will not tolerate a social form that is not based on human, kindly instincts It was not until the World War flooded Europe with Alory of our social standards and the great need to have our own people understand those standards