Upon
the whole, not caring very actively for us, one way or the other,
they take it amiably; they try to get our point of view, and, as
if it were a thorn, self-sacrificially press their bosoms against
it, in the present or recent _entente cordiale_. None of
their idiosyncrasies is more notable than their patience, their
kindness with our divergence from them; but I am not sure that,
having borne with us when we are by, they do not take it out of
us when we are away.
We are the poetry of a few, who, we like to think, have studied
the most deeply into the causes of our being, or its excuses. But
you cannot always be enjoying poetry, and I could well imagine
that our lovers must sometimes prefer to shut the page. The
common gentleness comes from the common indifference, and from
something else that I will not directly touch upon. What is
certain is that, with all manner of strangers, the English seem
very gentle, when they meet in chance encounter. The average
level of good manners is high. My experience was not the widest,
and I am always owning it was not deep; but, such as it was, it
brought me to the distasteful conviction that in England I did
not see the mannerless uncouthness which I often see in America,
not so often from high to low, or from old to young, but the
reverse.
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