The texture
of society, in the smarter sense, the narrower sense, is what I
could not venture to speak of more confidently. Once I asked a
friend, a very dear and valued friend, whether a man's origin or
occupation would make any difference in his social acceptance, if
he were otherwise interesting and important. He seemed not to
know what I would be at, and, when he understood, he responded
with almost a shout of amazement, "Oh, not the least in the
world!" But I have my doubts still; and I should say that it
might be as difficult for a very cultivated and agreeable man
servant to get on in London society, as for an artist or poet to
feel at home in the first circles of New York. Possibly, however,
London society, because of its almost immeasurable vastness, can
take in more of more sorts of people, without the consciousness
of differences which keeps our own first circles so elect. I
venture, somewhat wildly, somewhat unwarrantably, the belief that
English society is less sensitive to moral differences than ours,
and that people with their little _taches_ would find less
anxiety in London than in New York lest they should come off on
the people they rubbed against.
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