194 OBSERVATIONS OF A RANCHWOMAN 



' Really ! And why not ?' 



' Well, you're not at all aggressively 

 English.' 



As if to be aggressive and to be English 

 were necessarily one and the same thing ! 



6 We welcome all strangers with open 

 arms/ remarked an American lady in the 

 course of a discussion of this slightly un- 

 pleasant subject, i.e., the English abroad, 

 'and we try to make them feel at home. 

 But it fatigues us to be told day after day 

 how much better everything is done in 

 England, and how hateful everything and 

 everybody American is. After all, we are 

 generally acknowledged to be a not un- 

 intelligent people, and those of us who have 

 been denied the privilege of a visit to 

 England, and thus drawing our own com- 

 parisons, grow weary of hearing ourselves 

 and our institutions persistently abused. We 

 must be pardoned, therefore, for avoiding 

 persons who render themselves tedious, and 

 for wishing that they would return to their 

 own little isle of the blest. We have en- 

 treated them hospitably, but we can get 

 along without them very well.' 



