OURSELVES, AND OTHERS 199 



which the immigrant's lot is cast and our 

 compatriots seem to have a genius for making 

 a poor selection there is one virtue rarely 

 absent from any American community, 

 whether of city or country : I allude to the 

 virtue of neighbourliness. We, as a race, 

 would do well to take example from it. An 

 Englishwoman of my acquaintance, slowly 

 coming to understand the self-imposed re- 

 striction of her social instincts to the limits of 

 one of the 'sets' in 'the English set,' ex- 

 pressed herself once to me somewhat in this 

 fashion. Needless to say, her discoveries 

 offered to the old settler nothing in the way 

 of novelty. 



' Americans are so kind to one another in 

 sickness or trouble ! Now, if I ask an 

 Englishwoman to help some mutual acquaint- 

 ance, she will be pretty sure to reply, "I'm 

 too busy at home ; I really cannot go outside 

 of it," or, " She's not in our set, and if we 

 take her up we shall be obliged to invite her 

 to our houses, and you know that won't do," 

 etc. Now, this is all wrong, and yet I don't 

 see how to alter it. An American woman, 

 when she hears that a neighbour is in distress, 



