AND A BELLE. 117 



Public opinion of men of his own caste arranges the 

 things here for a man, which in France, or with you 

 I presume, would be settled by the small-sword, or 

 the rifle." 



" I am very much obliged to you, Duke, and, so far 

 from fancying that you are lecturing me, know that 

 the greatest favor a gentleman in your position can 

 confer upon a stranger in his own country is to make 

 him au fait, to those small usages of society, to 

 which no foreigner can be up, on his first arrival." 



" I certainly should not have said as much to every 

 one." 



" And I certainly must say that Lord Jardinier was 

 to-day unpardonably rude to me, not only as a foreigner 

 but as a personal stranger." 



" He was, indeed, and he will be told so at a proper 

 time, from a quarter whence he will regard what he is 

 told. I was afraid only that you would have conde- 

 scended to resent it, to do which, I assure you, would 

 have been a descent." 



" My dear duke," replied Fairfax, earnestly and 

 gratefully, "if you will permit me so to call you, I 

 am not, though I hope a thorough American, one of 

 those propagandizing, make-mischiefs, and marplots, 

 who pass their whole time while abroad in a lively at- 

 tempt to render themselves as detestable and their 

 country as ridiculous as possible, by endeavoring to 

 force their own manners, I should say want of man- 

 ners, down the throats of all and sundry. I am quite 

 content when in Rome to be as Romans are, and to 

 try to conduct myself in every country, as I see the 

 best bred men of that country conduct themselves. 

 For this, I have no doubt, I shall be denounced at 

 home, if they ever learn it, by all the stump orators 

 of the great unterrified from Maine to Mississippi, as 

 a soulless southern aristocrat, and as a fawning flat- 

 terer of European monarchists. But I don't think 



