Page:Free Opinions, Freely Expressed on Certain Phases of Modern Social Life and Conduct.djvu/133

 AMERICAN WOMEN IN ENGLAND

Why is the American woman so popular in English society? Why is her charmingly assertive personality acknowledged everywhere? Why is she received by knights and earls and belted churls with such overpowering enthusiasm? Surely something subtle, elusive and mysterious, clings to her particular form, nature and identity, for more often than not, the stolid Britisher, while falling at her feet and metaphorically kissing the hem of her garment, wonders vaguely how it is that she manages to make such a fool of him! To which, she might reply, on demand, that if he were not a fool already, she would not find her task so easy! For the American woman is, above all women in the world, clever—or let us say "brainy" to an almost incredible height of brainyness. She is "all there." She can take the measure of a man in about ten minutes and classify him as though he were a botanical specimen. She realizes all his limitations, his "notions," and his special and particular fads,—and she has the uncommonly good sense not to expect much of him. She would not "take any" on the lily-maid of Astolat, the fair Elaine, who spent her time in polishing the shield of Lancelot, and who finally died of love for that most immoral