Page:In a winter city, by Ouida.djvu/141

 "Yes; but there never was an age so vulgar as our own," said the Lady Hilda. "That I am positive of;—look, even peasants are vulgar now: they wear tall hats and tawdry bonnets on Sundays; and, as for our society, it is 'rowdy:' there is no other word for it, if you understand what that means."

"Canaille?"

"Yes, Canaille. M. de St. Louis says, the 'femme comme il faut' of his youth is extinct as the dodo: language is slang, society is a mob, dress is display, amusement is riot, people are let into society who have no other claim to be there but money and impudence, and are as ignorant as our maids and our grooms, and more so. It is all as bad as it can be, and I suppose it will only go on getting worse. You Italians are the only people with whom manner is not a lost art."

"You do us much honour. Perhaps we too shall be infected before long. We are sending our lads to public schools in your country: they will probably come back unable to bow, ashamed of natural grace, and ambitious to emulate the