Page:In defense of Harriet Shelley, and other essays.djvu/195

 NOTE TO M. PAUL BOURGET

how much we might have associated with kings and nobilities, we should not think it right to crush her with it and make her ashamed of her lowlier walk in

trying to find out who their grandfathers were, he merely makes an allusion to an American foible; but, forsooth, what a kind man, what a humorist Mark Twain is when he retorts by calling France a nation of bastards! How the Americans of culture and refinement will admire him for thus speaking in their name!

Snobbery. ... I could give Mark Twain an example of the American specimen. It is a piquant scory. I never published it because I feared my readers might think that I was giving them a typical illustration of American character instead of a rare ex ception.

I was once booked by my manager to give a causerie in the drawing- room of a New York millionaire. I accepted with reluctance. I do not like private engagements. At five o clock on the day the causerie was to be given, the lady sent to my manager to say that she would expect me to arrive at nine o clock and to speak for about an hour. Then she wrote a postcript. Many women are unfortunate there. Their minds are full of afterthoughts, and the most important part of their letters is generally to be found after their signature. This lady s P.S. ran thus: &quot;I suppose he will not expect to be entertained after the lecture.&quot;

I fairly shouted, as Mark Twain would say, and then, indulging myself in a bit of snobbishness, I was back at her as quick as a flash

&quot;Dear Madam: As a literary man of some reputation, I have many times had the pleasure of being entertained by the members of the old aristocracy of France. I have also many times had the pleasure of being entertained by the members of the old aristocracy of England. If it may interest you, I can even tell you that I have several times had the honor of being entertained by royalty; but my ambition has never been so wild as to expect that one day I might be entertained by the aristocracy of New York. No, I do not expect to be entertained by you, nor do I want you to expect me to entertain you and your friends to-night, for I decline to keep the engagement.&quot;

Now, I could fill a book on America with reminiscences of this sort, adding a few chapters on bosses and boodlers, on New York chronique scandaleuse, on the tenement houses of the large cities, on the gambling-hells of Denver, and the dens of San Francisco, and what not! But not even your nasty article on my country, Mark, will make me dQ it,

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