Page:The Portrait of a Lady (1882).djvu/89

81 THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY. 81 prefer them immensely. Miss Stackpole knows that I detest boarding-house civilisation, and she detests me for detesting it, because she thinks it is the highest in the world. She would like Gardencourt a great deal better if it were a boarding-house. For me, I find it almost too much of one ! We shall never get on together, therefore, and there is no use trying." Mrs. Touchett was fi^ht in guessing that Henrietta disap- proved of her, but she had not quite put her finger on the reason. A day or two after Miss Stackpole's arrival she had made some invidious reflections on American hotels, which excited a vein of counter-argument on the part of the correspondent of the Interviewer, who in the exercise of her profession had acquired a large familiarity with the technical hospitality of her country. Henrietta expressed the opinion that American hotels were the best in the world, and Mrs. Touchett recorded a conviction that they were the worst. Ealph, with his experimental geniality, suggested, by way of healing the breach, that the truth lay between the two extremes, and that the establishments in question ought to be described as fair middling. This contribu- tion to the discussion, however, Miss Stackpole rejected with scorn. Middling, indeed ! If they were not the best in the world, they were the worst, but there was nothing middling about an American hotel. " We judge from different points of view, evidently," said Mrs. Touchett. " I like to be treated as an individual ; you like to be treated as a ' party. 5 " " I don't know what you mean," Henrietta replied. " I like to be treated as an American lady." " Poor American ladies ! " cried Mrs. Touchett, with a laugh. " They are the slaves of slaves." " They are the companions of freemen," Henrietta rejoined. " They are the companions of their servants the Irish chambermaid and the negro waiter. They share their work." " Do you call the domestics in an American household ' slaves ' 1 " Miss Stackpole inquired. " If that's the way you desire to treat them, no wonder you don't like America." " If you have not good servants, you are miserable," Mrs. Touchett said, serenely. "They are very bad in America, but I have five perfect ones in Florence." " I don't see what you want with five," Henrietta could not help observing. " I don't think I should like to see five persons surrounding me in that menial position." " I like them in that position better than in some others," cried Mrs. Touchett, with a laugh. G