Page:Waylaid by Wireless - Balmer - 1909.djvu/71

Rh "The gout; the family gout. Don't laugh, now; I'm serious. He has told me all about it. And he has it—the gout, I mean, at times. It's the pride of his branch of the family. The other branch—the branch with the title—haven't the gout at all, apparently. I can't quite make out which counts the most with the English in general as an indication of aristocracy, the title or the gout; but Dunneston clearly considers the bandaged foot a far more conclusive evidence of blue blood than the coroneted head."

He caught his companion smiling up at him patiently again.

"Oh! I was saying that an Englishman will talk about his personal affairs as if they belonged to some one else; but tell you his name—never. Now, an American is just the other way. The first thing he tells is his name; but he will never mention—that is, any sort of an American won't—anything which we call personal. I think the English can't consider the same things personal. Yet 53