You must meet her the next time, Mamma. She did not
tremendously apologize because the hot water tap in my bath-room would
not run (as Mrs. Spleist did when one of the twenty electric light
branches round my bed-room would not shine); she just said, "You must
call Ambrosia" (a sweet darkie servant) "and she will bring you a can
from the kitchen."
She sat on the floor by the wood fire in the old-fashioned grate, and
made me laugh so I was late for dinner. They had a dinner party for us,
because they said it was their duty to show us their best, as we had
seen a little of New York; and it was a delightful evening. Several of
the men had moustaches, and they were all perfectly at ease, and not
quite so kind and polite as the others, and you felt more as if they
were of the same sex as Englishmen, and you quite understood that they
could get in love. The one at my right hand was a pet, and has asked us
to a dinner at the Squirrels Club to-night, and I am looking forward to
it so. The women were charming, not so well dressed as in New York, and
perhaps not so pretty, or so very bright and ready with repartee as
there, but sweet all the same. And I am sure they are all as good as
gold, and don't have divorces in the family nearly so often.
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