that you
really must when, looking round, you gather that the last remark was not
addressed to you, but to another gentleman who is shaking hands with her:

"Now, perhaps we shall be able to talk for five minutes," she says. "I've
so often wanted to say that I shall never forgive you. You have been
simply horrid."

Again you are confused, until you jump to the conclusion that the latter
portion of the speech is probably intended for quite another party with
whom, at the moment, her back towards you, she is engaged in a whispered
conversation. When he is gone she turns again to you. But the varied
expressions that pass across her face while you are discussing with her
the disadvantages of Protection, bewilder you. When, explaining your own
difficulty in arriving at a conclusion, you remark that Great Britain is
an island, she roguishly shakes her head. It is not that she has
forgotten her geography, it is that she is conducting a conversation by
signs with a lady at the other end of the room. When you observe that
the working classes must be fed, she smiles archly while murmuring:

"Oh, do you really think so?"

You are about to say something strong on the subject of dumping.
Apparently she has disappeared. You find that she is reaching round
behind you to tap a new arrival with her fan.

She has the Art of Listening.

Now, the American girl looks at you, and just listens to you with her
eyes fixed on you all the time. You gather that, as far as she is
concerned, the rest of the company are passing shadows. She wants to
hear what you have to say about Bi-metallism: her trouble is lest she may
miss a word of it. From a talk with an American girl one comes away with
the conviction that one is a brilliant conversationalist, who can hold a
charming woman spell-bound. This may not be good for one: but while it
lasts, the sensation is pleasant.

Even the American girl cannot, on all occasions, sweep from her path the
cobwebs of old-world etiquette. Two American ladies told me a sad tale
of things that had happened to them not long ago in Dresden. An officer
of rank and standing invited them to breakfast with him on the ice. Dames
and nobles of the _plus haut ton_ would be there. It is a social
function that occurs every Sunday morning in Dresden during the skating
season. The great lake in the Grosser Garten is covered with all sorts
and conditions of people. Prince and commoner circle and recirc