rd "turf" used as a verb. We continued in an amiable wrangle which
finally brought out the fact which even the most obstinate of them was
obliged to admit, and that is that when traced to its proper root, the
Americans speak purer English than the English.

House-boat hospitality we discovered to be conducted on a very irregular
plan, for it appeared that the casual afternoon caller always meant tea
and sometimes dinner. This is all very well if the people happen to be
agreeable and the food holds out, but even I, the least conservative of
the three women, am conservative about invitations to guests, nothing
being more offensive to me than to be politely forced into a dinner
invitation to people I don't want. Another thing, it kept us constantly
scurrying for more to eat, as house-boat provisions are all furnished
by firms in town, and house-boat owners are expected to let the
purveyors know beforehand how many guests to provide for at each meal.

I like English people very much, but I cannot help observing that some
who are very well born and are supposed to be exceedingly well bred,
take advantage of American hospitality in a way in which they would
never dream of pursuing with their English hosts. For instance,
Americans were very free in remaining so dangerously close to the dinner
hour that we were pushed into inviting them to remain, but never once
did they make it obligatory to invite them to remain over night, while
no less than half a dozen times during Henley week our English friends
said to Jimmie:

"I say, old man, beastly work getting back to town. Can't you put us up
for the night?"

As this occurred when every stateroom was filled, even Bee's sacred duke
being among the number of our guests, these self-invited ones remained
in every instance when they knew that it would force Jimmie to sleep
upon a bench in the dining-room and be seriously inconvenienced. Toward
the end of the week this supreme selfishness which I have noticed so
often in otherwise worthy English gentlemen annoyed me to such an extent
that with one Englishman who had thus insisted upon dispossessing Jimmie
for the second time I resolved to make a test. So I said to him:

"Of course it's a little hard on Jimmie, your way of turning him out of
his stateroom to sleep on the table, so, as turn about is fair play, if
you've quite decided to remain over night, my sister and I will let you
have our room and we will sleep on the benches in th