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. But in America the duchesses have to rub shoulders with him every day. And--which is worth noting--their husbands also rub shoulders with his wife. * * * * * Which brings us to the second root-fact, which is almost as disturbing and confounding to casual observation as the first, namely, the much larger part in the intellectual life of the country played by women in America. Intellectuality or culture in its narrower sense--meaning a familiarity with art and letters--is not commonly regarded by Englishmen as an essential possession in a wife. The lack of it is certainly not considered by the American woman a cardinal offence in a husband. I know many American men who, on being consulted on any matter of literary or artistic taste, say at once: "I don't know. I leave all that to my wife." An Englishman in an English house, looking at the family portraits, may ask his hostess who painted a certain picture. "I don't know," she will say, "I must ask my husband. Will, who is the portrait of your grandfather by--the one over there in his robes?" "Raeburn," says Will. "Of course," says the wife. "I never can remember the artists' names; they are so confusing--especially the English ones." The Englishman thinks no worse of her; but the American woman, listening, wishes that she had a portrait of her husband's grandfather by Raeburn and opines that she would know the artist's name. The same Englishman goes to America and, being entertained, asks a similar question of his host. "I don't know," says the man, "I must ask my wife. Mary, who painted that picture over there--the big tree and the blue sky?" "Rousseau," says Mary. "Of course," says the husband. "I never can remember the names of these fellows. They mix me all up--especially the French ones." And the Englishman returning home tells his friends of the queer fellow with whom he dined over there--"an awfully good chap, you know"--who owned all sorts of jolly paintings--Rousseaux and things--and did not even know the names of the artists: "Had to ask his wife, by Jove!" It is not for one moment claimed that there are not in England many women fully as cultured as the most cultured and fairest Americans; that there are not many Englishwomen much better informed, much more widely read, than their husbands. The phenomenon, however, is not nearly as common as in America, where, it has already been suggested, it is pro
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