As he had grown older, Salter had observed its advance.

Englishmen had married American beauties.

American fortunes had built up English houses, which otherwise threatened to fall into decay.

Then the American faculty of adaptability came into play.
Anglo-American wives became sometimes more English than their husbands.
They proceeded to Anglicise their relations, their relations' clothes, even, in time, their speech.

They carried or sent English conventions to the States, their brothers ordered their clothes from West End tailors, their sisters began to wear walking dresses, to play out-of-door games and take active exercise.