He passed it over, and when she had chosen one of the little rolls and lighted it she said: "Mr.Cleggett, have you ever lived in England ?" "I have never even visited England." "I wish you knew England." She watched the curling smoke from her tobacco as it drifted across the table.

"If you knew England you would comprehend so much more readily some parts of my story.
"But, being an American, you can have no adequate conception of the conservatism that still prevails in certain quarters.

I refer to the really old families among the landed aristocracy.

Some of them have not changed essentially, in their attitude towards the world in general, since the reign of Queen Elizabeth.

They make of family a fetish.