But nevertheless a good many have.
Suppose you were traveling in a train here, and the man next you, whose face you had never seen before, and with whom you had not yet exchanged a syllable, said: "What's your pet name for your wife ?" Wouldn't your immediate inclination be to say, "What damned business is that of yours ?" or words to that general effect?
But again, you most naturally object, there was nothing personal in my friend's question about the buildings.

No; but that is not it.

At the bottom, both questions are an invasion of the same deep-seated thing--the right to privacy.

In America, what with the newspaper reporters and this and that and the other, the territory of a man's privacy has been lessened and lessened until very little of it remains; but most of us still do draw the line somewhere; we may not all draw it at the same place, but we do draw a line.

The difference, then, between ourselves and the English in this respect is simply, that with them the territory of a man's privacy covers more ground, and different ground as well.