class, and the unwonted experience of being waited upon by a man with a
long shirt-front. He grew red; he made the clumsiest and most futile
efforts to transport the meat to his plate; food was there before him,
but, like a very Tantalus, he was forbidden to enjoy it. Observing with
all discretion, I at length saw him pull out his pocket handkerchief,
spread it on the table, and, with a sudden effort, fork the meat off the
dish into this receptacle. The waiter, aware by this time of the
customer's difficulty, came up and spoke a word to him. Abashed into
anger, the young man roughly asked what he had to pay. It ended in the
waiter's bringing a newspaper, wherein he helped to wrap up meat and
vegetables. Money was flung down, and the victim of a mistaken ambition
hurriedly departed, to satisfy his hunger amid less unfamiliar
surroundings.

It was a striking and unpleasant illustration of social differences.
Could such a thing happen in any country but England? I doubt it. The
sufferer was of decent appearance, and, with ordinary self-command, might
have taken his meal in the restaurant like any one else, quite unnoticed.
But he belonged to a class which, among all classes in the world, is
distinguished by native clownishness and by unpliability to novel
circumstance. The English lower ranks had need be marked by certain
peculiar virtues to atone for their deficiencies in other respects.



XVIII.


It is easy to understand that common judgment of foreigners regarding the
English people. Go about in England as a stranger, travel by rail, live