"Mr. Bulstrode is a skilful actor, as all who saw his Cato must be aware,"
retorted the charming girl, compressing her pouting lips in a way that
seemed to me to be inexpressibly pleasing; "and those who saw his Scrub
must be equally convinced of the versatility of his talents. No, no; Major
Bulstrode is better where he is, or will be to-day, at four o'clock--at the
head of the mess of the ----th, instead of dining in a snug Dutch parlour,
with my cousin, worthy Mrs. van der Heyden, at a dinner got up with colony
hospitality, and colony good-will, and colony plainness. The entertainment
we shall receive to-day, sweetened, as it will be, by the welcome which
will come from the heart, can have no competitor in countries where a
messenger must be sent two days before the visit, to ask permission to
come, in order to escape cold looks and artificial surprise. I would prefer
surprising my friends from the heart, instead of from the head."

Guert expressed his astonishment that any one should not always be glad
and willing to receive his friends; and insisted on it, that no such
inhospitable customs _could_ exist. I knew, however, that society could not
exist on the same terms, in old and in new countries--among a people that
was pressed upon by numbers, and a people that had not yet felt the evils
of a superabundant population. Americans are like dwellers in the country,
who are always glad to see their friends; and I ventured to say something
of the causes of these differences in habits.

Nothing occurred worthy of being dwelt on, in our ride to Kinderhook. Mrs.
Van der Heyden resided at a short distance from the river, and the blacks
and the bays had some little difficulty in dragging us through the mud to
her door. Once there, however, our welcome fully verified the theory of
the colony habits, which had been talked over in our drive down. Anneke's
worthy connection was not only glad to see her, as anybody might have been,
but she would have been glad to receive as many as her house would hold.