AMERICAN WOMEN IN ENGLAND
Why is the American woman so popular in English
society? Why is her charmingly assertive personality
acknowledged everywhere? Why is she received
by knights and earls and belted churls with
such overpowering enthusiasm? Surely something
subtle, elusive and mysterious, clings to her particular
form, nature and identity, for more often
than not, the stolid Britisher, while falling at her
feet and metaphorically kissing the hem of her
garment, wonders vaguely how it is that she manages
to make such a fool of him! To which, she might
reply, on demand, that if he were not a fool already,
she would not find her task so easy! For the
American woman is, above all women in the world,
clever—or let us say "brainy" to an almost incredible
height of brainyness. She is "all there."
She can take the measure of a man in about ten
minutes and classify him as though he were a
botanical specimen. She realizes all his limitations,
his "notions," and his special and particular fads,—and
she has the uncommonly good sense not to
expect much of him. She would not "take any"
on the lily-maid of Astolat, the fair Elaine, who
spent her time in polishing the shield of Lancelot,
and who finally died of love for that most immoral
