We are not exacting in the matter of clothes; we are liberal on
creeds; but we have our shibboleths. And, though we do not drown unlucky
Ephraimites, whose tongues make bad work with S's, I fear we are not quite
kind to them; they never stay long, and so we go on having it much our own
way.
Week before last a man appeared at dinner, of whom our good little
landlady said, deprecatingly, that he would stay only a few days. She knew
by instinct that his presence would not be agreeable to us. He was not in
the least an intrusive person,--on the contrary, there was a sort of mute
appeal to our humanity in the very extent of his quiet inoffensiveness;
but his whole atmosphere was utterly uninteresting. He was untrained in
manner, awkwardly ill at ease in the table routine; and, altogether, it
was so uncomfortable to make any attempt to include him in our circle that
in a few days he was ignored by every one, to a degree which was neither
courteous nor Christian.
In all families there is a leader. Ours is a charming and brilliant
married woman, whose ready wit and never-failing spirits make her the best
of centres for a country party of pleasure-seekers.
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