"'Tell how ye hobnobbed with the Queen o' Italy,' Sam says.

"'Oh, father! Hobnobbed!' says she. 'Anybody would think that she
and I had manicured each other's hands. She only spoke a few words
of Italian and looked very gracious an' beautiful an' complimented
my color.'

"Then she lay back in her chair, kind o' weary, an' Sam asked me
how was business--just to fill in the gap, I guess. Liz woke up
an' showed how far she'd got ahead in the race.

"'Business!' says she, with animation. 'That's why I haven't any
patience with American men. They never sit down for ten minutes
without talking business. Their souls are steeped in
commercialism. Don't you see how absurd it is, father? There are
plenty of lovely things to talk about.'

"Sam looked guilty, an' I felt sorry for him. It had cost heavy to
educate his girl up to a p'int where she could give him so much
advice an' information. The result was natural. She was irritated
by the large cubic capacity--the length, breadth, and thickness of
his ignorance and unrefinement; he was dazed by the length,
breadth, an' thickness of her learning an' her charm. He didn't
say a word. He bowed his head before this pretty, perfumed casket
of erudition.

"'You like Europe,' I says.

"'I love it,' says she, 'It's the only place to live. There one