they choose to know in her for the nouce the abstract woman who is
better than woman in the concrete. I am sure I have never seen men
of any other race abandon themselves to such a luxury of respect as
these black and grey bearded Spaniards of leaden complexion showed
this dumpy personification of womanhood, with their prominent eyes
bent in homage upon her, and their hands trembling with readiness to
seize their hats off in reverence. It appeared presently that the
matter they were all canvassing so devoutly was the question of
where she should sit. It seemed to be decided that she could not do
better than sit just at that point. When she actually took a chair
the stately convocation ended, and its members, with low obeisances,
dispersed themselves in different directions. They had probably all
been sitting with her the whole afternoon on the verandah of the
Everett House, where their race chiefly resorts in Saratoga, and
they were availing themselves of this occasion to appear to be
meeting her, after a long interval, in society.

I said to myself that of course they believed Saratoga was still
that centre of American fashion which it once was, and that they
came and went every summer, probably in the belief that they saw a
great deal of social gaiety there. This made me think, by a natural
series of transitions, of the persons of my American idyl, and I
looked about the pavilion everywhere for them without discovering,
till the last, that they were just behind me.

I found the fact touching. They had not wished to be in any wise
beholden to me, and had even tried to reject my friendly readiness
to know them better; but they had probably sought my vicinity in a
sense of their loneliness and helplessness, which they hoped I would
not divine, but which I divined instantly. Still, I thought it best