and speak in a half-apologetic manner, as if complimenting
were something personal. The English and the Americans are closely related,
they have much in common, but they also differ widely,
and in nothing is the difference more conspicuous than in their conduct.
I have noticed curiously enough that English Colonials,
especially in such particulars as speech and manners,
follow their quondam sister colony, rather than the mother country.
And this, not only in Canada, where the phenomenon might
be explained by climatic, geographic, and historic reasons,
but also in such antipodean places as Australia and South Africa,
which are so far away as to apparently have very little in common
either with America or with each other. Nevertheless, whatever the reason,
the transplanted Englishman, whether in the arctics or the tropics,
whether in the Northern or the Southern Hemisphere,
seems to develop a type quite different from the original stock,
yet always resembling his fellow emigrants.

The directness of Americans is seen not only in what they say
but in the way they say it. They come directly to the point,
without much preface or introduction, much less is there any circumlocution
or "beating about the bush". When they come to see you they say their say
and then take their departure, moreover they say it in the most terse,
concise and unambiguous manner. In this respect what a contrast they are
to us! We always approach each other with preliminary greetings.
Then we talk of the weather, of politics or friends, of anything, in fact,
which is as far as possible from the object of the visit.
Only after this introduction do we broach the subject uppermost in our minds,
and throughout the conversation polite courtesies are exchanged
whenever the opportunity arises. These elaborate preludes and interludes may,
to the strenuous ever-in-a-hurry American, seem useless and superfluous,