his wife and daughters expect to be released from it to the cultivation of
their minds and the enjoyment of social pleasures. It's quite right.
That is what makes them so delightful to foreigners. You must have heard
their praises chanted in England. The English find our men rather stupid,
I believe; but they think our women are charming."

"Yes, I was told that the wives of their nobility were sometimes
Americans," said the Altrurian. "The English think that you regard such
marriages as a great honor, and that they are very gratifying to your
national pride."

"Well, I suppose that is so in a measure," I confessed. "I imagine that it
will not be long before the English aristocracy derives as largely from
American millionaires as from kings' mistresses. Not," I added,
virtuously, "that we approve of aristocracy."

"No, I understand that," said the Altrurian. "I shall hope to get your
point of view in this matter more distinctly by-and-by. As yet, I'm a
little vague about it."

"I think I can gradually make it clear to you," I returned.



II

We left the hotel, and I began to walk my friend across the meadow toward
the lake. I wished him to see the reflection of the afterglow in its still
waters, with the noble lines of the mountain-range that glassed itself
there; the effect is one of the greatest charms of that lovely region, the