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MR. BRITLING SEES IT THROUGH - 1917 - BOOK I - MATCHINGS AT EASE MR. BRITLIWG SEES IT CHAPTER THE FIRST MR. DIEECK VISITS MR. BRITLING -- IT was the sixth day of Nr. Direcks first visit to Eng land, and he was at his acutest perception of differences. Be found England in every Gay gratifying and satis- factory, and more of a contrast with things Bmerican than he had ever dared to hope. He had promised himself this visit for many years, but being of a sunny rather than energetic temperament -though he firmly believed himself to be a reservoir of clear-sighted American energy - he had allowed all sorts of things, and more particularly .the uncertainties of Miss Mamie Nelson, to keep him back. But now there mere no more uncertainties about Niss Narnie Nelson, and Mr. Direck had come over to England just to con- vince himself and everybody else that there were other in- terests in life for him than Hamie. . . . And also, he wanted to see the old country from which his maternal grandmother had sprung. Wasnt there even now in his bedroom in New York a water-colonr of Mar- ket Saffron church, where the dear old lady had been con- firmed And generally he wanted to sce Europe. As an interesting side show to the excursion he hoped, in his 3 a m. capacity of the rather underworked and rather over-sal- aried secretary of the Massachusetts Society for the Study of Contemporary Thought, to discuss certain agreeable possibilities with Mr. Britling, who lived at Matchings Easy. Mr. Direck was a type of man not uncommon in America. He was very mdch after the fashion of that clean and pleasant-looking person one sees in the adver- tisements in American magazines, that agreeable person who smiles and says, Good, its the Fizgig Brand, or Yes, its a Wilkins, and thats the Best, or 111y shirt- front never rucks its a Chesson. But now he was say- ing, still with the same firm smile, Good. Its Eng- lish. He was pleased by every unlikeness to things American, by every item he could hail as characteristic in the train to London he had laughed aloud with pleasure at the chequer-board of little fields upon the hills of Cheshire, he had chuckled to-find himself in a compart- ment without a corridor he had tipped the polite yet kindIy guard pagnificently, after doubting for a moment whether he ought to tip him at all, and he had gone about his hotel in London saying Lordy Lordy My word in a kind of ecstasy, verifying the delightful a t sence of telephone, of steam-heat, of any dependent bath- room.. At breakfast the waiter out of Dickens it seemed had refused to know what cereals were, and had given him his egg in a china eggcup such as you see in the pic- tures in Punch. The Thames, when he sallied out to see it, had been too good to be true, the smallest thing in rivers he had ever seen, and he had had to restrain himself from affecting a marked accent and accosting some passer-by with the question, Say But is this little wet ditch here the Historical River Thames In herica, it must be explained, Nr. Direck spoke a very good and careful English indeed, but he now found the utmost difficulty in controlling his impulse to use a high-pitched nasal drone and indulge in dry Americanisms and poker metaphors upon all occasions. When peiple asked him questions he wanted to say Yep or . Sure, words he would no more have used in America than he could have used a bovie knife. But he hada sense of r61e. He wanted to be visibly and audibly America eye-witnessing. He wanted to be just exactly what he supposed an Englishman would expect him to be...
