The Man in Possession — page 180: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE MAN IN POSSESSION. 175 and eminently refreshing after the stiff, cold, super- cilious women who had done their best to make her feel an outsider here. When they entered the drawing-room the men were just coming in, and her new friend was immediately surrounded. Kate stood near listening to the sparkling nonsense that fell from her lips, and almost envying her that power of repartee which made conversation resemble a juggler’s set of balls. Mrs. Lafaye seemed capable of keeping any amount of such balls dancing in the air at the same time. She gave her views of .England and things in England with a charming air of candour and impartiality that robbed her pretty insolence of all offence. If her observations hit home or hit hard, they were all excused by the fact of her being an American in the first place—a woman in the second. “Work!” she said in answer to some remark of Lady Westmoreland’s. ‘‘ You say your princes and prineesses work. My! I wish you could see our President and his wife : they’d make you sit up, I guess. Work!...Why, your Royal folks just play around, that’s what they do, and draw big salaries for it too. They open a bazaar, or lay astone, or christen a ship, or go to a flower show, or a public dinner, and have their speeches written for them, and they call that work. What would they say to fourteen hours a day and only £10,000 a year for it, and expenses to come out of that? That’s what out President gets ; and if he don’t suit and don’t do his duty the people soon let him know. You want something of that sort over here. Youre all half asleep, seems to me, or so used COMicloe (Sri C(O)