The Shuttle

and fro, with threads of literature and art, threads of life drawn from one shore to the other and back again, until they were bound in the fabric of its weaving. Coldness there ha

or grandfathers. Some subtle, far-reaching power of nature caused a stirring of the blood, a vague, unexpressed yearning and lingering over pages which depicted sweet, green lanes, broad acres rich with centuries of nourishment and care; grey church towers, red roofs, and village children playing before cottage doors. None of these things were new to those who pondered over them, kinsmen had dwelt on memories of them in their fireside talk, and their children had seen them in fancy and in dreams. Old grievances having had time to fade away and take on less poignant colour, the stirring of the blood stirred also imaginations, and wakened something akin to homesickness, though no man called the feeling by its name. And this, perhaps, was the st

society may become so altered as to appear amazing when one finds time to reflect on the subject. But one does not often find time. Changes occur so gradually that one scarcely ob

orthy even of being consigned to the limbo of respectable yesterdays. Such a country lives by leaps and bounds, and the ten years which followed the marriage of Reuben Vanderpoel's eldest daughter made many such bounds and leaps. They were years which initiated and established international social relations in a manner which caused them to incorporate themselves with the history of both countries. As America discovered Europe, that continent discovered America. American beauties began to appear in English drawing-rooms and Continental salons. They were presented at

es a trifle, over this new but so natural and inevitable triumph of its virgins. It was of course only "American" that such things should happen. America ruled the universe, and its women ruled America, bullying it a little, prettily, perhaps. What could be more a matter of course than that American women, being aided by adoring fathers, brothers and husbands, sumptuously to ship themselves to other lands, should begin to rule these lands also? B

brilliant unions had resulted in disaster. She had not understood all the details the newspapers cheerfully provided, but it was clear to her that more than one previously envied young woman had had practical reasons for discovering that she had made an astonishingly bad bargain. This being the case, she used frequently to ponder over the case of Rosy-Rosy

ed so little desire for any relationship with his wife's family that gradually Rosy's image seemed to fade into far distance and become fainter with the passing of each month. It seemed almost an incredible thing, when they allowed themselves to think of it, but no member of the family had ever been to Stornham Court. Two or three efforts to arrange

time," poor Mrs. Vanderpoel had said with tears. "Rosy's changed awfully, somehow. Her letters don't

y after her marriage to an aristocratic and learned German. Hers had been one of the successful alliances, and after living a few years in Berlin she had quite looked down upon New Yorkers, and had made herself exceedingly unpopular during her one brief visit t

always patronising people, and Rosy was only pretty and sweet. Sh

ad been presented at Court, she had had three children, the Dowager Lady Anstruthers had died. Once she had written to her father to ask for a large sum of money, whic

she wrote, "and I don't want the

she spoke very vaguely of the prospect of their seeing each other in the future.

tening one, far more illuminating to the quick-witted American child than it would have been to an English, French,

n places up the Hudson, or on Long Island, and such resorts of pleasure. She had believed implicitly in all she saw and knew. She had been surrounded by wealth and decent good nature throughout her existence, and had enjoyed her life far too much to admit of any doubt that America was the

mes, the absolute genius of penetration and calculation of the sordid and uneducated little trader in skins and barterer of goods, having filtered through two generations of gradual education and refinement of existence, which was no longer that of the mere trader, had been transformed in the great-granddaughter into keen, clear sight, level-headed perceptiveness and a logical sense of values. As the first Reuben had kn

ems to see what people mean, it doesn't matter what they say. She likes people you would not expect her t

t her small brain had always been at work, and each day of her life recorded for her valuabl

s she received when her life in the French sch

months at the school were not agreeable to her. She was supervised and expurgated, as it were. Special Sisters were told off to converse and walk with her, and she soon perceived that conversations were not only French lessons in disguise, but were lectures on ethics, morals, and good manners, imperfectly concealed by the mask and domino of amiable entertainment. She translated into English after the following manner the facts her swift young perceptions gathered. There were things it was so inelegant to say that only the most impossible persons said them; there were th

r, her mother, her relatives, and friends were all in some degree exactly the kind of persons whose speech, habits, and opinions she must conscientiously avoid. But for the instinct of summing up values, circumstances, and intentions, it is probable that she would have lost her head, let loose her temper and her tongue, and have become insubordinate. But the quickness of perception

ew York was not counted as a civilised centre at all; it had no particular existence. Nobody expressed this rudely; in fact, it did not acquire the form of actual statement at any time. It was merely revealed by amiable and ingenuous unconsciousness of the circumstance that such a part of the world expected to be regarded or referred to at all. Betty began early to realise that as her companions did not talk of Timbuctoo or Zanzibar, so they did not talk of New York. Stockholm or Amsterdam seemed, despite their smallness, to be considered. No one denied the presence of Zanzibar on the map, but as it conveyed nothing more than the impression of being a mere geographical fact, there was no reason why one should dwell on it in conversation. Remembering all she had left behind, the crowded streets, the brilliant shop windows, the buzz of individual people, there w

ng, comparing, drawing deductions from what she knew and did not know of the two continents. Her childish anger, combining itself with the practical, alert brain of Reuben Vanderpoel the first, developed in her a logical reasoning power which led her to arrive at many an excellent and curiously mature conclusion. The result was finely educational. All the more so that in her fevered desire for justification of the things she love

ut as mad as she can be at the ignorance of the French girls about America and Americans. She wants to fill up on solid facts, so that she

lumes because she was furious, and wished to be able to refute idiocy, but she found herself continuing to read because she was interested in a way she had not expected. She began

out America, you others," s

the fashion to travel in Am

to America. I believe it will come to you. It's like that-Am

them married, some of them court beauties, one of them recalled this speech to another, whom she encountered in an

her. She learned with an interested rapacity which was at once unusual and amazing. And she evidently did not learn from books alone. Her voice, as an organ, had been musical and full from babyhood. It began to modulate itself and to express things most voices are in

of her frequently by one or the other of her teachers

ife, for living herself, for aiding others to live, for vivifying mere existence. She herself was, however, aware only of an eagerness of temp

here was no reason why she should not be gratified. Most girls preferred to spend their holidays on the Continent. She elect

she said to her father when she was

urface were unusual possessions for a schoolgirl. She had young views on the politics and commerce of different countries, as she had views on their literature. When Reuben Vanderpoel swooped across the American continent on journeys of thousands of miles, taking her as a companion, he discovered that

day she used to return to France, Germany, or Italy, with a renewed zest of feeling for all things rom

d be nice to go into a convent, and another day I almost entirely agreed with one of the girls who was declaiming

tty had observed that America appeared upon the whole to be regarded by her schoolfellows principally as a place to which the more unfortunate among the peasantry emigrated as steerage passengers when things could become no worse for them in their own country

asked her as they sat at their desks. "He became very poor throu

rk?" inqui

The town is ca

States," Betty answered dis

las towards her an

ompanion was a near-sighted, rather slow girl. She peered at the

e from one another," she admitted

ch girls always seem to think that North and South Amer

." To which she added with entire innocence of any ironic intention. "But you A

ever thought of this view of the matter before, but it was quite true. To passionate young patriots such as herself at least, that portion of the map covered by the United States was America. She suddenly saw also that to her New York had been America. Fifth Avenue Bro

hemselves far from happy. The Cousin Gaston, for instance, brought home a bride whose fortune rebuilt and refurnished his dilapidated chateau and who ended by making of him a well-behaved and cheery country gentleman not at all to be despised in his amiable, if light-minded good nature and good spirits. His wife, fortunately, was not a young woman who yearned for sentiment. She was a nice-tempered, practical American girl, who adored French country life and knew how to amuse and m

end. "We like her, but she is not-she is not--" She paused there, evidently seein

she not?"

mericans. It is really not exactly a

said Bettina coolly, "why did he

irit of his young descendant, rendered Bettina brutal. She saw certain unadorned facts with unsparing young eyes and wanted to state them. After

who was not fiery of tempera

ton really is fond of her. She amuses him,

ms were, in conversation, treated by their equals with scant respect. It appeared that there had always been some extremely practical reason for the passion which had led them to the altar. One generally gathered that they or their estates were very much out at elbow, and frequently their characters were not considered admirable by their relatives and acquaintances. Some had been rather cold shouldered in certain capitals on account of embarrassing

a lot of stupid women. He had come some awful croppers during the last ten years. Good-enough looking girl, they tell me-the American he has married-tremendous

into a tall young creature by this time. Her low, full voice was like a

es that we are receiving the proper tribute of adoration of our

y in these days. We are not as innocent as we were when this sort of thing began. We are not as innocent as we were when Rosy was marri

eck. It was a long, slim, round arm with a wonderful power

to think much abo

your mother hurts me. Sometimes she begins to cry in her sleep, and whe

s. I was at school in Germany when Annie Butterfield and Baron von Steindahl were mar

for a moment her laugh d

d. "The papers had plenty to say about it later. There wa

Bettina. "He was black. It was an insolence that he should have dar

t her i

e. She was not geboren, that was it." She laughed her severe little laugh again. "Perhaps we shall get tired in time," she added. "I think we are l

s was well worth listening to. He saw that now she was in one of her moods when it would pay one to hear her out. She held her ch

ou have a particularly

and it can be arranged. He will not return the money if he is unsatisfactory, but she cannot complain that she has been deceived. She can only complain of that when he pretends that he asks her to marry him because he wants her for his wife, because he would want her for his wife if she were as poor as himself. Let

say that, Betty," said her fath

nt silly mistakes. It would prevent the girls being laughed at. It is when they are flattered by the choice made of them that they are l

ow of her hand. She was a beautiful young creature. She had a soft curving mouth, and a soft curving cheek

at is an Americanism, but it is a good expression. I am angry for America. If we are sordid a

een in the least aware that she had paid or that she was expected to do so. Several times during the last few years he had thought that if he had not been so hard worked, if he had had time, h

quite deliberately, "if you

ion to be tall now. It was Early Victorian to be little. The Queen

u pretty soon," said Vanderpo

a little monomania, father. Some people have a monomania for one thing and som