e Americans had brought over an idea,
apparently, that the English were "easy." They tried it on in sundry
ways, but ended by the discovery that, while engaged upon this
enterprise, they had been in sundry ways quite completely "done"
themselves. This gave them a respect for their English cousins which
they had never felt before.

Here is another tale, similar in moral. This occurred at Brest, in
France. In the Y hut sat an English lady, one of the hostesses. To
her came a young American marine with whom she already had some
acquaintance. This led him to ask for her advice. He said to her that
as his permission was of only seventy-two hours, he wanted to be as
economical of his time as he could and see everything best worth while
for him to see during his leave. Would she, therefore, tell him what
things in Paris were the most interesting and in what order he had best
take them? She replied with another suggestion; why not, she said, ask
for permission for England? This would give him two weeks instead of
seventy-two hours. At this he burst out violently that he would not
set foot in England; that he never wanted to have anything to do with
England or with the English: "Why, I am a marine!" he exclaimed, "and we
marines would sooner knock down any English sailor than speak to him."

The English lady, naturally, did not then tell him her nationality. She
now realized that he had supposed her to be American, because she had
frequently been in America and had talked to him as no stranger to the
country could. She, of course, did not urge his going to England; she
advised him what to see in France. He took his leave of seventy-two
hours and when he returned was very grateful for the advice she had
given him.

She saw him often after this, and he grew to rely very much upon her
friendly counsel. Finally, when the time came for her to go away from
Brest, she told him that she was English. And then she said something
like this to him:

"Now, you told me you had never been in England and had never known an
English person in your life, and yet you had all these ideas against us
because somebody had taught you wrong. It is not at all your fault. You
are only nineteen years old and you cannot read about us, because you
have no chance; but at least you do know one English person now, and
that English person begs you, when you do have a chance to read and
inform yourself of the truth, to find out what England really has been,
a