shook his head and made a tentative gesture with the hoe or rake or
whatever the tool was in his hand, as though he would now, with my
permission, resume his labors.

"What is your name?" I inquired, not believing it would jog my memory,
but out of a natural politeness toward inferiors who always feel
flattered by such attention.

"Dinkman," he muttered. "Adam Dinkman."

... That incredibly dilapidated frontlawn, overrun with sickly
devilgrass and spotted with bald patches. Mrs Dinkman's mean bargaining
with a tired man who was doing no more than trying to make a living and
her later domineering harshness toward someone who was in no way
responsible for the misfortune which overcame her. I wondered if she
were still alive or had lost her life in the Grass while an indigent on
public charity. It is indeed a small world, I thought, and how far we
have both come since I humbled myself in order to put food in my stomach
and keep a roof over my head.

"Thank you, Dinkman," I said, turning away.

A warm feeling for a fellow American caused me to call in my steward and
bid him give Dinkman L100, a small fortune to an undergardener, and let
him go. Though he might not realize it immediately, I was doing him a
tremendous favor, for an American with L100 in England was bound to do
better for himself in some small business than he could hope to do as a
mere servant.

Looking back upon this too brief time of tranquillity and satisfaction I
cannot help but sigh for its passing. Preceded and followed by periods
of turbulence and stress, it stands out in my life as an incredible
moment, a soothing dream. Perhaps a faint defect, so small as to be
almost unnoticed, was a feeling of solitariness--an inevitable
concomitant of my position--but this was so slight that I could not even
define it as loneliness and like many another defect it merely
heightened the charm of the whole.

I had wealth, power, the respect of the world. The unavoidable
detachment from the mob was mitigated by simple pleasures. My estate
was a constant delight; the quaint survivals of feudalism among the
tenantry amused me; and though I could not bring myself to pretend an
interest in the absurd affectation of foxhunting, I was well received by
the county people, whose insularity and aloofness I found greatly
exaggerated, perhaps by outsiders not as cosmopolitan as myself.

Excursions to London and other cities where my presence was demanded or
could be he