The bookseller looked at me very curiously for several moments, and then ventured, "You speak English very well."
"Of course I do," I said, tossing my head and trying to act saucily, as my governess had told me the American girls did. I would not have dared to treat a man that way in China.
He did not venture to speak again. It is funny to be able in this America to frighten a man! Confucius says that women should "be always modest and respectful in demeanour, and prefer others to themselves"; but I have not to mind Confucius any longer; I am now in the "sweet land of liberty," as they sing in their national anthem. I heard my father say once that the gentleness and modesty of Oriental women was really beautiful; but it would not be beautiful in America.
I hurried back to the establishment of the Parisienne modiste, and found my aunt and her friend still talking about sleeves. They had never noticed my absence. How very important sleeves are in America! I never heard them talked about in China.
The talkers had evidently forgotten me, so I slipped out again, and walked several blocks, watching the manners, and catching snatches of the conversation of Americans.
"I'm going to have mine eighteen gores——"
"Pleating down the front, frills at the side——"
"Pocahontas hat, and Prince Chap suit——"
"Front panel, and revers turned——"