Their dialogue, carried on in an undertone, was interrupted by Mr. Toker, who from the other side of the table engaged Franka in conversation.
After the luncheon was finished and the company had drifted into the adjoining salons, Gwendoline took Franka’s arm.
“Oh, Miss Garlett,” said she in a voice trembling with emotion, “I must thank you. You have no idea what an impression you made on me, you fill me with admiration....”
Franka made the courteous deprecatory sign with her head with which we are accustomed to receive flattering phrases.
“No, no, no!” cried the young American girl vehemently, “I should not be so presumptuous, stupid thing that I am, to pay you mere compliments. I wanted just to tell you what feelings you awakened in me ... not merely agreeable feelings—for it is certainly not agreeable to be made ashamed of one’s self, when one has hard things to say to one’s own face; as, for example: ‘You are certainly an empty-headed creature, Gwen! You must decidedly improve, my girl, if you want to rise again in my estimation’....”
“And why did you speak so disrespectfully to Miss Toker?”
“Oh, you understand me perfectly. You know right well, when you address young girls, that hitherto very, very few among them have ever thought with you. I belong to the majority. I have always kept aloof from serious things; for instance, I have not the slightest remembrance what that clever Frenchman said yesterday—my attention was wholly diverted to the various groups in the hall, for I had discovered several comical people. When you began to speak, I was interested in the way the folds of your gown fell—there was something Greek about it. Who knows, whether I should have listened to your words at all, if you had not suddenly addressed your speech directly to young girls. Then I had to listen to what you had to say to me, and after that I did not lose another word. I did not understand it all, nor can I remember it all, but so much I know—I should like to be your pupil. Do teach me to think, show me my place in the world, so that I may accomplish something, be of some use.... You see, papa has always treated me as a child, and I have never been interested in his plans: I never thought that there was anything in them for us young people....”
“Oh,” cried Franka, “it is precisely the young and the youngest who are called and who are capable of walking in new paths. For that reason we all (I mean, we whose aspirations are directed to the future) look with such hope to America, for there the whole land is so young....”
“And we Americans look so timidly and admiringly up to Europe, because it is old and venerable. All we have, we have from you.”
“And you are going to repay us richly for that. For what is going to ameliorate our future,—inventions, wealth, free institutions, peace,—all that you will carry over to us. Mr. Toker is a messenger of that kind.”