The gentleman answered without looking at him, and in so abrupt a manner, that the youth stole away very much like a dog that has been kicked by its master.
“These are the consequences of our glorious institutions!” exclaimed the gentleman, turning towards Lord ***, who had taken his station at a little distance from him, and had evidently observed the reception his poor countryman had met with: “this fellow here would not have dared to speak to us while on board of the packet; and now he is scarcely in sight of the American soil before he thinks himself just as good as any body else. Did your lordship observe the insolent manner in which he came up to speak to me?”
His lordship gave a slight nod of assent.
“These people come here with the notion that all men in America are free and equal; and that, provided they pay the same money, they are just as good as our first people.”
“Hem!”
“But they soon find out the difference. People think there is no aristocracy in this country; but they are mistaken,—there are just as many grades of society in America as in England.”
“Indeed!”
“Yes, my lord, and even more; and the distinctions between them are kept up much more rigidly than in England.”
“I dare say they are.”
“Yes, my lord: you will never see a gentleman belonging to our first society mix by any chance with the second, or one of the second with the third, and so on.”