Ashcroft’s next note says: “ Sunday, June 30th Ⓐtextual note. Dined with Sir Gilbert and Lady ParkerⒺexplanatory note.”

It was a large company, with a sprinkling of titles, and also with a sprinkling of men and women distinguished for achievement; but the whole scene is abolished from my memory by one wonderful face, just as the stars sparkling upon the horizon are swallowed up in the glory of the rising sun and extinguished. I am referring in this prodigious way to the face of a young woman. By the figure which I have used I have intended to indicate that this young creature’s beauty was of the sort which is called dazzling; it is the right word; that face dazzled all the other faces to extinctionⒶtextual note, and just blazed and blazed in a splendid solitude; and in that solitude it still goes on blazing in my memory to this day. Lady—Lady something—but the name has gone from me; names and faces will not stay with me; that name has departed, but I should know the face again anywhere. The style was English, the features were English, the complexion was English, the set of the head was English, the poise was English, the character was English, the dignity was English—all high-born English; but over it all, and pervadingⒶtextual note itⒶtextual note and suffusingⒶtextual note it with that subtle something which we call charm, was a friendly and outreaching good-fellowshipⒶtextual note and an easy and natural and unstudied grace of manner and carriage which was American—rare everywhere, and infrequent, but most frequent among our people, I think. I explained to her what I thought of her, and said England ought to be proud of such a product; but she smiled like a complimentedⒶtextual note angel, and rippled out a musical little laugh, and said she was an American product and destitute of English blood.

It was a very pleasant surprise. Later, at another dinner party, this pleasant surprise was repeated, where I mistook a couple ofⒶtextual note titled American ladies for English women;Ⓐtextual note they wereⒶtextual note women whose looks, whose ways, and the set and style of whose upholstery was distinctly English. Those two ladies were grieved and disappointed; for they had hoped and believedⒶtextual note that they had kept their beloved nationality unmodified and unalloyed by [begin page 102] time and changed relations, and that it was visible on their outsides. These ladies had been living in England five years, and one cannot remain so long in an unaccustomed atmosphere without taking color from it.

There was talk of that soaring and brilliant young statesman, Winston Churchill, son of Lord Randolph Churchill and nephew of a duke. I had met him at Sir Gilbert Parker’s seven years before,Ⓐtextual note when he was twenty-three years old, and had met him and introduced him to his lecture audience, a year later, in New York, when he had come over to tell of the lively experiences he had had as a war correspondent in the South African war, and in one or two wars on the Himalayan frontier of India. Sir Gilbert Parker said—

“Do you remember the dinner here seven years ago?”

“Yes,” I said, “I remember it.”

“Do you remember what Sir William Vernon HarcourtⒺexplanatory note said about you?”

“No.”

“Well,Ⓐtextual note you didn’t hear it. You and Churchill went up to the top floor to have a smoke and a talk, and Harcourt wondered what the result would be. He said that whichever of you got the floor first would keep it to the end, without a break; he believed that you, being old and experienced, would get it, and that Churchill’s lungs would have a half hour’sⒶtextual note rest for the first time in five years. When you two came down, by and by, Sir William asked Churchill if he had had a good time, and he answered eagerly, ‘Yes.’ Then he asked you if you had had a good time. You hesitated, then said without eagerness, ‘I have had a smoke.’ ”