Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: was too obviously in awe of the eternal feminine ever to be mistaken for an Englishman. An Englishman is never in awe of a woman; he may hate her, fear her, despise her, adore her, desire her, detest her; but even when hating her, fearing her, despising her, adoring her, desiring her, or detesting her, he invariably insists that his is the superior sex. American men know it, but are chivalrous enough to conceal the fact. Hence the powers of fascination an Englishman possesses for the women of all nations, and the tragedy of the American husband working without a vacation to provide his wife and daughters with trips to Europe and an introduction to Madame Paquin. Five years' residence in London had taught Jordan to doubt some of his own theories and to be prepared for the cold douche of English prejudice and convention. An American man who can survive five years' residence in London usually becomes more English than the English, except for the fact that occasionally his native humor slips its leash and, like a dog without its collar, has a good time while it can. Take the British national type of humor—the comedian with the red nose. An Englishman laughs at the red nose; an American laughs at the comedian. Jordan removed his right-hand glove beforeshaking hands with Olive. His nails were exquisitely manicured, and his hands long and sensitive. "It's bully to see you out of uniform," he said. Olive was a V.A.D. A pretty V.A.D., provided her hair is not the wrong shade of auburn, had no objection to the indoor uniform; but there were limits even to a V.A.D.'s sense of patriotism, and the regulation hat and coat was rarely popular. "I left the office early, 'phoned for my auto, and flagellated the speed limit to a- perfectly criminal extent," continued Jordan, seating h...