It was very hard to put Mr. Gotobed down;--or it might be more
correctly said, as there was no effort to put him down,--that it
was not often that he failed in coming to the surface. He took Lady
Penwether out to dinner and was soon explaining to her that this
little experiment of his in regard to Goarly was being tried simply
with the view of examining the institutions of the country. "We
don't mind it from you," said Lady Penwether, "because you are in a
certain degree a foreigner." The Senator declared himself flattered
by being regarded as a foreigner only "in a certain degree." "You
see you speak our language, Mr. Gotobed, and we can't help thinking
you are half-English."
"We are two-thirds English, my lady," said Mr. Gotobed; "but then
we think the other third is an improvement."
"Very likely."
"We have nothing so nice as this;" as he spoke he waved his right
hand to the different corners of the room. "Such a dinner-table as
I am sitting down to now couldn't be fixed in all the United States
though a man might spend three times as many dollars on it as his
lordship does."
"That is very often done, I should think."
"But then as we have nothing so well done as a house like this, so
also have we nothing so ill done as the houses of your poor
people."
"Wages are higher with you, Mr.
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