chapter was usually devoted to us; and most of the adjectives in their
various languages were exhausted in the attempt to prove how symptomatic
we were of the ambitions and ideals of the Republic.  The fact that many
of these gentlemen--literary and otherwise--returned to their own shores
better fed and with larger balances in the banks than when they departed
is neither here nor there.  Egyptians are proverbially created to be
spoiled. 

The wiser and more fortunate of these travellers and students of life
brought letters to Mr.  and Mrs.  Hambleton Durrett.  That household was
symptomatic--if they liked--of the new order of things; and it was rare
indeed when both members of it were at home to entertain them.  If Mr.
Durrett were in the city, and they did not happen to be Britons with
sporting proclivities, they simply were not entertained: when Mrs.
Durrett received them dinners were given in their honour on the Durrett
gold plate, and they spent cosey and delightful hours conversing with her
in the little salon overlooking the garden, to return to their hotels and
jot down paragraphs on the superiority of the American women over the
men.  These particular foreigners did not lay eyes on Mr.  Durrett, who
was in Florida or in the East playing polo or engaged in some other