The Washington herald., 1921-07-17

By Viola Irwin Williams

DERSIS is terribly British. For SIX years
L I have tried to understand why, being
20 terribly British, she remains 20 low
able; and haven't yet found out. She is
q large, ruddy, outdoors looking person,
and has written books about arts and wars
and other phenomena. She is an expert
On Chinese porcelains, also, and will speak
s. the Ming Dynasty with the casual in
timacy that you would of the Mckinley
Administration.
We have always argued about my dislike
Of England and the English; and one eve
ming, after q dinner party which had raised
al my American bristles, we sat before her
frs and had thoroughly satisfactory, cory
quarrel about It. We ended by planning
Q three weeks yisit to England. Persis'
object was to show me an England and
Britons i could not but love, and she
seemed TO think the triumph and amusement
of this would be well worth while. For
myself, felt that adventuring with Pests
even In Ensland-was certain to be de-
hghtful.
felt myself, though land I discovered
later that Perxis had the same qualms) shat
we were taking chances in planning to spend
three weeks living 50 closely together.
Billy's attitude, as he saw me of at the
Care st. Lazare, was equally peevish and
pessimistic. / gathered that was a gidly
woman abandoning her husband and two
helpless babes for a certain to- be disastrous
fight into the Unknown. With the air Of
one handing poison to a child he gave me
my train ticket, my baggage checks, my
boat ticket, my passport and a quantity of
English money, which had cost a horribls
number of francs.
There" he said gloomily. I've done
everything can. Only Cod can help you
now. Remember, traffic runs to the left
and there are twenty shillings to the
pound!'
TN LONDON we had dinner at the Forum
i Club, the pleasantest woman's club I've
ever seen, with such male characteristics as
good food and deep chairs. Every one was %
nice to me that my persistent sensation OF
being "Persis' American" must have been
dmple an anglophobia symptom. was
amused at dinner BY the competently mas
euline criticism Of her food BY a famous
woman nerve specialist of eighty years. A
cetic in dress, told us the scientific way to
make porridgs. think the point was that
It must be stirred constantly with
spir-r-tle-
Our adventure really began As we left
the Westminster Pier at IL o'clock, on
Thames boat for Richmond. A crowd waited
With us at the pier-an orderly, silent
crowd, in spite of its being Sunday one.
England will never be democratic as France
and-alas-America are. Her proletariat
Is everywhere, 1t seems to me, tainted with
the aristocratic qualities of leisureliness and
decent order. even when in crowds.
At Windsor we stayed at the white
Hart" whose respectful windows look upon
the Castle The white Hart has not
scrap of marble or gold on its facade; bat,
once you pass its chilly hall and very gor-
geous porter, you find deep rugs, softly
cleaning old furniture and perfect oervice.
For dinner We had a particularly grousy
grouse, served by a butler who might well
have been a duke-even Persis said 30. She
even volunteered that they don't do their
dukes nearly so well.
Persis walked me next morning by enthus-
ing about the English turf. OF course, It
is unrivaled. suggested that this might be
because It rains so much in England. But
Persis said she didn't think 80. She be-
heves, know, that it is owing to some
virtue inherent in the good English earth.
I asked Persis what particular kind or
class of women it Is who speaks In the
intolerably artificial, hollow fashion that
Americans notice as much as they do the
Cockney. She says quite seriously that they
hal hat "a tha II
peculiar formation of the throat or palate.
OF course, nothing we have in America,
not even the Middle West nasal twang, can
compare with the Cockney for sheer horror
At breakfast the butler duke brought toast
and marmalade, and returned in few mo-
ments with bacon and eggs; but as he put
them on the table I noticed how increas-
ingiy dukish he was getting, and felt that
something was wrong. 1 glanced at Persis,
but her eyes were cast down. When he
left, finally, learned that one never nib
blestoast and marmalade first. Such thing
had probably never before happened at the
white Hart"
UNHE locks on the Thames are many, and
-. some very deep, 30 that much time is
spent in them But at each lock was a
garden, each quite different from and more
beautiful than the preceding one. / have
seldom seen anything so charming as the
little lockkeeper's houses, each as tiny and
neat as 4 ships cabin, wearing their garden
Of flowers.
At Henley there Is hotel called The
Red Lion," 50, of course, we stopped there.
It faced the river, and its lovely rooms, Of
ehintz and mahogany, were full of CANDLE
hsht-this within fifty miles Of London! I
hated leaving these hotels-and in no other
country have ever hated to leave a hotel.
was very cold nearly all the time. The
permanent, damp chill of England got imme-
diately into my bones. But I hated to tell
Persis, because she asked me wonderlnsly