134 IN A WINTER CITY.
" Yes ; but there never was an age so vulgar as
our own," said the Lady HUda. " That I am
positive of;—look, even peasants are vulgar now:
they wear taU hats and tawdry bonnets on
Sundays ; and, as for our society, it is ' rowdy; *
there is no other word for it, if you understand
what that means."
"Canaille?"
" Yes, Canaille. M. de St. Louis says, the
* femme comme il faut' of his youth is extinct
as the dodo: language is slang, society is a
mob, dress is display, amusement is riot, people
are let into society who have no other claim to
be there but money and impudence, and are as
ignorant as our maids and our grooms, and more
so. It is aU as bad as it can be, and I suppose
it will only go on getting worse. You Italians
are the only people with whom manner is not a
lost art.**
" You do us much honour. Perhaps we too
shaU be infected before long. We are sending our
lads to public schools in your country: they wiU
probably come back imable to bow, ashamed of
natural grace, and ambitious to emulate the
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