HOW CAN THE ENGLISH DO IT ?
SIR,—Being only a quarter English, I look upon the English almost as foreigners. Seen from this point of view Englishmen present curious paradoxes and anomalies.
One Of the most striking of these I witnessed recently in the House of Commons and also more shockingly to me in the House of Lords. The Lords put their feet up. How could Englishmen put up their feet, in the middle of the learned talk of the other Peers ? On this visit--and as I later learned is often the case—tlit speeches were almost entirely concerned with dogs and sheep. Still, this seemed no reason at all to me for the Peers to put up their feet (I should guess roughly at a forty-five degree angle) on the nearest table they found convenient.
How extraordinary that this should be ! The more shocking that not one of them seemed in any way alarmed at the behaviour of his fellows on the front bench. The feet-lifters seemed engaged in their wicked show of con- tempt (" je nee,' fiche" seemed printed on each brow) with a kind of ,gusto and deter- mination that contrasted strikingly with their voices and their dress. Why, when one of the learned elders was obliged to get through to one of the exits of the House, the legs, of course, were all taken down, one by one, like chorus' girls' in one of those revues. But as soon as the Peer 'had passed them, up they shot simultaneously on 'to the table again. " But how can 'They put their feet up that way ? " I asked later.
" Why not ? Did you think that English- men's legs were constructed differently from other people's ? "
My conceptions of the English tottered. Were they after all only misconceptions ? All became confused. The ample tea after- wards was fortifying and sustained me. Various of the Noble Lords I had been pre- viously watching and listening to walked here and there. Some talked gravely and others sipped their tea. None of them, that I could see, put their feet up on the tea tables.—Yours faithfully, MARGARET HARMSWORTH
201 rue d'Alesia, Paris, XIV me
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