She Is Intensely Selfish, And Utterly Inconsiderate Of
Others; Everlastingly Complaining, And, In Herself, Drearily
Uninteresting.
We travelled down in the omnibus from Ober-Ammergau
with three perfect specimens of the species, accompanied by the
usual miserable-looking man, who has had all the life talked out of
him.
They were grumbling the whole of the way at having been put to
ride in an omnibus. It seemed that they had never been so insulted
in their lives before, and they took care to let everybody in the
vehicle know that they had paid for first-class, and that at home
they kept their own carriage. They were also very indignant because
the people at the house where they had lodged had offered to shake
hands with them at parting. They did not come to Ober-Ammergau to
be treated on terms of familiarity by German peasants, they said.
There are many women in the world who are in every way much better
than angels. They are gentle and gracious, and generous and kind,
and unselfish and good, in spite of temptations and trials to which
mere angels are never subjected. And there are also many women in
the world who, under the clothes, and not unfrequently under the
title of a lady, wear the heart of an underbred snob. Having no
natural dignity, they think to supply its place with arrogance.
They mistake noisy bounce for self-possession, and supercilious
rudeness as the sign of superiority. They encourage themselves in
sleepy stupidity under the impression that they are acquiring
aristocratic "repose." They would appear to have studied "attitude"
from the pages of the London Journal, coquetry from barmaids - the
commoner class of barmaids, I mean - wit from three-act farces, and
manners from the servants'-hall.
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