For him Mrs.Barnes was just a "foreigner," imported from some unknown and, of course, inferior _milieu_, one who had never been "a happy English child," and must therefore be treated with indulgence.

He endeavoured to talk to her--kindly--about her country.

A branch of his own family, he informed her, had settled about a hundred years before this date in the United States.

He gave her, at some length, the genealogy of the branch, then of the main stock to which he himself belonged, presuming that she was, at any rate, acquainted with the name?
It was, he said, his strong opinion that American women were very "bright." For himself he could not say that he even disliked the accent, it was so "quaint." Did Mrs.Barnes know many of the American bishops?
He himself had met a large number of them at a reception at the Church House, but it had really made him quite uncomfortable! They wore no official dress, and there was he--a mere Archdeacon!--in gaiters.

And, of course, no one thought of calling them "my lord." It certainly was very curious--to an Englishman.