Had this failed to break
down his reserve I should have placed a heavy valise in the rack over
his head so balanced that it might fall on him at any moment. Failing
this again, I could have blown rings of smoke at him or stepped on
his feet under the pretence of looking out of the window. Under the
English rule as long as he bears this in silence you are not supposed
to know him. In fact, he is not supposed to be there. You and he each
presume the other to be a mere piece of empty space. But let him once
be driven to say, "Oh, I beg your pardon, I wonder if you would mind
my closing the window," and he is lost. After that you are entitled
to tell him anything about the corn crop that you care to.
But in the present case I knew nothing of this, and after three
hours of charming silence I found myself in London.
II. I Am Interviewed by the Press
IMMEDIATELY upon my arrival in London I was interviewed by the
Press. I was interviewed in all twenty times. I am not saying this
in any spirit of elation or boastfulness. I am simply stating it
as a fact--interviewed twenty times, sixteen times by men and twice
by women. But as I feel that the results of these interviews were
not all that I could have wished, I think it well to make some
public explanation of what happened.
The truth is that we do this thing so differently over in America
that I was for the time being completely thrown off my bearings.
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