The easy urbanity of the three
well-dressed Americans gave me a sense of uncanny gentility and
bliss
"Can it be that I am I?" I seemed to be wondering
The gaunt, elderly man, who was a member of a wholesale butcher
concern, was seated diagonally across the table from me, but my
eye was for the most part fixed on him rather than on the fat man
who occupied the seat directly opposite mine. He was the most
refined-looking man of the three and his vocabulary matched his
appearance and manner. He fascinated me. His cultured English
and ways conflicted in my mind with the character of his business.
I could not help thinking of raw beef, bones, and congealed blood.
I said to myself, "It takes a country like America to produce
butchers who look and speak like noblemen." The United States
was still full of surprises for me.
I was still discovering America
After dinner, when we were in the smoking-room again, it seemed
to me that the three Gentiles were tired of me. Had I talked too
much? Had I made a nuisance of myself? I was wretched
CHAPTER V I LOST track of Loeb before the train reached
Chicago, but about a fortnight later, when I was in St.
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