The Englishman wants to be recognized as a gentleman, or as some other suitable species of human being; the American wants to be considered a good guy. Americans are almost as fearful of being thought eccentric as the English of not seeming like the genuine article. I once knew an Englishman who refused to go out on Easter Monday for fear of being detected in London when all the right people would be elsewhere; but when he went forth on less dangerous occasions, his get-ups were such as no American would wear to a dogfight.
