A week passed before Susan permitted
herself to enter any of the shops where she intended to buy
dresses, hats and the other and lesser paraphernalia of the
woman of fashion.
"I mustn't go until I've seen," said she. "I'd yield to the
temptation to buy and would regret it."
And Freddie, seeing her point, restrained his impatience for
making radical changes in himself and in her. The fourth day
of their stay at Paris he realized that he would buy, and
would wish to buy, none of the things that had tempted him the
first and second days. Secure in the obscurity of the crowd
of strangers, he was losing his extreme nervousness about
himself. That sort of emotion is most characteristic of
Americans and gets them the reputation for profound
snobbishness. In fact, it is not snobbishness at all. In no
country on earth is ignorance in such universal disrepute as
in America. The American, eager to learn, eager to be abreast
of the foremost, is terrified into embarrassment and awe when
he finds himself in surroundings where are things that he
feels he ought to know about--while a stupid fellow, in such
circumstances, is calmly content with himself, wholly unaware
of his own deficiencies.
Susan let full two weeks pass before she, with much
hesitation, gave her first order toward the outfit on which
Palmer insisted upon her spending not less than five thousand
dollars.
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