of his presence, not so much as the turn of your
eyelid in his direction, and never a word to
excuse you.

Nor does this blank behaviour seem savage
to those who are used to nothing else. Yet it
is somewhat more inhuman to refuse an answer
to the beggar's remark than to leave a shop
without "Good morning." When complaint
is made of the modern social manner--that it
has no merit but what is negative, and that it
is apt even to abstain from courtesy with more
lack of grace than the abstinence absolutely
requires--the habit of manner towards beggars
is probably not so much as thought of. To the
simply human eye, however, the prevalent
manner towards beggars is a striking thing; it
is significant of so much.

Obviously it is not easy to reply to begging
except by the intelligible act of giving. We
have not the ingenuous simplicity that marks
the caste answering more or less to that of Vere
de Vere, in Italy, for example. An elderly
Italian lady on her slow way from her own
ancient ancestral palazzo to the village, and
accustomed to meet, empty-handed, a certain
number of beggars, answers them by a retort
which would be, literally translated, "Excuse

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