noon
Americans are wonderful ! Other people just as interesting in different ways have been , since , and there was only one I did n't like . He came yesterday , and is a dissenting parson , a Congregationalist , I think , though I do n't know what that means , or how it 's different from a Methodist or a Presbyterian . He and his wife arrived to noon dinner , and I had to be civil because the Trowbridges respect them very much ; but it was difficult when the man said that England was the most immoral and decaying country in the world , and his wife echoed him . He is a smug old fellow with a fringe of grey fluff growing out all round under his chin ; and his upper lip , very long and shaved , is like the straight cover you see on mantelpieces in country hotels . I summoned courage to stand up for England , and the wife -- a fat , sallow creature with three chins and a dissenting-looking chignon -- glared at me as if she expected white bears to crawl out from under the table and gobble me up . `` Why do you think England is such a wicked country ? ''