"I may
have him stay one place, then again I may have him stay another. I
can't decide things like that off-hand."
And here the matter was preposterously left, the aspirants for this
social honour patiently bending their knees to the erstwhile despised
Cousin Egbert, and the latter being visibly puffed up. By rather
awkward stages they came again to a discussion of the United States
Grill.
"The name, of course, might be thought flamboyant," suggested
Belknap-Jackson delicately.
"But I have determined," I said, "no longer to resist America, and so
I can think of no name more fitting."
"Your determination," he answered, "bears rather sinister
implications. One may be vanquished by America as I have been. One may
even submit; but surely one may always resist a little, may not one?
One need not abjectly surrender one's finest convictions, need one?"
"Oh, shucks," put in Cousin Egbert petulantly, "what's the use of all
that 'one' stuff? Bill wants a good American name for his place. Me? I
first thought the 'Bon Ton Eating House' would be kind of a nice name
for it, but as soon as he said the 'United States Grill' I knew it was
a better one. It sounds kind of grand and important."
Belknap-Jackson here made deprecating clucks, but not too directly
toward Cousin Egbert, and my choice of a name was not further
criticised.
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