Of course I had been homesick at first, while we were prisoners,
before I had Ellador. And of course I had, at first, rather idealized
my country and its ways, in describing it. Also, I had always
accepted certain evils as integral parts of our civilization and
never dwelt on them at all. Even when I tried to tell her the worst,
I never remembered some things--which, when she came to see them,
impressed her at once, as they had never impressed me.
Now, in my efforts at explanation, I began to see both ways
more keenly than I had before; to see the painful defects of
my own land, the marvelous gains of this.
In missing men we three visitors had naturally missed the
larger part of life, and had unconsciously assumed that they must
miss it too. It took me a long time to realize--Terry never did
realize--how little it meant to them. When we say MEN, MAN,
MANLY, MANHOOD, and all the other masculine derivatives, we have
in the background of our minds a huge vague crowded picture
of the world and all its activities.
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