チェスタトン「マンアライヴ」二部四章第406回

あのおばさんは」サイラス・ピムは言いながら、気取って陰鬱な表情をうかべた。「あの空想にふけるおばさんは踊り回る鬼火で、おおぜいの高潔な乙女を破滅へと追いやってきた。何人の乙女が、彼にその聖なる言葉を耳にささやかれたことか。彼が『おばさん』と言うと、彼女のまわりで輝きはじめるんだ、アングロサクソンの家庭らしい陽気さが、高潔な道徳が。ひとは鼻歌を歌い、ねこちゃんはゴロゴロと、騒々しい馬車の中で音をたてて破滅へとむかうんだ」

イングルウッドは顔をあげると、或ることに気がつき呆気にとられた（東半球の住人なら、多くの者が気づくことではあった）。アメリカ人とは真剣なだけではなく、実に雄弁で、感動をいだかせる人種なのであるー東半球と西半球の相違が是正されるときには。

That aunt,” continued Cyrus Pym, his face darkening grandly—”that visionary aunt had been the dancing will-o’-the-wisp who had led many a high-souled maiden to her doom. Into how many virginal ears has he whispered that holy word? When he said `aunt’ there glowed about her all the merriment and high morality of the Anglo-Saxon home. Kettles began to hum, pussy cats to purr, in that very wild cab that was being driven to destruction.”

Inglewood looked up, to find, to his astonishment (as many another denizen of the eastern hemisphere has found), that the American was not only perfectly serious, but was really eloquent and affecting— when the difference of the hemispheres was adjusted.