Brideshead Revisited

by Evelyn Waugh

paused to give full weight to the bizarre word—“a cropper.” Jorkins giggled nervously. My father fixed him with a look of reproach. “You find his misfortune the subject of mirth? Or perhaps the word I used was unfamiliar; you no doubt would say that he ‘folded up.’ ” My father was master of the situation. He had made a little fantasy for himself, that Jorkins should be an American, and throughout the evening he played a delicate, one-sided parlor-game with him, explaining any peculiarly English terms that occurred in the conversation, translating pounds into dollars, and courteously deferring to him with such phrases

english v american