Booth Tarkington

His Own People Booth Tarkington

The hero is Robert Russ Mellin, a young American who takes everything he has to Europe to look for culture. In doing so, he pretends to be a man of more means than he actually has, and captures the attention of a beautiful French woman, (Héléne) Comtesse de Vaurigard. He gets pulled into her circle of friends, along with another young American, Mr. Cooley, who is everything that Mellin is pretending to be. As he travels around Europe, he does his best to conveniently be where the Comtesse de Vaurigard is, which brings him to Rome, where he meets another of their friends, Lady Mount-Rhyswicke. It is also there that he meets up again with Mr. Cooley.