ed with rough cobblestones. The house of the von Lachnows
almost touches the road, from which it is separated by an old
stone wall. One side is on a square, cobblestoned courtyard,
formed by the great barns, stables and sheds which surround the
other three sides of the square. The house and all the barns are
built of rough stone. The house is built on the plan of a piece
of Castile soap, walls and roof and nothing more. Inside there
are a dining-room, two parlours and an office-den for the master,
upstairs bedrooms, opening on a long hall; no bathrooms, no
conveniences, even the water is brought in by the maids from the
well in the centre of the court. The furniture is old and plain.
The family does not keep an automobile, but two horses draw a
dog cart to the station and take the family on visits to the
neighbouring aristocracy. The driver is the sexton of the village
church on these occasions. On the two sides of the house away
from the main road and the square of barns there is a park of
about ten acres. Here are a few evergreens and gravel paths and a
pond where some enormous carp excite the wonder of the village
children.

Baroness Lachnow is renowned for her devotion to the four K's. No
one has a better stock of household linen, all made by her, her
daughters and her maids, in the whole Mark. She superintends
every household detail and holds the keys to closets and wine
cellar.

Of course, the family does not associate with the schoolmaster
and the Lutheran minister of the village, but they speak very
kindly to them and the Baron once interested himself in obtaining
a long service decoration for the schoolmaster.

The von Lachnows live on their estate the year round, except for
two weeks in February when they go to Berlin to a cheap hotel and
attend one of the court balls. The Baroness never spends more
than three hundred and fifty dollars a year on her clothes,
although when in Sweden, as a Minister's wife she spent more. The
Baron and Baroness sometimes condescend to dine with the
father-in-law of their son, a manufactory proprietor, at his
handsome apartment on the Kurfuerstendamm in Berlin, but Schultz,
in spite of his four million marks and growing business, is made
to feel the wide gulf that separates him from the nobility.

Baron Lachnow farms his own estate. His farm superintendent is
von Treslow, once an officer in the Gleiwitz Hussars, who was
compelled to resign because of a crippled arm, badly b