tulation to the
bride's parents, and soon after the betrothed couple return these
visits with some ceremony. It is quite impossible, by the way, to talk
of Germans who are officially engaged without calling them the bride
and bridegroom. They plight their troth with the plain gold rings that
will be their wedding rings, and this stage of their union is
celebrated with as much ceremony and merrymaking as the actual
wedding. The Germans are giving up so many of their quaint poetical
customs that the girl of to-day probably wears a fine diamond
engagement ring instead of the old-fashioned gold one. But the ring
with which her mother and grandmother plighted their troth was the
ring with which they were wedded, and when Chamisso wrote _Du Ring an
meinem Finger_ he was not writing of diamonds. All the tenderness and
poetry of Germany go out to lovers, and the thought of a German bride
and bridegroom flashes through the mind with thoughts of flowers and
moonlight and nightingales. At least, it does if you can associate
them with the poems of Heine and Chamisso, with the songs of Schumann,
and with the caressing intimate talk of the German tongue unloosed by
love. But your experience is just as likely to play you the unkindest
trick, and remind you of German lovers whose uncouth public
endearments made everyone not to the manner born uncomfortable.

When the bride and bridegroom live in the same town, and know a large
number of people, they are overdone with festivities from the moment
of betrothal to the day of marriage. The round of entertainments
begins with a gala dinner given by the bride's father, and this is
followed by invitations from all the relatives and friends on either
side. When you receive a German _Brautpaar_ they should be the guests
of honour, and if you can hang garlands near them so much the better.
You must certainly present the _Braut_ with a bouquet at some stage of
the proceedings, and you will give pleasure if you can manufacture one
or two mottoes in green stuff and put them in conspicuous places. For
instance, I knew of a girl who got engaged away from home. Do you
suppose that she was allowed to return to a bare and speechless front
door as her English cousin would? Nothing of the kind. The whole
family had set to work to twine laurel wreaths and garlands in her
honour, and she was received with _Wilkommen du glueckseliges Kind_
done in ivy leaves by her grandmother. It was considered very
_ruehre