ter and little
_Pastetchen_ of beef, and the third would have large rice puddings,
and the fourth asked for fruit at every meal, and the fifth said all
the others were wrong and that he wanted a good dinner. The poor
hostess would have been distracted if she had not been one of those
who love a new fad and try each one in turn. Also there were two
eminent physicians in the house, and one of these drank champagne
every night, while the other would touch nothing but Perrier and said
champagne was poison. Directly we sat down we discussed these things,
... and everyone assured me that if I tried his regime I should
improve in health most marvellously."

"Which did you try?" I asked.

"The good dinner and the champagne, of course. But I did not find they
affected my health one way or the other."

CHAPTER XXII

LIFE IN LODGINGS

As rents are high in Germany, it is usual for people of small means to
let off one or two rooms, either furnished or unfurnished. But it is
not usual to supply a lodger with any meal except his coffee and rolls
in the morning. If you wish to take lodgings in a German town, and
work through the long list of them in a local paper, you will probably
find no one willing to provide for you in the English fashion.

"Cooking!" they say with horror,--"cooking! You want to eat in your
room. No. That can we not undertake. Coffee in the morning, yes; and
rolls with it and butter and even two eggs, but nothing further. Just
round the corner in the _Koenigstrasse_ are two very fine restaurants,
where the _Herrschaften_ can eat what they will at any hour of the
day, and for moderate prices."

If you insist, the most they will promise, and that not willingly, is
to provide you with a knife and fork and a tablecloth for a pyramid of
courses sent hot from one of the very fine adjacent restaurants for 1
mark or 1 mark 20 pf. Supper in Germany is the easiest meal in the day
to provide, as you buy the substantial part of it at a
_Delikatessenhandlung_, and find that even a German landlady will
condescend to get you rolls and butter and beer. This sounds like the
Simple Life, to be sure; but if you are in German lodgings for any
length of time you probably desire for one reason or the other to lead
it. The plan of having your dinner sent piping hot from a restaurant in
nice clean white dishes rather like monster souffle dishes is not a bad
one if the restaurant keeps faith with you. It is rather amusing