two rooms were in effect one. When the
two young Americans first went there together, a very comely girl
sat cutting colored papers into fantastic shapes with the apparent
intention of having more floral decorations. For huge artificial
bouquets decked the boards. The place was freshly painted and
engagingly clean. The very low walls were covered with queer mottoes
in grotesque Gothic script, with Meissen wares, Vienna glass, and
also misshapen oddities that always interest the puerile part of
mature German nature.

There was a bust of the Emperor covered with ivy and flower
concoctions in cardboard. The coat of arms of Saxony embellished the
ceiling which one could almost touch with the upraised hand. A cat
and a dog were taking their noon-day nap. Sausages and cake in the
form of the ever-popular _Lebkuchen_ were made a specialty of here,
and when Fritzi--for this was Fritzi--had served the young men she
took a seat companionably by them, as became her role.

She had a rustic beauty and was sound and plump as a cherry. Her
peasant headdress was high and elaborate, winged with chicken
feathers, and her short skirts gave way before white stockings
pulpily emerging from painted wooden shoes which clicked over the
dull tiled floor.

By the table she knitted, watching the eating solicitously, and was
by turns candid, sociable and saucy as a spoiled child. It was her
business not to be affronted by familiar remarks and actions. She
was there to draw trade. She knew how to drop quick curtsies in
response to compliments and tips. Although Deming acted freely
toward her like an old acquaintance, he could not make much headway
owing to the bar of language--her jargon of dialect.

Gard, when touched with loneliness, went there several times and
struck up quite an intimacy with her, the proprietor and his wife.
It was a snug spot and she was picturesque. The _Lebkuchen_ and
famous sausages, which would have been a deadly combination in
America, seemed to agree with him, soothed with beer. While Fritzi
appeared _keck_ at intervals, Gard did not see any excuse for
agreeing with the scandalous hints Von Tielitz and Messer threw out
about her. They would naturally see the wench in every domestic.

It was from the inn that Kirtley frequently went to Anderson's for
the afternoon. Gard had found it desirable to write down in a
notebook some of the facts and reflections he was accumulating on
the subject of the German. He would w