but God."

It was not complimentary to think I was not acquainted in that quarter,
but she was young, and the young jump to conclusions without reflection.

Necessarily, I did myself the honor to obey the command of the Emperor
Wilhelm II. Prince Heinrich, and six or eight other guests were
present. The Emperor did most of the talking, and he talked well, and in
faultless English. In both of these conspicuousnesses I was gratified to
recognize a resemblance to myself--a very exact resemblance; no, almost
exact, but not quite that--a modified exactness, with the advantage in
favor of the Emperor. My English, like his, is nearly faultless; like
him I talk well; and when I have guests at dinner I prefer to do all the
talking myself. It is the best way, and the pleasantest. Also the most
profitable for the others.

I was greatly pleased to perceive that his Majesty was familiar with my
books, and that his attitude toward them was not uncomplimentary. In the
course of his talk he said that my best and most valuable book was "Old
Times on the Mississippi." I will refer to that remark again, presently.

An official who was well up in the Foreign Office at that time, and had
served under Bismarck for fourteen years, was still occupying his old
place under Chancellor Caprivi. Smith, I will call him of whom I am
speaking, though that is not his name. He was a special friend of mine,
and I greatly enjoyed his society, although in order to have it it was
necessary for me to seek it as late as midnight, and not earlier. This
was because Government officials of his rank had to work all day, after
nine in the morning, and then attend official banquets in the evening;
wherefore they were usually unable to get life-restoring fresh air and
exercise for their jaded minds and bodies earlier than midnight; then
they turned out, in groups of two or three, and gratefully and violently
tramped the deserted streets until two in the morning. Smith had been in
the Government service, at home and abroad, for more than thirty years,
and he was now sixty years old, or close upon it. He could not remember
a year in which he had had a vacation of more than a fortnight's length;
he was weary all through to the bones and the marrow, now, and was
yearning for a holiday of a whole three months--yearning so longingly
and so poignantly that he had at last made up his mind to make a
desperate cast for it and stand the consequences, whatever they might
be