should
fall. Smith suggested that I watch the thermometer while the Emperor
went his rounds of the groups; and added that if his Majesty talked four
minutes with any person there present, it meant high favor, and that the
sun was in the zenith, and cloudless, for that man.

I mentally recorded that four-minute altitude, and resolved to see if
any man there on that night stood in sufficient favor to achieve it.

Very well. After the dinner I watched the Emperor while he passed from
group to group, and privately I timed him with a watch. Two or three
times he came near to reaching the four-minute altitude, but always he
fell short a little. The last man he came to was Smith. He put his hand
on Smith's shoulder and began to talk to him; and when he finished, the
thermometer had scored seven minutes! The company then moved toward the
smoking-room, where cigars, beer and anecdotes would be in brisk service
until midnight, and as Smith passed me he whispered,

"That settles it. The chancellor will ask me how much of a vacation I
want, and I sha'n't be afraid to raise the limit. I shall call for six
months."

[Sidenote: (1891)]

[Sidenote: (1899)]

Smith's dream had been to spend his three months' vacation--in case he
got a vacation instead of the other thing--in one of the great capitals
of the Continent--a capital whose name I shall suppress, at present. The
next day the chancellor asked him how much of a vacation he wanted, and
where he desired to spend it. Smith told him. His prayer was granted,
and rather more than granted. The chancellor augmented his salary and
attached him to the German Embassy of that selected capital, giving him
a place of high dignity bearing an imposing title, and with nothing to
do except attend banquets of an extraordinary character at the Embassy,
once or twice a year. The term of his vacation was not specified; he was
to continue it until requested to come back to his work in the Foreign
Office. This was in 1891. Eight years later Smith was passing through
Vienna, and he called upon me. There had been no interruption of his
vacation, as yet, and there was no likelihood that an interruption of it
would occur while he should still be among the living.

[_Dictated Monday, December 17, 1906._] As I have already remarked, "Old
Times on the Mississippi" got the Kaiser's best praise. It was after
midnight when I reached home; I was usually out until toward midnight,
and the pleasure of being