doing all this; and she herself meant kindly, too.

At last I quitted the mill by the Neckar-side. It was a long day's
journey, and Fritz went with me to Carlsruhe. The Rupprechts lived on
the third floor of a house a little behind one of the principal streets,
in a cramped-up court, to which we gained admittance through a doorway
in the street. I remember how pinched their rooms looked after the large
space we had at the mill, and yet they had an air of grandeur about them
which was new to me, and which gave me pleasure, faded as some of it
was. Madame Rupprecht was too formal a lady for me; I was never at my
ease with her; but Sophie was all that I had recollected her at school:
kind, affectionate, and only rather too ready with her expressions
of admiration and regard. The little sister kept out of our way; and
that was all we needed, in the first enthusiastic renewal of our early
friendship. The one great object of Madame Rupprecht's life was to
retain her position in society; and as her means were much diminished
since her husband's death, there was not much comfort, though there was
a great deal of show, in their way of living; just the opposite of what
it was at my father's house. I believe that my coming was not too much
desired by Madame Rupprecht, as I brought with me another mouth to be
fed; but Sophie had spent a year or more in entreating for permission to
invite me, and her mother, having once consented, was too well bred not
to give me a stately welcome.

The life in Carlsruhe was very different from what it was at home. The
hours were later, the coffee was weaker in the morning, the pottage was
weaker, the boiled beef less relieved by other diet, the dresses finer,
the evening engagements constant. I did not find these visits pleasant.
We might not knit, which would have relieved the tedium a little; but we
sat in a circle, talking together, only interrupted occasionally by a
gentleman, who, breaking out of the knot of men who stood near the door,
talking eagerly together, stole across the room on tiptoe, his hat under
his arm, and, bringing his feet together in the position we called the
first at the dancing-school, made a low bow to the lady he was going to
address. The first time I saw these manners I could not help smiling;
but Madame Rupprecht saw me, and spoke to me next morning rather severely,
telling me that, of course, in my country breeding I could have seen
nothing of court manners, or French