at the
troubles we encountered in Trieste, was extravagant in her denunciations
of those "horrid Germans" after we were once fairly seated in the cars
bound for Gratz. Neither of us spoke German with any degree of ease or
much intelligibility, and consequently gave vent to our opinions in
plain English. A young man of a studious, gentlemanly appearance, but of
unmistakable Teutonic descent, sat in one corner of the compartment, and
from his frequent smiling at our talk I concluded that he understood
English, and made bold to ask him if he did.

"Happily, I do," he replied, his handsome brown eyes twinkling with
increased merriment, "and I am one of those 'horrid Germans.'"

His reply greatly amused Miss Barton, and opened the way to a very
animated conversation, in which we learned that he had just come from
Italy, had been on the same steamer as ourselves coming from Venice, and
had stopped in the same hotel and suffered the same agonies. Then we
talked of what we liked best in Italy, and he spoke of an American
friend, Mr. Fanton, with whom he had greatly enjoyed Rome. The fact that
he was a friend of John Fanton, whom I had known for years, and who was
the last to bid me good-bye in Rome, was recommendation enough for any
stranger, and constituted us friends at once. I forgot all about Aunt
Edith's advice to have "nothing to do with foreigners," but placed at
once the most unlimited confidence in Herr Schwager, who from the
beginning of our acquaintance attached himself in a most brotherly way
to our fortunes, proving himself in every particular a rare honor to his
sex. However gross and brusque the German character may be, I must for
ever make an exception of our Herr, whose genuine politeness, delicacy
of kindness, refinement and manliness I have rarely seen equalled and
never excelled.

Kate kept up her banter about the "horrid Germans," for which she had
abundant reason in our journey from Gratz to Vienna. We had hoped to
have a compartment to ourselves, to which end Herr Schwager had expended
a florin; but at the last moment a portly Gratzian entered and settled
himself by one of the windows which would command the Semmering Pass. He
too spoke some English, and endeavored to be sociable. As we neared the
pass he insisted upon my taking his seat the better to see the
marvellous scenery, with which he was already familiar. I had been too
long on the Continent not to have become suspicious of a voluntary
sacrifi