laender" who
has a seemingly interminable wait after her one scene at the beginning
of the second act, until at the very last of the third she has to rush
in for the single phrase "_Senta, Senta, wass willst du tun?_"

In return for our tea, the little baritone would tell us amusing tales
of his experiences in a cavalry regiment while doing his military
service. His high spirits and his beautiful voice made him popular with
officers and men, but he was quite unamenable to discipline, and had
spent something like ninety days in prison during his first year, for
such offences as refusing to stop singing on the march, or for cheeking
an officer. He used to call us his goddesses, and speak to us as
"Fraeuleinchen." Our rooms, through him, were the starting place of new
culinary ideas in Metz. We taught him to make and like such American
delicacies as salted almonds, chocolate fudge, and hot chocolate
sauce for ice cream, an unheard of combination. We tried to make him
like fruit salad with mayonnaise; but the mixture of sweet with oil and
vinegar was too much for his burgher palate, and he used to quote to us
the Bavarian proverb, "_Was der Bauer net kennt frisst er net._" (What
the peasant doesn't know he doesn't eat.)

[Illustration: AMNERIS AS I USED TO DRESS IT]

The country round Metz is rarely beautiful, in its half-French,
half-German character. It retains its typical French poplars, planted in
long lines, which turn pure gold in autumn. A placid river, the Moselle,
runs between hills covered with orchards and vineyards, with picturesque
villages of grey stone and red tiling, piled steeply up their sides. The
meadows in the fall are filled with lavender crocuses--the kind that
Meredith's Diana got up at four A.M. to gather. Every village has of
course its "Gasthaus," some still absolutely French in the arrangement
of their marble topped tables, mirrors, and red upholstered benches
running round three sides of the room. We have drunk coffee in autumn,
and _Maibowle_ in spring in every one of them, I think. I dare say many
of them are still using the same card board circles under their
customers' beer-glasses which we marked with our initials. Can you flip
them from the edge of the table into your own hand?

The town of Metz itself is interesting enough, and we explored it
thoroughly. It is very ancient ground indeed, and there are Roman walls
still to be seen, with characteristically beautiful brick-work; old
chap