e gone
through with, but after a few minutes' conversation I might follow the
simple English custom in talking with Royalty, and say "Yes, Sir," or
"No, Sir." When the Grand Duchess left a crowded ball-room it was
painful both for her and for us. As she advanced, modest and
self-conscious, one made a low _Knix_; to one lady she would give her
hand, always bristling with rings, and you had to kiss the back of it,
risking cutting your lip on the rings; to another merely a glance of the
eye, or a nod of the head, and so the slow, tortuous exit was made. In
the town on muddy days, you might come on the Grand Duke suddenly in a
narrow street and you had to back up against the wall to let him pass,
at the same time dragging your best skirt in the dirt in the
knee-straining curtsey.

I often thought how immensely popular would be the Prince or Grand Duke
or King, who would one day say, "Oh, stop it, all of you, and give me
your hands and your eyes like human beings." But _what_ would the Kaiser
say?

Before we went to Darmstadt the Grand Duke had had a tragedy from which
they said he had never recovered. His adored little daughter Elisabeth
was the idol of every one, and the town children's fairy princess. She
was asked to visit her aunt, the Czarina, at Petrograd. While there she
died very suddenly, though in perfect health when she left Darmstadt.
She is believed to have eaten some poisoned food prepared for the Czar's
own children. A monument to her in the _Herren Garten_ at Darmstadt,
shows a glass coffin of the fairytale type; in it lies sleeping
"Snow-White," with the gnomes around her. Above, a weeping willow
brushes soft fingers over the sleeping princess.

We had several _Backfisch_ admirers; the English "Flapper" comes nearer
to translating this strange word than anything I know. These girls
followed us closely in the streets for a year and finally met us. At
first my sister had her band and I had mine. Finally they dwindled to
just two, very sweet, charming young girls, of whom we became very fond.
Marjorie's was the daughter of a colonel, a count, who was very strict
and military with his delicate flower of a girl.

As I have said, strange revealing glimpses of the Hun element came to us
now and then, the spirit which now seems to engulf all the better German
people. Two of our girl friends were daughters of a famous noble house.
Their father was a very old General who lived in great seclusion. His
pretty, fai