nberg,' I said, with mixed feminine guile and
commercial strategy; 'still, if your friend wishes to look----'

[Illustration: MINUTE INSPECTION.]

They both jostled round it, with _achs_ innumerable, and, after minute
inspection, pronounced its principle _wunderschoen_. 'Might I essay it?'
Heinrich asked.

'Oh, by all means,' I answered. He paced it down hill a few yards; then
skimmed up again.

'It is a bird!' he cried to his friend, with many guttural
interjections. 'Like the eagle's flight, so soars it. Come, try the
thing, Ludwig!'

'You permit, Fraeulein?'

I nodded. They both mounted it several times. It behaved like a beauty.
Then one of them asked, 'And where can man of this new so remarkable
machine nearest by purchase himself make possessor?'

'I am the Sole Agent,' I burst out, with swelling dignity. 'If you will
give me your orders, with cash in hand for the amount, I will send the
cycle, carriage paid, to any address you desire in Germany.'

'You!' they exclaimed, incredulously. 'The Fraeulein is pleased to be
humorous!'

'Oh, very well,' I answered, vaulting into the saddle; 'If you choose to
doubt my word----' I waved one careless hand and coasted off.
'Good-morning, meine Herren.'

They lumbered after me on their ramshackled traction-engines. 'Pardon,
Fraeulein! Do not thus go away! Oblige us at least with the name and
address of the maker.'

I perpended--like the Herr Over-Superintendent at Frankfort. 'Look
here,' I said at last, telling the truth with frankness, 'I get 25 per
cent on all bicycles I sell. I am, as I say, the maker's Sole Agent. If
you order through me, I touch my profit; if otherwise, I do not. Still,
since you seem to be gentlemen,' they bowed and swelled visibly, 'I will
give you the address of the firm, trusting to your honour to mention my
name'--I handed them a card--'if you decide on ordering. The price of
the palfrey is 400 marks. It is worth every pfennig of it.' And before
they could say more, I had spurred my steed and swept off at full speed
round a curve of the highway.

I pencilled a note to my American that night from Hornberg, detailing
the circumstance; but I am sorry to say, for the discredit of humanity,
that when those two students wrote the same evening from their inn in
the village to order Manitous, they did _not_ mention my name, doubtless
under the misconception that by suppressing it they would save my
commission. However, it gives me pleasure to