ur or so," he went on,
consulting his watch. "I have, of course, written for rooms there, as I
have done to all the places where we mean to halt. And so far I have
not proved a bad courier, I flatter myself?"

He paused, and looked round him complacently.

"No, indeed," replied everybody. "The very contrary. We have got on
capitally."

At which the beaming face of our commander-in-chief beamed still more
graciously.

"And to-morrow," continued Reggie in his funny German, pounding away
vigorously at Lutz's shoulders meanwhile, "what do we do to-morrow? We
must have an _Einspaenner_--is it not so? not that we are tired, but you
said we had far to go."

"Yes, an _Einspaenner_ for the ladies--your amiable mother, Miss Nora,
and my wife, and you, Reggie, will find a corner beside the driver.
Myself and these young fellows," indicating the three friends by a wave
of the hand, "will start from Seeberg betimes, giving you _rendez vous_
at Ulrichsthal, where there are some famous ruins. And you must not
forget," he added, turning to his wife and me, "to stop at Gruenstein
as you pass, and spend a quarter of an hour in the china manufactory
there."

"Just what I wanted," said Frau von Walden. "I have a tea-service from
there, and I am in hopes of matching it. I had a good many breakages
last winter with a dreadfully careless servant, and there is a good deal
to replace."

"I don't think I know the Gruenstein china," I said. "Is it very pretty?"

"It is very like the blue-and-white that one sees so much of with us,"
said Frau von Walden. "That, the ordinary blue-and-white, is made at
Blauenstein. But there is more variety of colours at Gruenstein. They are
rather more enterprising there, I fancy, and perhaps there is a finer
quality of china clay, or whatever they call it, in that neighbourhood.
I often wonder the Thuringian china is not more used in England, where
you are so fond of novelties."

"And where nothing is so appreciated as what comes from a distance,"
said George Norman. "By Jove! isn't that a pretty picture!" he broke off
suddenly, and we all stood still to admire.

It was the month of August; already the subdued evening lights were
replacing the brilliant sunshine and blue sky of the glowing summer day.
We were in the forest, through which at this part ran the main road
which we were following to Seeberg. At one side of the road the ground
descended abruptly to a considerable depth, and there in the def