wished to see the spectacle, so Wilhelm asked his new friend
to go with him.

Near where they sat was the platform for the ladies who were to crown
the victors with wreaths. Among them was Loulou. All the emotions and
force of character of which she was capable had been brought out by her
position. Through the influence of her father, who, in all the
difficult and responsible business of the French indemnity had found
time to intercede for his little daughter with the burgomasters and
magistrates, Loulou's dream was realized; a dream which all the
prettiest girls in the best society in Berlin had also shared during
the last week. Her enrollment in this troop of beauties was regarded by
her less successful friends with envy, but the vexation of disappointed
rivals was naturally the sweetest part of her triumph.

The young girls were dressed all alike in mediaeval dresses like the
well known pictures of Gretchen in "Faust," with long plaits of hair,
puffed and slashed sleeves, and senseless and theatrical-looking little
hanging pockets. All were nevertheless conscious of the propriety of
their appearance, and felt quite heroic. It really was heroic to sit
there hour after hour in the burning sun bareheaded, until all were
gathered into one great picture, and a documentary proof could be
handed down to their grandchildren in the shape of a large-sized
photograph, showing that their grandmothers had been chosen as the
official beauties of Berlin in the year 1871. The satisfaction of
vanity, involving such a sacrifice, almost deserves admiration.

It was nearly midday when a sudden stir took place in the crowd. Every
one on the platforms sprang up and began to wave hats and
handkerchiefs. In the windows, on the roofs, in the spaces between the
platforms, wherever men could be packed, suddenly all the heads turned
to one side, just as a field of corn bends before a breeze. Then uprose
a roar of shouts and cheers, deafening and almost stunning in
intensity. It was impossible any longer to distinguish tone, but only a
tumult, such as a diver in deep water might hear of the surface waves
above him. The senses were bemused by the continual succession, of
heads set close together like a mosaic, and covering the whole surface
of the great street, and by the roar which went up, cheering everything
which made its appearance; whether it were the struggling activity of
the crowd moving in the center of the street, the sudden fall of