ays rather
liked,--with such small regard as a lady's devotion to her husband
leaves her for his friends.

"Oh, I'll _dine_ with you fast enough," said his friend. "But why don't
you send a note to Mrs. Kenton to say that we'll be round together, and
save yourself the bother? Did you come here alone?"

"Bless your heart, no! I forgot him. The poor devil's out there, cooling
his heels on your stairs all this time. I came with a complete guide to
Vienna. Can't you let him in out of the weather a minute?"

"We'll have him in, so that he can take your note back; but he doesn't
expect to be decently treated: they don't, here. You just sit down and
write it," said the consul, pushing the colonel into his own chair
before his desk; and when the colonel had superscribed his note, he
called in the _Lohndiener_,--patient, hat in hand,--and, "Where are you
stopping?" he asked the colonel.

"Oh, I forgot that. At the Kaiserin Elisabeth. I'll just write it"--

"Never mind; we'll tell him where to take it. See here," added the
consul in a serviceable Viennese German of his own construction. "Take
this to the Kaiserin Elisabeth, quick;" and as the man looked up in a
dull surprise, "Do you hear? The Kaiserin Elisabeth!"

"_I_ don't know what it is about that hotel," said the colonel, when the
man had meekly bowed himself away, with a hat that swept the ground in
honor of a handsome drink-money; "but the mention of it always seems to
awaken some sort of reluctance in the minds of the lower classes. Our
driver wanted to enter into conversation with me about it this morning
at three o'clock, and I had to be pretty short with him. If you don't
know the language, it isn't so difficult to be short in German as I've
heard. And another curious thing is that Bradshaw says the Kaiserin
Elisabeth has a table d'hote, and the head-waiter says she hasn't, and
never did have."

"Oh, you can't trust anybody in Europe," said the consul sententiously.
"I'd leave Bradshaw and the waiter to fight it out among themselves.
We'll get back in time to order a dinner; it's always better, and then
we can dine alone, and have a good time."

"They couldn't keep us from having a good time at a table d'hote, even.
But I don't mind."

By this time they had got on their hats and coats and sallied forth.
They first went to a cafe and had some of that famous Viennese coffee;
and then they went to the imperial and municipal arsenals, and viewed
those collectio