contrasted with our mode
of life, made us seem almost mean and penurious. Guests came and went
unceasingly, and, to all seeming, not known to any one. An unbounded
hospitality awaited all comers, and of the party who supped and caroused
to-night, none remained on the morrow, nor, perhaps, even a name was
remembered.

It took me some days to learn this, and to know that there was nothing
singular or strange in the position I occupied, living where none knew
why or whence I came, or even so much as cared to inquire my name or
country.

In the great hall, where we dined all together,--the distinguished
guests at one end of the table, the lesser notabilities lower down, and
the menials last of all,--there was ever a place reserved for sudden
arrivals; and it was rare that the meal went over without some such. A
hearty welcome and a cordial greeting were soon over, and the work of
festivity went on as before.

I was soon given to understand that, not only I might dispose of my time
how I pleased, but that every appliance to do so agreeably was at my
disposal, and that I might ride or drive or shoot or sledge, just as I
fancied. And though I was cautious to show that my personal pretension
were of the very humblest, this fact seemed no barrier whatever to my
enjoyment of all these courteous civilities.

"We 're always glad when any one will ride the _juckers_," said a Jaeger
to me; "they are ruined for want of exercise, and if you like three
mounts a day, you shall have them."

It was a rare piece of good luck for me that I could both ride and
shoot. No two accomplishments could have stood me in such request as
these, and I rose immensely in the esteem of those amongst whom I sat
at table when they saw that I could sit a back-jumper and shoot a
wood-pigeon on the wing.

While I thus won such humble suffrages, there was a higher applause that
my heart craved and longed for. As the company--some five-and-twenty or
thirty persons--who dined at the upper table withdrew after dinner, they
passed into the drawing-rooms, and we saw them no more. Of the music and
dancing, in which they passed the evening, we knew nothing; and we in
our own way had our revels, which certainly amply contented those who
had no pretensions to higher company; but this was precisely what I
could not, do what I might, divest myself of. Like one of the characters
of my old favorite Balzac, I yearned to be once more in the _salon_, and
amongst _ces ep