to her German neighbor,--a tall and
dignified lady, but very vivacious. She turned her head, saying in
hesitating English, "Speak on this side; I am _dumb_ in that ear."
Meanwhile the conversation, not as at American tables a low hum, but
rather the rattle of artillery, fires away, across the table, along
its whole length, anywhere and everywhere, much sounding, little
meaning, amid infinite ado of demonstration and gesticulation. The
next course was the nearest approach to pie I saw at any German
table,--_apfeltochter_,--a browned and frosted crust, nearly eighteen
inches in diameter, between the parts of which was cooked and
sweetened apple.

I noted the different nationalities at the table,--the mother and her
daughters, Germans of the Germans; a buxom young girl from the
country, a fine singer; the tall German, and the young Swedish lady of
whom I have spoken; another Swedish lady from Gothenburg, tall, very
dignified, with gray eyes and dark hair, an exquisite singer. Then
there was Herr G----, also from Sweden, and Fraeulein von K----, a
young Polish lady, with striking black eyes and hair and a laughing
face. Other guests were two Norwegian gentlemen. One of them, tall,
dark, and with the dress and bearing of a gentleman, said to my
American friend, "Yes, I speak English _very well_" which we found to
be the case. As I had mentally completed this summary, my friend said
to me in a low "aside," "The young lady at your left is a
free-thinker, the Polish lady is a Roman Catholic, Herr G----is a Jew;
the rest Lutherans, except you and me." And one of us at home was of
"Andover," and the other "straight Orthodox"!

Later, we adjourned to the drawing-room, spacious and handsome after
the German fashion. I asked one of the daughters of the house, who I
knew had spent some years in Russia, if the portrait of a middle-aged
gentleman hanging near me, much decorated and with a gilded crown at
the top of the frame, were not that of the late Czar (Alexander II.),
when she replied, "It is our Emperor!" And I had seen his Majesty at
least half a dozen times! But he was a much older man now. One of the
Norwegian gentlemen sat down at the piano and played portions of a
recent opera, and a game of questions and answers followed. Oranges
and little cakes were served before the company broke up at the early
hour of half-past eleven.

Concerts and even the opera and theatre begin early in Germany. Doors
are open usually about ha