ced,
the room was not full, and the long French windows stood open. Before
them was a balcony facing the Platz, with its fountains, its
shrubbery, and its flowers. The breath of spring and early summer was
perfumed by mignonette and English violets, as it floated away from
the murmur and the brightness of the brilliant scenes beyond up
through every alcove of this quiet scholar's retreat.

Books in English, as in other languages, are many and finely selected,
though some departments are incomplete. A month's preparation here for
a trip to Russia and the far North was one of unalloyed pleasure; and
many volumes from the library were, under the rules, kindly permitted
to reach and remain on the study-table of my own room while I needed
them. The department of Scandinavian travel was, however, much more
scantily represented than Russia. Long shall I have reason to remember
with gratitude the generous "open sesame" and the rich privileges of
this library, which, more than most things that enjoy the epithet,
truly deserves the name Royal.

As no woman can enter the Berlin University as a student, neither is
it practicable for a lady, either as student or visitor, to find
access to the _Gymnasia_, which, in the German sense of this term, are
somewhat in the line of our American colleges. My windows looked into
those of a fine new building across the street, devoted to the
instruction of German youth. In through its doors there filed, every
week-day morning, long lines of German boys and young men for the
various grades of instruction; and a natural desire arose in the mind
of an old teacher to "visit the school." But on application to an
influential friend long resident in Germany, for a note of
introduction to the Director of the _Gymnasium_, his hands were lifted
in unaffected astonishment at the nature of the request, "A woman in a
boys' school! oh, never! Ask me any other favor but that! Oh, it is
_impossible_!" A German lady was more hopeful. She was intimate with
the wife of the Director, and thought she could gain for me the
coveted permission. But weeks lengthened into months, and still the
right to enter even the enclosure sacred to the education of German
boys was not obtained. So I studied the educational system at first on
paper, and found many facts of interest. Attendance at the common
schools is compulsory, all children of both sexes being required to
attend, in separate buildings, from the ages of five to fo