be conducted to the
sitting-room which I had engaged on the first floor.

Five minutes later Daphne burst into the room.

"What on earth's the matter with the people here?" she demanded. "Half
the staff are feeling all over the inside of our cab, and the porter
keeps asking me if I'm sure the cat was put in at the station. Is this
some of your doing?"

"Possibly some idle banter--"

"I knew it," said Daphne. "If this is how you begin, we shan't get out
of Munich alive."

Why we had chosen Munich is not very easy to tell. Of course, we ought
to have gone to Biarritz and taken the car, but they wouldn't have
that. Everybody had wanted to go to a different place. Berry's choice
was Minsk, because, he said, he wanted to rub up his Hebrew. Such a
suggestion is characteristic of Berry. Then Munich was mentioned, and
as no one had seemed very keen, no one had taken the trouble to be very
rude about it. Consequently, Munich won. A day or two after our
arrival, one of Wagner's triumphs was to be given at the Opera House,
and, amid a scene of great excitement, Berry secured four tickets. I
say four because I mean four. I have never appreciated opera, and was
all along reluctant to go. But when I found that the show began at
half-past four, I put my foot down and reminded the others of the
Daylight Saving Bill. With gusto they retorted that I had been to more
matinees than they cared to remember. I replied that for a theatre to
begin at half-past four was out of all order and convenience, and that,
as an Englishman and a member of a conservative club, I was not
prepared to subscribe to such an unnatural arrangement.

"Brother," said Berry, "I weep for you. Not now, but in the privacy of
my chamber I often weep great tears."

"Friend," said I, "your plain but honest face belies your words. You
don't want to see the opera any more than I do, and now you're jealous
because to-morrow I shall sit down to dinner comfortably while you are
trying to remember which of the sandwiches have mustard, and praying
that the lights won't go up till your mouth's empty."

To the consternation of the assistants in the library, Berry covered
his face with his hands.

"He thinks it decent to revile me," he said weakly. "Where is my wife,
my helpmeet?"

But Daphne had already retired. As I left the shop, an American lady
approached Berry and told him the way to the English chemist.

At five the next day it began to rain