elf.

"It doesn't do," said the little Englishman, "to try and beat a German
down. They don't seem to understand it. I saw a first edition of _The
Robbers_ in a shop in the Georg Platz. I went in and asked the price. It
was a rum old chap behind the counter. He said: 'Twenty-five marks,' and
went on reading. I told him I had seen a better copy only a few days
before for twenty--one talks like that when one is bargaining; it is
understood. He asked me 'Where?' I told him in a shop at Leipsig. He
suggested my returning there and getting it; he did not seem to care
whether I bought the book or whether I didn't. I said:

"'What's the least you will take for it?'

"'I have told you once,' he answered; 'twenty-five marks.' He was an
irritable old chap.

"I said: 'It's not worth it.'

"'I never said it was, did I?' he snapped.

"I said: 'I'll give you ten marks for it.' I thought, maybe, he would
end by taking twenty.

"He rose. I took it he was coming round the counter to get the book out.
Instead, he came straight up to me. He was a biggish sort of man. He
took me by the two shoulders, walked me out into the street, and closed
the door behind me with a bang. I was never more surprised in all my
life.

"Maybe the book was worth twenty-five marks," I suggested.

"Of course it was," he replied; "well worth it. But what a notion of
business!"

If anything change the German character, it will be the German woman. She
herself is changing rapidly--advancing, as we call it. Ten years ago no
German woman caring for her reputation, hoping for a husband, would have
dared to ride a bicycle: to-day they spin about the country in their
thousands. The old folks shake their heads at them; but the young men, I
notice, overtake them and ride beside them. Not long ago it was
considered unwomanly in Germany for a lady to be able to do the outside
edge. Her proper skating attitude was thought to be that of clinging
limpness to some male relative. Now she practises eights in a corner by
herself, until some young man comes along to help her. She plays tennis,
and, from a point of safety, I have even noticed her driving a dog-cart.

Brilliantly educated she always has been. At eighteen she speaks two or
three languages, and has forgotten more than the average Englishwoman has
ever read. Hitherto, this education has been utterly useless to her. On
marriage she has retired into the kitchen, and made haste to cl