old Hanover;
pretending great wrath when, on the King's birthday, he found yellow
and white sand strewn before his door, but unable to conceal the joyful
gleam in his eye when he spoke of it.

The General's wife was the daughter of a burgomaster and had been
brought up in a neighboring town. She was a dear, kind soul.

The house-keeping was simple, but stately and precise, as befitted
the rank of this officer. The General was addressed by the servants as
Excellenz and his wife as Frau Excellenz. A charming unmarried daughter
lived at home, making, with myself, a family of four.

Life was spent quietly, and every evening, after our coffee (served in
the living-room in winter, and in the garden in summer), Frau Generalin
would amuse me with descriptions of life in her old home, and of how
girls were brought up in her day; how industry was esteemed by her
mother the greatest virtue, and idleness was punished as the most
beguiling sin. She was never allowed, she said, to read, even on Sunday,
without her knitting-work in her hands; and she would often sigh, and
say to me, in German (for dear Frau Generalin spoke no other tongue),
"Ach, Martha, you American girls are so differently brought up"; and I
would say, "But, Frau Generalin, which way do you think is the better?"
She would then look puzzled, shrug her shoulders, and often say, "Ach!
times are different I suppose, but my ideas can never change."

Now the dear Frau Generalin did not speak a word of English, and as I
had had only a few lessons in German before I left America, I had the
utmost difficulty at first in comprehending what she said. She spoke
rapidly and I would listen with the closest attention, only to give up
in despair, and to say, "Gute Nacht," evening after evening, with my
head buzzing and my mind a blank.

After a few weeks, however, I began to understand everything she said,
altho' I could not yet write or read the language, and I listened with
the greatest interest to the story of her marriage with young Lieutenant
Weste, of the bringing up of her four children, and of the old days in
Hanover, before the Prussians took possession.

She described to me the brilliant Hanoverian Court, the endless
festivities and balls, the stately elegance of the old city, and the
cruel misfortunes of the King. And how, a few days after the King's
flight, the end of all things came to her; for she was politely
informed one evening, by a big Prussian major, that