t of rejection in Ballrooms.
On the promenade their features were forgotten. They bowed to statues.
Now, the officers of Austria who do not belong to a Croat regiment,
or to one drawn from any point of the extreme East of the empire, are
commonly gentlemanly men; and though they can be vindictive after much
irritation, they may claim at least as good a reputation for forbearance
in a conquered country as our officers in India. They are not
ill-humoured, and they are not peevishly arrogant, except upon
provocation. The conduct of the tender Italian dames was vexatious. It
was exasperating to these knights of the slumbering sword to hear their
native waltzes sounding of exquisite Vienna, while their legs stretched
in melancholy inactivity on the Piazza pavement, and their arms
encircled no ductile waists. They tried to despise it more than they
disliked it, called their female foes Amazons, and their male by a less
complimentary title, and so waited for the patriotic epidemic to pass.

A certain Captain Weisspriess, of the regiment named after a sagacious
monarch whose crown was the sole flourishing blossom of diplomacy,
particularly distinguished himself by insisting that a lady should
remember him in public places. He was famous for skill with his weapons.
He waltzed admirably; erect as under his Field-Marshal's eye. In the
language of his brother officers, he was successful; that is, even
as God Mars when Bellona does not rage. Captain Weisspriess (Johann
Nepomuk, Freiherr von Scheppenhausen) resembled in appearance one in the
Imperial Royal service, a gambling General of Division, for whom
Fame had not yet blown her blast. Rumour declared that they might be
relatives; a little-scrupulous society did not hesitate to mention
how. The captain's moustache was straw-coloured; he wore it beyond the
regulation length and caressed it infinitely. Surmounted by a pair
of hot eyes, wavering in their direction, this grand moustache was a
feature to be forgotten with difficulty, and Weisspriess was doubtless
correct in asserting that his face had endured a slight equal to a
buffet. He stood high and square-shouldered; the flame of the moustache
streamed on either side his face in a splendid curve; his vigilant head
was loftily posted to detect what he chose to construe as insult,
or gather the smiles of approbation, to which, owing to the unerring
judgement of the sex, he was more accustomed. Handsome or not, he
enjoyed the privil