not like such townsfolk, and therefore brought you here.
Look around you, is it not a capital position? As we do not know the
faces hereabouts it will not be necessary to talk much. On the right we
have a smoking hot pig's head, with a lemon stuck in its mouth; on the
left a magnificent trout biting its tail for joy; and in our front a
roebuck, not to be matched for its tender meat and quantity of fat the
whole length of the table or elsewhere."

Albert thanked him for his kindness, and took a hasty glance at those
immediately about him. On his right sat a good-looking young man about
twenty-five or twenty-six years of age. His neat-combed hair, throwing
out a perfume of some highly-scented ointment, his small beard,
evidently having just gone through the ordeal of warm curling irons,
made Albert suspect, even before he was further convinced of it by his
dialect, that he was a gay Ulmer citizen. The young man, perceiving
himself to be the object of his neighbour's observation, made himself
very officious. He filled Albert's glass from a large silver tankard,
and pledged him to drink to a better acquaintance and good fellowship;
he then offered to help him the best slices of roebuck, hare, pork,
pheasant, and wild duck, which lay before them in great profusion on
large silver dishes.

But neither the officious kindness of his neighbour, nor the uncommon
appetite of Breitenstein, could provoke Albert to eat. His mind was too
much occupied with the beloved object he had seen in entering the town
to follow the example of his neighbours. He sat full of thought,
looking into his tankard, which he still held in his hand; and as the
bubbles on the surface of the sparkling wine dispersed, he fancied he
saw the portrait of his love in the gilded bottom of it. No wonder then
that his sociable friend on his right, seeing how his guest held his
tankard, and refused every dish which he offered him, took him for an
incorrigible wine-bibber. His keen eye, which was fixed upon the object
before him, appeared to point the youth out as one of those perfect
connoisseurs of wine, whose refined taste liked to dwell upon the
quality of the noble beverage.

For the purpose of seconding the good intentions of the grand council,
namely, that of rendering the feast as pleasant as possible to their
guests, the young Ulmer sought all means to discover the weak point of
his neighbour. It was, indeed, contrary to his moderate habits to drink
much