nd_ and _innig_. At some time during the engagement the
betrothed couple are sure to get photographed together, and anyone who
possesses a German family album will bear me out that the lady is
nearly always standing, while her bearded lover is sitting down. When
they are both standing they are arm in arm or hand in hand. I remember
a collection possessing two photographs of a married daughter with her
husband. One had been taken just before the wedding in the orthodox
pose; he in an easy chair and she standing meekly by his side: the
other represented them a year after marriage, when Heaven had sent
them twins. They were both standing then, and they each had a baby in
a _Steckkissen_ in their arms.

If the bridegroom is not living in the same town with his bride her
life is supposed to run rather quietly in his absence. She is not
expected to dance with other men, for instance; but rather to spend
her time in embroidering his monogram on every conceivable object he
might use: on tobacco pouches, or slippers, on letter cases, on
braces, on photograph frames, on luggage straps, on fine pocket
handkerchiefs. If she is expert and possesses the true sentiment she
will embroider things for him with her hair. In these degenerate days
she does not make her own outfit. Formerly, when a German girl left
school she began to make stores of body and house linen for future
years. But in modern cities the _Braut_ gets everything at one of the
big "white" shops, from her own laces and muslins to the saucepan
holders for the kitchen, and the bread bags her cook will hang outside
the flat for the baker's boy. In Germany it is the bride, or rather
her parents, who furnish the house and provide the household linen;
and the linen is all embroidered with her initials. This custom
extends to all classes, so that you constantly hear of a servant who
is saving up for her _Aussteuer_, that is, the furniture and linen of
a house as well as her own clothes. If you ask whether she is engaged
you are told that the outfit is the thing. When the money for that is
there it is easy to provide the bridegroom. In higher spheres much
more is spent on a bride's trousseau than in England, taking class for
class. Some years ago I had occasion to help in the choice of a
trousseau bought in Hamburg, and to be often in and out of a great
"white ware" business there. I cannot remember how many outfits were
on view during those weeks, but they were all much alike.