st one. We went down-stairs, into the
room in which I had already breakfasted, which, in general, was known as
the saal. As I entered with Miss Hallam I was conscious that a knot of
lads or young men stood aside to let us pass, and then giggled and
scuffled behind the door before following us into the saal.

Two or three ladies were already seated, and an exceedingly stout lady
ladled out soup at a side table, while Clara and a servant-woman carried
the plates round to the different places. The stout lady turned as she
saw us, and greeted us. She was Frau Steinmann, our hostess. She waited
until the youths before spoken of had come in, and with a great deal of
noise had seated themselves, when she began, aided by the soup-ladle,
to introduce us all to each other.

We, it seemed, were to have the honor and privilege of being the only
English ladies of the company. We were introduced to one or two others,
and I was assigned a place by a lady introduced as Fraeulein Anna
Sartorius, a brunette, rather stout, with large dark eyes which looked
at me in a way I did not like, a head of curly black hair cropped short,
an odd, brusque manner, and a something peculiar, or, as she said,
_selten_ in her dress. This young lady sustained the introduction with
self-possession and calm. It was otherwise with the young gentlemen, who
appeared decidedly mixed. There were some half dozen of them in all--a
couple of English, the rest German, Dutch, and Swedish. I had never been
in company with so many nationalities before, and was impressed with my
situation--needlessly so.

All these young gentlemen made bows which were, in their respective
ways, triumphs of awkwardness, with the exception of one of our
compatriots, who appeared to believe that himself and his manners were
formed to charm and subdue the opposite sex. We then sat down, and
Fraeulein Sartorius immediately opened a conversation with me.

"_Sprechen Sie Deutsch, Fraeulein?_" was her first venture, and having
received my admission that I did not speak a word of it, she continued,
in good English:

"Now I can talk to you without offending you. It is so dreadful when
English people who don't know German persist in thinking that they do.
There was an English-woman here who always said _wer_ when she meant
where, and _wo_ when she meant who. She said the sounds confused her."

The boys giggled at this, but the joke was lost upon me.

"What is your name?" she continued; "I di