d
when the pastor picked up the slips he read Gerhard and Habakkuk. Thanks
to the care and wisdom of his excellent mother, the boy throve admirably
in spite of his cognomen, and I heard to my great pleasure that he has
become an able man.

This boyish prank is characteristic of our relations. If we did not go
too far, Frau Boltze always took our part, and understood how to smooth
her husband's frowning brow quickly enough. Besides, it was a real
pleasure to be on good terms with her, for, as the daughter of a
prominent official, she had had an excellent education, and her quick wit
did honour to her native city, Berlin.

Had Dr. Boltze performed his office of tutor with more energy, it would
have been better for us; but in other respects I can say of him nothing
but good.

The inventions he made in mechanics, I have been told by experts, were
very important for the times and deserved greater success. Among them was
a coach moved by electricity.

My mother and I were cordially welcomed by this couple, on conversing
with whom my first feeling of constraint vanished.

The examination next morning almost placed me higher than I expected, for
the head-master who heard me translate at first thought me prepared for
the first class; but Pro-Rector Braune, who examined me in Latin grammar,
said that I was fitted only for the second.

When I left the examination hall I was introduced by Dr. Boltze to one of
my future school-fellows in the person of an elegant young gentleman who
had just alighted from a carriage and was patting the necks of the horses
which he had driven himself.

I had supposed him to be a lieutenant in civilian's dress, for his dark
mustache, small whiskers, and the military cut of his hair, which already
began to be somewhat thin, made me add a lustrum to his twenty-one years.

After my new tutor had left us this strange school-fellow entered into
conversation with me very graciously, and after telling me many things
about the school and its management which seemed incredible, he passed on
to the pupils, among whom were some "nice fellows," and mentioned a
number of names, principally of noble families whose bearers had come
here to obtain the graduation certificate, the key without which so many
doors are closed in Prussia.

Then he proceeded to describe marvels which I was afterwards to witness,
but which at that time I did not know whether I ought to consider
delightful or quite the contrary.