ontained soup, the next meat, the third vegetable, while bread or
dessert reposed in the top. We can testify that even crack regiments are
not unduly pampered in the Fatherland, for anything plainer, or more
unappetizing than these dinners, I have never tried to eat. Perhaps they
gained something when served hot in the officers' _Casino_, but we found
it almost impossible to down them, eaten out of our enamel-ware dishes.
After a time, when the newness of everything in the theatre had worn off
a little, and I began "to feel my feet," we arranged to dine at the
hotel where many of the colleagues met daily. This was a far better
plan, as, in addition to a really hot meal, we had a splendid
opportunity to improve our German. I was naturally making rapid progress
in it, but my sister still had to confine herself to the shops where
they understood French. One day when I came home from rehearsal, she
told me that our _Hausfrau_ had repeated to her a long piece of gossip
in German. Seeing by my sister's face that she had not understood, the
woman said, "Oh, you don't understand, Fraeulein. Well, I'll say it all
over again in French." Then she proceeded to repeat it again, very
loudly and slowly--in German!

Of course it is rather dreadful to be called just "Fraeulein" by your
landlady in Germany, but the social standing of the singers and players
in a provincial theatre is usually not high enough to warrant anything
else. A position in an opera house in a capital city, or in a
Hoftheater, confers social importance enough upon its holder to entitle
her to the prefix _gnaediges_ (gracious) before the ignominious
_Fraeulein_, which in society is properly used to designate only a
governess, a companion, or a saleswoman in a shop.

Titles and forms of address are a ticklish subject in the Fatherland, at
any time. It is hard to comprehend the mazes of male progression from
the simple "Rat," through the subsequent variations of Hofrat (court
councillor), Geheimer Hofrat (privy court councillor), Geheimrat (privy
councillor), Wirklicher Geheimrat (really truly privy councillor), to
the lofty dignity of Excellenz.

Old-fashioned ladies used to employ the feminized version of their
husband's titles, and I once knew an old dame who insisted upon being
addressed as "_Frau Oberlandgerichtsraethin_." The bourgeoisie used to
copy the aristocracy in this respect, and at the afternoon
Kaffeeklatsch, Frau Hofcondittor Meyer would inquire abou