ted.

'Who is the gentleman that has just gone out?' asked I of the waiter.

'The Baron von Elgenheim,' replied he; 'but they mostly call him the
Black Colonel. Not for his moustaches,' added he, laughing with
true German familiarity, 'they are white enough, but he always wears
mourning.'

'Does he belong to Hesse, then?'

'Not he; he's an Auslander of some sort--a Swabian, belike; but he comes
here every year, and stays three or four weeks at a time. And, droll
enough too, though he has been doing so for fifteen or sixteen years,
he has not a single acquaintance in all Cassel; indeed, I never saw him
speak to a stranger till this morning.'

These particulars, few as they were, all stimulated my curiosity to see
more of the colonel; but he did not present himself at the table d'hote
on that day or the following one, and I only met him by chance in the
Park, when a formal salute, given with cold politeness, seemed to say
our acquaintance was at an end.

Now, there are certain inns which by a strange magnetism are felt as
homes at once; there is a certain air of quietude and repose about them
that strikes you when you enter, and which gains on you every hour of
your stay. The landlord, too, has a bearing compounded of cordiality and
respect; and the waiter, divining your tastes and partialities, falls
quickly into your ways, and seems to regard you as an _habitue_ while
you are yet a stranger; while the ringleted young lady at the bar,
who passed you the first day on the stairs with a well-practised
indifference, now accosts you with a smile and a curtsy, and already
believes you an old acquaintance.

To an indolent man like myself, these houses are impossible to leave. If
it be summer, you are sure to have a fresh bouquet in your bedroom every
morning when you awake; in winter, the _garcon_ has discovered how you
like your slippers toasted on the fender, and your _robe de chambre_
airing on the chair; the cook learns your taste in cutlets, and knows
to a nicety how to season your _omelette aux fines herbes_; the very
washerwoman of the establishment has counted the plaits in your shirt,
and wouldn't put one more or less for any bribery. By degrees, too, you
become a kind of confidant of the whole household. The host tells you
of ma'mselle's fortune, and the match on the tapis for her, and all the
difficulties and advantages, contra and pro; the waiter has revealed to
you a secret of passion for the chambermaid, b