e manoeuvres. To this end he wished to receive an impression
of the Prince-Regent's arrival which should not be blurred or clouded
by other interests. His wife knew the kind of thing he liked to see, and
would have helped him out with his observations, but Kenby would have
got in the way, and would have clogged the movement of his fancy in
assigning the facts to the parts he would like them to play in the
sketch.

At least he made some such excuses to himself as he hurried along toward
the Kaiserstrasse. The draught of universal interest in that direction
had left the other streets almost deserted, but as he approached
the thoroughfare he found all the ways blocked, and the horse-cars,
ordinarily so furiously headlong, arrested by the multiple ranks of
spectators on the sidewalks. The avenue leading from the railway station
to the palace was decorated with flags and garlands, and planted with
the stems of young firs and birches. The doorways were crowded, and the
windows dense with eager faces peering out of the draped bunting. The
carriageway was kept clear by mild policemen who now and then allowed
one of the crowd to cross it.

The crowd was made up mostly of women and boys, and when March joined
them, they had already been waiting an hour for the sight of the princes
who were to bless them with a vision of the faery race which kings
always are to common men. He thought the people looked dull, and
therefore able to bear the strain of expectation with patience better
than a livelier race. They relieved it by no attempt at joking; here
and there a dim smile dawned on a weary face, but it seemed an effect
of amiability rather than humor. There was so little of this, or else
it was so well bridled by the solemnity of the occasion, that not a man,
woman, or child laughed when a bareheaded maid-servant broke through
the lines and ran down between them with a life-size plaster bust of the
Emperor William in her arms: she carried it like an overgrown infant,
and in alarm at her conspicuous part she cast frightened looks from side
to side without arousing any sort of notice. Undeterred by her failure,
a young dog, parted from his owner, and seeking him in the crowd,
pursued his search in a wild flight down the guarded roadway with an air
of anxiety that in America would have won him thunders of applause, and
all sorts of kindly encouragements to greater speed. But this German
crowd witnessed his progress apparently without i