eners as Schnabel and Klingenspohr and others might
appear quite ordinary, yet to US they had a different signification, of
which Love alone held the key.

Without further ado then, after the occurrences of that evening, I
determined on staying at Kalbsbraten, and presenting my card the next
day to the Hof-Marshal, requesting to have the honor of being presented
to his Highness the Prince, at one of whose court-balls my Dorothea
appeared as I have described her.

It was summer when I first arrived at Kalbsbraten. The little court was
removed to Siegmundslust, his Highness's country-seat: no balls were
taking place, and, in consequence, I held my own with Dorothea pretty
well. I treated her admirer, Lieutenant Klingenspohr, with perfect
scorn, had a manifest advantage over Major Schnabel, and used somehow
to meet the fair one every day, walking in company with her mamma in
the palace garden, or sitting under the acacias, with Belotte in her
mother's lap, and the favorite romance beside her. Dear, dear Dorothea!
what a number of novels she must have read in her time! She confesses to
me that she had been in love with Uncas, with Saint Preux, with Ivanhoe,
and with hosts of German heroes of romance; and when I asked her if
she, whose heart was so tender towards imaginary youths, had never had
a preference for any one of her living adorers, she only looked, and
blushed, and sighed, and said nothing.

You see I had got on as well as man could do, until the confounded court
season and the balls began, and then--why, then came my usual luck.

Waltzing is a part of a German girl's life. With the best will in the
world--which, I doubt not, she entertains for me, for I never put the
matter of marriage directly to her--Dorothea could not go to balls and
not waltz. It was madness to me to see her whirling round the room
with officers, attaches, prim little chamberlains with gold keys and
embroidered coats, her hair floating in the wind, her hand reposing upon
the abominable little dancer's epaulet, her good-humored face lighted up
with still greater satisfaction. I saw that I must learn to waltz too,
and took my measures accordingly.

The leader of the ballet at the Kalbsbraten theatre in my time was
Springbock, from Vienna. He had been a regular zephyr once, 'twas said,
in his younger days; and though he is now fifteen stone weight, I can,
helas! recommend him conscientiously as a master; and I determined to
take some lessons