ed out like air from the Garden of Eden.

And so they were married; and there was a grand breakfast, where all the
household were assembled, and where Paul Classon made a most effective
little speech to "the health of the bride," interpolating his English
and German with a tact all his own; and then they drove away with four
posters, with all the noise and whip-cracking, the sighs and smiles and
last good-byes, just as if the scene had been Hanover Square, and the
High Priest a Canon of Westminster!

CHAPTER XXV. STUNNING TIDINGS

A telegram, duly despatched, had prepared the hotel of the Cour de Bade
for the arrival of the Honorable Annesley and Mrs. Beecher; and when
the well-appointed travelling-carriage came clattering into the
_porte-cochere_ at nightfall, there was a dress parade of landlord and
waiters ready to receive them.

It was a very long time since Beecher had felt the self-importance of
being deemed rich. For many a year back life had been but a series of
struggles, and it was a very delightful sensation to him to witness once
more all the ready homage, all the obsequious attention which are only
rendered to affluence. Herr Bauer had got the despatch just in time to
keep his handsomest suite of rooms for him; indeed, he had "sent away
the Margraf of Schweinerhausen, who wanted them." This was gratifying;
and, limited as Beecher's German was, he could catch the muttered
exclamations of "Ach Grott, wie schoen!" "Wie leiblich!" as his beautiful
wife passed up the stairs; and this, too, pleased him. In fact, his
was just then the glorious mood that comes once in a lifetime to the
luckiest of us,--to be charmed with everything.

To enjoy the sunshine one must have sojourned in shadow; and, certainly,
prosperity is never so entrancing as after some experience of its
opposite, and Beecher was never wearied of admiring the splendor of the
apartment, the wonderful promptitude of the waiters, and the excellence
of everything. It must be owned the dinner was in Bauer's best
style,--the bisque, the raebraten, the pheasant, all that could be
wished for; and when the imposing host himself uncorked a precious flask
of a "Cabinet Steinberger," Beecher felt it was a very charming world
when one had only got to the sunny side of it. Mr. Bauer--a politeness
rarely accorded, save to the highest rank--directed the service in
person, and vouchsafed to be agreeable during the repast.

"And so your season was a good