d in my
mission.

That same Court Theatre was destined soon to become the prey of flames;
it was the scene of a terrible catastrophe when many lives were lost.

I was soon to see more of Carlsruhe. Chiefly with a view to improving my
German, I was put to school there. Now Carlsruhe was in those days one
of the dullest places rational man ever condescended to inhabit. I think
it was Heine who said that the dogs came up to you in the street and
begged as a favour that you would tread on their toes, just to relieve
them of the intolerable monotony of their lives. How it is to-day I
don't know; probably they now have music-halls and motor cars, jingoes
and pickpockets, but in my time all was slow, sure, and safe. The
Grand-Duke sat in his palace like a royal spider in his web; all the
streets radiated fan-like from the centre he occupied. In the forest, at
the back of the palace, the avenues were cut out so as to form a
counterpart to the city, one and all converging towards the abode of the
Ruler. A fine spacious market-place there was, however, with a town-hall
and a church and a monument to a departed Markgraf, round which
clustered on certain days quaint old apple-women whom we school-boys
patronised to the fullest extent of our limited means. We were close at
hand, for the "Gymnasium" was happily situated in this most attractive
part of the town. For all that, it took me some time before I could get
accustomed to my new home.

Professor Schummelig, to whose care I was entrusted, was good in his
way; I give him a fictitious name, as I have to record that he could
also be bad in his way. I don't think he made my lessons more tedious or
my tasks more irksome than any other ordinary German professor would
have done; but he was pedantic and I was imaginative, so we did not
always give one another satisfaction. We had one or two grand rows, in
which the wrongs cannot have been all on my side, for, as soon as
convenient, he granted me a free pardon, in consideration of which I was
required not to mention the unpleasant incident in my letters to my
parents (my father paid a hundred florins per quarter). I acquiesced,
and so we were soon on good terms again.

But I always felt he was an egoist. He would carve the daily little
piece of boiled beef just so as to give himself the particular portion
which I coveted. The bread, too, was under his control: he would never
take much of it at a time, but he would just cut himself li