ve recognised her at once. I told her
it was because of the cap. Then I expressed the astonishment I felt that
she had not at once recognised me, and after hesitating a moment she
said that I had been making too many faces; and so with infinite
delicacy did we avoid all allusion to those ten unhideable years.

Charlotte had had a chequered career; at least, beside my placid life it
seemed to have bristled with events. In her early youth, and to the
dismay of her parents, she insisted on being educated at one of the
English colleges for women--it was at Oxford, but I forget its name--a
most unusual course for a young German girl of her class to take. She
was so determined, and made her relations so uncomfortable during their
period of opposition, that they gave in with what appeared to more
distant relatives who were not with Charlotte all day long a criminal
weakness. At Oxford she took everything there was to take in the way of
honours and prizes, and was the joy and pride of her college. In her
last year, a German savant of sixty, an exceedingly bright light in the
firmament of European learning, came to Oxford and was feted. When
Charlotte saw the great local beings she was accustomed to look upon as
the most marvellous men of the age--the heads of colleges, professors,
and other celebrities--vying with each other in honouring her
countryman, her admiration for him was such that it took her breath
away. At some function she was brought to his notice, and her family
being well known in Germany and she herself then in the freshness of
twenty-one, besides being very pretty, the great man was much
interested, and beamed benevolently upon her, and chucked her under the
chin. The head in whose house he was staying, a person equally exquisite
in appearance and manners, who had had much to forgive that was less
excellent in his guest and had done so freely for the sake of the known
profundity of his knowledge, could not but remark this interest in
Charlotte, and told him pleasantly of her promising career. The
professor appeared to listen with attention, and looked pleased and
approving; but when the head ceased, instead of commenting on her
talents or the creditable manner in which she had developed them, what
he said was, 'A nice, round little girl. A very nice, round little girl.
_Colossal appetitlich_.' And this he repeated emphatically several
times, to the distinct discomfort of the head, while his eyes followed
her be