occasionally by a gentleman, who, breaking out
of the knot of men who stood near the door
talking eagerly together, stole across the room
on tiptoe, his hat under his arm, and, bringing
his feet together in the position we called the
first at the dancing-school, made a low bow to
the lady he was going to address. The first
time I saw these manners I could not help
smiling; but Madame Rupprecht saw me, and
spoke to me next morning rather severely,
telling me that, of course, in my country breeding
I could have seen nothing of court manners,
or French fashions, but that that was no reason
for my laughing at them. Of course I tried
never to smile again in company. This visit to
Carlsruhe took place in '89, just when every one
was full of the events taking place at Paris; and
yet at Carlsruhe French fashions were more
talked of than French politics. Madam
Rupprecht, especially, thought a great deal of all
French people. And this again was quite
different to us at home. Fritz could hardly bear
the name of a Frenchman; and it had nearly
been an obstacle to my visit to Sophie that her
mother preferred being called Madame to her
proper title of Frau.

One night I was sitting next to Sophie, and
longing for the time when we might have supper
and go home, so as to be able to speak together,
a thing forbidden by Madame Rupprecht's rules
of etiquette, which strictly prohibited any but
the most necessary conversation passing between
members of the same family when in society.
I was sitting, I say, scarcely keeping back my
inclination to yawn, when two gentlemen came
in, one of whom was evidently a stranger to the
whole party, from the formal manner in which
the host led him up, and presented him to the
hostess. I thought I had never seen any one so
handsome or so elegant. His hair was powdered,
of course, but one could see from his complexion
that it was fair in its natural state. His features
were as delicate as a girl's, and set off by two
little ''mouches," as we called patches in those
days, one at the left corner of his mouth, the
other prolonging, as it were, the right eye. His
dress was blue and silver. I was so lost in
admiration of this beautiful young man, that I
was as much surprised as if the angel Gabriel
had spoken to me, when the lady of the house
brought him forward to present him to me.
She called him Monsieur de la Tourelle, and he
began to speak to me in French; but though I
understood him perfectly, I dared not trust
myself to reply to him in that language. Then he
tried German, speaking it with a kind of soft lisp
that I thought charming. But, before the end
of the evening, I became a little tired of the
affected softness and effeminacy of his manners,
and the exaggerated compliments he paid me,
which had the effect of making all the company
turn round and look at me. Madame Rupprecht
was, however, pleased with the precise thing
that displeased me. She liked either Sophie or
me to create a sensation; of course she would
have preferred that it should have been her
daughter, but her daughter's friend was next
best. As we went away I heard Madame
Rupprecht and Monsieur de la Tourelle
reciprocating civil speeches with might and main,
from which I found out that the French gentleman
was coming to call on us the next day. I
do not know whether I was more glad or frightened,
for I had been kept upon stilts of good
manners all the evening. But still I was
flattered when Madame Rupprecht spoke as if she
had invited him, because he had shown pleasure
in my society, and even more gratified by
Sophie's ungrudging delight at the evident
interest I had excited in so fine and agreeable a
gentleman. Yet, with all this, they had hard
work to keep me from running out of the salon
the next day, when we heard his voice inquiring
at the gate on the stairs for Madame Rupprecht.
They had made me put on my Sunday gown, and
they themselves were dressed as for a reception.

When he was gone away, Madame Rupprecht
congratulated me on the conquest I had made;
for, indeed, he had scarcely spoken to any one
else, beyond what mere civility required, and
had almost invited himself to come in the evening
to bring some new song, which was all the
fashion in Paris, he said. Madame Rupprecht
had been out all morning, as she told me, to
glean information about Monsieur de la Tourelle.
He was a propriétaire, had a small château on
the Vosges mountains; he owned land there,
but had a large income from some sources quite
independent of this property. Altogether, he
was a good match, as she emphatically observed.
She never seemed to think that I could refuse
him after this account of his wealth, nor do I
believe she would have allowed Sophie a choice,
even had he been as old and ugly as he was
young and handsome. I do not quite know—
so many events have come to pass since then,
and blurred the clearness of my recollections—
if I loved him or not. He was very much
devoted to me; he almost frightened me by the
excess of his demonstrations of love. And he
was very charming to everybody around me,
who all spoke of him as the most fascinating of
men, and of me as the most fortunate of girls.
And yet I never felt quite at my ease with him.
I was always relieved when his visits were over,
although I missed his presence when he did not
come. He prolonged his visit to the friend with
whom he was staying at Carlsruhe, on purpose
to woo me. He loaded me with presents, which
I was unwilling to take, only Madame
Rupprecht seemed to consider me an affected prude
if I refused them. Many of these presents
consisted of articles of valuable old jewellery,
evidently belonging to his family, by accepting
these I doubled the ties which were formed
around me by circumstances even more than by
my own consent. In those days we did not
write letters to absent friends as frequently as
is done now, and I had been unwilling to name
him in the few letters that I wrote home. At
length, however, I learned from Madame
Rupprecht that she had written to my father to
announce the splendid conquest I had made, and
to request his presence at my betrothal. I