CHAPTER TWELVE 



HEIDELBERG— THE UNTERNECKARSTRASSE 



FOR several distinct reasons, the third of April marked a new era 

 in our Heidelberg life. On that date, we gave up our flat in the 

 Plockstrasse and moved to a pension down by the river, which was 

 kept by two sisters, the Frauleins Lang, to whom we soon became very 

 warmly attached. This attachment grew and increased so long as those 

 dear ladies lived. My Mother, my Wife and Mother-in-Law were all 

 included in this bond of affection and cordially returned it. I made three 

 long visits to that house, in 1880, 1881 and 1888, and my second daugh- 

 ter was born there. It was often said in my hearing that, of the long 

 series of English and American students who had lived in the house, 

 Dr. Jacob Gould Schurmann (afterwards President of Cornell Univer- 

 sity and American Ambassador to Germany) was the favourite of 

 Fraulein Elise and I of Fraulein Gretchen. However that may be, I had 

 every reason to feel assured of the cordial friendship of both these 

 admirable women. 



A third sister was married to a Freiherr, or Baron, and it was our 

 privilege to make the acquaintance of those dear people, who were 

 noble in every sense of the word. We gained an entirely new conception 

 of German life and character from these families and others whom 

 we learned to know through them, including some of the much decried 

 Junkers of Prussia. With all their faults, I found a great deal to admire 

 in this class and they were the most agreeable, cultivated and best- 

 mannered folk that I met in Germany. With the Freiherr I made an 

 acquaintance, at first quite formal, which very gradually became a real 

 friendship and his death was the cause of sincere sorrow to me. 



To my Mother, our change of dwelling place was the source of 

 unalloyed pleasure; she was no longer lonely, but had interesting and 

 sympathetic companionship always at hand, for Fraulein Gretchen 

 spoke excellent English. Through the first six months, my Mother had 

 endured uncomplainingly much that was unpleasant for my sake, but 



