476 IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE-II 



the matter. There were seven of us. Facing each other at 

 one door were the American lady, whom I will call &quot;Mrs. 

 X.,&quot; and myself; at her left was her maid, then a vacant 

 seat, and then at the other door a German lady, richly at 

 tired, evidently of high degree, and probably about fifty 

 years of age. Facing this German lady sat an elegantly 

 dressed young man of about thirty, also of aristocratic 

 manners, and a German. Between this gentleman and my 

 self sat the son of Mrs. X. and the Austrian gentleman 

 who had presented me to her. 



Presently Mrs. X. bent over toward me and asked, in 

 an undertone, &quot;What do you think is the relationship 

 between those two people at the other door?&quot; I answered 

 that quite likely they were brother and sister. No, said 

 she; &quot;they are man and wife.&quot; I answered, &quot;That can 

 hardly be ; there is a difference of at least twenty years 

 in the young man s favor.&quot; &quot;Depend upon it,&quot; she 

 said, &quot;they are man and wife; it is a manage de conve- 

 nance; she is dressed to look as young as possible.&quot; At 

 this I expressed new doubts, and the discussion dropped. 



Presently the young German gentleman said some 

 thing to the lady opposite him which indicated that he 

 had lived in Berlin; whereupon Mrs. X. asked him, di 

 agonally across the car, if he had been at the Berlin Uni 

 versity. At this he turned in some surprise and answered, 

 civilly but coldly, &quot;Yes, madam.&quot; Then he turned away 

 to converse with the lady who accompanied him. Mrs. X., 

 nothing daunted, persisted, and asked, &quot;Have you been 

 recently at the university?&quot; Before he could reply the 

 lady opposite him turned to Mrs. X. and said most haugh 

 tily, i i Mon Dieu, madam, you must see that the gentleman 

 does not desire any conversation with you.&quot; At this 

 Mrs. X. became very humble, and rejoined most peni 

 tently, Madam, I beg your pardon ; if I had known that 

 the gentleman s mother did not wish him to talk with a 

 stranger, I would not have spoken to him.&quot; At this the 

 German lady started as if stung, turned very red, and 

 replied, &quot;Pardon, madam, I am not the mother of the 



