300 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



except the baron and the lieutenant, lived perma- 

 nently in the village, and they came with unfailing 

 regularity each night to the inn, sometimes to eat 

 their supper, but always to drink beer, play cards, 

 and then drink beer again : when they were not 

 drinking they were smoking. None of them were 

 what we in England would call " gentlemen " ; but I 

 fancy if the question of condescension ever came 

 into their minds with reference to mixing with the 

 foreigners they considered that it lay on their side. 

 They held their little nightly club at the inn: if a 

 stranger was well behaved to them, they would be 

 civil to him. But that could not well be perfect 

 equality so they would have said between wan- 

 dering tourists, who might be anybodies, and estab- 

 lished residents always to be found at their posts. 

 Probably G., if he had been there by himself, would 

 never have advanced further in intimacy with them 

 than to be politely saluted on entering or leaving a 

 room, or have some casual remark made to him about 

 the weather. But the Admiral could talk German as 

 well as any one in Lenggries. He had none of the 

 pride which most Englishmen are supposed to have ; 

 and before he had been there many days, he was on 

 intimate terms with the whole club, and G., being 

 his friend, shared the intimacy. After supper they 

 always joined the circle at the large table, and G. 

 would sit one night between the priest and the baron, 

 another between the doctor and the artist, and on a 



