months in the capital itself, where it was possible the little cherry-cheeked man might have met with me,—and surely if I had ever had the slightest acquaintance with such an odd punch-like figure, I never could have forgotten it,—I had long resided in a distant quarter of the kingdom, my university studies had been completed in a foreign country, and between my leaving college and entering upon official life, I had been travelling abroad, yet amid all these wanderings I had never met with such a Burgundy-flushed face, and consequently I could not be known to the man.
I now ordered some Kalte Schale[1] to be brought me, and sat down at a table in the open air, with my back to the little man and his family. Before me were scattered various groupes of both sexes, and I now perceived that Mr Sander’s eulogium on the ladies of Klarenburg was not greatly overcharged, for in truth, wherever I turned my eyes they encountered some very pretty, and in one or two instances, decidedly lovely faces, so that in a short time the place, in which I concluded so much elegance and beauty dwelt, lost the gloom and appalling aspect with which my imagination had invested it, and I began to think that a residence at Klarenburg must be absolutely pleasing to any rational young man, whose spirit had not been altogether soured by disappointment, or preyed upon by morbid melancholy. The romantic situation of the little village itself contributed also to cheer up my mind. The enclosure in the centre was neatly ornamented with flowering shrubs and a variety of foreign plants, and seven fountains; all the cottages were new and built with great taste; a little flower-plot was before every house, and vines and creeping plants adorned the door-ways; such of the industrious inhabitants as had finished their daily
- ↑ A favourite refreshment in a warm day, in some parts of Germany. It consists of a tankard of wine or beer, with a slice of toast, seasoned with a little sugar and a lemon.
