our countrywomen), as they are to constitute the principal characters in the narrative which is to follow, we shall leave the ladies to speak for themselves. They were two cousins, originally of Irish extraction, and the one many years older than the other. The elder lady had been married to a Bremen merchant, who had died young and left her with a small independence, which she had come to eke out by a residence in the town of Eisenach, where, owing to the cheapness of provisions and rent, her income was sufficient to keep her in the state of comfort to which she had been accustomed. She could hardly be called a young widow, though on the other hand she was many years below the middle age of life, and there was a kind of statuesque character about her features which, though it had grown into somewhat of a masculine style as she had advanced in years, was still sufficient to assure the beholder that she must have possessed no slight beauty when the face was rounder and the cheeks plumper and rosier with the charms of youth. You had but to meet her and converse with her occasionally to find out ere long that the peculiar characteristic of her mind was worldly prudence; and one could soon see that she was distinguished by all that scrupulous care of young women which is so marked an attribute of the Irish character, and which makes the chastity of the females of that nation famous over all the world. The younger cousin was so unlike the elder one, that it was difficult to imagine any tie of kindred to exist between them. Her features, indeed, were far from regular, and her face more square than oval. But though she was neither handsome nor pretty, she was what was more striking, perhaps: she was interesting. It was impossible to look at her once and then turn away with absolute indifference. The reason of this was that the girl had a pair of most remarkable full black eyes—too lustrous and large indeed for anything like regular beauty, but still so full of fire and so penetrating, that they were as fascinating as those of the rattle-snake are said to be; so that a stranger, however well-bred, could hardly help staring at her. Moreover, there was a fawn-like tenderness in their expression that told the quick-sighted that though the girl was a person of violent emotions, she was at the same time a creature of such high nervous susceptibility, that it was impossible to say whether in the hour of danger she would display the highest heroism or be overcome, even to stupor, by the fright.
The elder lady we shall call Madame Steindorf (for as the circumstances we are about to relate are founded in truth, it is superfluous to say that the name must necessarily be a fictitious one), and the younger one Miss Boyne. At the time of the opening of our story, Madame Steindorf had succeeded in obtaining for her cousin a situation as companion to the wife of a rich Hamburg merchant; for owing to her crippled means since the death of her husband, she was unable to keep the young lady with her any longer, and the main object of her visit to the Halbe Mond that day was to consult the gentlemen whose acquaintance she had made at the table d’hôte, as to the most prudent and safe mode of getting a young lady, unprotected as she was, to her destination, especially as she herself could not afford the expense of accompanying her.
When the almonds and raisins, the “sand-cake,” the meringues, had been handed round, and the other ladies had taken their bonnets and cloaks from the hat-stand and had slipped on their felt over-shoes to guard against falling in the snow, previous to making their bow before leaving the company at the table, Madame Steindorf drew her chair towards the gentlemen at the upper end of the room, and said, in German, as the waiter deposited the silver spirit-lamp on the table for the smokers to light their cigars.
“I beg, gentlemen, that you will not let our presence interfere with your enjoyment, for I wish to consult you upon a point that you, as natives of the country, must be better acquainted with than I possibly can.”
“Was the Fraulein out skating to-day on the Orleans pond?” said one of the officers to Miss Boyne, as he leant behind Madame Steindorf’s chair to address the black-eyed young lady, who merely shook her head and whispered “Nein” in reply.
“Now, do I beg, light your cigars, gentlemen,” continued Madame S, as the waiter made his appearance with the cups of “black coffee” that had already been ordered for the German post-prandial entertainment.
Hereupon Lieutenant Von T rose from his chair, and raising his hand to his ear by way of military salute, bowed slightly as he said:
“If you ladies will be good enough to give us your permission,”—to which Madame Steindorf answered jocularly,
“We will not only give you our permission, but a light also,” and so saying she drew the sponge from the centre of the stand, and applying it to the flame below handed it burning blue to the officer.
“Oh, I beg—I beg, Madame,” cried some half-dozen simultaneously.
The ice of foreign ceremony being thus pleasantly broken, the elder lady immediately returned to the subject she had just touched upon.
“I want to learn from you gentlemen which class you consider the safest for a young lady to travel by in Germany when journeying alone by rail. Some tell me,” she added, “that in the third class a young lady is less liable to meet with insult, because the carriages there are undivided into compartments, and some one is certain to be present to protect her.”
“For myself,” said Professor H, “I travel some thousands of miles by rail regularly every year, and I never knew an instance of any female having been rudely treated, but then I always take a second-class ticket; and you know, Madame Steindorf, our second-class carriages are as good as your first, and the company one meets in them quite as respectable.”
“Oh, yes!” chimed in the officers, “we all travel second-class.”
“Besides,” added the Baron von H, “I believe I may say without offence to so clever a lady of the world as yourself, Madame Steindorf, that our people are more polite than yours,” and the couple bowed to one another with extreme deference.
