Page:The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz (Volume One).djvu/388

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THE REMINISCENCES OF CARL SCHURZ

After this was done the waiter conducted us into a spacious sleeping apartment with two beds, the enormous size of which astonished us. The next morning we bade farewell to our kind host, grateful to him for having tolerated in his house two such uncanny looking guests, without luggage and with a vocabulary of only two English words.

Now we called at the counting-house of Mr. McLaren, in whom we found a very pleasant and polite gentleman, speaking German fluently. Letters from Mr. Brockelmann had told him everything about Kinkel and myself; he therefore greeted us with much cordiality, insisted on having our luggage taken from the “Little Anna” to his residence, and upon devoting himself entirely to us so long as we might choose to remain in Edinburgh. In McLaren's counting house we took leave of the good Captain Niemann. I have never seen him again, but many years afterwards I learned that he had perished on the North Sea in a heavy winter gale.

After having bought some presentable clothing and decent hats, thus acquiring an appearance similar to that of other men, we accepted Mr. McLaren's invitation to see Holyrood and to dine at his house, whereupon we took the night train for London.

There we were accredited by Brockelmann to the banking house of Hambro & Son. The chief of the house placed one of his clerks at our disposal, a young gentleman from Frankfurt, Mr. Verhuven, who during our sojourn in London was to devote his whole time to us. He was an exceedingly agreeable companion, and with him we hurried during several days from morning until night from place to place to see the great sights of London. In this way we missed the many visitors who left their cards at our hotel, the “London Coffee House.” Among these we found that of Charles Dickens. His ac-

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