The Initials. Baroness Jemima Montgomery Tautphoeus
better medium of communication than your English, perhaps; but,” she added quickly, changing the subject, and speaking German, “tell me, did you observe the new arrivals at the table d’hôte to-day. Who are those two pretty girls?”
“Rosenthal, or Rosenberg, I believe, is their name.”
“A decided acquisition, so far as appearance is concerned. The one who sat beside Major Stultz at dinner is decidedly beautiful. Don’t you think so?”
“Yes, and Major Stultz thinks so too, I should think; he made prodigious efforts to be agreeable, but could neither obtain a smile nor look during dinner. Had I been in his place, I should have tried the other, who is very nearly as pretty, and seems quite disposed to receive any attentions offered to her. I saw her looking towards our end of the table more than once, but could not ascertain whether she looked at me or your friend there.”
“My friend seems rather disposed to appropriate the looks, if I may judge from that rising blush.”
“By no means,” cried Hamilton; “my acquaintance with the young lady is of very recent date.”
“I did not know there was any acquaintance whatever,” said A. Z.
“It scarcely deserves the name. We travelled part of the way from Munich together; their carriage was dreadfully crowded, and I proposed taking some of the travellers. Mademoiselle Crescenz, the nursery-maid, and a kicking boy, called Peppy, were consigned to my care.”
“Such civility was very unusual on the part of Englishmen; at least, our countrymen are here generally supposed to be selfish when travelling,” observing A. Z.
“Perhaps my motives were not quite free from an alloy of selfishness; I rather dreaded the ennui of a long afternoon alone in an uncomfortable carriage; and, besides, I was in search of an adventure.”
“How did it turn out?”
“Oh, we got on famously until we reached Seon; but from the moment Mademoiselle Crescenz saw her step-mother, her manner totally changed; so I concluded she intended to decline my acquaintance, now that I could be of no further use to her.”
“Your conclusion proved how very little you know of German girls in her rank of life.”
“Should one interpret these German girls by contraries?”
“Cela depend.”
“Perhaps, then, her sister intends to be very civil to me—our acquaintance began by her calling me a fool; and I overheard her saying to her sister that I seemed to have an uncommonly good opinion of myself, and looked like an overgrown schoolboy.”
“There is no possibility of mistaking such demonstrations,” said A. Z., smiling, and evidently controlling an inclination to laugh, extremely displeasing to Hamilton.
“You seem,” he said, somewhat distrustfully, “you seem amused—perhaps at my expressing your thoughts in the words of another person.”
“What I thought of you on your first appearance——”
“I already know. You thought me a long-legged, bashful animal; at least you said so to Baron Z—.”
“At that time I fancied I had a sort of right to criticise; and had you really proved to be John or Archy, as I had supposed, you might have often been favoured with equally flattering observations; I should have considered you a sort of relation, and you would, undoubtedly, have thought me a great bore. Now, the case is different, and I shall treat you with all possible respect; but you must allow me to laugh, and promise not to be offended at every idle word——”
“Offended!—oh, no! I should be extremely delighted if you would act towards me as if I were John or Archy.”
“You are too young to appreciate such treatment—and—I don’t feel disposed unnecessarily to undertake the part of mentor.”
“You fear the task would prove too troublesome?”
“Not exactly that—I rather like giving advice; but——”
“You think I should do you no credit!”
“I really do not know, nor do I mean to try. Your search for adventures may bring you into some embarrassments which may not always turn out so well as on the present occasion.”
“My good fortune on the present occasion has been so extraordinary, that I shall tempt fate no further; my plan is formed. I shall spend the winter in Munich, studying German and the Germans. In the domestic circle of a private family——”
“Where there are no boys?” asked A. Z.
“As a proof of my deference to your opinion, I shall make no objection even to five boys; and also promise to avoid a widow with unmarried daughters.”
“I have some hope of you now!”
“Will you then be my mentor during my sojourn in Germany?”
“No.”
“But you said you liked giving advice?”
“And so I do; it is, you know, the only thing that everybody is disposed to give, and nobody likes to take. Ask my advice, and I shall give it; although I know beforehand you will not make use of it.”
“Just as much as either John or Archy.”
“No such thing! My advice to them would have been enforced by a little delegated parental authority, not to mention the probability of their having, from hearsay, very exalted ideas of my wisdom.”
“I doubt if their ideas on that subject could possibly be more exalted than mine.”
“Very appropriately answered—you really are an extremely promising young man.”
Hamilton bit his lip and blushed; there was something in her manner so mocking, so unequivocally ironical, that he felt mortified—his silent irritation betraying itself in spite of all his endeavours at concealment.
“You are offended,” she observed, quietly, after a pause, “and offended without any cause. I have, all my life, had a particular antipathy to very young men—it is quite impossible to talk to them without making remarks which they consider derogatory to their dignity. I did not mean to annoy you, and recall my words; instead of a promising, I now think you an irritable young man. Does that please you better?”
“Infinitely better,” he answered, laughing; “if not the words, certainly the manner is preferable. I can bear anything but being turned into ridicule.”
“What you now call ridicule will a few years hence take the name of badinage; but let us talk of something else, or still better—suppose we read. Here is the Allgemeine Zeitung, or Blackwood’s Magazine.”
“Do you take Blackwood’s?” inquired Hamilton.
“I get it and any books I wish for from the royal library. No one can be more magnificently liberal than the King of Bavaria, in this respect. When you go to Munich, your banker can sign papers making himself answerable for any books which may be lost or injured while in your possession; and this is the only formality necessary to insure you the unlimited use of a library containing upwards of eight hundred thousand volumes.”
“But you do not mean to say that I, a foreigner, may take the books home with me?”
“Your ideas are too English to comprehend such liberality, and so were mine when I first came to Munich; but the fact is, you may take the books to your own apartment and read them at your leisure. Of course you must be careful not to injure them in any way.”
“But if many people enjoy this privilege, the books must be spoiled in time.”
“You think, perhaps, it would be wiser if the eight hundred thousand volumes were put into glass book-cases, and merely exhibited to strangers, instead of being placed at their disposition? As far as I can judge, however,