For I Was Living In The Family Of General Weste, The Former
Stadt-Commandant Of Hanover, Who Had Served Fifty Years In The
Army And Had Accompanied King George On His Exit From The City.
He Was A Gallant Veteran, With The Rank Of General-Lieutenant,
Ausser Dienst.
A charming and dignified man, accepting
philosophically the fact that Hanover had become Prussian, but
loyal in his heart
To his King and to old Hanover; pretending
great wrath when, on the King's birthday, he found yellow and
white sand strewn before his door, but unable to conceal the
joyful gleam in his eye when he spoke of it.
The General's wife was the daughter of a burgomaster and had been
brought up in a neighboring town. She was a dear, kind soul.
The house-keeping was simple, but stately and precise, as
befitted the rank of this officer. The General was addressed by
the servants as Excellenz and his wife as Frau Excellenz. A
charming unmarried daughter lived at home, making, with myself, a
family of four.
Life was spent quietly, and every evening, after our coffee
(served in the living-room in winter, and in the garden in
summer), Frau Generalin would amuse me with descriptions of life
in her old home, and of how girls were brought up in her day; how
industry was esteemed by her mother the greatest virtue, and
idleness was punished as the most beguiling sin. She was never
allowed, she said, to read, even on Sunday, without her
knitting-work in her hands; and she would often sigh, and say to
me, in German (for dear Frau Generalin spoke no other tongue),
"Ach, Martha, you American girls are so differently brought up";
and I would say, "But, Frau Generalin, which way do you think is
the better?" She would then look puzzled, shrug her shoulders,
and often say, "Ach!
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