To this hour, we have never
discovered who our strange visitant was.
It is a very mysterious affair, and I am glad we are going away.
We have been travelling about a good deal since we left Munich. We
went first to Heidelberg. We arrived early in the morning at
Heidelberg, after an all-night journey, and the first thing that the
proprietor of the Royal suggested, on seeing us, was that we should
have a bath. We consented to the operation, and were each shown
into a little marble bath-room, in which I felt like a bit out of a
picture by Alma Tadema.
The bath was very refreshing; but I should have enjoyed the whole
thing much better if they had provided me with something more
suitable to wipe upon than a thin linen sheet. The Germans hold
very curious notions as to the needs and requirements of a wet man.
I wish they would occasionally wash and bath themselves, and then
they would, perhaps, obtain more practical ideas upon the subject.
I have wiped upon a sheet in cases of emergency, and so I have upon
a pair of socks; but there is no doubt that the proper thing is a
towel. To dry oneself upon a sheet needs special training and
unusual agility. A Nautch Girl or a Dancing Dervish would, no
doubt, get through the performance with credit.
