He has
brought her in here to give her a treat. He will let her have her
talk out while he drinks. Heavens! how she does talk! She talks
without movement, without expression; her voice never varies, it
flows on, and on, and on, like a great resistless river. Four young
artisans come clamping along in their hob-nailed boots, and seating
themselves at one of the rude wooden tables, call for beer. With
their arms round the waist of the utterly indifferent Fraulein, they
shout and laugh and sing. Nearly all the young folks here are
laughing - looking forward to life. All the old folks are talking,
remembering it.
What grand pictures some of these old, seared faces round us would
make, if a man could only paint them - paint all that is in them, all
the tragedy - and comedy that the great playwright, Life, has written
upon the withered skins! Joys and sorrows, sordid hopes and fears,
child-like strivings to be good, mean selfishness and grand
unselfishness, have helped to fashion these old wrinkled faces. The
curves of cunning and kindliness lurk round these fading eyes. The
lines of greed hover about these bloodless lips, that have so often
been tight-pressed in patient heroism.
SUNDAY, 25TH - CONTINUED
We Dine. - A Curious Dish. - "A Feeling of Sadness Comes O'er Me." -
The German Cigar. - The Handsomest Match in Europe. - "How Easy 'tis
for Friends to Drift Apart," especially in a place like Munich
Railway Station. - The Victim of Fate. - A Faithful Bradshaw. - Among
the Mountains. - Prince and Pauper. - A Modern Romance. - Arrival at
Oberau. - Wise and Foolish Pilgrims. - An Interesting Drive. - Ettal
and its Monastery. - We Reach the Goal of our Pilgrimage.
At one o'clock we turned into a restaurant for dinner. The Germans
themselves always dine in the middle of the day, and a very
substantial meal they make of it. At the hotels frequented by
tourists table d'hote is, during the season, fixed for about six or
seven, but this is only done to meet the views of foreign customers.
I mention that we had dinner, not because I think that the
information will prove exciting to the reader, but because I wish to
warn my countrymen, travelling in Germany, against undue indulgence
in Liptauer cheese.
I am fond of cheese, and of trying new varieties of cheese; so that
when I looked down the cheese department of the bill of fare, and
came across "liptauer garnit," an article of diet I had never before
heard of, I determined to sample it.
It was not a tempting-looking cheese. It was an unhealthy, sad-
looking cheese. It looked like a cheese that had seen trouble. In
appearance it resembled putty more than anything else.
