Perhaps it was the happiest time of both their lives, indeed, if they

did but know it--and who does? Which of us can point out and say that

was the culmination--that was the summit of human joy? But at all

events, this couple were very decently contented, and enjoyed as

pleasant a summer tour as any pair that left England that year. Georgy

was always present at the play, but it was the Major who put Emmy's

shawl on after the entertainment; and in the walks and excursions the

young lad would be on ahead, and up a tower-stair or a tree, whilst the

soberer couple were below, the Major smoking his cigar with great

placidity and constancy, whilst Emmy sketched the site or the ruin. It

was on this very tour that I, the present writer of a history of which

every word is true, had the pleasure to see them first and to make

their acquaintance.

It was at the little comfortable Ducal town of Pumpernickel (that very

place where Sir Pitt Crawley had been so distinguished as an attache;

but that was in early early days, and before the news of the Battle of

Austerlitz sent all the English diplomatists in Germany to the right

about) that I first saw Colonel Dobbin and his party. They had arrived

with the carriage and courier at the Erbprinz Hotel, the best of the

town, and the whole party dined at the table d'hote. Everybody

remarked the majesty of Jos and the knowing way in which he sipped, or

rather sucked, the Johannisberger, which he ordered for dinner. The

little boy, too, we observed, had a famous appetite, and consumed

schinken, and braten, and kartoffeln, and cranberry jam, and salad, and

pudding, and roast fowls, and sweetmeats, with a gallantry that did

honour to his nation. After about fifteen dishes, he concluded the

repast with dessert, some of which he even carried out of doors, for

some young gentlemen at table, amused with his coolness and gallant

free-and-easy manner, induced him to pocket a handful of macaroons,

which he discussed on his way to the theatre, whither everybody went in

the cheery social little German place. The lady in black, the boy's

mamma, laughed and blushed, and looked exceedingly pleased and shy as

the dinner went on, and at the various feats and instances of

espieglerie on the part of her son. The Colonel--for so he became very

soon afterwards--I remember joked the boy with a great deal of grave

fun, pointing out dishes which he hadn't tried, and entreating him not

to baulk his appetite, but to have a second supply of this or that.




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