Clara’s pious remark is the main detail, and Susy has accurately remembered its phrasing. The three-year-older’s wound was of a formidable sort, and not one which the mother’s surgery would have been equal to. The flesh of the finger had been burst by a [begin page 310] cruel accident. ItⒶtextual note was the doctor that sewed it up, and to all appearances it was he, and the other independent witnesses, that did the main part of the suffering; each stitch that he took made Clara wince slightly,Ⓐtextual note but it shriveled the othersⒺexplanatory note.

I take pride in Clara’s remark, because it shows that although she was only three years old, her firesideⒶtextual note teachings were already making her a thinker—a thinker and also an observer of proportions. I am not claiming any credit for this. I furnished to the children worldly knowledge and wisdom, but was not competent to go higher, and so I left their spiritual education in the hands of the mother. A result of this modesty of mine was made manifest to me in a very striking way, some years afterward, when Jean was nine years old. We had recently arrived in Berlin, at the time, and had begun housekeeping in a furnished apartment. One morning at breakfast a vast card arrived—an invitation. To be precise, it was a command from the Emperor of Germany to come to dinner. During several months I had encountered socially, on the Continent, men bearing lofty titles; and all this while Jean was becoming more and more impressed, and awed, and subdued, by these imposing events, for she had not been abroad before, and they were new to her—wonders out of dreamland turned into realities. The imperial card was passed from hand to hand, around the table, and examined with interest; when it reached Jean she exhibited excitement and emotion, but for a time was quite speechless; then she said,

“Why papa, if it keeps going on like this, pretty soon there won’t be anybody left for you to get acquainted with but GodⒺexplanatory note.”

It was not complimentary to think I was not acquainted in that quarter, but she was young, and the young jump to conclusions without reflection.Ⓐtextual note

Necessarily, I did myself the honor to obey the command of the Emperor Wilhelm II. Prince Heinrich, and sixⒶtextual note or eight other guestsⒺexplanatory note were present. The EmperorⒶtextual note did most of the talking, and he talked well, and in faultless English. In both of these conspicuousnesses I was gratified to recognize a resemblance to myself—a very exact resemblance; no, almost exact, but not quite that—a modified exactness, with the advantage in favor of the EmperorⒶtextual note. My English, like his, is nearlyⒶtextual note faultless; like him I talk well; andⒶtextual note when I have guests at dinner I prefer to do all the talking myself. It is the best way, and the pleasantest. Also the most profitable for the others.Ⓐtextual note

I was greatly pleased to perceive that hisⒶtextual note Majesty was familiar with my books, and that his attitude toward them was not uncomplimentary. In the course of his talk he said that my best and most valuable book was “Old Times on the Mississippi.” I will refer to that remark again, presentlyⒺexplanatory note.

An official who was well up in the Foreign Office at that time, and had served under Bismarck for fourteen years, was still occupying his old place,Ⓐtextual note under ChancellorⒶtextual note Caprivi.Ⓐtextual note Smith, I will call himⒺexplanatory note of whom I am speaking,Ⓐtextual note though that is not his name. He was a special friend of mine, and I greatly enjoyed his society, although in order to have it itⒶtextual note was necessary for me to seek it as late as midnight, and not earlier. This was because government officials of his rank had to work all day, after nine in the morning, and then attend official banquets in the evening; wherefore they were usually unable to get life-restoring fresh air and exercise for their jaded minds and bodies earlier than [begin page 311] midnight; then they turned out, in groups of two or three, and gratefully and violently tramped the deserted streets until two in the morning. Smith had been in the governmentⒶtextual note service, at home and abroad, for more than thirty years, and he was now sixty years old, or close upon it. He could not remember a year in which he had had a vacation of more than a fortnight’s length; he was weary all throughⒶtextual note to the bones and the marrow, now, and was yearning for a holiday of a whole three months—yearning so longingly and so poignantlyⒶtextual note that he had at last made up his mind to make a desperate cast for it and stand the consequences, whatever they might be. It was against all rules to ask Ⓐtextual note for a vacation—quite against all etiquette; the shock of it would paralyseⒶtextual note the Chancellery; stern etiquette and usage required another form:Ⓐtextual note the applicant was not privileged to ask for a vacation:Ⓐtextual note he must send in his resignation Ⓐtextual note. The chancellor would know that the applicant was not reallyⒶtextual note trying to resign, and didn’t want to resign, but was merely trying in this left-handed way to get a vacation.

The night before the Emperor’sⒶtextual note dinner I helped Smith take his exercise, after midnight, and he was full of his project. He had sent in his resignation that day, and was trembling for the result; and naturally, because it might possibly be that the chancellor would be happy to fill his place with somebody else, in which case he could accept the resignation without comment and without offenceⒶtextual note. Smith was in a very anxious frame of mind; not that he feared that Caprivi was dissatisfied with him, for he had no such fear; it was the EmperorⒶtextual note that he was afraid of; he did not know how he stood with the EmperorⒶtextual note. He said that while apparently it was Caprivi who would decide his case, it was in reality the EmperorⒶtextual note who would perform that service; that the EmperorⒶtextual note kept personal watch upon everything, and that no official sparrow could fall to the ground without his privity and consent; that theⒶtextual note resignation would be laid before hisⒶtextual note Majesty, who would accept it or decline to accept it, according to his pleasure, and that then his pleasure in the matter would be communicated by Caprivi. Smith said he would know his fate the next evening, after the imperial dinner; that when I should escort and protectⒶtextual note hisⒶtextual note Majesty into the large salon contiguous to the dining roomⒶtextual note, I would find there about thirty men—cabinetⒶtextual note ministers, admirals, generals, and other great officials of the Empire—and that these men would be standing talking together in little separate groups of two or three persons; that the EmperorⒶtextual note would move from group to group and say a word to each, sometimes two words, sometimes ten words; and that the length of his speech, whether brief or not so brief, would indicate the exact standing in the Emperor’sⒶtextual note regard, of the man accosted; and that by observing this thermometer an expert could tell, to half a degree, the state of the imperial thermometer in each case; that in Berlin, as in the imperial days of Rome, the EmperorⒶtextual note was the sun, and that his smile or his frown meant good fortuneⒶtextual note or disaster to the man upon whom it should fall. Smith suggested that I watch the thermometer while the EmperorⒶtextual note went his rounds of the groups, and said that if hisⒶtextual note Majesty talked four minutes with any person there present, it meant high favor, and that the sun was in the zenith, and cloudless, for that man.

I mentally recorded that four-minute altitude, and resolved to see if any man there on that night stood in sufficient favor to achieve it.

Very well. After the dinner I watched the EmperorⒶtextual note while he passed from group to group, and privately I timed him with a watch. Two or three times he came near to reaching the four-minute altitude, but always he fell short a little. The last man he came to was Smith. He put his hand on Smith’s shoulder and began to talk to him; and when he finished, the thermometer had scored seven minutes! The company thenⒶtextual note moved toward the smoking-room, where cigars, beer, and anecdotes would be in brisk service until midnight, and as Smith passed me he whispered,

“That settles it. The chancellor will ask me how much of a vacation I want, and I shan’tⒶtextual note be afraid to raise the limit. I shall call for six months.”