loss of time in an English port could only incommode him, inasmuch
as the study of English institutions was no part of his mission. On
the other hand the day was charming; the blue sea, in Southampton
Water, pricked all over with light, had no movement but that of its
infinite shimmer. Moreover he was by no means sure that he should
be happy in the United States, where doubtless he should find
himself soon enough disembarked. He knew that this was not an
important question and that happiness was an unscientific term, such
as a man of his education should be ashamed to use even in the
silence of his thoughts. Lost none the less in the inconsiderate
crowd and feeling himself neither in his own country nor in that to
which he was in a manner accredited, he was reduced to his mere
personality; so that during the hour, to save his importance, he
cultivated such ground as lay in sight for a judgement of this delay
to which the German steamer was subjected in English waters.
Mightn't it be proved, facts, figures and documents--or at least
watch--in hand, considerably greater than the occasion demanded?

Count Vogelstein was still young enough in diplomacy to think it
necessary to have opinions. He had a good many indeed which had
been formed without difficulty; they had been received ready-made
from a line of ancestors who knew what they liked. This was of
course--and under pressure, being candid, he would have admitted it
--an unscientific way of furnishing one's mind. Our young man was a
stiff conservative, a Junker of Junkers; he thought modern democracy
a temporary phase and expected to find many arguments against it in
the great Republic. In regard to these things it was a pleasure to
him to feel that, with his complete training, he had been taught
thoroughly to appreciate the nature of evidence. The ship was
heavily laden with German emigrants, whose mission in the United