with company which amused us in the highest degree. It consisted of
a mulatto family, and attracted all my attention. The wife, a
tolerably stout beauty of about thirty, was dressed out in a fashion
which, in my own country, no one, save a lady of an exceedingly
vulgar taste would ever think of adopting--all the valuables she
possessed in the world, she had got about her. Wherever it was
possible to stick anything of gold or silver, there it was sure to
be. A gown of heavy silk and a real cashmere enveloped her dark
brown body, and a charming little white silk bonnet looked very
comical placed upon her great heavy head. The husband and five
children were worthy of their respective wife and mother; and, in
fact, this excess of dress extended even to the nurse, a real
unadulterated negress, who was also overloaded with ornaments. On
one arm she had five and on the other six bracelets of stones,
pearls, and coral, but which, as far as I could judge, did not
strike me as being particularly genuine.

When the family rose to depart, two landaus, each with four horses,
drove up to the door, and man and wife, children and nurse, all
stepped in with the same majestic gravity.

As I was still looking after the carriages, which were rolling
rapidly towards the town, I saw some one on horseback nodding to me:
it was my friend, Herr Geiger. On hearing that we intended to
remain for the night where we were, he persuaded us to accompany him
to the estate of his father-in-law, which was situated close at
hand. In the latter gentleman, we made the acquaintance of a most
worthy and cheerful old man of seventy years of age, who, at that
period, was Directing Architect and Superintendant of the Fine Arts
under Government. We admired his beautiful garden and charming