servants, of whom each knew and fulfilled his particular duty. A _valet
de chambre_ showed me into a very splendid and comfortable suite of
rooms, consisting of a reception-room, sitting-room, work-room, bed-,
dressing-, and bathroom, all furnished in the choicest and most
practical way, and I was delighted to see that, although all was rich
and costly, none of the offensive and pretentious pomp of the ordinary
millionaire's house met my eye.

The valet, an Alsacian, who talked to me in German--perhaps with the
notion of paying me a compliment--informed me that he was entirely at my
own service. He showed me a beautiful escritoire in the work-room, with
everything ready for writing purposes, and told me that, in the
reading-room attached, I should find an assortment of newspapers. He
then quickly and skilfully prepared me a bath, unpacked and arranged my
things, and helped me to dress. He was altogether a wonderfully nice
fellow.

When the valet left me, I went into the reading-room, and looked at the
newspapers. I found quite a number of them--French, English, Italian,
and one German; but still I was a little disappointed. I had half
expected to find a Hungarian paper, and there was none.

The library contained a choice collection of books; works of science,
philosophy, history, poetry, and fiction--of the latter, only a small
and select number. Here also was no Hungarian author to be found; not
even the translation of a Hungarian book could I detect, although I
looked into every one--French, German, English, and Italian, and even
some Spanish and Danish ones.

From the reading-room opened the billiard-room, a handsome apartment.