train, once the property of the Duchess of Dessau. Still we heard
nothing from our friend Moller, and we were obliged to wait on
from day to day for the sorely needed help from Konigsberg, and
at last, one dark day, we pledged our wedding rings. When all
hope of assistance seemed vain, I heard that the pawn-tickets
themselves were of some value, as they could be sold to buyers,
who thereby acquired the right to redeem the pawned articles. I
had to resort even to this, and thus the blue court-dress, for
instance, was lost for ever. Moller never wrote again. When later
on he called on me at the time of my conductorship in Dresden, he
admitted that he had been embittered against me owing to
humiliating and derogatory remarks we were said to have made
about him after we parted, and had resolved not to have anything
further to do with us. We were certain of our innocence in the
matter, and very grieved at having, through pure slander, lost
the chance of such assistance in our great need.

At the beginning of our pecuniary difficulties we sustained a
loss which we looked upon as providential, in spite of the grief
it caused us. This was our beautiful dog, which we had managed to
bring across to Paris with endless difficulty. As he was a very
valuable animal, and attracted much attention, he had probably
been stolen. In spite of the terrible state of the traffic in
Paris, he had always found his way home in the same clever manner
in which he had mastered the difficulties of the London streets.
Quite at the beginning of our stay in Paris he had often gone off
by himself to the gardens of the Palais Royal, where he used to
meet many of his friends, and had returned safe and sound after a
brilliant exhibition of swimming and retrieving before an
audience of gutter children. At the Quai du Pont-neuf he