charming gentleman, was killed early in the war.

The Berlin season lasts from about the twentieth of January for
about six weeks. It is short in duration because, if the
_hoffahig_ people stay longer than six weeks in Berlin, they
become liable to pay their local income tax in Berlin, where
the rate is higher than in those parts of Germany where they
have their country estates.

The first great court ceremonial is the _Schleppencour_,
so-called from the long trains or _Schleppen_ worn by the
women. On this night we "presented" Mr. and Mrs. Robert K. Cassatt
of Philadelphia, Mrs. Ernest Wiltsee, Mrs. and Miss Luce and
Mrs. Norman Whitehouse. On the arrival at the palace with these
and all the members of the Embassy Staff and their wives, we
were shown up a long stair-case, at the top of which a guard of
honour, dressed in costume of the time of Frederick the Great,
presented arms to all Ambassadors, and ruffled kettle-drums.
Through long lines of cadets from the military schools, dressed
as pages, in white, with short breeches and powdered wigs, we
passed through several rooms where all the people to pass in
review were gathered. Behind these, in a room about sixty feet by
fifty, on a throne facing the door were the Emperor and Empress,
and on the broad steps of this throne were the princes and their
wives, the court ladies-in-waiting and all the other members of
the court. The wives of the Ambassadors entered the room first,
followed at intervals of about twenty feet by the ladies of the
Embassy and the ladies to be presented. As they entered the room
and made a change of direction toward the throne, pages in white
straightened out the ladies' trains with long sticks. Arrived