Even after I had acquired full confidence, and no longer needed the agent’s help, I sometimes encountered difficulties.  Once at Baden-Baden I nearly lost a train because I could not be sure that three young ladies opposite me at table were Germans, since I had not heard them speak; they might be American, they might be English, it was not safe to venture a bow; but just as I had got that far with my thought, one of them began a German remark, to my great relief and gratitude; and before she got out her third word, our bows had been delivered and graciously returned, and we were off.

There is a friendly something about the German character which is very winning.  When Harris and I were making a pedestrian tour through the Black Forest, we stopped at a little country inn for dinner one day; two young ladies and a young gentleman entered and sat down opposite us.  They were pedestrians, too.  Our knapsacks were strapped upon our backs, but they had a sturdy youth along to carry theirs for them.  All parties were hungry, so there was no talking.  By and by the usual bows were exchanged, and we separated.

As we sat at a late breakfast in the hotel at Allerheiligen, next morning, these young people and took places near us without observing us; but presently they saw us and at once bowed and smiled; not ceremoniously, but with the gratified look of people who have found acquaintances where they were expecting strangers.  Then they spoke of the weather and the roads.  We also spoke of the weather and the roads.  Next, they said they had had an enjoyable walk, notwithstanding the weather.  We said that that had been our case, too.  Then they said they had walked thirty English miles the day before, and asked how many we had walked.  I could not lie, so I told Harris to do it.  Harris told them we had made thirty English miles, too.  That was true; we had “made” them, though we had had a little assistance here and there.

After breakfast they found us trying to blast some information out of the dumb hotel clerk about routes, and observing that we were not succeeding pretty well, they went and got their maps and things, and pointed out and explained our course so clearly that even a New York detective could have followed it.  And when we started they spoke out a hearty good-by and wished us a pleasant journey.  Perhaps they were more generous with us than they might have been with native wayfarers because we were a forlorn lot and in a strange land; I don’t know; I only know it was lovely to be treated so.

Very well, I took an American young lady to one of the fine balls in Baden-Baden, one night, and at the entrance-door upstairs we were halted by an official—­something about Miss Jones’s dress was not according to rule; I don’t remember what it was, now; something was wanting—­her back hair, or a shawl, or a fan, or a shovel, or something.  The official was ever so polite, and every so sorry, but the rule was strict, and he could not let us in.  It was very embarrassing, for many eyes were on us.  But now a richly dressed girl stepped out of the ballroom, inquired into the trouble, and said she could fix it in a moment.  She took Miss Jones to the robing-room, and soon brought her back in regulation trim, and then we entered the ballroom with this benefactress unchallenged.