Of course no one is permitted to invite any of the archduchesses or foreign princesses of the blood who may happen to be present to dance.  It is they who have the privilege of taking the first step in the matter.  Whenever they desire to dance with any man they cause him to be notified of their wish by their chamberlain in attendance.  The cavalier thus honored is obliged to consider this intimation in the nature of a command, and all engagements with fair partners of a less exalted rank, are annulled thereby.

Refreshments are served for the ordinary guests in the “Pietra-Dura” room, where a superb buffet is set, the tables glittering with gold plate and Venetian glass.  For the imperial princes and princesses the Hall of Mirrors is generally reserved, and there the scene is even still more magnificent.  By midnight all is over.  The court has retired with the same ceremonial that marked its arrival, and the guests are looking for their wraps and cloaks.  All court entertainments at Vienna begin early and end early, so as not to interfere unduly with the emperor’s practice of rising at about five o’clock in the morning.

One of the features of the great court functions at Berlin, as well as at Vienna, which excites the greatest surprise of Americans visiting Europe for the first time, is that particular form of homage accorded to royalty which consists in the kissing of the hand or “handkuss.”  Not only the hands of the royal and imperial ladies are required by etiquette to be kissed when offered to gentlemen, but it is also considered necessary for both men and women to kiss the hand of the sovereign when he condescends to extend it for the purpose.  This seems, perhaps, less odd at Vienna, as the emperor is a septuagenarian with snow-white hair and a sad and kindly face, inspiring feelings of sympathy and loyal affection.  Indeed there is nothing out of the way in a young girl, and even a man of mature years, kissing the hand of a veteran of the age of Francis-Joseph, just as if he were their father.  But it certainly does appear strange to those from across the Atlantic who are obtaining their first insight into European court life, to see not only grey-haired generals, and white-whiskered statesmen, but also venerable ladies,—­grandmothers perhaps—­and belonging to the highest ranks of the nobility kissing the hand of Emperor William.

It has always seemed to me that William must have realized for the first time his altered rank when old Field-Marshal Moltke, and the late Prince Bismarck, on hailing him as emperor within a few hours after his father’s death, bent down to kiss his hand.  This took place more or less in private.  But shortly afterwards, when he opened the imperial parliament for the first time as emperor, in the presence of most of the German sovereigns who had come to Berlin for the purpose, and had finished reading his speech, and handed it to the chancellor of the empire, old Bismarck, as he took it, bent almost double to kiss the hand that was tendering the document to him, in the presence of the princes and representatives of the entire German empire.