But I fall into the foreign ways, being so much with the foreigners." Whether she thought it the custom among "foreigners" for wives to lock their husbands in back kitchens was more than she ever took the trouble to explain.

But she walked away, in her stout, firm manner, and presently returned with Mr.Strouss, who seemed to be quite contented, and made me a bow with a very placid smile.
"He is harmless; his ideas are most grand and good," his wife explained to me, with a nod at him.

"But I could not have you in with the gentleman, Hans.

He always makes mistakes with the gentlemen, miss, but with the ladies he behaves quite well." "Yes, yes, with the ladies I am nearly always goot," Herr Strouss replied, with diffidence.

"The ladies comprehend me right, all right, because I am so habitual with my wife.