Every clerk will be eager to be up and strike a blow; and most Germans in the group, whatever they may babble of the firm over the walnuts and the wine, will rally round the national concern at the approach of difficulty.

They are so few--I am ashamed to give their number, it were to challenge contradiction--they are so few, and the amount of national capital buried at their feet is so vast, that we must not wonder if they seem oppressed with greatness and the sense of empire.

Other whites take part in our brabbles, while temper holds out, with a certain schoolboy entertainment.

In the Germans alone, no trace of humour is to be observed, and their solemnity is accompanied by a touchiness often beyond belief.

Patriotism flies in arms about a hen; and if you comment upon the colour of a Dutch umbrella, you have cast a stone against the German Emperor.