Hildegarde, without an attempt at deprecation, lit a taper, and retiring to the other end of the room, where there was a thin-legged rickety table, she took from a cupboard the large house account-book, a hideous leaden ink-bottle, and a well-worn pen, and began to add and subtract with a diligence which would have put Hamilton’s temper to the proof, had not the Förster almost directly stood up to take leave; but the old man was now quite roused, and, moreover, disposed to be loquacious; he let his visitor stand before him in the awkward posture of a shy man, wishing to get away, and not knowing how to manage it, while he observed: “When people say the old times were good, and the present times are bad, I always feel obliged to contradict them. No offence, good Mr. Weidmann, but in my youth I have often heard just the same thing said, and in those times as in these, the greater part of mankind had to earn their bread in ‘the sweat of their face.’”
“I suppose so, sir,” said the Förster, trying to move, but restrained by the old man’s continuing to address him. “I wish you a good-night.”
“All I know is,” resumed Mr. Eisenmann, addressing Hamilton, “that Bavaria, of all the countries I have seen, appears to me to be the happiest. Of England I know nothing, excepting the manufacturing towns——”
“When were you there?” asked Hamilton.
“Soon after the peace—I went there on business.”
“And what did you think of England? I should like to know what impression was made on you by our great manufacturing districts?”
“I saw much to admire, but nothing to make me think the English a happier people than the Bavarians,” replied Mr. Eisenmann, with a low, satisfied laugh. “I would rather have been born a smith here than there, for, besides the instructions which I received for nothing in my childhood, I had, during my youth, my Sunday and holiday pleasures, my merry dances, and my pot of beer in good company, and with good music, too, of an evening—and a lot of other things of which your English workmen had not an idea when I was amongst them. It may be different now——”
“I am afraid it is not,” said Hamilton; “but surely our manufactories must have astonished you!”
“I should have understood very little of my business if they had not,” replied Mr. Eisenmann. “In this respect England is a giantess, but, like a giantess, ought to be admired at a distance and not examined in detail.”
“I perceive,” said Hamilton, “that the people with whom you associated have made an unpleasant impression on you.”