The Count obeyed, but held the cup in his hand. The Emperor coming up to them remarked: “Why, Gneisenau, you are not drinking your coffee!”
The Count murmured a few words of excuse. “Well, you might at least look at the cup!”
Gneisenau did so. Tears of emotion dimmed his eyes. On the cup was the portrait of his father. With a benevolent smile, the Emperor said:
“I saw that cup this morning in one of the stalls of the promenade and bought it for you! You must always drink out of it.”
Socks with Knots
The little Princess Feodora, of Sachsen-Meiningen, a great-granddaughter of Emperor William I, was learning to knit, and the first thing she wanted to do was to knit a pair of warm socks for her beloved great-grandpapa at Berlin. In a few weeks the task was accomplished and the gift sent off. It pleased the Emperor so much that he insisted on putting the socks on at once.
During the evening it was noticed that his face looked drawn, as if he was in pain; but on being asked if he was ill, he said smilingly:
“Do not worry, I am all right; but Feodora has made such a lot of immense hard knots in her socks, that I feel as if I were screwed into one of the old instruments of the inquisition!”
A Cause for Thankfulness
A general once asked the Emperor for a detachment of cavalry, for service at the capital of his province. Laughing, the Emperor said: