Digitised Manuscripts and Books

ne cradually developed a thorough aversion to receptions of all kinds. When we settled in Vienna in the 'fifties' no am- % ount of coaxing could ever induce him to give a dance , and a stiff dinner now and then was the utmost concession he made to va) 4 7 : - in tio at 4 7“ ae oe. ee ae aa my Mother's requests. Even in the forties' the craftiest dip- Lomacy had to be employed by my Mother and Sisters to obtail. his consent to a ball, from which at the last minute he would ) he was still often plead some excuse to absent elt, -Yet comparatively amenable to his social duties and allowed recep- tions of various kinds. Though half=-a-century has elapsed since those days the impression these receptions made on m)} mind was so deep at the time that I could mention most of the names of the ladies who attended them ,and describe not only their appearance but their gowns and the turbans that some of them still wore. [The fashionable dinner hour was five , but my parents - a len alone dined later , and the evening parties began about ~ Wi . nine . To reward me when I was a@ good boy I was allowed to come down for a short while into the drawing-room, and I enjoy- ed nothing so much as looking at the smart folk , while indul- t ging my tast dg Q > for ices and sweetmeats which , after the German custom , were handed round on trays. Baroness Vrints, sister of Count Buol sometime Prime Minister of Austria , was the leader of Frankfort society. A » tall, dark, gaunt woman with a voice like a turkey when it sae and a swelling in her neck like the wattle of that 1 bird, she was inclined to assume superior airs , but she was clever amiable and hospitable . Both she and her eldest a => vgons oe BE SE SIS IPS