DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62133#0234
218
AN ART-STUDENT IN MUNICH.
butcher or his baker; but in a very short time your eye
told you that there was in the room, as in the world at
large, a most subtle, almost imperceptible gradation of
rank, both conventional and moral! With the women it
was the same; from the diamond crown of the Queen to
the silver head-gear of the citizen maiden of the lower
class. It was to me a singular, almost affecting study.
But sentiment soon gave way to the intensest amuse-
ment, as one queer couple after another passed before us !
There a little fellow, in militia uniform, fairly waltzed
round “ a huge whale of a wife,” in a heavy black cotton
dress, gorgeous with brilliant flowers, while her head bore
the silver, swallow-tailed Munich cap; here a sentimental
maiden, in tawny muslin, clung to the arm of some gigantic
crane in regimentals. The most extraordinary costumes
presented themselves. All the cotton and stuff dresses
danced, while the muslins and satins looked on. And why
not ? All the middle-aged, elderly, nay, old people danced,
so at least it seemed to me, whilst the young looked on,
And why not ? I again asked myself—it was only my taste,
not my reason, that obj ected. There was the feeble Appleshoe
in brilliant red and blue, with spectacles on nose, and thin,
buff-coloured hah’, dancing away with his bony, but good-
natured wife, in black silk. I rather admired them. I
recognised, in various of the military figures, acquaintances
of mine. There, from that soldier I bought my winter
dress, from that ferocious little fellow a packet of charcoal
that very morning, and there was the modeller of a
beautiful statuette, from whom I shall make a purchase
one of these days.
I told you that we stood looking on from a good place,
which happened to be close to one of the grim lions guard-
ing the steps of the platform. As Prince Adelbert
returned to the aristocracy, he passed us, and having
danced with Ida at several balls this winter, and being a
AN ART-STUDENT IN MUNICH.
butcher or his baker; but in a very short time your eye
told you that there was in the room, as in the world at
large, a most subtle, almost imperceptible gradation of
rank, both conventional and moral! With the women it
was the same; from the diamond crown of the Queen to
the silver head-gear of the citizen maiden of the lower
class. It was to me a singular, almost affecting study.
But sentiment soon gave way to the intensest amuse-
ment, as one queer couple after another passed before us !
There a little fellow, in militia uniform, fairly waltzed
round “ a huge whale of a wife,” in a heavy black cotton
dress, gorgeous with brilliant flowers, while her head bore
the silver, swallow-tailed Munich cap; here a sentimental
maiden, in tawny muslin, clung to the arm of some gigantic
crane in regimentals. The most extraordinary costumes
presented themselves. All the cotton and stuff dresses
danced, while the muslins and satins looked on. And why
not ? All the middle-aged, elderly, nay, old people danced,
so at least it seemed to me, whilst the young looked on,
And why not ? I again asked myself—it was only my taste,
not my reason, that obj ected. There was the feeble Appleshoe
in brilliant red and blue, with spectacles on nose, and thin,
buff-coloured hah’, dancing away with his bony, but good-
natured wife, in black silk. I rather admired them. I
recognised, in various of the military figures, acquaintances
of mine. There, from that soldier I bought my winter
dress, from that ferocious little fellow a packet of charcoal
that very morning, and there was the modeller of a
beautiful statuette, from whom I shall make a purchase
one of these days.
I told you that we stood looking on from a good place,
which happened to be close to one of the grim lions guard-
ing the steps of the platform. As Prince Adelbert
returned to the aristocracy, he passed us, and having
danced with Ida at several balls this winter, and being a