DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62134#0153
A CHRISTMAS-TREE IN A BEAUTIFUL HOME.
145
its every twig and bough loaded with fruits, and cakes, and
gilded bon-bons, its hundreds of bright tapers, like flowers
of fire, glittering and gleaming, and casting a brilliant
illumination upon the frescoes by Kaulbach, and the lux-
uriant festoons of flowers and leafage by Neureuther, which
decorate the walls, upon the divan of scarlet silk which
runs along one side of the saloon, upon the nine Egyptians,
upon the stately fair-haired mother and her five fair daugh-
ters, upon the little boys in their black velvet tunics, and
upon the other groups of guests. There was a universal
exclamation of delight.
And the smiling blush-rose, Hildegard, presented to each
guest a graceful little present from the tree : one received
a gaily-gilt case of bon-bons tied with red ribbon; another
a queer little fishing-basket filled with chocolate fish; and
so on.
People had subsided into conversation, when a gentle-
man, short in stature, but with an extraordinary fine head
and strongly-marked features, entered the room. Hein-
rich von-, who was talking with Isabel and myself,
suddenly started up, and with much empressement conducted
him to his mother.
“ Do you know who that is ?” asked he, returning to
us.
“No,” we replied.
“ It is,” pursued our friend, “ the great traveller Eall-
merayer, the man alone second to Humboldt; he is Knight
of the Bath, and possesses almost every decoration from
almost every court in Europe, but to-night he only wears
one decoration—did not you notice it suspended round his
neck by a scarlet band ? That decoration was bestowed
upon him by the Grand Sultan : three decorations of this
order alone exist: the decoration is a golden full-moon
VOL. II. L
145
its every twig and bough loaded with fruits, and cakes, and
gilded bon-bons, its hundreds of bright tapers, like flowers
of fire, glittering and gleaming, and casting a brilliant
illumination upon the frescoes by Kaulbach, and the lux-
uriant festoons of flowers and leafage by Neureuther, which
decorate the walls, upon the divan of scarlet silk which
runs along one side of the saloon, upon the nine Egyptians,
upon the stately fair-haired mother and her five fair daugh-
ters, upon the little boys in their black velvet tunics, and
upon the other groups of guests. There was a universal
exclamation of delight.
And the smiling blush-rose, Hildegard, presented to each
guest a graceful little present from the tree : one received
a gaily-gilt case of bon-bons tied with red ribbon; another
a queer little fishing-basket filled with chocolate fish; and
so on.
People had subsided into conversation, when a gentle-
man, short in stature, but with an extraordinary fine head
and strongly-marked features, entered the room. Hein-
rich von-, who was talking with Isabel and myself,
suddenly started up, and with much empressement conducted
him to his mother.
“ Do you know who that is ?” asked he, returning to
us.
“No,” we replied.
“ It is,” pursued our friend, “ the great traveller Eall-
merayer, the man alone second to Humboldt; he is Knight
of the Bath, and possesses almost every decoration from
almost every court in Europe, but to-night he only wears
one decoration—did not you notice it suspended round his
neck by a scarlet band ? That decoration was bestowed
upon him by the Grand Sultan : three decorations of this
order alone exist: the decoration is a golden full-moon
VOL. II. L