Times Are Different I Suppose, But My Ideas
Can Never Change."
Now the dear Frau Generalin did not speak a word of English, and
as I had had only a few lessons in German before I left America,
I had the utmost difficulty at first in comprehending what she
said.
She spoke rapidly and I would listen with the closest
attention, only to give up in despair, and to say, "Gute Nacht,"
evening after evening, with my head buzzing and my mind a blank.
After a few weeks, however, I began to understand everything she
said, altho' I could not yet write or read the language, and I
listened with the greatest interest to the story of her marriage
with young Lieutenant Weste, of the bringing up of her four
children, and of the old days in Hanover, before the Prussians
took possession.
She described to me the brilliant Hanoverian Court, the endless
festivities and balls, the stately elegance of the old city, and
the cruel misfortunes of the King. And how, a few days after the
King's flight, the end of all things came to her; for she was
politely informed one evening, by a big Prussian major, that she
must seek other lodgings - he needed her quarters. At this point
she always wept, and I sympathized.
Thus I came to know military life in Germany, and I fell in love
with the army, with its brilliancy and its glitter, with its
struggles and its romance, with its sharp contrasts, its
deprivations, and its chivalry.
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