FEMININE HONOURS.

193

big namos having the least smack of dignity about them.But so it is—and in educated Prussia, too; where, if youbelieve the simple natives, every other man is either a poet orphilosopber!

If, however, such titles sound like insanity to those wholiave never lived in the country, assuredly they seem likedownright idiocy when you come to get a peep at thefeminine "Excellences" and " Magnificences " to whom theyare applied; for the titled ladies may be seen creeping in andout their rooms, tili twelve in the day, in their filthy chintzbed-jackets (white night-gowns being articles of luxury inwhich their " noblenesses" never ir.dulge), and with theirunkempt heads encased in night-caps that are worn for sixweeks at a Stretch — so as to save the necessity of washingthe pillow-cases oftener than once a-quarter.

Yet these same draggletail bits of beggarly pride, who lookneither as respectable nor as tidy in the morning as the cooksthat are seen cleaning the door-steps in the London streets, aresuch sticklers for their füll allowance of nominal dignity, thatwe have positively known a Mrs. Architectress give her maid-of-all-vvork warning for omitting to address her, while handingher a glass of water, as "most gracious madam." Nor is it un-usual for the wife of a petty official to call back a peasant, whohas happened to pass her in the garden without raising bis hat,and say to him, with a toss of her head, " Do you know, man,I am the Mrs. Medicinal-Councilloress, and yet you dare to goby me with your cap on ? "

Moreover, the daughters expect to be titulirt (betitled) aswell as the wives,—Standing out for their "gracious Fräulein"as vigorously as their tom-fool of a mother does for her "gnä-digste Frau.'" This, too, the young ladies demand, even whilehelping the servant to lay the cloth or make the beds,— for thetitled Misses are expected to save the expense of another do-

YOL. II. 0