The Angel and the Author, and Others

d his

dd to their long list of masters. If among your acquaintances you can discover an American, or Englishman, unfamiliar with the continental official, it is worth your while to accompany him, the first time he goes out to post a letter, say. He

f egress, not of ingress. It does not seem to him worth while redescending the twenty steps and climbing another twenty. So far as he is concerned he is willing to pull the door

remarks over his shoulder. "

e twenty different windows confront your troubled friend, each one bearing its own particular legend. Starting with number one, he sets to work to spell them out. It appears to him that the posting of letters is not a thing that the German post-office desires to encourage. Wo

always wanting something. You read it in his face wherever you go. The man who sells you tickets

rning there have been a hundred. Always the same story: all of 'em want to come and see the play. You l

station it is

g there, what's the sense of it?" It is this absurd craze on the part of the public for letter-writing

ficial with another official for company, lest by sheer force of ennui he might be reduced to taking int

of an hour," advises the assis

s simply no getting rid of 'em. And it's always the same cry: 'Stamps! s

ts the assistant, with a burst of inspir

niform has, gene

he older man. "There will only come

hat will be a change, anyhow. I'

ice clerk once-a man I had be

day mooning round it, never putting pen to paper. But what am I to do? I have a wife and children. You know what it is yourself: they clamour for food, boots-all sorts of things. I have to prepare these little packets for sale and bring them to you to send off. You see, you are here. I

pened the door, instead of greeting me as formerly with a face t

e and address." Not expecting the question, he is a little doubtful of his addre

er?" continue

of w

fficial. "Had a mother

life of him he cannot recollect her name. He thinks it was Margaret Henrietta, but is not at all sure. Besides, w

die?" asks

what die

o, the

gnation of the officia

plains your friend, "i

wha

etter,

e bureau for the registration of letters, and not the bureau for the registration of infanti

oblem. If your letter is sealed, it then ap

the eldest girl to see what Tommy was doing and tell him he mustn't. Your friend, having wasted half an hour and mislaid his temper for the day, decides to leave this thing over and talk to the hotel

ller's on

l shirts and a change of socks, we should be glad to get into fresh clothes before showing ourselves in civilized society. Our bags were waiting for us in the post-office: we could see them through the grating. But some informality-I have

-which happened to be nice, clean, respectable-looking bags, the sort of bags that anyone might want. One of them produced a bit of paper, it is true, which he said had been given to him as a receipt by the post-office people at Constance. But in the lonely passes of the Tyrol one man, set upon by three, might e

"this is my friend Mr

ed and said he

s to the post-office," I e

He did his best: no one could say he did not. He told them who we were: they asked him how he knew. For reply he asked them how they thought he knew his mother: he just knew us: it was s

oquent gesture: memory refused to travel back such distance. It appeared

nsulting. Everybody in Innsbruck knew us, honoured us, respected us-everybo

equest caused him to forget us and our troubles. The argument became a personal quarrel between the porter an

ge of being an

the porter's grandfather and a missing cow had never yet been satisfactorily replied to: and, from observations made by the porter, that stories were in circulation a

seem to be advancing our cause much. We left them quarrelling, and persuaded t

eliver up the bags, and he himself suggested a way out of the difficulty. We might come each day and dress in the post-office, behind the screen. It was an awkward arrangement, even although the clerk allowed us the use of the back door. And occasionally, in spit