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Madame. The General Graf Stubendorf's invitation to Lanny and Irma had been renewed, and

Kurt had written that they should by all means accept; not only would it be more pleasant for

Irma at the Schloss, but it would advantage the Meissners to have an old friend return as a guest

of Seine Hochgeboren. Lanny noted this with interest and explained it to his wife; what would

have been snobbery in America was loyalty in Silesia. The armies of Napoleon having never

reached that land, the feudal system still prevailed and rank was a reality.

Stubendorf being in Poland, the train had to stop, and luggage and passports to be examined.

The village itself was German, and only the poorer part of the peasantry was Polish. This made

a situation full of tension, and no German thought of it as anything but a truce. What the Poles

thought, Lanny didn't know, for he couldn't talk with them. In Berlin he had shown his wife a

comic paper and a cartoon portraying Poland as an enormous fat hog, being ridden by a French

army officer who was twisting the creature's tail to make it gallop and waving a saber to show

why he was in a hurry. Not exactly the Christmas spirit!

Irma Barnes Budd explored the feudal system, and found it not so different from the South

Shore of Long Island. She was met at the train by a limousine, which would have happened at

home. A five-story castle didn't awe her, for she had been living in one that was taller and

twice as broad. The lady who welcomed her was certainly no taller or broader than Mrs. Fanny

Barnes, and couldn't be more proud of her blood. The principal differences were, first, that the

sons and daughters of this Prussian family worked harder than any young people Irma had

ever known; and, second, there were uniforms and ceremonies expressive of rank and station.

Irma gave close attention to these, and her husband wondered if she was planning to introduce

them into the New World.

Visiting his father's home in Connecticut, Lanny had discovered that being married to a great

heiress had raised his social status; and now he observed the same phenomenon here. Persons

who through the years had paid no particular attention to him suddenly recognized that he was

a man of brilliant parts; even the Meissner family, whom he had known and loved since he was a

small boy, appeared to be seized with awe. Whereas formerly he had shared a bed in Kurt's

small room, he was now lodged in a sumptuous suite in the castle; the retainers and tenants all

took off their hats to him, and he no longer had to hear the gräflichen ideas explained second-

hand by Herr Meissner, but got them from the horse's mouth, as the saying is.

It was unfortunate that the ideas no longer impressed him as they did in the earlier years.

The General Graf was a typical Junker, active in the Nationalist party; his policies were limited

by the interests of his class. He did not let himself be influenced by the fact that his estate was

now in Poland; that was a temporary matter, soon to be remedied. He supported a tariff on

foodstuffs so that the German people would pay higher prices to landowners. He wanted his

coal mined, but he didn't want to pay the miners enough so that they could buy his food. He

wanted steel and chemicals and other products of industry, which required swarms of workers,

but he blamed them for trying to have a say as to the conditions of their lives, or indeed

whether they should live at all.

II

Fortunately it wasn't necessary to spend much time discussing politics. There was a great

deal of company, with music, dancing, and feasting. If the country products couldn't be sold

at a profit they might as well be eaten at home, so everyone did his best, and it was astounding

how they succeeded. Modern ideas of dietetics, like Napoleon, hadn't penetrated the feudalism

of Upper Silesia. It was the same regimen which had startled Lanny as a boy: a preliminary

breakfast with Dresdener Christstollen, a sort of bun with raisins inside and sugar on top; then

at half-past ten the "fork breakfast," when several kinds of meat were eaten—but without

interfering with anybody's appetite for lunch. An afternoon tea, only it was coffee, and then

an enormous dinner of eight or ten courses, served with the utmost formality by footmen in

satin uniforms. Finally, after cards, or music and dancing, it was unthinkable that one should

go to bed on an empty stomach. That meant six meals a day, and it produced vigorous and

sturdy young men, but when they came to middle age they had necks like bulls' and cheeks like

pelicans' and eyes almost closed by fat in the lids.

One discovery Lanny made very quickly: this was the life for which his wife had been created.

Nobody shouted at her, nobody confused her mind with strange ideas; everybody treated her

as a person of distinction, and found her charming, even brilliant. A world in which serenity

and poise counted; a world which didn't have to be changed! The Grafin became a second