‘The more you put in the better it will be,’ answered Hamilton, without moving. ‘Shall I put in all that is in this paper?’ Hamilton nodded, and the tea was made. ‘Ought it not to boil a little now?’ ‘By no means.’ ‘Perhaps,’ said Walburg, ‘a little piece of vanille would improve the taste.’ ‘On no account,’ said Hamilton. ‘The best thing to give it a flavour is rum,’ observed Madame Berger. ‘I forbid the rum, though I must say the idea is not bad,’ said Hamilton, laughing. Hildegarde put the tea-pot on a little tray, and left the kitchen just as her stepmother entered it. His tea was unanimously praised, but Madame Rosenberg exhibited some natural consternation on hearing that the whole contents of her paper cornet, with which she had expected to regale her friends at least half-a-dozen times, had been inconsiderately emptied at once into the tea-pot! ‘It was no wonder the tea was good! English tea, indeed! Any one could make tea after that fashion! But then, to be sure, English people never thought about what anything cost. For her part, she found the tea bitter, and recommended a spoonful or two of rum.’ On her producing a little green bottle, the company assembled around her with their tea-cups, and she administered to each one two or three spoonfuls as they desired.”[34] Here our limits compel us to stop. After staying a few days at Tütz we returned upon our steps, again saw our friends at Berlin, thence came to Cologne in one day, to Ghent the second, and to London the third. We fell in with the Peace deputies on their way from St Petersburg, and divers other accidents happened to us which our most patient readers will thank us for passing by. THE NATIONAL LIFE OF CHINA.