One day at dinner in Wilhelmshöhe one of the guests was a water-finder, and when, as usual, we all went out on the terrace, he produced his rod, a ramshackle affair like a piece of iron wire, and we were all invited to try our skill. Many of the gentlemen were frankly sceptical, and the only one of them with whom the rod made any definite movement was the worst unbeliever of them all. The Emperor was very annoyed at their unbelief, and said that he was going to send the gentleman with the divining-rod to South Africa, where he would be able to discover not only springs of water, but diamonds and gold. His Majesty had recently been gratified by the fresh discovery of small diamonds in German-African territory, and exhibited with great glee his cigarette-case in which they had been mounted. He explained to us all that they had been found, not, as is usual, embedded in blue clay, but lying on the surface loose in the sand, and that one of the German workers on the new railway had gathered up a handful in a few minutes. He also gave it as his opinion that they had blown along from some as yet undiscovered mine somewhere in the hills. I suggested in a whisper to the Princess, who was very triumphant over these German diamonds, that they had probably blown over the frontier from British territory, and she immediately communicated this theory of mine to her father. “No, no!” roared the Emperor in pretended anger. “Blew over from British territory indeed! nothing of the kind!” He scowled portentously and--as was his habit--shook a monitory finger in my direction. When the Court returned to _Neues Palais_ from Wilhelmshöhe after the Emperor returned from the great autumn manœuvres, as long as the fine weather lasted--and the autumn in Potsdam is wonderfully beautiful--he would make excursions on his little river steamer the _Alexandria_ along the beautiful chain of lakes which is one of the great charms of that district. The private landing-stage had been built by His Majesty of wood in quaint Norwegian style, with two large waiting-rooms and a wide balcony overlooking the water. Ranged on shelves round the rooms was every variety of Norwegian bowl; some brightly-painted red ones with dragon beak and tail, others very beautifully carved in Norwegian patterns. They had most of them been brought back from Norway by the Emperor himself. The chairs were of the uncompromisingly hard Norwegian peasant type, made entirely of wood and without any attempt at adaptation to human contours. The sailors who manned the _Alexandria_ were some of the crew of the _Hohenzollern_, and looked very smart in their white-duck uniforms.