Every year on her birthday the Wunderfrau gives a village entertainment followed by a rural ball. She invited us to a grand dinner during which a military band, imported from Munich, played marches and lively airs. After the repast we went to see the country-dance on the common. The merry-go-round was in all activity. The Wunderfrau, surrounded by her guests, was sitting on the grass, dowdily dressed and loaded with false jewellery; her black silk dress was fastened at the throat by a brooch the size of a saucer, which contained the effigy of her late husband. There was a long file of tables laid out with dishes and bottles. Village youths and maidens had come from all around, dressed in their Sunday best. The lads, their vests hanging on one shoulder and their large-brimmed hats cocked on one ear, sat before large bocks, filling themselves steadily with beer and flirting with their sweethearts, talking and laughing uproariously. When it began to get dark there were dances in the big barn. Our cook and laundress opened the ball, swinging round the three-step waltz to the music of _Ach mein lieber Augustin_ played by rural musicians. After them the whole company began whirling and twirling with shrill shrieks of merriment. We were very much amused by the gambols of these rustics. The lads in their thick boots and country clothes, carrying their partners clasped to their bosom like packets, were careering round, stamping the floor loudly with their nailed heels. We were much surprised to see among the dancers our doctoress, red and panting, turning round like a weather-cock, embraced by a ruddy-faced youth. All of a sudden the boys, brisked up by some glasses of wine, separated from the girls and began to turn somersaults, tapping themselves noisily on the thighs, at which Countess Platen, a Swedish lady who lived in our Sanatorium and gave tone to everything, gathered up her skirts majestically and swept out queen-like, bearing her head high and stepping as though she was mistress of the whole fair earth, followed by her satellites. The days passed with despairing monotony. With admirable patience we were persevering in our cure, and took our medicine, our bath, our massage with great resignation. We shall finish our treatment in about a fortnight and have decided to go and take sea-baths at the Isle of Wight. The day of our departure arrived at last. When taking leave of us the doctoress presented me with an enormous bouquet. Our train was crammed, and we were closely packed in our compartment, when the door was flung open and a breathless, panting lady of colossal dimensions, pushing parcels before her, clambered in, walking on everybody’s toes. That fat creature had undergone a cure in our Sanatorium, and was also provided with a bouquet, only of much smaller dimensions than mine, because she had been a second-class boarder.