"Who knows? You thought I had great nautical talent; but let us get out of the jam and look for my brother, whom I just lost here. Are you alone?" "With my cousin." "You must introduce me to her. I have seen her 'Shepherd Boy' down stairs--charming! I have just learned from my brother that your cousin did it, and that we are neighbors, and all that.--Where is she?" "I have been looking around for her, but can't find her." "Well, that's jolly! Two children lost in this forest of people! I am really afraid." She wasn't afraid.--Reinhold saw that she wasn't; she was at home here; it was her world--one with which she was thoroughly acquainted, as he was with the sea. How skilfully and gracefully she worked her way through a group of ladies who were not disposed to move! How unconcernedly she nodded to the towering officer, who bowed to her from the farthest corner of the room, above the heads of several hundred people! How she could talk over her shoulder with him, who followed her only with difficulty, when he was at her side, until they reached the long narrow passage in which the engravings and water colors were exhibited. "I saw my brother go in here," she said. "There--no, that was von Saldern! Let us give him up! I shall find him soon--and you your cousin." "Not here, either." "It doesn't make any difference; she will not lack companions, any more than we. Let's chat a little until we find them; or do you want to look at pictures? There are a few excellent Passinis here." "I prefer to chat." "There is no better place to chat than at an exhibition, in the first days. One comes really to chat, to see one's acquaintances after the long summer when everybody is away, to scan the newest fashions which the banker's wife and daughters have brought back from Paris--we ladies of the officers don't play any rôle--one has an awful lot to do, and the pictures won't run away. You are going to spend the winter with us, my brother says?" "A few weeks at least." "Then you'll remain longer. You can't believe how interesting Berlin is in winter! And for you, too, who have the _entrée_ into so many circles! Your uncle entertains in grand style, my brother says, from whom I have all my wisdom; artists go and come--as a matter of course, when the daughter herself is an artist, and pretty besides! Is she really so pretty? I'm so curious! At our house it's more quiet, and a little monotonous--always the same people--officers--but there are some fine men among them who will appeal to you, and among the ladies a few lovely, beautiful women and girls. This is familiar talk. And then Miss von Strummin is coming--Mieting! She promised me to do so at Golmberg, with a thousand pledges, and has already written half a dozen letters on the subject--she writes every day--sometimes two letters a day; the last one was entirely about you." "That makes me curious."