The Kaiser went to a dinner given in his honor at the Y's.... Johan, Frederick, Nina, and I were among the guests. At the end of the rather long dinner a little episode happened which shows how quick the Emperor is to understand a situation and perceive its humorous side. According to custom, the Emperor occupies the hostess's place, with her at his right. Herr Y made signs to his wife across the table, and in a stage whisper begged her to find out from the Emperor if he wished coffee served at table or in the adjoining _salon_. The hostess apparently neither heard nor understood; at any rate, she said nothing to the Emperor. The host asked again, in a stagier whisper, and made signs with his head toward the other room. Still no answer. The Emperor, looking over to me (I sat next to the host), said, with a merry twinkle in his eye, "Something wrong in the code of signals." A few moments after he said quite casually to the host, "Would you mind if we had coffee in the other _salon_?" The Emperor that evening was in excellent spirits. In his short mess-jacket he looked like a young cadet. He told us several amusing anecdotes and experiences in a most witty manner. Nina said to him: "Your Majesty, I have been looking in all the shop-windows to-day to see if I could find a good photograph of you. I wanted to bring it, and was going to ask you to sign it, but--" "But you could not find anything handsome enough, _hein_?" inquired the Emperor, laughing. "That is true," Nina answered. "Your Majesty's photographs do not do you justice." Beckoning to an adjutant, the Emperor said, "I want you to send to the shops and bring what photographs of me you can find." The man departed. Although it was nine o'clock and most of the shops must have been shut, he did manage to bring some. Then the Kaiser examined the photographs, with a little amusing remark on each. "I do not think this is handsome enough--I look so cross. And this one looks conceited, which I don't think I am. Do you?" "Not in the least," Nina answered. "In this one," he remarked, "I look as if I had just ordered some one to be hanged. And this one [taking up another] looks like a Parsifal _de passage_"--referring to something I had once said. "I did not say Parsifal, your Majesty. I said Lohengrin." "All the same thing," said he. "Not at all," I said. "One was a knight, and the other was a fool." "Well," he laughed, "I look like both." He did not like any of the photographs, and sent to the _Hohenzollern_ for his own collection. His servant came back almost directly (he must have had wings) and brought a quantity of portraits, which were much finer and larger than those from the shops. He begged us to choose the one we liked best, and he wrote something amusing on it and signed his name. BERLIN, _January, 1906_.