MADAME DE HEGERMANN-LINDENCRONE, the writer of these letters, is the wife of the recently retired Danish Minister to Germany. She was formerly Miss Lillie Greenough, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she lived with her grandfather, Judge Fay, in the fine old Fay mansion, now the property of Radcliffe College. As a child Miss Greenough developed the remarkable voice which later was to make her well known, and when only fifteen years of age her mother took her to London to study under Garcia. Two years later Miss Greenough became the wife of Charles Moulton, the son of a well-known American banker, who had been a resident in Paris since the days of Louis Philippe. As Madame Charles Moulton the charming American became an appreciated guest at the court of Napoleon III. Upon the fall of the Empire Mrs. Moulton returned to America, where Mr. Moulton died, and a few years afterward she married M. de Hegermann-Lindencrone, at that time Danish Minister to the United States, and later periods his country's representative at Stockholm, Rome, Paris, Washington and Berlin. THE ALPHABET OF A DIPLOMAT _Ambassador_ A man, just a little below God. _Attaché_ The lowest rung of the ladder. _Blunder_ How absurd! Why, _never_!... _Chancellery_ The barn-yard where he is plucked. _Chief_ The cock of the walk. _Colleagues_ A question merely of time and place. _Court_ Where one learns to make courtesies. _Decorations_ The balm for all woes. _Dinners_ The surest road to success. _Disponsibility_ The Styx, whence no one returns. _Esprit_ (_de corps_) The corps is there, but where is the _esprit_? _Etiquette_ The Ten Commandments. _Finesse_ A narrow lane where two can walk abreast. _Friendships_ Ships that pass in the night. _Gotha_ (_almanack_) The Bible of a Diplomat. _Highness_ _His_, _Her_, make a deep courtesy. _Ignoramus_ A person who does not agree with you. _Innuendo_ An obscure side-light of truth. _Joke_ Something beneath the dignity of a diplomat to notice. _Knowledge (private)_ _News_ which every one already knows. _Legation_ Apartments to let. _Letters_ (_de créance_) The first impression. _Letters_ (_de rappel_) The last illusion. _Majesté_ (_lèse_) Too awful to think of. _Majesties_ Human beings with royal faults. _Nobodies_ People to be avoided like poison. _Opulence_ When in service. _Pension_ Too small to be seen with the naked eye. _Poverty_ When out of service. _Quo_ (_status_) Diplomatic expression, meaning in French, _Une jambe en l'air_. _Ruse_ A carefully disguised thought as transparent as a soap-bubble.