She had received a first-rate education at one of the leading schools in Sydney, and had left it a year ago. She knew German thoroughly, was an accomplished musician, and had the voice of a nightingale. And yet she was a half-caste Samoan. Three lightly-clad--I might say, very lightly-clad--young waitresses were in attendance at dinner. Two of them were natives of New Ireland, the third, a native of the Admiralty Islands. They had been with our hostess for two years, and had to remain for three years longer. They were comely to look upon, and made excellent domestics. They say--"After dinner, smoke awhile,"--so we lit our cigars and cigarettes and burnt a sacrifice to our patron saint, St. Nicotine. Later on in the evening, Mrs. P----n, the manager's wife, put in an appearance; and as there were now three ladies, dancing was suggested. Mrs. F----h kindly played on the piano, whilst we danced on the verandah with the others. Seeing that my friend was quite overcome by the charms of the belle of the evening, I only danced with her once, devoting most of my attention to Mrs. P----. We had songs, both German and English; solos, duets, trios and quartettes. What a night we had! At midnight, I suggested the expediency of going on board our cutter; but, no, my friend would not hear of it. He was utterly infatuated. Ten minutes more, and he would come--but the ten minutes developed into sixty--until at last I managed to drag him away from the alluring spot. The three of us then regretfully bade our friends good-night, and repaired on board the cutter. Arrived at the jetty, we hailed, in loud tones, Tokaiakus, the Dwarf--who was supposed to be in charge of the vessel. Not a sound came in response. We hailed him again--and again no answer. Our dinghy was alongside the cutter, so we could not reach her without swimming. After shouting ourselves hoarse, and consigning the dwarf to warmer regions, his ugly head appeared above the bulwarks, and he came in the dinghy--into which we gladly stepped--and were quickly rowed on board. We felt rather tired, and soon sought our couches--each of us dreaming that he was in Paradise, attended by a bevy of Samoan damsels. In the morning we received a visit from Count Pfeil. He examined our "papers" and inquired what firearms we had on board, and if we carried dynamite. Having given satisfactory answers to his several queries he stated that he had decided to impose on us a fine of L1 that being the lowest amount he could inflict for our evasion of the German regulations. We paid the fine and were invited to visit him on our departure from New Britain. We politely accepted his invitation, but did not give him a call, as it would have been too far out of our track. I have met, at one time or another, a good many Germans, official and otherwise, but for gentlemanly bearing and courtesy of manner, I unhesitatingly give the palm to Count Pfeil.