"Do not be afraid," she added, "that I
shall ask you to make the acquaintance of all the asses and parrots
that have chattered and gesticulated round me for years. You shall
only know a really select few, who are fond of me, and who can offer
you friendship and appreciation."
And so the march past of the elect began, most of them being invited
either to lunch or dinner. Wilhelm found them very peculiar and
uncongenial, and, on the whole, derived but little satisfaction from
their acquaintance. Pilar had a small weakness; according to her
account, each one of her more intimate friends was a striking and
original character, the possessor of the rarest qualities. It was
the only touch of snobbishness of which one could have accused her.
She announced the arrival of an old Spanish general, "a hero of
quite the antique, classic type, one of the most remarkable figures
in the history of modern warfare," and there entered to them a
little old man, shuffling in with the flurried, dragging gait of a
paralytic, unable to lift his feet from the ground, stammering out a
few commonplaces, who could not keep his gold eyeglasses on his
nose, and who, when he was informed that Wilhelm had fought in the
Franco-Prussian War, frankly admitted that, though he had commanded
at many a grand review, he had never been in real action.
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