My Life Here And There

live there a long time! President Harrison had named my father "Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary" to Austria, and we must prepare to be off very soon. My interest and excitement were intense. I wrote the new title over and over, till I knew how to spell and say it by heart. What I had heard of Austria was limited and vague, but I asked more, until I was informed that Vienna was considered one of Europe's brilliant capitals, that there were great families living there whose names were known in history back through the centuries, as those of robber barons and Holy Roman emperors. Also there were art, music, fine clothes, court functions, fancy leather goods, galleries of treasures, palaces. All these words figured in our table conversation now, and I followed their trails, varied as they were, to dictionaries, and drew my own conclusions. Our sailing date was soon announced. We were going to land at Southampton, be in London a short time, and then go straight to Vienna, either through France or Germany, as my parents should decide at the last moment. Anyhow, we would have quite a trip, and I waselated by this prospect. I had always been told we were too poor to go abroad, and I had so far learned as much as I ever hoped to know of foreign lands through albums others brought home. I had been quite resigned to this privation, but was delighted by the sudden turning in our path and the new prospect of adventure and discovery. We sailed early in M...