Page:Brandes - Poland, a Study of the Land, People, and Literature.djvu/132

120 ; to be sure he was at the same time placed upon the general staff.

The overwhelming heat is now over; the time in which the shower-bath house in the park was our main consolation. I never entered it without being reminded of the first act of The Valkyries, for it is built up round four gigantic stems of trees which rise through the house like the large tree in the dwelling of Siegfried's mother.

Now the temperature is such that we should like to make use of the invitations received from the neighbouring manors. The sad state of the roads obliges us to pay our visits in a carriage and four, otherwise we should never get along. At the neighbouring manors there are several original men and women.