Page:Letters from Abroad to Kindred at Home (Volume 1).djvu/218

Rh face or hear a discontented word from them. Of a fine day the area before the door is covered with coteries of people who have no amusement in common, none but such as I have mentioned; these suffice. They interchange smiles and bows as often as they cross one another's path, and thus flow down the stream of life without ever ruffling a feather.

The Germans never stray beyond the gravelled walks around the house. Such quietude would kill us, so we appease our love and habit of movement with a daily donkey ride among the Taunus Hills or a walk through the lovely woodland paths. The famous castles of Kronberg (Crown-hill), Konistein (King's-stone), and Falkenstein are within a reasonable walk. Konistein has been an immense fortress, and its story is interwoven with the annals of the country. We visited the ruins yesterday. The girls wandered away and left me with an English woman, who, while I was admiring these irregular, romantic hills, and the sea-like plain that extends eastward from their base without any visible bound, was telling me a marvellous tale, and an "o'er-true one," as she believed. Some other time I will give you the particulars; I have now only space for the catastrophe. Two American lovers, whether married or not no one knew, came to Konistein, mounted the loftiest part of the ruin, and, clasped in one another's arms, as the peasant-boy who saw them averred, threw themselvies down. "It was from that old tower," said my companion; "you see how tottering it looks; they say the view is better there,