Page:Scented isles and coral gardens- Torres Straits, German New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, by C.D. Mackellar, 1912.pdf/371

Rh commenced speaking to the engineer in English, but got nothing but Yes and No from him, and after a time gave it up. At breakfast in the morning it was the same, and no conversation of any sort took place, they all ignoring my presence.

But at last I heard the doctor say to his neighbour, in German, that he ought to speak to me, and in English. The other said he did not see why he should. The doctor then said they were supposed to speak English to any passengers, as, of course, English people never knew German.

“It is a German boat,” said the other; “let him speak German.”

I was secretly amused, and took no notice, but presently, more by accident than intending it, asked the steward for something in German —and ignored the little flutter that went round the table.

When I went on deck after breakfast I was joined by the two German naval men, and the Captain came up to do the civil. Then a man spoke to me and said he remembered meeting me in Hanover at the famous Reitschule there— the Military Riding School, where so many cavalry officers are trained—and introduced himself as Major Count Franz Anton Magnis of the 2nd Guard Uhlan Regiment. I could not recall him, but surprised him by saying I had known very well his brother, Count Wilhelm Magnis of the Bonn Hussars, and had met his cousin, Count Deym, son of a former Austro-Hungarian Ambassador in London, and of course we had other mutual acquaintances in officer circles in Germany. This Count Magnis was on his way to Pekin to join Count Waldersee’s staff.

My table companions thus beheld me seated in “the highest circles” of the ship, and probably