He saw certain of
these gardens in groups, divided by low, unenvious fences, and sometimes
furnished with summer-houses, where the tenant could take his pleasure in
the evening air, with his family. The guide said he had such a garden
himself, at a rent of seven dollars a year, where he raised vegetables
and flowers, and spent his peaceful leisure; and March fancied that on
the simple domestic side of their life, which this fact gave him a
glimpse of, the Germans were much more engaging than in their character
of victors over either the First or the Third Napoleon. But probably they
would not have agreed with him, and probably nations will go on making
themselves cruel and tiresome till humanity at last prevails over
nationality.
He could have put the case to the guide himself; but though the guide was
imaginably liberated to a cosmopolitan conception of things by three
years' service as waiter in English hotels, where he learned the
language, he might not have risen to this. He would have tried, for he
was a willing and kindly soul, though he was not a 'valet de place' by
profession. There seemed in fact but one of that useless and amusing race
(which is everywhere falling into decay through the rivalry of the
perfected Baedeker,) left in Leipsic, and this one was engaged, so that
the Marches had to devolve upon their ex-waiter, who was now the keeper
of a small restaurant.
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