This is almost entirely due to that pestilent
institution the "Coffee Circle," or Kaffee Klatsch, that standing
feature of German provincial life. Amongst the bourgeoisie, the
ladies form associations, and meet once a week in turn at each
others' houses. They bring their work with them, and sit for two
hours, eating sweet cakes, drinking coffee, and tearing every
reputation in the towns to tatters. All males are jealously
excluded from these gatherings. Mrs. Spiegelberg was a pretty,
fluffy little English woman, without one ounce of malice in her
composition. She had lived long enough in Germany, though, to know
that she would not be welcomed at her "Coffee Circle" unless she
brought her budget of pungent gossip with her, so she collected it
in the usual way. The instant the cook returned from market, Mrs.
Spiegelberg would rush into the kitchen with a breathless, "Na,
Minna, was gibt's neues?" or "Now, Minna, what is the news?"
Minna, the cook, knowing what was expected of her, proceeded to
unfold her items of carefully gathered gossip: Lieutenant von
Trinksekt had lost three hundred marks at cards, and had been
unable to pay; it was rumored that Fraulein Unsittlich's six
weeks' retirement from the world was not due to an attack of
scarlet fever, as was alleged, but to a more interesting cause,
and so on, and so on.
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