, 1917-08-09

outside the court circle at Pots
dam. She was indeed a queer
parsonage, "only less of a parsonage
than his majesty" as Prince Bulow
declared to me n day as we sat to-
yether in my room in the Berlin
Schloss.
Frau Kleist was the court dancing
mistress, whose fastidious judgment
lad to be satisfied by any young debu-
ANTE or officer before they presumed
20 dance before royalty at the state
oalls. Perhaps she was seventy. Her
cal age l lev knew.
Truly Frau Kleist, with her neat
waist and thin, refined face, was a
Very striking figure at the Berlin
court. The intricacies of the minuet
and gavotte, as well as those of the
>ld-world dances in which h delight
ed. were taught by the old lady to
Prince Joachim and Princess Victoria
Luise, Doth of whom always went in
1eadly fear of her caustic tongue and
overbearing manner
The emperor never permitted any
dancing at court which was not up to
I high standard of excellence, and all
who sought t. dance were compelled
sharp-tongued old lady in her stiff
silken gown.
Whence she had come or who had
been responsible for her appointment
nobody knew. One thing was quite
certain, that though at an age when
usually rheumatism prevents agility
yet h vas an expert dancer.
The old woman lived in considerable
style in n fine house close TO the
Glienicke bridge at Potsdam, beneath
the B~abelsberg, a power to be reckoned
with by all who desired to enter the
court circle.
Regarding her, many strange stories
were afioat. One vas that h was IN
~eX-dancer, the mother of the famous
Mademoiselle "Clo-ClO" Durand, pre-
miere danseuse of the Paris opera, and
another was that she had beer mis-
tress of the ballet at the Imperial
opera in Petrograd in the days of he
Emperor Alexander. But so great a
mystery were her antecedents that no
body knew anything for certain, save
that at lllt uEt VI htulIN seventy SIT.
had access at any hOur TO the kaiser's
private cabinet. / have often seer her
whisper to his majesty strange secrets
which she had picked vi here and
there-secrets that were often trans
ferred to certain confidential quarters.
Those at court who secured the be-
~nignant smiles of Frau Kleist knew
that their future path in life would be
full of sunshine, but woe betide those
upon whom she knit her brOws in dis
approval. Frau Kleist kept her pretty
house and her big Mercedes car upon
Ii secret money payments she re-
ceived from those who for value
begged her favors. With many young
officers the payment to Frau KleIst
was to open the back door to the en-
peror's favor.
We in the Neues Palais New Pal
ace) knew ii. But surely 1t did not
concern us, for all Of us looked askance
at those who stroye so strenuOusly and
eagerly for commands" to court func,
lions, and really we were secretly glad
II the pnrvenus of both sexes were well
bled before they were permitted by
~ihh " Lhhhe llelr ODelshuCe Ne
fore royalty.
The palace world at every European
court is n narrow little world of Its
own, unknown n unsupported by the
man in the street. There one sees the
worst side of human nature without
amy leaven of the best or even nobler
side. The Salary-grabber, the military
h"dVenturer, the pinchbeck diplomat
the commercial parvenu, and the scien.
ist, together with their je~wel-bedecked