When I entered society, the German Empire had been scarcely three years in existence. France was writhing still in the convulsions of her late defeat; Russia was slowly trying to re cover the many advantages of which the Crimean war had deprived her. Motor-cars were unknown, electric light was still spoken of as something quite extraordinary, and the telephone was not yet one of the resources of civilisation. Manners, too, were different from those which prevail to-day. The hunt after notoriety had not transformed individuals into self-advertising per sonages of a stamp which is only too familiar. Society was quieter, more sedate; adventurers had still a bad time of it, and the American ele ment had not altogether invaded us. Whilst I was writing this book, I often asked myself whether it was possible that I had lived in times so entirely different from the present.