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A bell summoned him to dinner at one o’clock, and he
found the Frau Professor’s guests assembled in the draw-
ing-room. He was introduced to her husband, a tall man of
middle age with a large fair head, turning now to gray, and
mild blue eyes. He spoke to Philip in correct, rather archaic
English, having learned it from a study of the English clas-
sics, not from conversation; and it was odd to hear him use
words colloquially which Philip had only met in the plays of
Shakespeare. Frau Professor Erlin called her establishment
a family and not a pension; but it would have required the
subtlety of a metaphysician to find out exactly where the
difference lay. When they sat down to dinner in a long dark
apartment that led out of the drawing-room, Philip, feeling
very shy, saw that there were sixteen people. The Frau Pro-
fessor sat at one end and carved. The service was conducted,
with a great clattering of plates, by the same clumsy lout
who had opened the door for him; and though he was quick
it happened that the first persons to be served had finished
before the last had received their appointed portions. The
Frau Professor insisted that nothing but German should be
spoken, so that Philip, even if his bashfulness had permit-
ted him to be talkative, was forced to hold his tongue. He
looked at the people among whom he was to live. By the Frau
Professor sat several old ladies, but Philip did not give them
much of his attention. There were two young girls, both fair
and one of them very pretty, whom Philip heard addressed
as Fraulein Hedwig and Fraulein Cacilie. Fraulein Cacilie
had a long pig-tail hanging down her back. They sat side by
side and chattered to one another, with smothered laughter:

1 Of Human Bondage