CHAPTER II

Easy-going Austria--Vienna--Charm of town--A little piece of history--International families--Family pride--"Schlüssel-Geld"--Excellence of Vienna restaurants--The origin of "_Croissants_"--Good looks of Viennese women--Strauss's operettas--A ball in an old Vienna house--Court entertainments--The Empress Elisabeth--Delightful environs of Vienna--The Berlin Congress of 1878--Lord Beaconsfield--M. de Blowitz--Treaty telegraphed to London--Environs of Berlin--Potsdam and its lakes--The bow-oar of the Embassy "four"--Narrow escape of ex-Kaiser--The Potsdam palaces--Transfer to Petrograd--Glamour of Russia--An evening with the Crown Prince at Potsdam