A GOVERNESS IN GERMANY.*
THE revelations of ex-governesses provide quite a large part of the modern literature of light memoirs which is so popular at the circulating libraries to-day. We remember especially a book which we noticed some months ago giving an account of the Kaiser's family life as seen by his daughter's English governess. That particular volume threw one or two interesting lights upon the character of the German Court, but in general such books contain only the merest trivialities of gossip. The volume now before us differs from these, and must be criticized, not because it contains too little, but because it contains too much. The extraordinary topical interest at the present moment of every incident described in it cannot fail to arouse in the reader's mind more than a suspicion that he is contemplating a work of which the merits are artistic rather than realistic. For five years-- that is to say, from 1909 till last August—the author was apparently employed in the household of a minor princely family; and during that time she contrived to meet almost every one of the persona who figure so prominently in our newspapers to-day. Not only did she converse with the Kaiser
• What Pound Out tin Om Hausa of a Berman Prim, By all English Gammen. London: Chapman and Hall. Oa nat.]
and the Crown Prince, but she met Generals von Kluck and von Hindenburg; she visited Essen, interviewed Herr Krupp von Bohlen and Frau Bertha Krupp, and accidentally learned of the big " surprise " guns that were being made there ; she discussed %altar with Professor Delbrfick and America with Hen• Dernburg ; she was insulted by General von Bernhardi and bribed to become a German spy by Herr Steinhauer. It is a formidable list of names ; and we must add to them that of Count Zeppelin, who presented the author's young charges with an elaborate toy model of London which was daily destroyed by bombs made of flour dropped out of model Zeppelins that could be manoeuvred above it. The governess's exciting career had an appropriate end. Towards the begin- ning of July she discovered indubitable proofs of Germany's intention of making war, and in endeavouring to communicate them to the British Ambassador was seized as a spy and kept in captivity till she succeeded in making an adventurous escape from Germany in September. As may be gathered from this description, the book is not without points for those who are prepared to take its contents not too seriously ; but we should be sorry to place any great reliance upon its anonymous author's historical accuracy. Of course we may be wrong. Every word in the book before us may be able to be substantiated, and the proverb that truth is stranger than fiction be amply vindicated. If so, we can only say that the governess in question was more lucky in seeing all the people who were about to become notorious than any one we have ever heard of before.
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