The Dead Bride

The summer was superb. Never in the memory of man had there been so many people in Bad Nauheim, but though the public rooms were always full, nowhere was there any gaiety. The nobility kept apart, the military people mingled only with themselves, and the bourgeoisie despised both of them. Even the public balls did not break down the formality that was found everywhere this season. For the proprietor of the baths would always appear covered with ribbons and orders, and this splendour, joined to the coldness of the manner of the family of this great lord and the vast glitter of his lackeys, pompous in rich liveries, that followed him, forced the greater number of persons present to remain silently behind the restrictions fixed by the diversities of rank.