Summary: CONTENTS: * CHAPTER I
LOOKING BACK
I raise the Curtain with tales of my grandfather, and stories of my father and his family, including myself. * CHAPTER II
LISBON
Lisbon in the days of King Carlos
People I met there, and how I once diplomatically fainted to avoid trouble with a German swashbuckler. * CHAPTER III
BERLIN
Berlin society as I knew it
Recollections of the Emperor Frederick, and of the ex-Kaiser before and after he came to the throne
How Cecil Rhodes directed the Kaiser's ambitions towards Baghdad
What the English in Berlin suffered during the Boer War, and how the Kaiser wanted to show us how to win it. * CHAPTER IV
ROME
We are transferred to Rome
The tragedy of King Humbert
I see the pagan relics of Rome with Professor Boni, and have a private audience with the Pope. * CHAPTER V
PEKING
The fascination of China
Humours of my Chinese cooks that were not always amusing
I become friendly with the famous Empress-Dowager and am admitted to the intimacy of her Palace
The pitiful little Emperor
The belated, fantastic funeral of Li Hung Chang
A lightning trip, and the bet I won of Sir Claude Macdonald. * CHAPTER VI
AN INTERLUDE * CHAPTER VII
CONSTANTINOPLE
Constantinople from within
Abdul Hamid, the little wizened old despot, his subtle cruelties and cowardice in private and public life
The secrets of the harem, and the bitter cry of the Turkish women. * CHAPTER VIII
IN THE HOLY LAND
A tour through the Holy Land
Wonders of the Holy City
A caravan journey to Damascus
Pilgrims returning from Mecca
How the Kaiser looted Palestine. * CHAPTER IX
AMERICA
Washington, the Mecca of diplomatists
We are eulogized at first by the American Press
What America is like
Its hurry and social ambition
American wives and their husbands
A visit to the Bowery Opium dens
A lost Englishwoman
How I offended some American journalists
What they said of me and what I think of them. * CHAPTER X
THE ARGENTINE
Racing in the Argentine "The wickedest city in the world"
The prudishness of Argentine women
Love-making as it is done
A delightful visit to a great estancia
A remarkable Devonshire family and how the father of it was tamed. * CHAPTER XI
BUCHAREST
When Carmen Sylva was Queen of Rumania
What she did for her people
The beauty and charm of Princess Marie, now Queen of the Rumanians
Social life
Peculiar views of marriage
The Huns in Bucharest
Mr. Lloyd George on M. Clemenceau, and M. Clemenceau on Mr. Lloyd George. * CHAPTER XII
PERSIA
To Persia
Strange tales of Shah Nasr-ed-Din
The boy who did not want to be king
His coronation
Pictures of Teheran
An exciting and perilous journey to London and back. * CHAPTER XIII
BELGIUM
My work for the Censorship in London
We go to The Hague
British prisoners of war
A visit to Zeebrugge
I follow up the retiring Germans Bruges
The underground club of the U-boat officers
An eye-witness of how Captain Fryatt went to his death
The devastation of War
The tragic glory of Ypres, and how the King of the Belgians re-entered the martyred town. * CHAPTER XIV
HOLLAND
The end of the War How the fugitive ex-Kaiser came to Maarn, and how by chance I saw him arrive
The story of the little Dutch soldier who would not let him cross the frontier
The outcast Emperor
Where the Germans had been Rejoicing in Antwerp and Brussels
The Belgian King has his own again
Tales of the German Revolution
Threats of revolution in Holland
Queen Wilhelmina's courage
That tired feeling. * CHAPTER XV
THE 'INDISCRETIONS' OF LADY SUSAN |
