Thanks to the instructions confided to me, my errand presented no difficulties.

There were certain persons to whom I was introduced, and certain information to be derived from them, which it was my duty to submit to Mr.Keller on my return.

Fidelity was required of me, and discretion was required of me--and that was all.
At the close of my day's work, the hospitable merchant, whose references I had been engaged in verifying, refused to permit me to return to the hotel.

His dinner-hour had been put off expressly to suit my convenience.
"You will only meet the members of my family," he said, "and a cousin of my wife's who is here with her daughter, on a visit to us--Frau Meyer, of Wurzburg." I accepted the invitation, feeling privately an Englishman's reluctance to confronting an assembly of strangers, and anticipating nothing remarkable in reference to Frau Meyer, although she did come from Wurzburg.

Even when I was presented to the ladies in due form, as "the honored representative of Mr.Keller, of Frankfort," I was too stupid, or too much absorbed in the business on which I had been engaged, to be much struck by the sudden interest with which Frau Meyer regarded me.