They stayed together during three dances, went out on to the terrace, explored wherever they were permitted to explore, paid two visits to the buffet, and enjoyed themselves much in the same way as if they had been school-children surreptitiously breaking loose from an assembly of grown-ups.

For life is quite absurd / And death's the final word / You must always face the curtain with a bow.

As it turned out, the itinerary was disconcertingly illogical, involving criss-crossing America in anything but a straight line.

The Slavic dialect used was examined by a very gifted poet, Gion Palmotich (1606–1657) , who attempts to identify the Dalmatian or Illyrian language (i. e., Serbo-Kroatian) with the Czech of Bohemia, which had been recognized by Charles the Fourth, in his Golden Bull (1355), as necessary for imperial princes to learn.