. The days that are no more, some reminiscences . s private capacity,with the grandfather, with his life, hisactivities, his influence in the circle of familyand friends, with those whom I saw in hiscompany and of whom I heard a good deal—in a word, to present my readers with thedaily life of one who, as a father and grand-father, could scarcely have been I will simply reproduce what I saw,heard, and experienced, that phase of himwhich came under my personal with the portrait of grandpapa, afew reminiscences of my youth, up to the dayof his death (June 11, 18
. The days that are no more, some reminiscences . s private capacity,with the grandfather, with his life, hisactivities, his influence in the circle of familyand friends, with those whom I saw in hiscompany and of whom I heard a good deal—in a word, to present my readers with thedaily life of one who, as a father and grand-father, could scarcely have been I will simply reproduce what I saw,heard, and experienced, that phase of himwhich came under my personal with the portrait of grandpapa, afew reminiscences of my youth, up to the dayof his death (June 11, 1859), shall be given. The exclamation of my grandfather at thesight of his little granddaughter is quite typicalof the man as he showed himself in all hisrelations with us : kind, affable, tender, affec-tionate, and fatherly. We all loved himbeyond measure, and looked up to him as tothe best of fathers, honouring him also as thepatriarchal head of the family. The bare idea of annoying him or disobey-ing him would have seemed to us an unthink-46. PRINCE CLEMENS METTERNICH Grandpapa able sin. We all did what he told us to do,not from fear, but from love, and because wefelt that in all his wishes and commands hehad only our own good in view. There wasnothing petty about him, and I cannot imagineanyone so easy and pleasant to get on with ashe was. It is not everyone who understandsso readily as he did how to go about withchildren, young people, and simple, nay,insignificant, persons in general. His spirit communicated itself to often happened, to the astonishment ofother members of the company, that down-right stupid people, in their intercourse withhim, suddenly seemed to become quite intelli-gent, and not only asked sensible questions,but gave judicious answers. In his verdictson the mental capacity, the actions, and thecharacters of his fellows, my grandfathersindulgence may really be described as was never more tolerant than whenopponents—and not merel
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