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| A young Prince Wilhelm, later, the last German Kaiser and King of Prussia. |
While Kaiser Wilhelm II was a young man of eighteen, an august relative paid a visit to his mother, then Victoria, Crown Princess of Germany. As the royal ladies were taking tea together young, Prince Wilhelm entered to pay his respects to his English relation. He was in a civil dress, wearing a frock-coat. Frock coats in Germany, at that period, were not so well cut and certainly did not conform to British ideas of smartness .
As the future kaiser smilingly saluted his cousin and kissed her hand the Crown Princess regarded her son's at tire with grave disapproval.
"No English gentleman," she said in terms of displeasure, "would dream of entering a drawing-room in such a badly cut coat as you are wearing."
Deeply mortified by such a reproach, the young prince drew himself up.
"I wish, Madame, you would remember that I am not English," he replied. "I am, and only desire to be, a Prussian gentleman." He then bowed and left the room. — From the 'Reminiscences of a Court Painter,' by H. Jones Thaddeus.
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