The Dead Bride

The summer was superb. Never in the memory of man had there been so many
people in Bad Nauheim, but though the public rooms were always full,
nowhere was there any gaiety. The nobility kept apart, the military
people mingled only with themselves, and the bourgeoisie despised both
of them. Even the public balls did not break down the formality that was
found everywhere this season. For the proprietor of the baths would
always appear covered with ribbons and orders, and this splendour,
joined to the coldness of the manner of the family of this great lord
and the vast glitter of his lackeys, pompous in rich liveries, that
followed him, forced the greater number of persons present to remain
silently behind the restrictions fixed by the diversities of rank.