dinner." These children were two sons, whose education their mother
entirely undertook, until, after old Madame Reyer's death in 1837, she
succeeded to an inheritance, which lifted the little family out of the
slough of poverty, and enabled her to provide her sons with good
teachers.

[Beirut and mountains of Lebanon: page15.jpg]

As they grew up and engaged successfully in professional pursuits, Madame
Pfeiffer, who had lost her husband in 1838, found herself once more under
the spell of her old passion for travel, and in a position to gratify her
adventurous inclinations. Her means were somewhat limited, it is true,
for she had done much for her husband and her children; but economy was
natural to her, and she retained the simple habits she had acquired in
her childhood. She was strong, healthy, courageous, and accomplished;
and at length, after maturing her plans with anxious consideration, she
took up her pilgrim's staff, and sallied forth alone.

Her first object was to visit the Holy Land, and tread in the hallowed
footsteps of our Lord. For this purpose she left Vienna on the 22nd of
March 1842, and embarked on board the steamer that was to convey her down
the Danube to the Black Sea and the city of Constantinople. Thence she
repaired to Broussa, Beirut, Jaffa, Jerusalem, the Dead Sea, Nazareth,
Damascus, Baalbek, the Lebanon, Alexandria, and Cairo; and travelled
across the sandy Desert to the Isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea. From
Egypt the adventurous lady returned home by way of Sicily and Italy,
visiting Naples, Rome, and Florence, and arriving in Vienna in December
1842. In the following year she published the record of her experiences
under the title of a "Journey of a Viennese Lady to the Holy Land." It
met with a very favourable reception, to which the simplicity of its