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Her small head was bowed as though unable to support the burden of her hair. Her eyes expressed the astonished query: "How come you here?" And she stepped back hesitatingly. "I have come on business," stammered Reimers. Hannah opened the door and signed to him to enter. Her noiseless steps preceded him as she led him into her own little sitting-room.
And suddenly Reimers had a waking vision. He looked down upon the earth from some point of vantage. Germany lay beneath him as though viewed from the car of a balloon, with the familiar outlines pictured in the maps; yet he seemed to distinguish every roof in the cities and every tree in the woods.
But Güntz shook off his doubts and depression of spirits, and said to Reimers: "Look here, my boy, I shall have to make that Landsberg eat humble-pie; there's more than one way of doing it.
During drill Landsberg generally stood at the end of the parade-ground, looking utterly bored and staring at his boots, which he had had made in the style of Reimers'. It was only if Wegstetten was in sight that he troubled himself about the recruits. Then he would run to Corporal Wiegandt's division, and always began to abuse Klitzing, the "careless fellow," the "lazy-bones."
He held the animal before the garden gate and carefully took a piece of straw out of her mane. Güntz told him to walk her quietly up and down. He must wait for Reimers, who would be sure to come directly. Soon in between the measured paces of the led horse came the sound of a quicker step. Güntz recognised the fidgety trot for that of Reimers horse "Jay."
In any case there would have been an end to that, as the order to start for the practice-camp had already been issued. Reimers learnt from his comrades that Frau von Gropphusen appeared no more at the tennis club. It was said that she was not well and was going away to some watering-place or other. There was much chuckling over the news. "There has been a split," opined the gossips.
Involuntarily Reimers deviated from his usual rule of answering evasively, and replied: "No; that was not it either. I wanted nothing for myself personally, or at most only to prove my fitness for my profession." "But neither was that your principal motive?" "Oh, no." "Perhaps it was indignation against the strong who were oppressing the weak?" Reimers was silent for a moment.
He considered; in a quarter of an hour one could easily cover the short distance between the shooting-ground and the barracks. "Six sharp," he then answered decisively. Heppner replied: "Yes, sir, six o'clock;" and wrote the time in the order-book. "Yes, six o'clock," repeated Güntz. If it were no longer possible for him, then Reimers would command the battery.
"Under these circumstances," replied Reimers quickly, "I will of course gladly give up the Staff College." "That's just what you shall not do!" returned Falkenhein. "You shall go to the Staff College. It is my wish, in your own interests and in that of your career, my dear Reimers. Perhaps the matter could be arranged by your postponing your examination for a little while.
When Güntz stood still, Reimers could hear the drops of the melting ice falling into the earthen basin. Otherwise all was silent, until the steps on the crunching gravel approached once more. "I think we can go now," said Güntz, in his calm voice, which only sounded a little harder than usual. Reimers answered: "All right, if you like." "Yes. Let us go."
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