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Reimers had often in old days wished to have his friend's opinions in black and white before him, in order to overthrow them singly, point by point, brilliantly to overthrow them. He now held in his hand Güntz's views, succinctly and definitely expressed; but whither had flown his former keen spirit?

"Yes, she has got the old pain in her face back again, which no doctor can relieve, and that was why I had to stay so long. I had to keep my hands on her cheeks. She says I have soothing hands and can do her good." Reimers looked across at her. She was sitting a little in the shadow, so that her white straw hat and light blouse stood out distinctly. On her bosom sparkled a small diamond.

"The man commits an undeniable piece of disobedience before your eyes and you defend him? I am much obliged!" Brettschneider put on his haughtiest expression, smiled with the utmost politeness, and said amiably: "You must confess, my dear Reimers, that I am entitled to my own opinion about the matter." In Room IX. that evening the conversation was of a heated description.

The two eye-witnesses, Senior-lieutenant Brettschneider and Senior-lieutenant Reimers, were unanimous on the subject, and the accused gave his assent to the correctness of the particulars. The trial would therefore have come to an end very quickly had there not been a number of witnesses for the accused.

Naturally he had volunteered for the expedition to Eastern Asia, and had recently returned from China decorated with an order, thinner and more pinched-looking than ever, and still less amiable. Reimers stood before him in a strictly correct attitude, for the captain was not to be trifled with.

The one with his vague uneasiness, the other with his heavy disquietude? Reimers could not dismiss the doubts of these two men. At most he might reply to Güntz that this unsatisfactory state of affairs was not so widespread as his friend asserted. This inclination to outward show was a universal sign of the times, and was not confined to Germany.

For one must be polite to a wife who is by birth a von Lüben, and the daughter of the head of a department in the War Office. Reimers was not, like his comrades, accustomed to spend the greater part of his leisure in frivolity and flirting. It therefore never occurred to him to conceal his admiration for Frau von Gropphusen.

Is that agreed?" With a sob the senior-lieutenant stammered out, "You have always been like a father to me, sir." He had stood up and was about to depart without another word. Then suddenly the colonel took him in his arms. This seasoned, clear-headed man had great difficulty in restraining his emotion. "I have long looked on you as a son, Reimers," he said.

She started a little and said with an assumption of gaiety, "Heavens! what can have come to us? On a warm spring evening like this our hands are as cold as ice!" Reimers hastened homewards, much perturbed in spirit. He was due at the Güntzes' to supper at half-past eight.

Who could know whether, as retired lieutenant-colonel or colonel, a man holding such a post in a gun-foundry might not be a very useful acquaintance? When Güntz took his departure from the little station he had got over all his regrets. He only left behind one man for whom he cared Reimers.