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He did not know why exactly, but he thought he saw a certain similarity between the position of these ladies and his own; these two and he were different from the average. Unlike his comrades, he enjoyed visiting Frau von Stuckardt. She never talked platitudes, she would rather remain silent, and she was a little given to proselytising.
They also seemed in no way changed. Major Lischke and Captain von Wegstetten were still at loggerheads, Lischke blustering away in his loud voice, and Wegstetten assuming his most ironical expression. Captain Stuckardt was listening in a half-hearted way; he had quite recently been put on the list for promotion to the staff, and consequently wore a rather preoccupied look.
"It was a question of keeping your fingers out of your mouth." "What on earth had that to do with it?" put in Captain von Stuckardt, rather hesitatingly. Madelung bowed with ironical politeness. "Infection with the typhus bacillus," he replied, "was the principal danger in China, Captain von Stuckardt."
Only two ladies, the wives of Captains von Stuckardt and von Gropphusen, differed from this type. Frau von Stuckardt was unjustly considered haughty. She was merely unfortunate in being unable to adapt herself to the mental atmosphere of the other ladies.
"Kläre," she said, "I am going into the town to inquire after Frau von Stuckardt. Would you like me to call in at the chemist's and tell him he is to send you the sugar-of-milk for the baby?" Frau Kläre took stock of the young girl, and shook her finger at her laughingly. "Mariechen! Mariechen!" she said. "I never would have believed you could become such an accomplished hypocrite, my child."
She had been placed for a couple of years in an institution for the daughters of the nobility, and was just preparing to enter a convent when Stuckardt, who was a distant cousin of hers, proposed to her.
She was considered superficial and frivolous, but he did not think her really so. There was too much system in her frivolity and superficiality. He had purposely left these two visits to the last. But Frau von Stuckardt was away from home; and when he handed his card to Frau von Gropphusen's servant he was told that the lady was unwell, but the man would ask if she could receive.
She raised her glass, and drank to Kläre Güntz: "To your happiness, dear Frau Kläre, from the bottom of my heart." "I have been delayed at Frau von Stuckardt's," she then said; "or, rather, Frau von Stuckardt would not let me leave." "Stuckardt told me," interrupted the colonel, "that his wife was not well."
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