a very bad night."

"Indeed!" drawled Wegstetten. "I am sorry to hear it."

But to himself he thought: "If that is at all true, the man must have
been consoling himself with whisky; one can smell it five paces away
from him."

However, the captain offered to let him dispense with riding; but
Heppner objected, and begged to be allowed to take part in the drill.
He felt that would help him to shake off his unpleasant sensations; an
hour's ride and he would be fresh again. A fine thing if a night's
dissipation could really upset a man like himself!

His commanding officer was pleased at such enthusiasm; and as during
the drill the deputy sergeant-major managed his horse--the most
troublesome of all the remounts--exceedingly well, he remarked to him,
"Heppner, I think I shall be able to bring you some good news at noon."

Afterwards it occurred to him that he had intended to raise objections
to the colonel with regard to Heppner's elevation to the rank of
sergeant-major, but now that he had committed himself to the man this
was no longer possible.

He did just mention his doubts in the colloquy with Falkenhein, but he
made no impression, and in the end the colonel himself covered the
retreat.

"What do you expect, my dear Wegstetten?" he said. "I ask you, just
take all your non-commissioned officers. Who is there you cannot accuse
of gambling? It is a fatal characteristic of these mongrels that they
will copy the officers, and unfortunately only in what is stupid or
bad. The fine gentlemen all play, drink, fool with women, gamble; it's
only a question of the one a little more, the other a little less."

Wegstetten objected modestly. "Pardon me, sir, not all. My old
sergeant-major----"

He got no further. Falkenhein interrupted quickly: "You mean Schumann?
Yes; there you are quite correct. But then he was the last of another
generation, one of the old type--steady, quiet, discreet, honest, and
trustworthy to the last fibre. But they are dying out, my dear
Wegstetten. Such perfect specimens of non-commissioned officers, that
used to be the rule, are now more and more the exception. I ask you for
the truth: since you entered the army, have our non-coms. become
better, or--well, less good? What do you say?"

"Less good, sir, unfortunately," replied the captain.

"Yes, unfortunately. Exactly my opinion."

The colonel rummaged among the papers lying on his desk, and selected
two.

"Now, my dear Wegstetten," he sa