ried Klaere quite roused, "I don't want any of them to
fall on my neck when they scarcely know me. And as it happens, one has
been kind to me, very kind indeed!"

"Pooh! Who, then?"

"Frau von Gropphusen!"

"Oh, I am not surprised. I except her. She is not a goose. But she's a
crazy creature, all the same."

"Fatty! Don't be abominable! What has the poor woman done to you?"

Guentz rose from his chair. He took a few turns up and down the room to
work off the stiffness, and grumbled on: "Done? To me? Nothing, of
course. But she's hysterical out and out. That's it, hysterical!"

Klaere warmly took up the defence of the accused woman. "You may be
right," she said, "but there's a reason for it."

"Certainly, certainly," answered Guentz. "Her husband is--forgive the
coarse expression, Klaere--a regular hog. But an hysterical woman is an
utter horror to me."

"I can only feel sorry for Frau von Gropphusen."

"And so do I. But I don't want her to hang on to you."

"She does not hang on to me," answered his wife simply.

But at this moment a subdued wailing was heard, and Klaere instantly
hastened from the room.

The men, left alone, dropped into reflection. Neither spoke for a
while.

At last Reimers broke the silence.

"I think, Guentz, that you exaggerate a bit. Senseless and silly
prejudices are not only to be found in military circles. Anyhow,
there's no good in running your head against a brick wall."

"True," assented Guentz. "But if a dung-cart were driven right under my
nose, I should have to give it a shove."

He resumed his perambulations of the room, and lapsed for a while into
silence.

"Anyhow," he began again, smiling contentedly, "Frau Gropphusen may
come to Klaere for consolation if she likes to have her. I am sure my
wife is proof against the hysterical bacillus. Eh?"

Before Reimers could answer, Klaere returned, a little flushed. She bore
the baby on a pillow, rocking him in her arms.

Guentz answered his own question.

"Yes, yes, she's proof," he said.

Reimers was thoroughly happy in the Guentzes' society. The atmosphere of
security and candour in which they lived influenced him unawares; it
wrought as a useful antidote when his spirit was inclined to soar too
high into the realms of the unsubstantial. He was much delighted to
find that his friend shared his admiration for his honoured and beloved
Falkenhein. Indeed, in this matter, the dry and reserved man sometimes
outdid hi